Taaleri’s associated company Fellow Finance to evaluate potential initial public offering onto Nasdaq First North Finland

TAALERI PLC                                 STOCK EXCHANGE RELEASE   29 August 2018 AT 10.00 EET

TAALERI’S ASSOCIATED COMPANY FELLOW FINANCE TO EVALUATE POTENTIAL INITIAL PUBLIC OFFERING ONTO Nasdaq FIRST NORTH FINLAND

Taaleri Plc’s associated company Fellow Finance Plc’s (”Fellow Finance” or the "Company”) Board of Directors has today decided to review and evaluate the potential listing of the Company’s shares onto First North Finland market place maintained by Nasdaq Helsinki Ltd. The evaluation process will be carried out during 2018.

Measured by the amount of facilitated financing, Fellow Finance is the leading financial technology and services company in the Nordic countries within peer-to-peer lending. The Company specialises in offering financing and investment solutions to private individuals and corporate clients as an alternative to traditional bank financing. The Company has facilitated over EUR 280 million peer-to-peer loans to consumers and corporate clients, as well as invoice financing to corporate clients and servicing close to 410,000 clients. Fellow Finance platform is used by investors in 50 countries and the platform facilitates financing in Finland, Sweden, Germany and Poland. Taaleri is the Company’s largest shareholder with 45.7 percent ownership.

”Taaleri has been a part of Fellow Finance’s story since 2015. We seized the opportunity as we saw the forceful underlying trends in the financial industry and we considered Fellow Finance as clearly one of the forerunners in the sector. At Taaleri, we consider that time is right for evaluating the listing of Fellow Finance, in order to facilitate the execution of the Company’s strategy aiming at significant continued growth. We want to be there to support Fellow Finance’s success story also in the future, and Taaleri aims to remain as a significant shareholder in the Company also following a potential initial public offering”, says Taaleri’s CEO Juhani Elomaa.

Fellow Finance has grown significantly with good profitability during its operating history. In 2017, the Company’s net sales increased 55 percent to EUR 8.7 million and EBIT totalled EUR 2.5 million corresponding to 28.8 percent of net sales. In the six-month financial period ending 30 June 2018, net sales grew to EUR 5.6 million, which corresponds to a 43 percent growth compared to the same period in the preceding year. EBIT totalled EUR 1.7 million, i.e. 30.0 percent of net sales, during the six-month financial period ending 30 June 2018.

Fellow Finance's strategic goal is to continue the significant growth and be a leading pan-European alternative finance platform.

Evli Bank Plc and Borenius Attorneys Ltd are acting as advisors in the evaluation process.

Taaleri Plc.

Communications

Further information:

Lisätietoja:
CEO, Juhani Elomaa, Taaleri Plc, tel. +358 40 778 9020, juhani.elomaa@taaleri.com

Taaleri in brief

Taaleri is a Finnish financial service company, whose parent company Taaleri Plc is listed on Nasdaq Helsinki's main market. The Taaleri Group comprises three business areas: Wealth Management, Financing, and Energy. Taaleri provides services to institutional investors, companies and private individuals. The Group’s operational subsidiaries are: Taaleri Wealth Management Ltd and its subsidiaries, Taaleri Private Equity Funds Group, Taaleri Investments Group, Taaleri Energia Oy Group and Garantia Insurance Company Ltd. In addition, Taaleri has associated companies Fellow Finance Plc, which offers peer-to-peer lending services, Ficolo Oy developing data centers, and Turun Toriparkki Oy and Munkkiniemi Group Oy that are real estate project companies.

At the end of June 2018, Taaleri had assets under management totalling EUR 6.0 billion and 4,600 asset management customers. Taaleri Plc has some 4,100 shareholders. Taaleri’s operations are supervised by the Finnish Financial Supervisory Authority.

More information about our company and services: 

www.taaleri.com/en
www.fellowfinance.fi/en
www.garantia.fi/en

Sophie Jolly, Head of Communications and IR, sophie.jolly@taaleri.com, tel. +358 40 828 7317