ABG Sundal Collier's Record Quarter Came With a CEO Churn and a Quiet Retreat From Private Banking

The strongest Q3 in the Nordic investment bank's history was read out to an empty room — and the real news was buried in a joint-venture footnote

ABG.OL · Earnings Call · 2026-10-13

ABG Sundal Collier reported the best third quarter in its history on 13 October, and then the call closed almost before it opened. The numbers were unambiguous: “Q3 revenues are NOK 594 million, up 25% from the corresponding quarter last year with reported EPS up 16% and adjusted EPS adjusted for write-offs in the quarter, up 30% from the corresponding quarter.” — Kristian Fyksen, CEO · 2026-10-13 Year-to-date revenue reached NOK 1.7 billion, up 19%, on a pre-tax margin of 20.6% and diluted EPS of NOK 0.47. M&A and advisory revenue nearly doubled year-over-year, investment banking financing was up 28% year-to-date, and Sweden's program trading booked like-for-like commissions up 23%. Revenue per head rose 15% to NOK 5 million. A record print of that quality usually invites a fight over the sustainability of the mix. Instead: “We have not received any questions. It seems like everything is clear so far.” — Operator · 2026-10-13 The silence is a tell. Nothing in the P&L is controversial — what is controversial is what management is quietly doing to the shape of the firm.

A Pivot Wearing a Beat's Clothing

The quarter's most consequential line was not a revenue figure. ABG is folding its private banking arm into a joint venture with Nordnet, launching in 2027, and took a NOK 20 million write-off to discontinue its current private banking platform. The economics are striking:

When the private banking joint venture with Nordnet is launched in 2027, our consolidated cost base will be reduced by the current annual underlying run rate of approximately NOK 50 million... over 50% share of the joint venture's net profit will be presented as income from equity accounted investments in our numbers going forward.
Kristian Fyksen, CEO · 2026-10-13

Read that carefully. A business ABG used to own outright becomes a minority stake whose profit arrives as income from equity accounted investments rather than as operating revenue. Headline revenue shrinks; margin optics improve; and the firm outsources the distribution muscle of private banking to a digital broker while keeping economics it describes as "very encouraging." For a house that spent last quarter proudly rolling up FIH Partners and its Danish franchise, this is a directional reversal — buying scale in one place, leasing it in another.

Riding a Genuine Capital-Markets Wave

Not everything here is idiosyncratic. ABG's read on the market — “a relatively stable quarter in the equity markets with indices on strong levels, slightly up, supporting the transaction activity, including on IPOs within the ECM space” — Kristian Fyksen, CEO · 2026-10-13 — is echoed loudly across this earnings season. Goldman Sachs told investors it saw a capital-markets super cycle and a \"good environment for capital markets\"; JPMorgan, Citi and Wells Fargo all dined out on market and financing activity. ABG completed three Stockholm IPOs and multiple large DCM placements, and its DCM volumes continued \"at a high pace,\" stable at record levels for four straight quarters even as long-term rates rose and credit spreads widened. So ABG is riding a wave, not creating one. The distinction matters for how to price the quarter: a favourable tape plus a record backlog is a cyclical story. The Nordnet pivot is the structural one. Investors who buy the beat alone are buying the tide.

The Handover Nobody Asked About

The subtler signal is at the top of the house. In July, then-CEO Jonas Ström used his closing remarks to say goodbye: “thank you for the trust over the last 7 years. You won't get rid of me as easily as you might think; I will be present in the background going forward.” — Jonas Ström, Chief Executive Officer · 2026-07-07 That same call, like this one, drew no questions at all — “We haven't received any questions so far,” — Anna Tropp · 2026-07-07 said the operator. Two empty Q&A sessions in a row, around a management transition, is a governance cadence worth noting. By October, Kristian Fyksen was presenting and had news of his own: Sverre Tyrhaug will take over as CEO during the fourth quarter. That is a third name attached to the top job in roughly half a year. Meanwhile, the keyword that dominated last quarter's transcript — the acquisition of FIH Partners — has fallen off the agenda entirely, now mentioned only as an explanation for the group's change in headcount and \"record results so far in Denmark.\" When a marquee deal stops being a talking point, it usually means integration is done — or that attention has moved elsewhere.

What to Watch

ABG enters Q4 with a diversified pipeline across products and geographies and a cost base carrying general inflation, with technology costs rising faster than the rest. Compensation sits at 57% year-to-date — revenue-linked, as it should be, but a reminder that this is a fee earner business where the leverage is people, not capital. On a modest market capitalisation near NOK 3.9 billion, the near-term swing factor remains the transaction tape; the multi-year swing factor is whether trading a private bank for a joint-venture stake is the platform discipline management frames it as, or a strategic retreat dressed in cost-savings language. Both readings are live, and management, so far, has not been forced to defend either.