Conni cashes home - again.
Stock Exchange Rocket EQT's Chairman of the Board Conni Jonsson has a long history of making lots of money.
He co-founded Wallenberg's venture capital company EQT as early as 1994. Since then, he has raised billions for investors by buying, developing and selling companies.
But also ate a lot of Wallenberg's top directors and others who have been included as advisors.
And ate the management, and, not least, himself.
Has broken his promise
Tax authorities and courts are constantly preoccupied with the question of how much tax Conni Jonsson and his colleagues in the venture capital industry should pay. It has given the public some insight into the income, and often it has been tens, sometimes hundreds of millions. Per person. They have often lost and had to pay more in taxes. After the listing of EQT two years ago, Conni Jonsson, according to Di, complained about the tax advice and sued his tax adviser. At a quarter of a billion kronor.
One can draw a number of conclusions from the above, but one is that Conni Jonsson undoubtedly knows a great deal about how to make money, in companies, business and investments.
And now he, and the rest of the management, have obviously concluded that it is so important to save a total of SEK 23 billion from the stock market, that they are breaking their previous promise to the stock market to keep the shares for another year.
Has sold "locked in" shares
When EQT was listed on the stock exchange two years ago, it was possible to subscribe for the share for SEK 67.
Yesterday it had risen to SEK 400.
The market capitalization is as large as Volvo's, and larger than Ericsson's or H & M's.
Shareholders, including management, have seen their shares rise by 500 percent.
The rise for the entire stock market of 100 percent since the bottom in March 2020, appears pale compared to the development in EQT during the same period.
As is often the case with a stock exchange listing, the owners who list the company have undertaken to keep their remaining shares for a certain period of time after the listing.
This is information that is important for confidence in the share and the company, and which not least small savers take into account when they decide to buy - or not sell - a share.
That trust thus broke EQT's board yesterday - for the second time as well.
The new message is that EQT's so-called partners, ie executives who are also larger, have been allowed to sell some shares that would have been locked up for another year.
In return, the lock-in is extended for shares they still have left.
Still investing in Anticimex
In total, the tops have secured home 23 billion from the stock market.
The list that was sent out from the company at midnight yesterday shows that the one who cashed in the most, chairman Conni Jonsson, has taken home SEK 1.9 billion.
However, he still has shares worth around SEK 18 billion, and the message from EQT now is of course that the management still believes in the company.
They may just want to cash home and not fear a stock market crash.
But still - it is after all a drastic and rather cheeky measure to ignore what has previously been undertaken towards the shareholders.
And these are professionals, with a great habit of weighing risks and opportunities and ending up right.
This shows not least the choice of companies when they recently announced that they would start with a little more long-term investments.
It was Anticimex, worth 60 billion, which EQT owned for almost ten years and thus should have actually sold.
But perhaps someone in charge has been tempted by insect or rat invasion and thought that they will probably become more as it gets warmer. And the climate crisis, it is definitely long-term.