Finland’s Sampo Secures Deal for Danish Insurer Topdanmark

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Finland’s Sampo Oyj succeeded in pushing through an offer for Topdanmark A/S in its second attempt to gain control of the Danish insurer.

The Finnish insurance company raised its holding in Topdanmark to about 92.6% of shares, based on a preliminary result, and will complete the offer, according to a statement on Tuesday. The plan is to buy out remaining minority shareholders and delist Topdanmark in due course, the Helsinki-based company said.

Sampo made a move to obtain a full ownership in the Danish insurer in June in a push to integrate it into its property and casualty unit If that operates in the Nordic region. Prior to its recommended all-share offer, which valued Topdanmark at 33 billion kroner ($4.9 billion), Sampo already held almost half the shares and votes in the company.

Finland’s Sampo Makes $4.7 Billion Bid for Topdanmark

The takeover follows a strategic shift for Sampo, which has turned itself into a into a pure-play insurance company, following the divestment of a stake in Nordea Bank Abp in 2022 and a spinoff of asset manager and life insurer Mandatum Oyj last year.

Sampo first flagged a holding in Topdanmark shares in 2008, and offered to buy it in 2016, but fewer than 10% of shareholders accepted the offer then. This time, Sampo set a 90% acceptance threshold as a condition for the deal, which was unanimously backed by Topdanmark’s board of directors.

The squeeze-out of minority shareholders is likely to consume much of the €400 million ($440 million) set aside for it and buybacks, as part of an €800 million total capital deployment communicated in June. The buyback is aimed “to offset share count dilution from the transaction,” Sampo said then.

Photograph: A sign sits on display outside the headquarters of Sampo Oyj in Helsinki, Finland, on Thursday, Nov. 2, 2017. Photo credit: Roni Rekomaa/Bloomberg