Mandatum’s investor story relies on two cornerstones: growth in capital-light asset management and the release of balance sheet capital from the with-profit insurance portfolio. Thanks to these factors, Mandatum's profit distribution will continue to be generous going forward, and the stock's expected return is strongly weighted towards dividend yield.

In Q4, sales of the key wealth management solutions that drive Mandatum's value creation were again at an excellent level, with improved cost efficiency underpinning the earnings growth. A successful end to the year therefore led to an upward revision of our earnings forecasts. We also increased our profit distribution projections.

Mandatum published a Q4 result that was quite in line with our expectations. While there were anomalies at the segment level, the effects of these anomalies eventually offset each other. The group's key performance indicators - growth in assets under management and the cost/income ratio - showed very strong development, so at first glance the report seems to us to be clearly on the positive side. The biggest surprise was the proposal for the distribution of profits.