Luminor says it has no plans to sell mortgage portfolio in Estonia

"We do not comment on rumors and speculations but we can confirm that we have no plans to sell our mortgage portfolio," Giedre Bielskyte, head of communication at Luminor's Lithuanian branch, told BNS Lithuania on Friday.

In her words, Luminor has no such plans either in Estonia or other Baltic states.

Citing the Estonian business news website Aripaev, the Lithuanian vz.lt news website reported earlier in the day that Luminor would like to shed at least part of its mortgage portfolio in Estonia since Nordea and DNB clients were granted mortgages with very low margins which, taking into account the existing situation on the market, are non-profitable, vz.lt reports.

Luminor is estimated to have an around 15-percent share of the mortgage market in Estonia, having issued mortgages valued at 7.3 billion euros by June, 2018.

BNS Lithuania reminds that a contract on the sale of 60 percent of Luminor's shares to US investment company Blackstone was signed in September, and the European Commission green-lighted the deal in January. It still needs approval of the European Central Bank which is expected to in the first half of this year.