Alecta Loses Chairman After One Week in Deepening Crisis

(Bloomberg) -- Alecta is losing its new chairman after just one week in the job, the second bungled appointment for that role within a few months, newspaper Dagens Industri reported.

Carina Akerstrom is resigning from Sweden’s biggest pension fund with immediate effect, she said, after the paper had highlighted an apparent conflict of interest with Heimstaden Bostad, a heavily-indebted landlord and Alecta’s largest single investment. 

Akerstrom’s former employer, Svenska Handelsbanken AB, is Heimstaden Bostad’s creditor, Dagens Industri said. That means Alecta’s $4.8 billion investment in the landlord would have been one of Akerstrom’s key responsibilities to scrutinize.

Akerstrom stepped down as Handelsbanken’s chief executive officer at the start of the year and her contract, which runs until October 2024, will require “full loyalty” with Handelsbanken until then, Dagens Industri said. She has signed lifetime non-disclosure agreements for all Handelsbanken related business, the newspaper said.

Read More: Sweden’s Property Crisis Threatens Its Biggest Pension Fund

Heimstaden Bostad is currently striving to offload properties amid credit-rating downgrades and a steep jump in borrowing costs. As chairman, Akerstrom would also have led the renegotiations surrounding the disadvantageous shareholder agreement with the company’s co-owner, Norwegian billionaire Ivar Tollefsen. 

Alecta’s stake in the landlord is currently under investigation by prosecutors, as well as Sweden’s financial watchdog.

Read More: Alecta Chair Says Fund Exiting “Crisis of Confidence” 

Akerstrom became chairman at Alecta on Feb. 22 and her resignation is Alecta’s second recruitment failure in short succession. The former Handelsbanken chief executive was tapped for the position after the nomination of former Danish Central Bank Governor Lars Rohde also fell through after a “conflict of interest” as he was also appointed as candidate for the board of Nordea Bank Abp.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com

©2024 Bloomberg L.P.