Despite Macro Headwinds, Nordea Produced a Solid 4Q

With seasonally stronger fee income lower expenses due to cost controls, Nordea Bank AB delivered good fourth-quarter and calendar 2014 results that were within our expectations.

Dan Werner 28.01.2015 | 16.55
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn

As a result, we will maintain our fair value estimate for this narrow-moat bank. Nevertheless, we have some concerns about aspects of Nordea’s businesses and markets where it operates. In Finland, the economy continues to exhibit weakness as Europe slows and Russian sanctions drag on exports. However, loan losses in Finland remain moderate at 0.17% even with slower growth. Nordea also has direct Russian credit exposure, primarily to Russian and Nordic corporate clients totaling EUR 6.3 billion or 2% of total Nordea exposures. Impaired loans with these clients are low at 30-40 basis points of exposures with loan losses also remaining low at 0.24% for 2014. Also, Danish agriculture continues to struggle with world price pressures. Nordea’s agriculture exposures total only about 2% of total lending, but we think future loss provisions will be increasing during 2015.

Despite these headwinds, Nordea still reported net income of EUR 877 million for fourth quarter of 2014 or EUR .22 per diluted share. Net interest income decreased slightly to EUR 1.40 billion as negative foreign exchange effects totaled EUR 29 million during the quarter. Fee and commission income increased during the quarter. Strong capital markets activity driven by loan syndications, along with higher assets under management from its wealth management area, drove net revenue to EUR 763 million compared with EUR 667 million last quarter.

Nordea’s credit quality, which had shown improvement during early 2014, resumed its positive trend with impaired loans decreasing to EUR 6.4 billion or 1.78% of total loans in fourth-quarter 2014 compared with EUR 6.5 billion in third quarter of 2014. Impaired loans are divided into performing and nonperforming impaired loans. Total loan loss allowance of EUR 2.8 billion still covers only 43% of total impaired loans but 100% of the nonperforming impaired loans. We still prefer to see larger loan loss allowances for Nordea. However, problem credits appear to be manageable at this time. Loan losses totaled EUR 129 million or 0.15% of total loans compared with EUR 112 million last quarter. While most of the loan losses are in Denmark retail banking, net loan losses from Denmark continue to decline, 29% compared with a year ago. With the macroeconomic concerns we have previously stated, we will continue to monitor any deterioration with Nordea's loan portfolios. Nordea continues to push forward with its cost optimization program. The goal is the 6% reduction of costs for 2015 compared with 2014. Overall, expense control continues to be an advantage for Nordea in maintaining double digit ROEs. Nordea remained well capitalized with a pro forma fully loaded Basel III core Tier 1 capital ratio of 15.7% at fourth quarter 2014. Overall, we are generally pleased with Nordea's fourth-quarter results.

Facebook Twitter LinkedIn

Verdipapirer nevnt i artikkel

Navn på verdipapirPrisEndring (%)Morningstar Rating
Nordea Bank Abp79,90 DKK0,99
Nordea Bank Abp124,95 SEK0,81Rating

Om forfatteren

Dan Werner  Dan Werner is an equity analyst at Morningstar covering the financial services sector.

© Copyright 2024 Morningstar, Inc. Alle rettigheter reservert.

Brukervilkår        Personvern        Cookie Settings          offentliggjøringer