AS LHV Group (TAL:LHV1T)
Estonia flag Estonia · Delayed Price · Currency is EUR
3.450
+0.005 (0.15%)
At close: Apr 27, 2026
← View all transcripts

Investor update

Feb 12, 2026

Mihkel Torim
Chair of the Board of Directors, LHV Group

Hello, good afternoon. My name is Mihkel Torim, welcoming all of you to LHV Group's financial plan and forecast introduction for the period of 2026 to 2030. With me, I also have Meelis Paakspuu, the Group CFO. So we will be covering topics ranging from market view, macro forecast, and then going more detailed into our strategy and financial plan as well. So starting off with the business environment. Estonia, which is our core market, we... Yeah, I mean, after three years of negative or very slightly positive growth, we are expecting that the economy will start to pick up gradually.

So there's been a more like expectation building up that this year will be different. So we are expecting 2.2% GDP growth this year, and then a bit higher or similar growth rates throughout our own forecast period. We're expecting consumption to revive. We're expecting inflation pressures to ease quite a bit. And then also there's a slight positive impact from some of the tax changes that have been that have been made. Also, we are expecting some activity pick up in the manufacturing side, mainly supported by the recovery of the external market, our export partners. Nevertheless, the recovery is also heavily reliant on public finances.

So, the state budget deficit is going to be very high this year, expected at 4.5%, which is quite a bit related also to the infrastructure slash defense spending in this year. So and obviously, in the backdrop, we have consistent uncertainties regarding geopolitical risks, which can then whether it's related to trade issues, any other economic shocks in the region, this is again, I think we're sort of used to this situation already. So, overall, hoping for the best and presuming that we have built up a pretty good foundation for more structural growth within the Estonian economy for the next few years.

So, as mentioned briefly before, so we are anticipating that the inflation rate will start to come down in Estonia. It has been quite high rates in the past several years already, which has definitely impacted consumer demand, consumer sentiment as well. So, yes, so we're expecting it to drop to 3.2% in 2026. And then, our plan also presumes that it will stay at 2.5% going forward, or, you know, at those levels. Labor market somewhat improving as well, expecting the unemployment rate to gradually go down and also wage growth to stabilize at 4.5% levels after quite a significant hike in the previous years.

Again, pretty much of it also linked to inflation, which is understandable. Looking at our second biggest market, U.K., so, on the economic growth, we expect that the GDP will move at around 1.5% it was for the last year, and then going forward, pretty much averaging on the similar levels. It has been driven by the services sector and also a good contribution from the real estate and retail, which is positive for us since most of our activity is related to real estate and trade-related loan activity. Yeah, so we expect slight acceleration, inflation to stabilize as well.

The Bank of England's base rate, we expect to be at 3.6% by the end of the year 2026, and unemployment to stabilize at its current levels at around 5% for the next, let's say, year and a half. Some words about our plans. Just to summarize, the year that we just closed. Yes, it was a challenging year. We did not fulfill our financial plan, so our net income was 2.5% lower than we originally anticipated, and the net profit also 6.5% compared to what was planned pretty much a year ago.

Having said that, LHV Bank in Estonia, so we grew the loans and deposits by 11%, which is, I would say, a very good growth rate, given the macro backdrop as well. In the UK, we have been able to grow our loan portfolio by more than two times. So we have reached EUR 782 million by the year-end. Also our retail offering has reached significantly more customers than it was, let's say, a quarter ago.

So, by the end of the year, we have reached 5,000 customers directly, and it was mostly gained throughout the last months of the year as we have pinpointed more exactly what it is that we are offering on our deposit product side as well. And then we, as a group, we also have the asset management, and they have done very good job in terms of second and third pillar pension funds. So it was the market-leading performance that they achieved in 2025, which also, I mean, except that they also delivered a very strong net profit contribution to the group, while in nominal terms, it's low, but the actual change was quite significant.

Insurance, which is also a subsidiary in Estonia, performed very well and grew 13% with their premiums versus a 2% overall market decline. So overall, as a group, our return on equity was 16%, and the cost income was 52.3%. But yes, I mean, it has many, many aspects as we're looking at two different banks and then our smaller subsidiaries. So the composition is quite different in terms of these ratios. So taking a step back, we have grown quite significantly over the course of past five years despite the fact that the macro environment has been also challenging.

So, it's been roughly 20% for loans and 9% for deposits, and also our assets under management has increased somewhat. And our loan portfolio has been mainly driven by the Estonian corporate banking and also home loans. So, and this, as mentioned, I mean, it the share of LHV Bank in U.K. each year from group portfolio has increased, so we are looking at it now as it's already contributing 40% of our overall portfolio as of the end of 2025.

So, on one hand, looking at the profit growth before, during 2021-2025, as you can see, we have had a few years at around EUR 60 million, and then also with the increase of interest rates, the profit shot up quite a bit. So, achieved EUR 140 million and EUR 150 million in the years before. And now with the changing rate environment, and given the fact that still our significant contribution to our income is from a Net Interest Margin, Net Interest Income. So, due to that, the profit has indeed declined, which is pretty customary to the sector.

Nevertheless, going forward, and also taking into account the contribution from the U.K. bank as well, which has been growing its critical mass, its operating leverage as well. So, we expect that with the combination of somewhat better rate environment, growth in the Estonian economy, growth in the lending activity as well, in Estonia, especially in 2027 and from there on, we believe that the expected profit growth will still be quite significant, but it's already based on the foundation that has been built during the past years.

So obviously, the work will continue, and there's significant, these are significant achievements that we expect, but this is the, this is the baseline that we are expecting going forward. So some comments about the way that we look at the group strategy as a whole. So if we consider the main growth pillars, the most important part is the business that we already have, both in Estonia and U.K., and making sure that it's well focused, it's predictable, that we have a good understanding on, on obviously, on where we're headed, we have good understandings of the of the risks of the products that we're offering.

Looking a bit further ahead, both in Estonia and in U.K., in parallel, in Estonia, obviously for quite long time, in U.K., just for a short period of time, we have been developing our retail offering. And a lot of focus this year will be also on upgrading our retail offering in Estonia, and also developing it in a way that it can be more easily scalable, in terms of number of customers it serves.

And obviously, by scalability, we mean that we can manage the products, we can manage all the processes in a way that, you know, once we add more customers, it's yeah, the cost will be pretty much the same as it's the sort of a standard for any modern banks or neobank offers. And then taking that into account, we are also looking a bit more broadly in terms of figuring out if and when we should consider using that retail offer to enter any other European markets.

But this is again, we are really thinking about small steps, small incremental changes, also trying to learn from the, from the U.K. bank in terms of how they have developed the offering and then sort of using that, on our own, technological platform. So, there won't be anything, definitely happening this year, but this is the, this is the ambition, that we'd like to consider moving forward. But again, it's, it's the first steps. It's really sort of setting this as a target per se. And once we have, clearer view on what exactly and when, then we will be, making announcements accordingly. But this is more a preparation stage, for doing this and laying the foundation. And talking about foundation as a group.

So, one critical component is governance, the governance structure. We're also making changes or adding members to our group board. So, we have a new board member to the group, incoming, in spring this year, subject to approval of the AGM. Christian Schröder, who is also has been managing member in Pictet Group, has a very good and broad knowledge of the European banking sector in general. Also very good, in-depth knowledge about the regulatory environment. So, this will definitely add additional dynamics to how we manage and see our plans.

Then we have work to do also on the risk management side, just making it more broader in terms of group level risk management, harmonizing some of the processes along the U.K. bank and the bank here we have in Estonia. And then also that relates to data and regulatory reporting as well. So we really, we have quite recently established separate division with the data and AI experts just to rebuild and refurbish our data platform because we think it's essential for any proper AI applications as well to be modern in that regard.

That also, as mentioned, links back to all sorts of reporting, business intelligence, and, like, a theater for management decisions as well. Then technology and product development as well. So we are obviously trying to up our game and make sure that we have all the necessary tools and skills in order to do what I have just mentioned that we want to do. So the goal of this is quite simple. So we wanna make sure that we can execute our financial forecast with confidence, especially going forward, taking into consideration the technological changes and opportunities really that it gives to us as well.

And yes, also that's very important input to make sure that we have a good and clear vision also going forward. So it's not just about the end of 2030, but it's really more about the trajectory idea of how we wanna position ourselves going forward. And yes, this pretty much just summarizes what I've just discussed, so will not stop here any further. And then I would like to give over to Meelis, who will then talk in detail about the actual financial and operational plan for the next years.

Meelis Paakspuu
CFO, LHV Group

Mm-hmm. Hello from my side as well. That, as you always mentioned, that, financial plan is nothing else than just putting, our, activities into the numbers. That, so it is about the business plan, and, high level Mihkel already covered this. So, theoretically, it is possible already to, calculate, the our outcome. But, looking at, 2026, it is going to be, another tough year for, LHV, that, we are focusing on, business growth, on volumes, and, customer activities. We are expecting that, our, incomes are, growing faster than the cost base. And, when we are looking at the loan portfolio, then, it is going to grow more or less around to 11%.

And same time deposits by 5%. These numbers show that, but that we have thought through that, what is going to happen in Estonia and in U.K. Then we see that the deposit base in Estonia is not growing very fast in Estonia. Plus, we also want to repay deposit platforms that, so we lower the lending growth in Estonia as well, that instead of having on group level 20% year-on-year growth, we are more or less having half of that. That's coming to the number side. Actual profit is remaining more or less the same, but operating profit is growing by 11%.

That largest deviation is coming from loan loss provisions that in 2025 were very, very, very low. And in 2026, as it is forecast, and we are always making this line forecast very, very conservative, so we have predicted that there will be EUR 15 million of credit provisions made. Same time, when I look at the return on equity, it is still around this 15% level that when in 2016... In 2025, it was 16%, but starting from 2027, it is already picking up to close to 20% level. Cost income is slightly improving.

That's looking at 2026-2030, as you see, we plan to increase our profit from current EUR 117 million to EUR 290 million. If we are looking backwards at during the higher interest rates, we made EUR 150 million of profit, so we want to double it anyway. So now we just we are in slow somehow cycle what is against us, that so we seem that the growth is even faster, but actually we are more or less going in the same direction that we used to. But that it's about both growth in Estonia and in U.K.

U.K. is going to be growing faster, even in long run, that U.K. portfolio is going to be bigger than— It's not going to be bigger than Estonian one, but it is from the current 14% share inside the group, it is going to grow to 25%-30% level. That's so quite a bit more growth in U.K. compared to Estonia. That our deposits are planned to grow 50% within this next five years, loans more or less double. And when I look at assets under management, then almost 50% as well, or actually more than 50%, from $1.7 billion to $3 billion.

And our cost income, what is one of the key item that we are looking is coming down from current higher levels to to this what we would like to have through the cycle, but it's then below 40% level. And return on equity from current lower years going back to to 20% and beyond that in 2027-2030. That's so things are getting better, but it is requiring quite a bit of work as well. Looking at the bank and other larger subsidiaries as well, that regarding 2026, the focus is about digital channels and customer experience.

We want that the customers will have an easy way to open accounts, to become a customers, and also to have a very, very good digital channel that they would be able to themselves do all the transactions that they would like to do. Same time, we acknowledge that our investment service offering is decent, but in our own eyes, it is not good enough, so we would like to enhance this side. So we are putting effort into this. When in 2025, we spent sizable amount of time into modernizing our infrastructure and also moving some to cloud.

That then, we plan to finalize this within Q1, and maybe one or two smaller systems will remain in Q2, but effectively, all the LHV systems are very soon in clouds, what makes it also quite a bit more scalable, easier to develop. And this allows us to start quicker development processes, that and we are able to bring new services to the customers much quicker than we used to. And another items what are very standard for the bank is that automation. There is always some manual work, even in the very well working companies that are always something still not automated.

So, this is where we want to spend our time, that there are still many processes what include some kind of manual activity, that but also limits across in of this kind of transactions, that you just have to add send people. And as well, data is a key component in in today's banking, that not only the reporting and governance, but also that access and data lakes that and how easy is to do ad hoc queries, reports, that and how easy is to predict what what customer base is going to do.

That, partially it is, very standardized processes, but partially it is an, AI-based, this kind of, vague analysis that, but, giving a hints what could happen. That so data is very much in focus. And number terms, in Estonian banking entity, the growth is, modest from, lending side. Same time, when I look at, deposit side, here it is actually even showing a negative number, but, it is, it is not presenting this fact that, we actually would like to, repay all that, bad part deposits. That so, to replace these ones, also, to shift, inside the bank from, from corporate deposits to retail deposits, that's, is quite a bit of challenge.

But overall, net profit more or less remains the same. But again, when we look at provision line, we add EUR 13 million of provisions in the paper, that hopefully it will not appear. But this is a number here that, so without that, the numbers would be much better. And return on equity, as there is a higher capital base as well on the on bank level, that then the return on equity is lower for one year, but after that, it is going to be going back to 20%+ area. In U.K. banking entity, that's the target is to increase increase in every segment.

That's a focus area in the retail side is about developing from one side app and the customer experience, and from another side, to add services that most critical component is a multicurrency accounts. At the current moment, U.K. entity is able to offer only activities in pound. We would like to start offering other major currencies as well as we are used to have it in Estonia. That's so if this is arc, then we can start offering also FX transactions and start offering to many customers much wider scale of the transactions. In SME lending, U.K. market is different compared to the Baltic or Estonian one.

That's the normal time period from application to loan contract payout. It generally is a couple of months. That's we would like to reduce this time period several times. That in Baltics, in Estonia, we are talking about days and weeks from application to payouts. But in U.K., the standard is different, and we see that there is quite a bit of possibilities to change this approach by offering quicker decisions and more standard approach to the customers as well. And third focus area is banking services. Again, starting from multicurrency accounts, this brings in possibilities to offer FX and also multicurrency payments.

Another focus area is a launching of credit products, that many of banking service customers need some kind of liquidity help in for some very short time periods. That, so it makes sense to start offering these ones. In numerical terms, growth is significant, that deposits by 37%, loans by even by 54%. Still, looking at, comparing with the last year, our growth was in a lending side 104%. That, it is in percentage-wise, it is coming down in absolute terms, more or less same. Profit more or less doubles, and mainly it is coming from the SME lending side. And target is also the, actually the key component is like own customers.

Currently, we have 5,000 customers delivering payment, not payments, but deposits. We would like to reach 40,000 customers in U.K. That's... Moving on to asset management sites. Asset management is about providing very decent investment yields to our pension investors. That's so it is everything is about that. And then the second focus is about sales. That's the sales is a critical we believe that sales has to be through digital channels and telemarketing and cross-selling throughout the group. It's not about having desks in shopping centers. That's these times our we would like to see that the customers have all the information in hand.

They are able to make proper decisions by themselves or in our digital channels. That, where we are able to convince them by showing proper yields. And looking at the last logic subsidiary of LHV Insurance, here it is a growth story. Together with an Estonian banking entity, cross-selling, and mostly, maybe the only item that needs to be said separately is that we are terminating the reinsurance coverage for traffic insurance. So, so that we have been growing to the level that we are able to accept higher costs as well, that then this helps on the profitability side as well.

That's but otherwise, we assume that market remains more or less similar as today. We would like to grow, but the growth is coming together with the bank. So that's it from the numbers side, and now we are ready to focus the Q&A.

Operator

Thank you, Mihkel and Meelis, for the presentation. As mentioned, let's now jump into the Q&A section. Starting from bottom up, first question: In 2026 to 2030, LHV Group expects to grow loans from EUR 5.5 billion to EUR 10.1 billion. Would it be reasonable to assume that most of that growth is expected to come from LHV Bank in the U.K. rather than homeland?

Meelis Paakspuu
CFO, LHV Group

Yes, the expectation is right that the U.K. proportion inside the group is growing, that still Estonia is going to be much higher than the U.K. entity, but U.K., the growth is coming from there.

Operator

Why do you forecast such modest expectations for loan portfolio growth in LHV Pank in Estonia this year? Looks are powered by your own historical standards, also looks counterintuitive against the improved macro backdrop and expected boom in investments. Any structural shift, competitive pressure, or else?

Meelis Paakspuu
CFO, LHV Group

The main topic is about liabilities, that there's no point to, yeah, to grow based on the very costly liabilities. It is about this, that we would like to repay platform deposits in Estonia. We would like to fund ourselves from retail deposits. We do not want to grow fast when the liability side is not properly there. So, in the liability side, in Estonia, we would like to have only two funding sources. It is effectively retail deposit base and, for mortgages, also covered bonds. We do not want to use other type of funding, and if we are using, then it is temporary.

Operator

LHV Pank in Estonia had a market share of circa 14% in Estonia last year, or just slightly up, versus 2024. Do you have some kind of market share target set akin to what some of smaller banks have? For example, Coop Pank aims to grow its market share from circa 6% last year to 10% by 2030.

Mihkel Torim
Chair of the Board of Directors, LHV Group

Yeah, I mean, Meelis can correct me. I mean, our intention is still to grow above the market, but we do not. Basically, we're done with tracking the market share as a target, or having the largest market share per se. It's really more about growing above the market, but that's pretty much the baseline.

Meelis Paakspuu
CFO, LHV Group

We have never had a market share as a target, and I hope that we will never have in future. Yes, we have stated for some years that we would like to be the largest bank in Estonia. This target worked very well. But nowadays we are not using this wording anymore, because the value from current size to the largest one doesn't add qualitative jump for the entity. It adds complexity, but not much of the value. So, we plan to grow, yes, we plan to grow faster than the market, but we are not setting ourselves quantitative market share-based data because it's about doing a really good business, not just any business.

Operator

What is behind the projected operational expenses growth of 7% in LHV Pank in Estonia for 2026? Is it wage pressure rather than the need for higher headcount?

Meelis Paakspuu
CFO, LHV Group

We have been, we have had a structural change in our employees that we have more engineers, IT people in the staff. That quite a bit of this change has happened within 2025. So if we are now going into 2026, then there will be the full year effect when in 2025 it was maybe half a year effect. That then this is a driving factor that there is a certain pressure towards employee costs. Same time, this helps to automate things, this helps to develop our products faster, and by doing that, it helps to gain efficiency.

Mihkel Torim
Chair of the Board of Directors, LHV Group

Yeah, I also wanted to add that this is the impact that we expect, that our once our employee structure shifts a bit more towards engineering, data and IT as well, is we are projecting growth and also projecting long-term growth, with a relatively stable cost base going forward. This means that we have to do quite a lot of processes differently as well. And also, I mean, I think we're also mindful or we see the technological impact to the market, to how, you know, banks operate going forward. So it's really, you know, we can consider it as an investment as well, but that obviously means that we have to also execute this investment well. So, that's the summary.

Operator

What is your long-term targeted return on equity for LHV Bank in the U.K., and how do you expect to achieve it?

Meelis Paakspuu
CFO, LHV Group

In long run, we want to have return on equity of 20%. Same time, it is an expensive environment and very much competitive environment in U.K. Still, SME sector, we could say that in our terms, it is not so well covered by larger banks. So there is room for LHV type of entity. That, but then, when we look at the number terms, then if the loan portfolio is below GBP 500 million, then it is loss-making business. If it is higher than GBP 500 million, then it is already generating some profits. But reaching 20% return on equity as a business line, you need more or less a 1 billion pounds loan portfolio.

Beyond that, you are starting to add to the, and help with other business lines. We need to grow at least to minimally to GBP 1 billion, better to GBP 1.5 billion, and after that, there is, so return on equity should be in place.

Operator

Please comment on the expected increase in provisions in 2026. It cannot be explained just by normalized level if we compare expected provisions to loan growth in years behind 2026.

Meelis Paakspuu
CFO, LHV Group

Yep. It's not about loan growth as such. It is about taking conservative view on the loan portfolio. That, in LHV, we have been using 0.3, 0.4% of risk costs from the loan portfolio as such, that, so we are in the normal times. That, so we are using this as this ratio in the in the forecast that we... Yes, luckily, we do not know is there losses coming as of today. That, so we hope that it is not realizing, but in the forward-looking forecasting, we are always conservative on that side.

Operator

Could you explain the backdrop of projected operational expenses growth compared to the previous financial plan? You were previously anticipating 3% operational expenses growth over the strategic period, but have now doubled it to 6% on group level.

Meelis Paakspuu
CFO, LHV Group

Mainly, there are two angles on that. One is that we have increased the growth rates in UK side. By increasing the growth rates, it automatically increases the cost as well. From another angle, when we were looking at the Estonian side, when we work last year and put together the plans regarding moving items to the cloud, we didn't know all the cost factors there. So actually moving things to the cloud is slightly more expensive than we expected. And the third item was that we tried to automate. Our plan was that we are automating faster our processes. Last year, we spent more time on moving system to the clouds and than we were able to spend on automations. This year, we have more time to deal with automation as well.

Operator

Does the reference regarding exiting or repricing low return on equity corporate loans in Estonia imply that you will be more selective with new issuances and aim to grow below the market but with higher risk profile?

Meelis Paakspuu
CFO, LHV Group

The higher risk profile is not the case. That we have been always selective. We have been always able to sell loans with higher margins. But the risk profile is still very much in line with other banks. That's, it's about corporate lending is not just about price. It is about communication, it is about understanding the customer, it is about structuring the loan. That's so we see that there is a room, but we are not giving loans to absolutely everybody. We are very much selective.

Operator

Given your strong capital position and plans for selective market expansion, would you consider acquiring other challenger banks in the Baltic States, such as Citadele or Nordea Bank?

Mihkel Torim
Chair of the Board of Directors, LHV Group

I mean, I think consolidation in Baltics, I would bet that some will happen in the future anyhow. So we are open to ideas for sure. But having said that, no, I mean, we don't have anything that we can discuss now. But overall, I mean, if you know, if I'm looking at the LHV Bank in Estonia, then obviously there is always benefits to scale. So yeah, we're open open-minded, but I said there's really nothing that we are considering.

I think as Meelis mentioned, we are pretty much set to do some of those changes that were discussed before, growing both the bank in Estonia in a good way, making sure that in the long run we can achieve the efficiency goals that we're really after. But yeah, I mean, scale is always a benefit, if you execute it in a good way.

Meelis Paakspuu
CFO, LHV Group

Yes, we have investment banking in our DNA, so that whatever is on the market, you can be absolutely sure that we are looking into it. It doesn't mean that there is a transaction behind, but we are looking into it.

Operator

Please describe your typical U.K. customer and explain why they choose to bank with you, in what appears to be highly saturated market?

Mihkel Torim
Chair of the Board of Directors, LHV Group

Yeah, I can start. I mean, we have real estate lending and SME lending. So, on the real estate, we're pretty much focused on various product developments, refurbishing. We are not looking into highly saturated markets as London, which are quite specific, but we're looking at regions outside and mainly smaller projects. And in the backdrop, we have a very, very strong team on the SME lending side and on the real estate side, who has been doing this business for quite a bit of time. So it's more like a niche market which our team is executing very, very well. If there's anything you want to.

Meelis Paakspuu
CFO, LHV Group

Maybe on the retail side as well, t here is hundreds of banks in U.K. That's, but just handful of them are actually very large. The rest of these banks are pretty decent, are, well, in relatively small size, that and not known generally. That this allows us to also an possibility that we are just among them, that we are able to attract the normal, regular customers. That it's about pricing, it's about communication, it's about marketing. That's your product offering has to be at least par.

Mihkel Torim
Chair of the Board of Directors, LHV Group

Yeah. Maybe a comment on that side as well. When the retail offer was started, it was, I think, in May this year.

Meelis Paakspuu
CFO, LHV Group

Yes.

Mihkel Torim
Chair of the Board of Directors, LHV Group

So in the beginning, there was a, you know, very limited traction, but then, the team reiterated, really tried to figure out, you know, what's the marketing angle. So once there was a broader campaign relaunch in late autumn with very clear positioning on the offer itself, not on the bank, there was immediate shift in interest. So it's, I said, I mean, nobody's really expecting LHV to really enter any market. It's really up to us to figure out how we can tackle the client groups, how we can build the product offering, and we're just trying to do it in a good and sort of cost-conscious manner.

So obviously, there are always risks involved, but, but yeah, so we are trying to find our spot.

Operator

I understand that the projections for this year are done with extreme conservatism to avoid what happened last year. But realistically, from which line items do you see perhaps the biggest upside potential for these projections, whether it's on the income side, costs, provisions, or loans, et cetera?

Meelis Paakspuu
CFO, LHV Group

If you're asking, where is the potential upsides? Let's say, if we would be very sure that it is there, then it would be included in the forecast as well. That's it. It is about funding. It is about getting a proper cheap funding in a decent size. If we are able to raise that one, then it means that we are reviewing also some of our plans regarding asset sides. So yes, there, there might be that we are ending up with a higher loan portfolio, but the preconditions have to be fulfilled.

Operator

Very well. Profitability at LHV Group level is lower than that of LHV Pank in Estonia. What is driving this lower profitability, and how do you expect it to develop in the future?

Meelis Paakspuu
CFO, LHV Group

It's simple mathematics at the current moment that LHV Bank in Estonia is driving, let's say for... Let's take this to 2025 and 2026 out. In general, we have been always above 20% on return on equity. But group is not consisting of only Estonian banking entity. That's, there is always something else as well, that when I look at asset management, and asset management is doing close to 20 in normal years, and some years when investments are better than are achieving it.

In European company, 2025 was the first year when they clearly outperformed our internal targets, because before that, it was still in the startup phase. Now they are performing well. On the U.K. side, the banking entity has only two full years. That's it; it's not yet ready. There will be another couple of years till U.K. entity will start delivering 20% of return on equity. But when we look at the size, the U.K. entity is already 14% from the total loan portfolio. So this is the largest entity, but is not able to deliver 20% of return on equity as of now.

Operator

Your plan assumes net interest income in 2027 to grow much faster than loans in 2027. What is the reason?

Meelis Paakspuu
CFO, LHV Group

We have been always using market view on the base rates, and market view on base rates is that that's about six months Euribor , and also ECB rates are increasing by 20-25 basis points.

Operator

Now it's a bit into the future question, but your plan assumes fee growth acceleration in 2029 versus 2028. What is the reason?

Meelis Paakspuu
CFO, LHV Group

2029 versus 2028, that's, it's about volumes. It is about pricing of some products, but mostly it is about volumes.

Operator

All right. Thank you. Currently, there are not any new questions added to the Q&A section, so I believe we can end the investor call now. Thank you, Mihkel and Meelis, for the presentation.

Meelis Paakspuu
CFO, LHV Group

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you for the participants joining the call.

Meelis Paakspuu
CFO, LHV Group

Thank you.

Operator

Hope to see you in the future.

Meelis Paakspuu
CFO, LHV Group

Yeah. Have a nice day.

Mihkel Torim
Chair of the Board of Directors, LHV Group

Have a nice day.

Operator

Thank you very much. Have a good day.

Powered by