SEB Sees Fall in Shareholders' Equity on Accounting Changes, Impairments

Shares in Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB (SEB-A.SK) fell Friday after the Swedish bank said its shareholders' equity will decline by 8.2 billion Swedish kronor ($1.02 billion) due to new accounting rules and impairments at its German business.

Shareholders' equity is a commonly-used measure of financial health, calculated by taking a company's total assets and subtracting its total liabilities. It shows the amount that would be returned to shareholders if all of a company's assets were liquidated and all its debt repaid.

Accounting changes that came into effect this month will see group shareholders' equity fall by SEK6 billion, while the costs of reorganizing its German business and writing down intangible assets will amount to SEK1.7 billion after tax in the fourth quarter, SEB said.

"In total, the above-mentioned effects will lower equity with SEK8.2 billion, the capital base with SEK4.3 billion and decrease the capital buffer by around 50 basis points," the company said in a statement.

"The business outlook remains unchanged and SEB remains committed to the financial targets including a capital buffer of around 150 basis points, and the cost cap of SEK22 billion for 2018," it said.

At 0955 GMT shares traded 1.9% lower at SEK99.20.

Write to Dominic Chopping at dominic.chopping@wsj.com; @domchopping, @WSJNordics

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 19, 2018 05:23 ET (10:23 GMT)