Earnings wrap: Stora Enso outperforms as UPM and Bank of Åland advance, Wärtsilä drops

Two new listed chief executives, and neither was chosen by the board that will supervise them. Four finance seats moved, and not one went to a first-time CFO.

On 3 August, Aspo named the chief executive of a company that will not trade until January. On 31 August, UPM's shareholders elected the board of one that will not trade until November, six weeks after its chief executive had already been named. Both appointments were internal. Neither went through a search.

According to Listeds Executive Intelligence, Nordic listed companies recorded 57 board and management changes in August: 51 in management teams and 6 at board level. Boards accounted for roughly one change in ten for a second consecutive month — and most of the board activity that did happen was produced by corporate structure rather than by nomination committees. Every one of the month's larger moves was at a Helsinki issuer or at a Helsinki issuer's Nordic subsidiary.

The demergers set the month's bookends

Aspo's board approved the demerger plan separating ESL Shipping into a new listed company on 3 August and appointed Matti-Mikael Koskinen as chief executive of ESL Shipping Group Plc the same day. Koskinen has run ESL Shipping Ltd since 2013. The demerger completes on 31 December, trading is expected to start on or about 4 January 2027, and the company's own board will not be elected until an extraordinary general meeting on 7 December, four months after its chief executive was named. Rolf Jansson, Aspo's chief executive, is intended to be elected chair.

At the other end of the month, UPM's extraordinary general meeting on 31 August approved the plywood demerger and elected WISA Group Plc's board: Tapio Korpeinen as chair, Mats Nordlander as deputy chair, and Sakari Ahdekivi, Frank Herrmann, Nina Kiviranta and Emmanuelle Picard as members. Tuija Suur-Hamari had been named WISA's President and CEO six weeks earlier, on 16 July. The demerger is expected to complete on or about 31 October, with trading from 2 November, nine weeks after the board was seated.

Under the Finnish Corporate Governance Code, appointing the chief executive is the board's own duty. A demerger inverts that sequence, and there is no other way to staff a company that does not yet exist. The consequence, on this author's reading rather than anything either company has said, is that both new boards take office with their most consequential appointment already made, and their first exercise of that duty will be a review rather than a choice.

One thing the WISA sequence does change: Suur-Hamari will be one of a small number of women running a Helsinki-listed company. Listeds’ CEO Index — Finland | Q2 2026 shows women holding 8.1 per cent of the 186 sitting chief executive roles at 30 June, and one of the 25 first-half starts. Women held 8.1 per cent of the 186 sitting chief executive roles at 30 June, and one of the 25 first-half starts. August added a second name to that pipeline — Elli Siltala, appointed chief executive of Raisio plc on 7 August.

The finance seat moved sideways, or not at all

The month's finance moves were the mirror image of a market hiring new talent into the role.

Digia filled its chief financial officer seat on 5 August by taking Vincit's sitting CFO, Kärkkäinen — the second time since 2017 that Digia has filled the role with a sitting CFO from another Nasdaq Helsinki company. Bioretec named Panu Mikkonen chief financial officer from 6 October, the fourth person named to that seat since September 2025, two of them interim. Kempower appointed Juha Jaatinen interim chief financial officer on 13 August. 

No Helsinki company promoted a first-time chief financial officer into the role in August. 

Eight executives named in two days

Three companies named eight executives across 18 and 19 August.

Nordea's 19 August release did two things at once. It merged Group Risk and Group Compliance into a single function under Mark Kandborg, who continues on the Group Leadership Team, with Nahale Ståhl Hallengren as Chief Compliance Officer from the same date, outside the Group Leadership Team. And it filled leadership in the bank's two largest customer units: Per Långsved, who joined Nordea in 2019 as Head of Personal Banking Sweden and Country Senior Executive, becomes Head of Personal Banking and joins the Group Leadership Team; Randi Marjamaa, at Nordea since 2006, takes a newly created Business Banking leadership post and also joins the Group Leadership Team. Sara Mella steps back from operational roles.

Nightingale Health removed its operating chief's role on 19 August and put two commercial chiefs in its place, at the point where its Americas business needs to produce revenue. Janna Ranta, chief operating officer since May 2025, became Chief Commercial Officer, Research and Healthcare. Hugh Watson, who has spent 25 years in United States laboratory diagnostics, joined from outside as Chief Commercial Officer, Americas.

Finnair named its digital and legal chiefs on 18 August. With those two, four of the nine Executive Board functions — people, digital, legal and finance — have a new holder named in 2026. The chief executive, operating, revenue, customer and communications seats have not moved. The rebuild is running from the strongest quarter Finnair has reported, and from a general meeting that rejected the company's remuneration report with 90 per cent of the votes represented against it.

Three did. Two of those were the same bond amortisation at one company, and the third — a take-private crossing 90% — filed in September, after the month it belonged to.

August looked quiet on Nasdaq Helsinki flagging notifications. The shareholder registers moved more than the disclosure feed did. Finland's thresholds start at 5%, and most of the month's largest register moves never touched the ladder.

Here is what moved, what was notified, and what the gap between those two sets says about reading Nordic ownership.

Citycon: the take-private the register sees last

G City Ltd's directly registered stake in Citycon grew from 39.50% to 42.55% during August, a gain of 5.6 million shares. 

In the same window the Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken Helsinki Branch nominee account, which had been holding a large Citycon block in custody, shrank by 4.8 million shares. Citibank Europe's custodial line edged down as well.

That is not buying. It is the shares crossing out of nominee registration into G City's own name as the tender offer settles. G City's flagging notification of 2 September puts its total holding at 91.05%, against a directly registered position of 42.55% at the end of August. Both are correct: the rest still sits in custodial accounts, re-registering in tranches. Read alone, the register would tell you G City owns less than half of Citycon.

G City crossed 90% on 1 September, commenced compulsory redemption of the minority shares and will apply to delist. Our Citycon piece this week has the offer periods, the divestment and the parking dispute.

Faron: a new largest register holder, and no new money

Heights Capital Management, through CVI Investments, crossed a threshold in Faron Pharmaceuticals on 4 August and filed the next day: shares up from 7.99% to 9.41%. The same notification shows its holding through financial instruments falling from 12.53% to 11.30%, and combined exposure barely moving, 20.52% to 20.72%. This is a convertible bond converting under the up-to-€35m arrangement Faron entered with a Heights-managed entity in April 2025 — not a purchase. Faron's own treasury holding fell from 10.97% to 9.37% in the same event, through dilution rather than a sale.