I believe that those who eventually buy them will certainly have the patience to wait for financial supervision or some court to determine that it’s no longer a “temporary” situation, and then they’ll go for cheap.
So now the inevitable is just being delayed completely unnecessarily, and it’s not being done with the customers’ best interests in mind.
Less liquid investments (Samla Hotels, Samla Asunnot, Samla Business Premises II) received a valuation update, with the write-down of Hotel Maria…
Samla Capital writes down the holdings and investments of the funds it manages, related to The Hotel Maria located in Kruununhaka, Helsinki. The hotel was completed in summer 2024 and has been chosen numerous times among the world’s best new hotels. Samla Capital is no longer involved in the operational activities of the hotel or the real estate company.
In addition to Samla Hotels Ky, the write-downs of Samla Capital’s funds affected the alternative funds named Samla Asunnot Ky and Samla Toimitilat II Ky, which were the original owners of the real estate development project.
“The write-downs are being made now so that any impairment of investments related to a potential sale of the hotel will no longer affect the funds’ financial results at a later stage. Regardless of the hotel’s future, we are focused on ensuring the profitable business operations of our residential and business premises funds with other properties in their portfolios,” says Samppa Lajunen, CEO of Samla Capital.
Following the write-downs, the value of Samla Asunnot Ky halves from its year-end valuation level to just under 60 percent of the original invested capital. The value of Samla Toimitilat II Ky halves from its year-end valuation to approximately 30 percent of the original invested capital.
“Samla Capital’s funds have suffered from The Hotel Maria’s business starting weaker than expected. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, both the tourism and real estate markets have suffered severely. Arrangements made during the project aimed to protect the capital of fund investors in difficult circumstances,” Lajunen states.
Samla Asunnot acquired a residential development project in line with its investment strategy in 2020 in Kruununhaka, Helsinki. The development strategy was changed the following year by a decision of the fund’s investment committee, according to which Samla Asunnot Ky’s direct ownership was converted into a loan investment through the Samla Hotels Ky fund.
“The arrangement was implemented because the hotel property was no longer a residential investment. By decision of the investment committee, Samla Hotels purchased Samla Asunnot’s ownership stake at a market price determined by a third party. A loan investment is more flexible and has a better repayment order than direct ownership,” Lajunen explains.
The market value (GAV) of the funds managed by Samla Capital is 166 million euros after the write-downs.
Is there still anyone who intends to invest in Lajunen’s funds? Significant write-downs in the funds where most clients have their investments. At the same time, trust in Lajunen was lost, and the result might be the end of Samla Capital’s entire story due to one poor decision. Hardly anyone expected that the value of the Toimitilat (Premises) fund is now 30% of the original capital.
Kassun and Salen’s comments have provided an overview of domestic asset managers, particularly regarding their profitability. 
In this review, we have examined the development of profitability for domestic asset managers for the peak year 2021 and the year 2024. Overall, the profitability levels of domestic asset managers have held up very well, and 2024 profitabilities do not significantly deviate from 2021 levels, even though the market situation is undeniably much weaker. The biggest explanatory factor is the growth in assets under management, and all companies’ assets under management have grown since 2021.
We have examined the profitability of the companies’ asset management businesses and have also included group expenses in our calculations. We excluded Aktia and Mandatum from the review, as all necessary data points for their asset management businesses are not available.
Good analysis from Sauli and Kasper. Quite a few asset managers rely on real estate sector investments, but open-ended funds unfortunately have their limitations, as we have seen in recent years. The predominantly Swedish listed sector manages to efficiently secure new financing through both equity and debt solutions, and thus can acquire more properties at attractive long-term yield levels. The question is, how can the domestic asset management sector compete with this (if it can at all)? I don’t see a very strong position for domestic listed asset management companies… Will the domestic open-ended fund sector recover from its slump for many years? Another question is related to this fundraising theme: how do domestic companies fare in fundraising if their track record is relatively thin or mediocre? If we compare, for example, CIBUS’s rapid financing solutions (directed share issue/short bond in the 80-100MEUR range), very few companies can raise capital as flexibly…
Evli has set this up
The Evli Private Equity Co-Investment I Fund makes direct minority investments in unlisted companies in Europe and the United States together with leading international private equity firms. A co-investment fund in international unlisted equities with its own specialized team is the first of its kind among Finnish asset management companies.
Interesting talk about family offices and their investment world.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5qxKPBDRqs
ChatGPT summary:
I wrote a slightly more extensive overview of the happenings in the asset management sector 
Even though stock markets are rallying at ATHs, the sentiments are expectant and quite cautious. New sales of alternatives are a challenge across the sector, but on the traditional side, interest-rate products are selling particularly well.
Also, interest in corporate acquisitions seems to be higher behind the scenes than in years 
The full review 
Varainhoitajien alkuvuoden kehityksessä isoja yhtiökohtaisia eroja - Inderes
Samla Capital’s infamous Hotel Maria is becoming a Waldorf Astoria.
It’s clear that this sales operation did not go well for those who invested in Samla’s funds 
Because running such funds for the wealthy is a trust business, it’s impossible to see a bright future for the funds.
Did the publicly reported figures of a good -40% and about -70% relative to the funds’ initial values materialize with the deal, or did they change further?
It’s great, however, that a buyer was found. Hopefully, there’s enough demand. Off-topic for this thread, but what size positions did you have, superg, in these? Just asking out of curiosity, no sarcasm intended 
I have on several occasions (e.g., in a tagged post) criticized real estate funds’ slowness to realize assets and rely on the hope of a swift market turnaround being just around the corner.
In this KL article, eQ’s portfolio manager articulates the matter exactly as I see it:
”Trading volume is still at a low level, but perhaps we see that this is now the new normal and we must live and operate within it.”
In my opinion, it is clear that by simply looking at the buyers, we can see that the market is not returning to its previous state. Real estate funds were big buyers in the previous cycle; now they will be net sellers for a long time. Pension companies are more on the selling side than the buying side after the pension reform. The housing investment boom for private individuals will have to wait until the next generation. Who will bring us the high volume that all funds are waiting for like the rising moon?
P.S. eQ has realized assets very briskly, which is a clear exception compared to other players in the field.
There has been some material here previously on the wealth management sector aimed at wealthy private individuals and its growth. I would actually be interested in learning more about the topic, especially on a global level, such as:
I thought this could be helpful, as many seem interested in investing in companies that produce various luxury goods. And on the other hand, all of this is also highly relevant for the wealth management companies themselves. And on the other hand, this also seems to be a relevant perspective for companies selling various health products or services?
I believe Inderes has access to various reports and other data sources where the market has already been analyzed. So, an article or video on these topics would be interesting at some point. So, could you @Sauli_Vilen put something together on the topic at some point 
A few companies regularly publish reports that track wealth trends and statistics globally.
Examples include the report from real estate brokerage/consulting firm Knight Frank: The Wealth Report 2025 | Knight Frank
…and the report from Swiss bank UBS: https://www.ubs.com/global/en/wealthmanagement/insights/global-wealth-report.html
Both can be downloaded without logins or similar. These discuss exactly the topics you mentioned.
The June Fund Report has now also been released. The report had no major surprises, and the development is in line with our previous comment. AUM will likely reach a new ATH in the coming months (knock on wood), and this should give companies in the sector good prerequisites for H2 and going forward. Company-specific differences are, of course, significant, and an ATH in AUM doesn’t help much if there are angry customers in the vestibule redeeming real estate funds.
Here is the comment: Kotimaiset rahastopääomat jatkoivat vahvaa kasvua kesäkuussa - Inderes
Thanks, I looked at the UBS report and some figures included Finland. In Finland, some of our wealth is hidden in relation to citizens of other countries, and we cannot decide on it ourselves. That is, it would be somewhat interesting to see the figures adjusted for pension assets.
Let’s do a small mental calculation with conservative figures for an average situation. Life expectancy after retirement is 10 years; this is likely a very conservative assumption. After taxes, €20,000 per year comes into the account as pension; hopefully, this is also conservative. Let’s forget about retirement moments and discounting from the average retirement year onwards. If inflation is low, the impact is also small.
The value of future cash flows today, based on a rough estimate, is therefore €150,000-180,000 on average. In some tables, Finland would rank closer to its peers when this is taken into account.
It probably isn’t quite like that, as it’s not a fully funded pension. So, the value for an individual is that, but in terms of total assets, there isn’t that much at the moment, because some is directly taken from those working and given to pensioners.
As Kabu also mentions, pensions are mostly paid from the TyEL and YEL contributions of those working.
Pension assets, on the other hand, amounted to 274.4 billion € at the end of last year, which is just under 50k€ per Finn or approx. 165k€ per current pensioner.
A total of 39.1 billion € in pensions was paid last year. With a traditional 4% expected return, paying that pension amount with investment returns would require just under 1000 billion € in pension assets.
Evli today shed light on the situation of its struggling real estate fund. Deferred redemptions totaling 14 MEUR have accumulated over three windows, which is about 25% of the entire fund.
Naturally, this has no significance for Evli (a marginal product), and one cannot draw far-reaching conclusions from the amount of redemptions in this single small fund. However, if other players had redemptions at the same level, tough times would be in store for the real estate fund market 
Citigroup reported strong results, with growth across all business segments. The company improved its revenues, raised its dividend, and continued share buybacks. The bank’s capital adequacy remained strong, and business profitability increased in several areas. The services business grew especially due to trading and financing solutions.
Wealth management + personal banking progressed steadily, even as deposits shifted to more profitable investments. Corporate banking benefited from growth in investment banking and lending. Citigroup reportedly continued to optimize capital and risk management, and the company also invested in digital platforms and customer acquisition, which should support development.
https://x.com/Earnings_Time/status/1945092535975600607
Wells Fargo reported a net income of $5.5 billion in the second quarter.
Net interest income decreased to 13 percent, but fee income grew and total revenue increased. Credit card business grew, while auto loans and personal loans decreased.
CEO Charlie Scharf emphasized in his statement the company’s progress and opportunities for growth after the asset cap was lifted.
https://x.com/Earnings_Time/status/1945076180832461297
