Rainmaker has agreed to buy all shares in Yellow Holding, owner of B2B sales outsourcer Inhouse Group, and is investigating a listing on Nasdaq First North Growth Market Finland. The Finnish sales and customer service outsourcer had 2025 turnover of EUR 45.9 million.

Rainmaker buys Inhouse to close the gap on its EUR 7 million B2B target 

Rainmaker aims to grow its B2B business to around EUR 7 million by the end of its 2025 to 2027 strategy period. B2B sales revenue was EUR 1.6 million in the first half, up from EUR 1.0 million. Two pilot assignments did not move into production, and volumes in its SDR service fell in spring before recovering in early summer. Inhouse covers prospecting, customer acquisition and appointment booking, and will keep its own brand. The purchase price was not disclosed.

“Inhouse Group has built a strong position in demanding B2B solution sales and developed operating models that perfectly complement Rainmaker's business entity. The acquisition supports our strategy to grow and strengthens our position as a growth partner for our customers,” says Tapio Korttilalli, CEO of Rainmaker, in the press release.

Inhouse follows two acquisitions in the first half of 2026

In February, Rainmaker bought telephone sales company Myyntimestarit and its roughly 60 sales professionals. It also bought Digizer's e-commerce customer service business.  First-half revenue rose 14.2% to EUR 24.6 million, with organic growth of 10.6% and acquisitions adding 3.6 percentage points. Comparable EBITDA rose to EUR 1.7 million, or 7.0% of revenue, the bottom of its 7 to 10% medium-term target range.

The Michael J. Fox Foundation will pay USD 6.5 million for Nightingale Health to analyse 60,000 UK Biobank samples for neurodegeneration markers. The company disclosed the agreement as inside information on 30 September. A day later, Nightingale published an annual report setting a revenue target of at least EUR 10 million for the current financial year.

The work will use Alamar Biosciences' NULISAseq™ Neuro 220 Panel, which is designed for neurodegeneration and other brain health conditions. At the Foundation's direction, the dataset goes to UK Biobank and opens to the wider research community in 2027. The aim is to find blood markers that change years before the symptoms of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's appear.

CEO and founder Teemu Suna said the company believes the deal will produce the world's largest brain health-focused proteomics study on a single research cohort.

The contract puts Nightingale's move into proteomics to work

The annual report says Nightingale expanded its offering into proteomics in response to growing interest in multiomics, strengthening its position in the research market. The step came through its November 2025 partnership with Alamar.

The report describes research as a separate business with its own customers and products. It is also where much of the evidence for Nightingale's healthcare business comes from, including measurements of all roughly 500,000 UK Biobank participants. The largest research agreements the report lists for the past financial year were with Aalborg University, at about EUR 2.4 million, and the Moli-sani study, at about EUR 0.7 million.

Consumer confidence in Finland slipped in September, ending a three-month climb from April's low. Beneath the headline figure, a sharper pattern is forming. Households now rate Finland's prospects at their long-term average, while their view of their own past year remains well below pre-2022 levels, and the lowest earners are still losing purchasing power.

The consumer confidence indicator stood at 4.9 below zero in September, down from 3.0 below zero in August. August had been the strongest reading since February 2022. The long-term average since 1995 is 2.9 below zero. The indicator has now been below zero for 55 consecutive months, every month since March 2022. 

The rebound itself was fast. In April the indicator sat at 12.5 below zero, and by August it had recovered 9.5 points. September's dip is small, and one month does not make a reversal. What matters more is which parts of the survey carried the recovery, and which did not.

The national outlook has recovered 18 points since April, the household view far less

Most of the improvement since April's low has come from how consumers see Finland. The national outlook accounts for about 60 per cent of the indicator's 7.6-point rise. Consumers' view of their own past year has moved far less.

Expectations for Finland's economy over the next 12 months improved from a balance of 23.2 below zero in April to 4.7 below zero in September, which is on its long-term average level. Between March 2022 and August 2026, the same measure averaged 16.9 below zero.

Households' assessment of their own finances tells a different story. The balance for own economy now stood at 1.9 below zero in September, against an average of 4.9 above zero in the five and a half years before March 2022. Expectations for one's own economy in 12 months fell to 5.8 from 8.1 in August, short of the pre-2022 average of 9.8. Twenty-eight per cent of consumers said their finances were worse than a year earlier, while 25 per cent said better.

The gap follows income, not prices

Labour Institute for Economic Research Labore estimates that purchasing power in the bottom income decile will decline by 3.5 per cent this year, while the top decile gains 2.2 per cent. Between 2023 and 2026, the difference in purchasing power growth between the two groups will exceed 16 percentage points, with renters and single parents facing the weakest outlook. Senior researcher Milla Nyyssölä attributes the split to "different income trajectories" rather than prices.

Labore describes this as unusual by historical standards. Even in the growth years after Finland's 1990s recession, when income growth varied widely between groups, purchasing power in the lowest decile did not fall.

The confidence survey shows the same fault line. Upper-level salaried employees posted a confidence reading of 1.1 above zero in September, while the unemployed stood at 13.1 below zero and pensioners at 11.5 below zero. Greater Helsinki recorded 2.4 below zero and Eastern Finland 10.7 below zero. Women's reading of 7.4 below zero remained well under men's 2.4 below zero.

Job security is part of the explanation. Among employed consumers, 27 per cent felt their personal risk of unemployment or lay-off had increased, and only 5 per cent felt it had lessened (Statistics Finland). Price pressure has not eased either: consumers estimated inflation at 4.9 per cent over the past year and expect 4.1 per cent over the next.

Drone countermeasures company Sensofusion plans to list on Nasdaq Helsinki in October at a pre-money valuation of up to €1.3 billion. That would make it the first growth company to join the Helsinki exchange valued above €1 billion. The company aims to raise about €300 million in new shares, and four Finnish institutions have already committed €170 million of that.

The anchor investors are Elo, Ilmarinen, Varma and funds managed by OP Fund Management . The offering will include a public offering in Finland and an institutional offering in Finland and internationally, including in the US. The majority shareholder, Haave Oy, and some other shareholders will also sell existing shares.

A 60.8% operating margin carries the valuation

Sensofusion's revenue rose almost 90% in 2025 to €35 million, with profit of more than €23 million. In the first half of 2026, revenue grew another 122%. In the 12 months to the end of June 2026, the operating margin was 60.8%. Revenue grew at an average annual rate of 91.1% between the 2024 financial year and that 12-month period. Earlier this decade, annual revenue was around €700,000.

The company's main product, Airfence, detects hostile drones and can disable them by radio jamming. Customers include Ukraine, NASA, the Finnish Defence Forces and the Finnish Border Guard. "A large number of our customers are operational in some way, involved in war," said founder and CEO Tuomas Rasila.

The company says most of its revenue already comes from outside conflict zones. Rasila expects demand to grow whether or not the war in Ukraine continues, pointing to NATO members' commitment to spend 3.5 to 5% of GDP on defence. "There is nothing we hope for more than the end of war," he said. Chairman Timo Ahopelto put the market's annual growth at about 30%. "By 2030, the market will increase approximately fivefold," he said.

The proceeds will fund research and development in software, detection and countermeasure technologies, artificial intelligence and satellite capabilities. They will also pay for more production and testing capacity and strengthen the balance sheet.

The European Commission is set to block the €1.42 billion graphic paper joint venture between UPM and Sappi after the two companies declined to offer concessions, according to people familiar with the matter. The report lands six weeks before UPM's other portfolio exit, the demerger of its plywood business into WISA Group, is due to complete.

The companies also failed to persuade regulators at a closed-door hearing earlier that week, where they argued the deal would make the industry more sustainable and resilient. Selling assets to win approval is not considered an option because buyers are hard to find. The Commission has until 11 November to decide. UPM and Sappi declined to comment.

UPM planned to move about 30% of its sales out of the group

The two transactions together cover Communication Papers, with €2,493 million in 2025 sales, and Plywood, with €409 million. Against group sales of €9,656 million, that is roughly 30% of UPM's revenue, according to Listeds calculations based on the company figures.

The plywood exit is close to done. UPM's extraordinary general meeting approved the WISA Group demerger on 31 August 2026 and elected its board, chaired by Tapio Korpeinen. Completion is expected on or about 31 October, with trading on Nasdaq Helsinki from 2 November. Shareholders receive one WISA share for each UPM share, and the Finnish Tax Administration has ruled the demerger tax-neutral.

The difference between the two is who has the final say. The demerger needed UPM's own shareholders, a tax ruling and a prospectus approval, and it has cleared all three. The joint venture needs merger control approval from the European Commission and from authorities in the US and China. WISA starts trading on 2 November, and the Commission must decide by 11 November. Within those nine days, UPM will learn whether it is exiting one business or two.

Regulatory concerns grew while the deal moved forward on schedule

UPM and Sappi signed a non-binding letter of intent on 4 December 2025. The plan was a non-listed 50/50 joint venture combining Sappi's European graphic paper business with UPM Communication Papers in Europe, the UK and the US. The Commission opened a Phase II investigation on 28 April 2026. UPM called this a normal step when initial concerns have not been resolved 

One month later, on 28 May, the parties signed the definitive agreement. They also secured €600 million of external financing and a €100 million revolving credit facility, both underwritten by Citi and Nordea. 

In August the Commission sent a statement of objections. It said the venture could gain enough market power to raise prices and lower quality in coated mechanical and coated wood-free paper, the grades used for magazines, books and promotional print. "The Commission is currently unconvinced that integrating the relevant activities in the joint venture would bring enough benefits, in terms of cost savings or environmental or resilience improvements, to offset the potential harm," it said.

UPM said it was confident it could respond fully to the concerns, and that it "remains convinced that the planned joint venture is a necessary step to secure reliable supply continuity for graphic paper customers in Europe". Sappi called the objections a "standard" step and said it expected a positive outcome by the end of the year. Three weeks later, the companies declined to offer concessions.

Both of UPM's exits were staffed from inside the parent companies

The companies kept building the organisation after the objections arrived. In early September, Gunnar Eberhardt was conditionally nominated as CEO and Stephen Blyth as CFO. On 14 September four more nominations followed: Jan Gustafsson for human resources, Marco Eikelenboom for sales and marketing, Antti Hermonen for operations, and Jan-Sander van Tuijl for supply chain 

Of the five nominees whose current roles were disclosed, three come from Sappi Europe and two from UPM Communication Papers. Eikelenboom, currently CEO of Sappi Europe, commented in December that “To remain competitive and sustainable in the long term, consolidation is needed. Consolidation will contribute to a more robust and resilient European graphic paper industry, safeguarding security of domestic supply for the printing sector.” All the nominations depend on regulatory approval, and the current leaders stay in their roles until closing. If the veto happens, the whole team stays where it is.

The same pattern holds at WISA, where Tuija Suur-Hamari moves from running UPM Plywood to chief executive of the new listed company. Listeds has covered the leadership side of this year's Helsinki demergers in Two new listed CEOs, no search, no external hire. The difference is that Suur-Hamari's appointment is certain, while the joint venture team's depends on Brussels.

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.

A reverse listing into 3North Partners puts a pre-revenue reactor developer on First North. The board, not the order book, is what investors are pricing.

Steady Energy, the Finnish developer of heat-only small modular reactors, is coming to First North through a share exchange in which investment company 3North Partners acquires all of its shares. Counting the investment commitments and a retail offering of up to €5 million, the company would open at a market value of roughly €345 million, against a share capital valued at about €270 million at listing after dilution from staff options.

The company has not signed a single binding delivery agreement.

Pension capital commits ahead of the first commercial milestone

3NP has secured irrevocable commitments of about €69.8 million in a directed issue. Elo, Ilmarinen and Varma are among the investors, alongside Suomen Teollisuussijoitus (Tesi) and Fortum Energy Holding B.V. The European Investment Bank has added a convertible loan of up to €40 million, its first financing for a small modular reactor project.

The participation of three major Finnish pension insurers adds institutional backing to the transaction, alongside the €115 million financing package.

The board is the instrument doing the de-risking

Pekka Lundmark, former chief executive of Fortum and Nokia, will chair the combined company. Chirayu Batra, Juha Juntunen, Petteri Tenhunen and Timo Ahopelto join him. Behind 3NP are Ahopelto and Lundmark, alongside Juha Hulkko, one of the creators of Bittium, Ilkka Paananen of Supercell and Tero Ojanperä. 3NP's chief executive Tuomo Vähäpassi was involved in taking Canatu to market through a SPAC.

The structure resembles a reverse listing: 3NP acquires Steady Energy and brings the combined company to First North. The transaction also puts a prominent group of technology and business figures around a company that remains in the product-development phase and has yet to sign a binding delivery agreement.

Myyrmanni, Koskikeskus and Trio, classified as a related-party transaction and approved by the independent directors on 12 August. 

On 12 August 2026, Citycon Oyj's board approved the divestment of three Finnish shopping centres — Myyrmanni in Vantaa, Koskikeskus in Tampere and Trio in Lahti — at an appraisal value of approximately €422.6m, based on the 30 June 2026 valuation.

The buyer is Noga Finland Retail Properties Oy, which Citycon's release describes as controlled by the shareholders of G City Ltd. G City and its subsidiary Gazit Europe Netherlands B.V. held approximately 89.68 per cent of Citycon at the time. Citycon classified the transaction as a related-party transaction deviating from the ordinary course of business, and states that the independent board members approved it.

Completion is expected in the second half of 2026, conditional on a public offering of securities in Noga Retail Properties Ltd. and other customary conditions. Citycon may provide vendor financing of up to €84.5m at market terms, and retains asset and property management of the three centres after closing, for which it will receive management and success fees.

The numbers

Governance and ownership

The transaction is the third disclosed related-party item between Citycon and its controlling owner in four months.

• 13 May — Citycon's board approved a mutual on-call loan facility of up to €200m with G City, repayable by 15 February 2028, at interest set on arm's-length terms by an independent pricing agent. The release notes G City is Citycon's parent and a related party, and states the facility was approved unanimously by the independent board members.

• 28 May — Citycon signed a non-binding letter of intent for the divestment of Finnish centres at a book value of around €400m as at 31 March 2026.

• 12 August — The board approved the sale of the three centres at approximately €422.6m, again by decision of the independent board members.

Net-zero alone would not bring temperatures back to 1.5°C before the second half of the 22nd century. The report says most developed countries now need net-negative targets beyond 2050. The Omnibus made having a transition plan at all optional.

The UN Environment Programme published Limiting Overshoot: Navigating exceedance of 1.5°C and pathways towards return on 2 September 2026. Its opening line is a position, not a projection: global warming is set to cross 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, likely within the next few years. Even an optimistic scenario of full implementation of all national climate plans plus additional net-zero targets puts expected peak temperature rise at 1.8°C.

"There are no good outcomes if we remain above 1.5°C," said Inger Andersen, UNEP's Executive Director, on publication.

The best available case and the breaking point are the same number

That 1.8°C appears twice, in two roles. It is the peak under the most optimistic scenario. It is also the level past which the return trip stops working: beyond around 1.8°C, decline to 1.5°C during the 21st century becomes increasingly challenging.

The best case available therefore sits at the threshold where coming back down becomes hard. The report's own verdict: by no means an acceptable or preferred pathway, simply the best remaining option.

Net-zero is a milestone towards net-negative

That is the report's own section heading, and its point is that mitigation policy can no longer be framed solely around reaching zero.

The math here deserves a second read. Global net-zero would produce a temperature decline of roughly 0.3°C per century, so if mitigation stops there, a return to 1.5°C is unlikely before the second half of the 22nd century, even at a 1.8°C peak. Keeping a return within credible reach relies at a minimum on net-negative targets for most developed countries beyond 2050. Every Nordic economy is in that group.

For a Nordic listed company holding a 2035 or 2040 net-zero commitment, the commitment is not what comes under pressure. Its sufficiency as an endpoint does.

The obligation went in March

The Omnibus I Directive was published in the Official Journal on 26 February 2026 and entered into force on 18 March. It removed from the CSDDD the requirement to adopt and implement a climate transition plan. Member states have until 19 March 2027 to transpose the reporting changes, so national law in Helsinki, Stockholm and Copenhagen is still catching up. Under the CSRD a company discloses information about a plan where it has one, and nothing obliges it to have one. Scope narrowed at the same time, to more than 1,000 employees and turnover above €450 million, leaving much of the Nordic mid-cap universe outside mandatory reporting. Outside banking and the Paris conditions on green bonds, the duty is voluntary.

Google will invest at least €13 billion in Finnish digital infrastructure across 2027 and 2028, with data centres and supporting infrastructure in Hamina, Kajaani, Muhos and Vaala. It is the company's largest single investment in Europe. For scale: annual industrial investment in Finland normally totals around €10 billion, and Etla puts the €13 billion at roughly a fifth of all investment flowing into the country in a year. 

Google announced the investment on 9 September. It has operated in Finland since 2009 and is developing new infrastructure in Hamina, Kajaani, Muhos and Vaala 

Fortum has signed a 22-year power purchase agreement with Google covering up to 50% of Loviisa's capacity. Offtake begins in 2028 at a reduced volume and runs at half the plant's capacity from 2030 to 2049. The two parties also signed a memorandum of understanding to explore new flexibility capacity and new generation, including potential new reactors at Loviisa

The political reception 

Every named Finnish voice in Google's release welcomed the investment without qualification: the prime minister, the climate and environment minister, and the municipal leaders of all four host locations. The caution came from outside it.

Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said “Finland is an attractive destination for investments, and attracting further investment remains a top priority". Speaking at Google's announcement event, he took on the question the build raises for households: energy prices will not rise because of the investments. He also said public debate in Finland tends to underestimate data centres, and that the investments mean jobs for Finns.

Climate and Environment Minister Sari Multala tied her support to supply, saying “These investments are very welcome in Finland and demonstrate that it is possible to invest in AI infrastructure in a way that benefits both local communities and the broader energy system, including other energy users. This long-term approach and commitment are exactly what we need to generate value for both investors and Finnish society. A long-term agreement with an energy company helps ensure that new electricity generation capacity is developed to meet growing demand"

The four municipalities emphasised grid position and local business. Vaala's municipal manager Minna Kärkkäinen said the municipality "is located at a key point in Finland's main electricity grid, which makes it an attractive location for industry and energy projects"; Hamina, Kajaani and Muhos pointed to regional economy, jobs and the data economy.

Outside the release, EK director Sami Pakarinen told Verkkouutiset that "this is, if anything, fantastic news for the Finnish economy." 

The market reaction 

Fortum closed at €21.36 on 8 September, a quiet 0.7% gain that left it up 17.5% from the 2025 year-end close of €18.18. The next session was anything but quiet. The stock jumped 15.8% on 9 September to close at €24.74 after the Google nuclear deal, its sharpest one-day gain in at least a year, taking the year-to-date advance to 36.1%

Fortum has said the agreement is expected to raise the group's comparable return on net assets by approximately 1.4 percentage points over time, once half the plant's output is contracted.

What the contract secures

Loviisa's two units are licensed by the end of 2050. The Finnish government granted that extension in February 2023, replacing licences valid to 2027 and 2030. Fortum has a lifetime-extension investment programme of about €1 billion under way — ten portfolios, more than 300 projects and states that without those investments the plant could not continue producing after 2030.

CEO Markus Rauramo said long-term partnerships are essential "especially in today's uncertain market environment characterized by low visibility and highly volatile electricity prices." Loviisa supplies around 10% of Finland's electricity and employs about 580 people.