The Austrian has been making a difference since 2020 and last year Luminor managed to significantly increase its profit. It wants to continue to take market share from Swedish competition and increase profitability. Peter Bosek’s contract runs until 2024. What happens after that is open…
Two years ago, Peter Bosek took an unusual career move: after many years in the top management of Erste Bank (most recently as deputy head of the holding company), he moved to the Baltic States. There, the American fund Blackstone has merged six regional institutions into Luminor Bank. It is active in Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania (together 6.3 million inhabitants) and he wants to turn it into a powerful universal bank.
“We have almost tripled our profit since 2020,” says Bosek with satisfaction. For 2022, after three quarters it already became clear that net profit will probably exceed 100 million euros for the first time. Return on equity, an important indicator of earning capacity, rose from 6.2% to 10% last year. With only 19 branches, 2300 employees and 15 billion euros in total assets, Luminor is a financial dwarf in Europe. But the opportunities are enormous, the first successes are there.
In the Baltic States, two Swedish institutes dominate the market with almost 80% of the market. The Luminor positions itself as the largest local “player” and now has almost 20%. “Economic growth in recent years has always been significantly better than in Western Europe,” explains Bosek, “and margins are twice as high as in Austria.”
Mortgage loans performed well until recently. He is currently shaping the IT area. It is also difficult to find suitable specialists in the Baltic States.
As reported, former Erste boss Andreas Treichl, with whom Bosek is still friends, has been on Luminor’s Supervisory Board since the fall. Whether the two are already making plans for a future together in the Erste Group (Treichl is the chairman of the supervisory board of the foundation, which is Erste’s largest shareholder with 11%) is of course not revealed. But that won’t be a problem until 2024 at the earliest, when Bosek’s lucrative contract with Luminor expires and Erste’s supervisory board will advise on a prospective new CEO.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
