Safra Sarasin Agrees to Buy 70% Stake in Saxo Bank

Swiss private bank J. Safra Sarasin has agreed to acquire a 70 per cent stake in Saxo Bank, which has been looking for a new buyer for months, in a deal valued at around 1.1 billion euro ($1.19 billion). This deal has put a valuation tag of about 1.6 billion euros on the Danish online trading and investment services provider.

Saxo Gets a New Owner

The new owner will purchase Finnish Mandatum's stake of 19.8 per cent in Saxo as well as the 49.9 per cent stake in Chinese group Geely. Saxo Bank’s founder and CEO, Kim Fournais, will continue to hold his 28 per cent stake in the company. He will also remain the CEO of the company.

Mandatum received its shares in Saxo from Sampo, a Nordic insurance group, following the demerger of the two companies.

“This strategic partnership underscores our commitment to providing exceptional service and innovative solutions to our clients and partners worldwide,” Saxo noted in a LinkedIn post, adding that the company will operate independently from its majority owner Safra Sarasin.

Saxo's Divestments

Saxo also sold majority stake of its Australia operations recently to Johannesburg-headquartered DMA, a technology provider to financial advisers and wealth managers. Now, DMA agreed to buy 80.1 per cent of the Australian business, while Denmark’s Saxo Bank will retain 19.9 per cent. The two companies expect to close the transaction in the second half of 2025. However, the financial terms remain unknown.

Saxo Australia will eventually be rebranded after a transition period, during which its legacy branding will be retained. The business under the new ownership will also retain Saxo Australia’s staff, including its CEO, Adam Smith.

The Danish Group also closed its offices in Shanghai and Hong Kong as part of its restructuring in the Asia-Pacific region.

Meanwhile, Saxo ended a record-breaking 2024 with net profit soaring 287 per cent to €135 million from €35 million in the previous year. The company's adjusted net profit reached €144 million, marking the most successful year in its history. However, it is now anticipating a negative impact on its revenue in 2025 following its decision to restructure its distribution model and narrow the number of markets, which resulted in the offboarding of existing clients in 2024.