Every now and then, I like to take a peek at the major shareholders of the companies I own and wonder if my own name might show up there. 
Just kidding, I’m checking to see if the largest owners have made any moves.
I went through Kesko’s shareholder list for April and compared it to the March figures. I found a few interesting observations.
Net buys amounted to about +668k and sells to -275k shares, resulting in a net of +393k. Practically all the activity occurred in the B-shares.
Biggest buyers:
- Pihl Christer popped up on the list with 200,000 shares. However, he’s not exactly a newcomer — already in the 2018 Annual General Meeting participant list, Christer owned 36,000 shares, which corresponds to 144,000 shares after the split. So, he is a long-term owner who has now increased his position by a good ~56,000 shares.
- Elo +185,000 B-shares. Quite a brisk move from an employment pension company.
- Nordea Bank increased its holding by ~19% (370k → 442k).
- Danske Invest Suomi Osake +65k and Evli Suomi Select +25k. So, active Finnish funds see Kesko as attractive at these prices.
- On the index fund side, OP-Suomi Indeksi, Nordea Suomi Indeksi, and Suomi-Indeksirahasto were all net positive.
On the sell side, clearly the biggest move was made by Veritas, which sold ~145k shares, or about 16% of its position (885k → 740k). Within the Nordea Group, Pro Suomi and Premium Asset Management sold.
Large domestic pension companies were divided. Elo bought heavily, Veritas sold heavily, while Ilmarinen and Varma didn’t move at all. No unified “smart money” signal in either direction.
The number of Kesko Corporation’s treasury shares decreased by ~16k, which is likely due to an employee share issue or the delivery of share-based incentives.
The overall picture is slightly positive. There were more active buys than sells, a new large private investor entered, and index funds are accumulating.
Not a groundbreaking month as such, but institutional demand still appears to be in good shape.