CEO’s review Q4/2024
I started as CEO of Taaleri at the beginning of January 2025. I am excited about my new role and our opportunity to strengthen Taaleri as a Nordic investment and asset manager. Our goal is to promote profitable growth across all businesses.
The Taaleri Group’s result for the final quarter of the year was strong, mainly due to the continuing earnings from the renewable energy business, recognised performance fees, and Garantia’s result. We advanced our strategy in a challenging operating environment.
The Taaleri Group’s income was EUR 20.0 million in the final quarter of the year, reflecting a 13.0% increase compared to the previous period, driven by the growth in continuing earnings and performance fees. Continuing earnings grew by 5.7% to EUR 10.4 million. The operating profit margin was 47.0%. In the Private Asset Management segment, continuing earnings grew by 6.1% to EUR 7.1 million, thanks to new commitments raised for the SolarWind III Fund after the comparison period. The management fees received from private equity funds increased as a result of the increase in the assets under management that produce the fees. The income of the Private Asset Management segment, in turn, grew by 13.0% compared to the comparison period to EUR 14.4 million. The growth in income was primarily driven by performance fees recognised during the review period based on management’s estimates.
The renewable energy business continued the fundraising for Taaleri SolarWind III Fund. In the final quarter of the year, we increased the size of the fund to EUR 481 million. We succeeded in attracting new international investors to the fund. Fundraising for the fund is scheduled to continue until the end of June. We have already surpassed the size of the previous Taaleri SolarWind II Fund by 36%. Our goal is to significantly grow the fund size further within the current year, but reaching the original target size of EUR 700 million is uncertain given the current market. The fund’s project development portfolio allows for efficient allocation of capital, and the fund’s investment activities remained active in the final quarter of the year. The Taaleri Wind II and Taaleri Wind III Funds are in the exit phase, and we are actively engaged in sales negotiations.
The bioindustry business focused on value creation from existing investments in the Taaleri Bioindustry I Fund and actively identifying new investment opportunities. The torrefied biomass plant in Joensuu was completed, and our goal is to begin production with smaller test batches. A broader ramp-up will take place in 2025.
The real estate business continued to develop new products in the final quarter of the year. We agreed on a mandate-based strategic partnership with a large Finnish pension insurer at the beginning of 2025. Our goal is to launch additional new products within the current year. The timing of the launches will depend not only on investor discussions but also on the development of the real estate market.
Garantia’s insurance revenue in the final quarter of the year remained at the level of the comparison period, amounting to EUR 4.5 million. The housing market, which is linked to company’s residential mortgage guarantee sales, has shown signs of recovery following interest rate cuts. The combined ratio, which measures the profitability of insurance operations, stayed strong at 26.2%. Garantia’s net income from investment operations measured at fair value through profit or loss was EUR 2.2 million, and the return on investments at fair value was 1.1% in the final quarter of the year. The investment market strengthened compared to the comparison period, but the development in the final quarter was more moderate compared to the first nine months of 2024.
The result for the final quarter of the year marked a strong end to 2024. Although progress was slower than desired, we have advanced our key strategic initiatives in the prevailing market. We will refine our strategy during the current year. We have built a strong foundation, and we have the right people, expertise, and resources to achieve results. Our goal is to continue developing our processes to enhance productivity and quality, ensuring we can provide the best solutions and products to our clients as well in the future.