Luminor Bank AS is a bank headquartered in

Tallinn Tallinn () is the most populous and capital city of Estonia. Situated on a bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, Tallinn has a population of 437,811 (as of 2022) and administratively lies in the Harju ' ...

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

, with branches in

Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...

and

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

. It is the third-largest bank in the

Baltics The Baltic states, et, Balti riigid or the Baltic countries is a geopolitical term, which currently is used to group three countries: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. All three countries are members of NATO, the European Union, the Eurozone, ...

and in Estonia.Major Banks of Estonia
/ref> Luminor has a deposit market share of 16% and lending market share of 22%. Luminor was founded in August 2017 on the basis of the Baltic operations of

Nordea Nordea Bank Abp, commonly referred to as Nordea, is a European financial services group operating in northern Europe and based in Helsinki, Finland. The name is a blend of the words "Nordic" and "idea". The bank is the result of the successive m ...

and

DNB Drum and bass (also written as drum & bass or drum'n'bass and commonly abbreviated as D&B, DnB, or D'n'B) is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by fast breakbeats (typically 165–185 beats per minute) with heavy bass and sub-ba ...

. Luminor took over 930,000 of DNB's former customers and 350,000 of Nordea former customers. The merger was completed on 1 January 2019. Originally, Nordea owned 56.5% and DNB owned 43.5% of Luminor. In September 2018, it was announced that 60% of Luminor's shares will be sold to the

Blackstone Group Blackstone Inc. is an American alternative investment management company based in New York City. Blackstone's private equity business has been one of the largest investors in leveraged buyouts in the last three decades, while its real estate b ...

led consortium. The transaction was approved by the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body o ...

in January 2019. The transaction was completed in September 2019. After the transaction,

and

own of 20% stakes both. Blackstone and Nordea have agreed that Blackstone would also purchase Nordea's remaining 20% in Luminor. Blackstone is planning to remain the shareholder for four to seven years after which it most likely will exit by listing Luminor on several stock exchanges. The CEO of Luminor is Peter Bosek and the chairman of the supervisory board is Nils Melngailis. Kerli Gabrilovica is head of the Latvian branch and Andrius Načajus is head of the Lithuanian branch. , Luminor had 3,000 employees. In February 2019, the bank announced that, due to consolidation, it would reduce its staff by 130 employees in Estonia, 250 employees in Latvia, and 420 employees in Lithuania. Luminor has over €15 billion of assets.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Official Estonian website

Official Lithuanian website

Official Latvian website

Bank Profile: Luminor Bank
Banks of Estonia Banks of Latvia Banks of Lithuania Banks established in 2017 Estonian companies established in 2017 2019 mergers and acquisitions Banks under direct supervision of the European Central Bank