On Tuesday, it was announced that Alecta had sold its entire holding in the ailing US bank First Republic. The sale took place at a loss of SEK 7.5 billion, which corresponds to 77 percent of the invested capital of SEK 9.7 billion.
Commenting on Bloomberg, Alecta's CEO Magnus Billing writes that "the uncertainty about the bank's future is too great". Alecta has been buying shares of First Republic since 2019 and was until the sale the bank's fifth largest shareholder.
Total loss: 19.6 billion
The pension company, which manages the occupational pension for 2.6 million Swedes, has come under fire recently due to its holding in the collapsed US niche banks Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank. Alecta had pumped a total of SEK 12.1 billion into the two banks. Money that was lost when the crisis was a fact.
Thus, Alecta has gone back a total of SEK 19.6 billion as a result of its investments in the crisis-hit banks, writes Dagens Industri.