What do we own and how?

Tradeka has significant ownership in several Finnish companies. In light of the history and background of the cooperative, meaningful ownership has come to mean that besides merely seeking profit, Tradeka is committed to advancing other social goals.

Throughout its operations, Tradeka acts according to its members’ vision of good ownership. We want to empower our members to be involved in how the cooperative develops its operations in a way that is meaningful for our cooperative.

As a responsible owner, Tradeka requires that the companies it owns also conduct their business in a responsible way. Tradeka is committed to long-term development of Tradeka-owned companies, and to continuously rewarding its members and returning a significant share of Tradeka-owned companies’ operating results to activities that benefit Finnish society.

We have four strategic categories for our holdings.

Own and develop

The ‘Own and develop’ category includes direct ownership in businesses where Tradeka-Yhtiöt Oy seeks to increase ownership value in the long term. These are holdings where Tradeka-Yhtiöt Oy is the Finnish anchor owner. At the moment, this category includes Restel Oy, Tradedot Oy (Lehtipiste Oy), Tradecare Oy (Med Group Oy), and Tradecar Oy (A-Katsastus Group), all companies where Tradeka-Yhtiöt Oy is the sole owner. 

Invest and preserve

The ‘Invest and preserve’ category includes holdings related to investment activities with controlled risk-taking. This category includes the majority of the Tradeka-Yhtiöt Oy’s 565-million euro investment portfolio owned by Tradeka-sijoitus Oy.

Create new

The ‘Create new’ category includes holdings through which Tradeka-Yhtiöt Oy wants to help transform Finnish economic life and support the creation of new competence, innovation, and jobs in Finland. This category includes private equity fund investments, such as ICT, cleantech and media industry investment funds, Seulo Palvelut Oy (Kauppahalli24), and FIFAX Ab.

Be patient and execute

Our investments in the ‘Be patient and execute’ category are long-term projects designed to address social issues with new types of business models. In these “patient money” investments, Tradeka is willing to compromise on investment returns to reach a worthy objective. Related to this category, Tradeka has partnered with, for example, Y-Foundation to promote the development of more affordable rental housing as well as financing new Generations Block projects with Setlementtiasunnot.

Tradeka takes a responsible long-term outlook on ownership

We do not own businesses to sell them with profit to the next owner. This is a defining principle in how Tradeka views ownership. We set the economic goals of our investments to support this approach. Our long-term ownership strategy takes a perspective farther into the future: we are ready to invest in sustainable long-term development of the companies we own.

This long-term outlook is why, for example, 40% of our investments are tied long-term into what are practically illiquid assets, such as various real estate and private equity funds.

Along with our long-term outlook, responsibility is another hallmark of Tradeka’s investment activities. We were one of the first signatories of UN’s Principles for Responsible Investment in Finland. We require that our asset managers are committed to these principles. We do not invest in investment funds registered in countries included in OECD’s list of uncooperative tax havens.

Isoäiti ja vauva

Where do our profits go?

Investing in our membership is a central focus in how we use our assets, and we continuously strive to improve our membership benefits. In line with our strategy, we direct a significant share of our operating results to activities that benefit the society at large. Furthermore, our cooperative rules specify that donations are an integral element of our operations.

Each year, we use a minimum of 10% of our retained profit to benefit society at large: we have been supporting non-profit activities with half a million to a few million euros a year over the last few years.

In addition to more traditional donation activities, we strive to invest in projects that we feel can push Finland and the Finnish society forward. A total of 10 % of our investment assets are assigned to these categories.

Our profit-sharing promise is based on the idea that we support activities that our members consider important and meaningful. That is, activities that they would be willing to support in their personal lives.