Svenska Handelsbanken AB (publ) (SHB_A) Q1 2026 Earnings Call

Investor webinar replay

Replay transcript excerpt

Good morning and welcome to this presentation of Handelsbanken's results for the first quarter of 2026. We can conclude that the bank reported yet another solid quarter. Operating profit increased by 9% compared to Q4, and the ROE amounted to 14%. The main income lines, NII, and fee and commissions were stable. While the lending growth in Sweden was held back a bit by a general slow Swedish economic growth, it was again very encouraging to see that the lending growth trend in the UK and the Netherlands continued both on the household and on the corporate side. This has now been a consistent trend for more than a year. The savings business continued to perform well with market shares of net inflows into mutual funds far exceeding the market share in our books. in both Sweden and in Norway. Cost efficiency is always a top priority in the bank, and again, we saw expenses declining. The net asset quality remained very strong with more or less insignificant credit losses once again. The capital remains robust. The anticipated dividends for the quarter earnings were increased a bit in order to calibrate the CET1 ratio to 17.2% or 250 basis points above the regulatory requirement compared to the 285 basis points in the previous quarter. The anticipated dividends amounted to 2.93 krona per share. or 91% of the earnings generated in the quarter. When we look at the longer-term value creation for our shareholders, this solid Q1 report fits well into the picture of the bank's resilient business model. As illustrated in this graph, the growth in equity per share plus dividends has not only been consistently stable over the past decade, but also growing with an average of 14% per year. And if zooming in on the past five years, the average growth rate has been even higher at 15%. ...