(Bloomberg): Alekta, Sweden’s largest pension fund, has resigned the head of its equities division after reporting investment losses linked to last month’s US banking crisis reached $2 billion, slashing risk exposure announced plans to reduce
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On Tuesday, Alecta said it would cut large stakes in companies far from its home market and appointed Ann Grevelius as acting head of equity portfolio management. Equity chief Liselot Redin, who is responsible for making Alekta one of the largest shareholders of Silicon Valley Bank’s parent company, SVB Financial Group, Signature Bank, First Republic Bank, spokesperson Jacob – According to Lapidus, he was put on vacation.
Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank collapsed as a result of the meltdown, and First Republic Bank is still struggling to survive.
“The U.S. bank loss has severely damaged customer confidence in Alecta and its equity management,” Magnus Billing, CEO of Alecta, said in a statement. “It’s up to us to prove that we are worthy of our customers’ trust again,” he said, adding that “Alecta’s equity management needs a fresh start and new management.”
No other pension fund has bet on three lenders as well as Alekta. A spokesperson for the fund said it has no plans to recoup its investments in SVB and Signature, and said Alecta sold his First Republic stake at a loss.
public outrage
News of the loss sparked public outrage in Sweden, where Alekta controls the funds of 2.6 million private clients. Alecta recently divested its stake in two local lenders, Svenska Handelsbanken AB and Swedbank AB, opting to invest in niche US banks.
Recent losses have had little impact on Alecta’s solvency ratio, which still has NOK 1.2 trillion in assets under management, but a broader calculation calls for. The fund has launched an internal investigation into its investment process, is closely monitored by the government and Riksbank, and recently received a subpoena from the Swedish financial authorities.
Microsoft Corp. was Alecta’s largest foreign holding at the end of last year, according to the latest available data, with the fund investing 5.2% of its equity portfolio in the company’s shares. Alekta also held 4% of his portfolio in Google’s parent company, Alphabet Inc., and 3% in TJX Cos Inc.
Redin, who is on leave, is a 28-year veteran at Alekta and joined the fund in 1995 as a financial analyst, according to LinkedIn. She has held many positions at the company, including her portfolio manager and head of equity her research.
During Redin’s tenure as Head of Equity Portfolio Management, a role she assumed in late 2019, she served as an alector to allocate more resources to niche banks that opened between 2017 and 2019. oversaw the shift of
The Swedish pension system allows you to invest part of your pension in selected funds. If Alecta is deemed to be acting carelessly, the Swedes may put their money elsewhere.
But so far there’s little evidence to suggest that many actually did. won.
— With help from Christopher Jungstedt.
(Updates with fund response, etc.)
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