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Swedish pension fund fires top boss over multimillion US bank losses

One of Sweden's largest pension funds, Alecta, is replacing its CEO after the fund lost almost 20 billion kronor from investments in crisis-hit US banks.

Swedish pension fund fires top boss over multimillion US bank losses
Magnus Billing will step down as CEO of Alecta with immediate effect. Photo: Magnus Hjalmarson Neideman/SvD/TT

“The Board has now concluded that Alecta needs new leadership to implement the necessary changes in asset management and restore trust,” the fund said in a statement.

Alecta said CEO Magnus Billing would step down with “immediate effect,” and that deputy CEO Katarina Thorslund would step in as CEO during the search for a permanent replacement.

The fund announced in mid March that it had lost 19.6 billion kronor as a result of its holdings in three crisis-hit US banks: Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), Signature Bank and First Republic.

Days before the collapse of SVB, Alecta told financial newspaper Dagens Industri that it had sold off its assets in two of Sweden’s largest banks in order to up its investments in US niche banks.

In early April, the fund announced it was replacing its head of equities and that it would be reducing the risk of having large stakes in private companies far from Alecta’s home market.

The dramatic collapse of SVB and, shortly after, Signature Bank in March unleashed turmoil across financial markets with fears of an international contagion.

However, Swedish financial authorities have toned down the threat to Sweden’s financial institutions and the country’s Financial Supervisory Authority FI said that neither stability in the system nor future pensions had been affected to any noteworthy degree.

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Sweden’s most bizarre tourist attraction is up for sale – again

Have you always dreamed of owning an enormous Chinese-style building next to Sweden’s main motorway? You’re in luck, for Dragon Gate is again on the market.

Sweden's most bizarre tourist attraction is up for sale – again

Driving along the E4 motorway from Uppsala to Gävle on Sweden’s east coast is like this: forest, forest, forest, forest, GIANT CHINESE CONCRETE BUILDING, forest, forest, goat on fire.

The Dragon Gate saga began in 2004, when Chinese billionaire Jingchun Li bought the former Hotel Älvkarlen with the aim of turning it into a hotspot “where east meets west”.

But the building remained unfinished, with only a restaurant, museum (featuring an army of 200 replica terracotta soldiers) and a souvenir shop opening to customers at the time.

The construction of the hotel finished in 2014, but couldn’t open due to not meeting Sweden’s fire regulations, among other things. A few years later Li left Sweden, having fuelled 200 million kronor into the project, and the building was left practically deserted.

In 2017, it was bought up by Swedish construction development group Sisyfos.

Its biggest mark on Dragon Gate was to organise a techno festival at the venue, which vowed to be the culmination of “years of struggle” and to “go down in history”.

Then came the pandemic and the building was again left empty.

It is now again up for sale, reports regional newspaper Upsala Nya Tidning (UNT).

The price tag is 40 million kronor.

“We need someone who is as crazy as we were,” co-owner Thomas Sonesson told UNT.

Public broadcaster SVT reports that Dragon Gate has in fact been up for sale for a year, with buyers not exactly lining up for the chance to try to turn fortunes around for the building.

“We have to find the right buyer who wants to develop the project for the future,” Sonesson told SVT.

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