Sampo Group’s results for 2008 and dividend proposal

Solid performance in P&C insurance

Sampo Group’s profit before taxes for 2008 amounted to EUR 870 million (3,833). The profit for the comparison year contains the sales gain of EUR 2,830 million from the Sampo Bank transaction closed on 1 February 2007. Earnings per share amounted to EUR 1.18 (6.18). The comparable earnings per share for 2007 were EUR 1.25. Earnings per share, including the change in the fair value reserve, amounted to EUR -3.52 per share (5.89).

- Net asset value per share amounted to EUR 8.28 (13.49). Sampo Group has not made use of any of the relaxations in the IFRS rules in the valuation of assets. The fair value reserve on the Group level decreased to EUR –2,364 million (316). Furthermore net asset value was burdened by the exceptionally weak Swedish krona.

- The Board proposes to the AGM on 7 April 2009 a dividend of EUR 0.80 per share and an authorization to repurchase at maximum 50 million Sampo A shares.

- Profit before taxes in P&C insurance increased to EUR 549 million (534) and the combined ratio remained sound at 91.8 per cent (90.6).

- Profit before taxes in life insurance decreased to EUR 140 million (342).

- Profit before taxes for the segment ‘Holding’ amounted to EUR 180 million (95).

- Sampo Group had on 31 December 2008 approximately EUR 2.1 billion of excess capital calculated as the difference between group equity and the economic capital required to manage the operations.


Please find Sampo Group’s complete Interim Report January - December
2008 and Supplementary Financial Information on the Internet at www.sampo.com/ir.


For more information, please contact:

Peter Johansson, Group CFO, tel. +358 10 516 0010
Jarmo Salonen, Head of Investor Relations and Group Communications, tel. +358 10 516 0030
Maria Silander, Press Officer, +358 10 516 0031
Essi Nikitin, IR Manager, +358 10 516 0066

Sampo will arrange a Finnish language press conference on the 2008 results at The Palace, Eteläranta 10, Sea Cabinet 10. floor, Helsinki, today at 1.30 p.m. Finnish time. An English-language telephone conference for investors and analysts will be held at 4 pm Finnish time (3 pm CET). Please call +44 (0) 20 7162 0025 (UK/European) or +1 334 323 6201 (North American). Password: SAMPO.

The telephone conference can also be followed from a direct transmission on the Internet at www.sampo.com/ir. A recorded version will later be available at the same address.

In addition, a webcast of Group CEO and President Björn Wahlroos’s review of developments in 2008 and supplementary information are available at www.sampo.com/ir.

Sampo will publish the first quarter 2009 interim report on 6 May 2009 and the Annual Report 2008 in week 11.


DISTRIBUTION:
NASDAQ OMX Helsinki
The principal media
www.sampo.com
Financial Supervisory Authority