LHV UK Limited, a subsidiary of AS LHV Group, and Bank North Limited, a UK credit institution, completed today, on 17 October 2022, a transaction whereby LHV UK acquired Bank North’s small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) lending business.
The final price of the transaction amounted to 19.7 million pounds. This includes an SME loan portfolio of approximately 17.9 million pounds, 20 employees, an IT system for client relations and loan portfolio management, and cooperative relationships with brokers. The acquisition of a functioning business means that LHV UK, which is currently in the process of applying for a banking licence, will enter the UK SME lending market and will immediately start to generate interest income from the acquired loan portfolio. In order to issue SME loans, LHV UK must also register as an Annex 1 financial institution. The more specific long-term impact of the transaction will be reflected in LHV Group’s financial plan to be published in February 2023.
LHV UK announced its intention to acquire the business of Bank North in a stock exchange announcement dated 11 October 2022, which did not contain any substantive changes to the closing of the transaction.
LHV Group is the largest domestic financial group and capital provider in Estonia. LHV Group's key subsidiaries are LHV Pank, LHV Varahaldus, and LHV Kindlustus. The Group employs more than 820 people. As of August, LHV's banking services are used by 359,000 clients, the pension funds managed by LHV have 132,000 active clients, and LHV Kindlustus protects a total of 149,000 clients. LHV's UK branch offers banking infrastructure to 200 international financial services companies, via which LHV's payment services reach clients worldwide.
Marthi Lepik
Communications Specialist
Phone: +372 5666 2944
Email: marthi.lepik@lhv.ee
