Aktia Bank Plc’s Board of Directors resolves to establish a new Long-term Share-based Incentive Plan and a Bridge Plan, and to continue the Share Savings Plan

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Aktia Bank Plc
Stock Exchange Release
26 February 2025 at 11.30 p.m.

Aktia Bank Plc’s Board of Directors resolves to establish a new Long-term Share-based Incentive Plan and a Bridge Plan, and to continue the Share Savings Plan

The Board of Directors of Aktia Bank Plc has resolved to establish a new long-term share-based incentive plan for selected key employees of the group. The purpose of the plan is to align the interests of the company’s shareholders and key employees in order to increase the company’s value in the long term, to commit key employees to implement the company's strategy, objectives and long-term interest and to offer them a competitive incentive plan based on earning the company’s shares.

The plan consists of one three-year performance period, which covers the financial years 2025–2027.

In the plan, the target group has the opportunity to earn Aktia Bank Plc’s shares based on performance. The performance criteria of the plan are tied to absolute and relative Total Shareholder Return (TSR), Return on Equity and ESG criteria. For certain key persons in asset management, a part of the reward is earned based on income on AuM. The target group may consist of a maximum of 50 key employees, including the CEO and members of the Executive Committee.

The potential rewards from the plan will be paid after the end of the performance period within approximately four (4) years in five (5) instalments, in accordance with the financial sector legislation. Before payment, the rewards may be reduced based on risk adjustments. The payment of each reward instalment is followed by a one-year (1) retention period, during which the participant cannot dispose of the shares paid as a reward.

The value of the rewards to be paid on the basis of the plan corresponds to a maximum total of 500 000 shares of Aktia Bank Plc, including also the proportion to be paid in cash. The potential reward will be paid partly in Aktia Bank Plc’s shares and partly in cash. The cash proportion of the reward is intended to cover taxes and statutory social security contributions. As a rule, no reward will be paid if the key employee's employment or director contract terminates before the end of the performance period.

The CEO and the Executive Committee members must hold 50 per cent of the received shares, until the value of their total shareholding in the company equals their annual base salary for the previous calendar year. Such number of shares must be held for as long as the membership in the Executive Committee continues.

Bridge Plan

The Board of Directors of Aktia Bank Plc has resolved to establish a bridge plan for key employees of the group, including CEO and group Executive Committee. The objective of the plan is to support the company’s strategy by motivating the key employees to achieve financial and strategic targets set for the group. In addition, the purpose of the plan is to bridge the transfer from the previous incentive plan with one-year performance periods to the plan with three-year performance periods.

The plan includes one one-year performance period (calendar year 2025). During the performance period 2025, the reward from the plan is based on group comparable operating profit targets and operating profit run-rate targets decided by the Board of Directors, and individual targets related to each participant’s own area of responsibility and strategy execution within the participant’s own area of responsibility. 

Half of the cash reward earned, based on the performance period will be converted into Aktia shares after the performance period and will be paid in five instalments in 2026, 2027, 2028, 2029 and 2030. Shares received as a reward cannot be transferred within one year of the payment of the reward instalment.

At the target level, the maximum value of the reward based on the performance period is EUR 2,000,000 in total upon the launch of the plan. The final cost of the plan depends on the achievement of the targets of the performance criteria of the performance period and on the conversion price of the share after the end of the performance period. During the performance period 2025, approximately 20 key employees belong to the target group of the plan.

Share Savings Plan

The Board of Directors of Aktia Bank Plc has decided on a continuation of AktiaUna, a long-term share savings plan for the employees of the Aktia Group, that was launched in 2018 to support the implementation of Aktia’s strategy.

The objective of the share savings plan is to motivate Aktia’s employees to invest in Aktia shares and to own shares in Aktia. The objective is also to align the interests and commitment of the employees and management to work for a good value development and increased shareholder value in the long-term.

AktiaUna share savings plan offers approximately 850 Aktia employees the opportunity to save 2–6% of their salaries (the members of the Group’s Executive Committee up to 12% and selected key employees up to 7%) and with this savings amount regularly acquire Aktia shares at a 10% discount. Furthermore, the participants are motivated by granting them free matching shares against shares acquired in AktiaUna share savings plan after approximately two years. The prerequisite for receiving matching shares is that an employee holds the acquired shares until the end of the holding period, and their employment at Aktia has not terminated before the end of the holding period.

The value of the matching shares during the savings period 2025–2026 amounts to a maximum total of EUR 3,500,000 upon the launch of the plan. At an Aktia share price of EUR 10.16, this amount corresponds to the value of approximately 345,000 Aktia shares. The final cost of the plan depends on the number of participants and shares acquired in the plan by the employees.

Aktia Bank Plc

Further information:
Oscar Taimitarha, Director, Investor Relations, tel. +358 40 562 2315, ir (at) aktia.fi

Distribution:
Nasdaq Helsinki Ltd
Mass media
www.aktia.com

Aktia is a Finnish asset manager, bank and life insurer that has been creating wealth and wellbeing from one generation to the next for 200 years. We serve our customers in digital channels everywhere and face-to-face in our offices in the Helsinki, Turku, Tampere, Vaasa and Oulu regions. Our award-winning asset management business sells investment funds internationally. We employ approximately 850 people around Finland. Aktia's assets under management (AuM) on 31 December 2024 amounted to EUR 14.0 billion, and the balance sheet total was EUR 11.9 billion. Aktia's shares are listed on Nasdaq Helsinki Ltd (AKTIA). aktia.com.