Shares and shareholders
All of the company’s share capital is of a single class and each share is ISK 1 nominal value and entitles the owner to one vote. The shares are traded on Nasdaq Iceland and also on Nasdaq Stockholm in the form of Swedish depository receipts (SDRs) where one SDR equals one share.
At the Annual General Meeting of Arion Bank hf. on 16 March 2022 a motion was passed to reduce the company’s share capital by ISK 150,000,000 at nominal value, totalling 150,000,000 shares, by cancelling the company’s own shares. The reduction was executed on 4 April 2022. The company’s share capital therefore decreased from ISK 1,660,000,000 to ISK 1,510,000,000 at nominal value and was the same amount at the end of the year. After the decrease Arion Bank owned a total of 10,717,707 own shares and SDRs. At year-end Arion Bank owned a total of 45,417,587 own shares and SDRs, or around 3.01% of issued share capital. The increase in the number of own shares after the share capital reduction can be explained by the buyback scheme which began in September 2022 and continued to the end of the year.
Major shareholders and transactions
Shareholders owning 1% or more of the issued share capital and which increased their holding during the year were Vanguard which added 2.27 percentage points, Brú lífeyrirssjóður (+1.33 points) and Stefnir funds (+ 1.17 points). Shareholders which reduced their holdings most were Bóksal, which reduced its holding by 1.26 points, MainFirst Bank AG (-1.19 points) and Akta sjóðir (-0.76 points). The number of shareholders increased by approximately 7% in 2022.
At the end of December 2022 the pension fund Gildi lífeyrissjóður was the largest shareholder in Arion Bank with a shareholding of 9.77%. LSR Pension Fund was the second largest shareholder with a 9.53% shareholding and the third largest was the pension fund Lífeyrissjóður verzlunarmanna with a 9.14% share.
Largest shareholders 31 December 2022 | Number of shares | % |
|---|---|---|
Gildi Pension Fund | 147.487.859 | 9,77% |
LSR Pension Fund | 143.950.000 | 9,53% |
Live Pension Fund | 138.044.716 | 9,14% |
Stoðir hf. | 78.500.000 | 5,20% |
Stefnir Asset Management Company hf | 61.174.303 | 4,05% |
Brú Pension Fund | 55.650.815 | 3,69% |
Birta Pension Fund | 52.370.798 | 3,47% |
Frjálsi Pension Fund | 47.867.928 | 3,17% |
Stapi Pension Fund | 45.531.720 | 3,02% |
Arion banki hf. | 45.417.587 | 3,01% |
Hvalur hf. | 36.771.350 | 2,44% |
Íslandsbanki hf. | 35.884.589 | 2,38% |
Vanguard | 34.269.389 | 2,27% |
Festa Pension Fund | 28.957.701 | 1,92% |
Kvika banki hf. | 27.412.063 | 1,82% |
Almenni Pension Fund | 22.140.174 | 1,47% |
Landsbréf hf. | 21.607.339 | 1,43% |
Landsbankinn hf. | 18.275.513 | 1,21% |
Lífsverk Pension Fund | 16.282.230 | 1,08% |
Sjóvá | 15.142.762 | 1,00% |
Source: Nasdaq Iceland, Euroclear Sweden and Monitor
Shareholding – by country
At the end of 2022 approximately 91% of shareholders were Icelandic. Other shareholders were primarily from the United States, the United Kingdom, Sweden and Kuwait. The Bank had more than 12,000 shareholders at the end of 2022, an increase of 770 or 6.4% during the year.
Country | 31.12.2022 | 31.12.2021 |
|---|---|---|
Iceland | 90,80% | 91,40% |
USA | 3,20% | 1,10% |
Britain | 1,20% | 0,50% |
Sweden | 0,80% | 1,00% |
Kuwait | 0,20% | 0,70% |
Germany | 0,00% | 1,20% |
Other | 3,80% | 4,10% |
Heimild: Nasdaq Iceland, Euroclear Sweden og Modular finance
Dividend and share buyback
The Bank’s AGM in March approved the payment of a dividend of ISK 22.5 billion in 2022 in respect of the financial year 2021, corresponding to ISK 15 a share. In 2022 the Bank also acquired own shares worth ISK 9.9 billion or 57,981,807 shares and SDRs.
Trading and performance
After Arion Bank’s share price increased 101% in 2021, the share price performance in 2022 was negative in the face of challenging markets and global uncertainty. The share price on Nasdaq Iceland ended the year more than 21.3% down, while SDRs on Nasdaq Stockholm fell more than 18.2%.
The average turnover with the Bank’s shares and SDRs was down on the previous year. The average daily turnover was 3.5 million shares and 200,000 SDRs, or 3.75 million in total, compared with 8 million in 2021.
Share price performance – Arion Bank and Nordic banks
If Arion Bank’s share and SDR price is compared with selected indices, listed mid-cap banks in the Nordic region, and Nordic large cap banks we see that Arion Bank’s share and SDR price performed well in 2021 but underperformed in 2022.
Performance of shares in Iceland and SDRs in Sweden
Share price performance – comparison with Nordic mid caps 2021-2022
Share price performance – comparison with Nordic large caps 2021-2022
Share price performance 2021-2022
with and without dividend payments
Bank | Price change | Price change including divident |
|---|---|---|
Sydbank | 117,50% | 140,50% |
Arion SDR | 79,10% | 96,90% |
Jyske Bank | 93,60% | 93,60% |
Spar Nord Bank | 77,90% | 93,30% |
Nordea | 66,10% | 92,40% |
Ringkjöbing Landsbank | 71,10% | 74,70% |
Arion Bank | 57,90% | 74,00% |
Íslandsbanki | 51,60% | - |
SEB | 42,00% | 60,70% |
SR-Bank | 32,60% | 50,30% |
Handelsbanken | 32,80% | 46,40% |
Swedbank | 23,00% | 44,70% |
Danske Bank | 36,40% | 41,10% |
DNB | 15,70% | 33,60% |
Aktia | 4,40% | 20,40% |
Kvika Bank | 9,80% | 9,80% |
Key figures
Arion Bank's shares (since IPO) | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Earnings per share | 17,06 | 17,96 | 7,24 | 0,61 | 3,86 |
Dividend per share ISK | 15 | 1,74 | 0,00 | 5,00 | 5,00 |
P/E ratio | 8,79 | 10,61 | 13,12 | 141,48 | 18,26 |
Market capitalisation shares, ISK billion | 226 | 289 | 163 | 153 | 141 |
Market capitalisation SDRs, SEK billion | 16,5 | 20,3 | 10,5 | 11,9 | 9,4 |
Share price, 31 December, ISK | 150 | 190,5 | 95 | 86,3 | 70,5 |
SDR price, 31 December, SEK | 10,96 | 13,40 | 6,12 | 6,69 | 5,18 |
Highest share price during year (close), ISK | 191,5 | 198 | 95 | 86,3 | 93,6 |
Highest SDR price during year (close), SEK | 14,4 | 13,60 | 6,85 | 6,69 | 8,07 |
Lowest share price during year (close), ISK | 147,5 | 93,7 | 49,0 | 69,3 | 70,5 |
Lowest SDR price during year (close), SEK | 10,96 | 6,02 | 3,49 | 5,25 | 5,18 |
Share price performance, ISK | -21,3% | 100,5% | 10,1% | 22,4% | -6,0% |
SDR price performance, SEK | -18,2% | 119,0% | -8,5% | 29,2% | -15,2% |
Total shareholder return ISK, % | -13,4% | 102,4% | 10,1% | 29,5% | 0,7% |
Dividend yield ISK, % | 10,0% | 0,9% | 0,0% | 5,8% | 7,1% |
Average daily volume on Nasdaq Iceland (no of shares) | 3.547.348 | 7.639.689 | 4.244.811 | 5.226.166 | 1.206.679 |
Average daily volume on Nasdaq Stockholm (no of SDRs) | 198.530 | 331.374 | 648.087 | 1.535.434 | 1.289.180 |
Number of outstanding shares as of 31 December, millions | 1.505 | 1.518 | 1.718 | 1.773 | 1.814 |
Holding of repurchased own shares/SDRs as of 31 December, millions | 45 | 142 | 12 | 41 | 186 |
Number of issued shares, millions | 1.510 | 1.660 | 1.730 | 1.814 | 2.000 |