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It can arguably be said that the beginning and end of Handelsbanken’s staff foundation, Oktogonen, dates back to 2002, when billionaire and powerful gamer Fredrik Lundberg stepped in as a small owner in Industrivärden, Handelsbanken’s biggest owner.
Nine years later, in May 2011, he controlled 18 percent of the votes and 13 percent of the capital of the investment company. At the time, it was the CEO of Industrivärden, Anders Nyrén, and the president of the company, Sverker Martin-Löf, who gave a face to the bureaucracy in the so-called Handelsbanken sphere. Or rather two faces.
Then, as now, Industrivärden was the largest owner of Handelsbanken with just over 10 percent of the vote. Then, as now, the Oktogonen Bank Personnel Foundation had an almost as large stake in the bank as Industrivärden. And although the octagon was said to be the base of the staff, in practice it served as another of the power bases of high-ranking officials.
But the entry of Fredrik Lundberg worried the sphere of power in the sphere, which also included the bank’s chief executive, Pär Boman, the bank’s president, Hans Larsson, and the CEO of SCA, Jan Johansson.
According to the book The Battle of the Throne by author and journalist Jens B Nordström, the power circle reached an agreement with Lundberg. Among other things, it meant that Lundbergs was allowed to buy a controlling item corresponding to 10 percent of the votes in the Skanska construction company, which is one of Industrivärden’s holding companies. In return, Lundberg was promised not to increase his ownership and to take control of Industrivärden.
“Sverker Martin-Löf and Anders Nyrén explained in principle that they had control of the sphere and threatened to close Fredrik Lundberg from all the boards if he did not accept the agreement,” Jens B Nordström told the Affärsvärlden newspaper.
Three years later, in 2014, the so-called SCA mess was broken. The SvD newspaper ran article after article with information on how the heirs of the sphere abused their position of power in various ways. When the writings began, Sverker Martin-Löf was chairman of the board of Industrivärden, SCA and SSAB. At Handelsbanken and Ericsson he was vice president and at Skanska a member of the board. In January 2015, due to SvD’s review, he was forced to drop all board assignments in the sphere.
Anders Nyrén resigned shortly thereafter as CEO of Industrivärden with the idea that he would assume the presidency instead. But after what can be described as a coup, Fredrik Lundberg was appointed president of the investment firm.
Thus, in practice, the civil service had been replaced by property-based power. And today, the Lundberg sphere controls almost 22 percent of the capital and 29.5 of the votes in Industrivärden.
The same year that Sverker Martin-Löf was forced to resign, the cross-ownership, which had previously characterized the Handelsbanken sphere, began to disintegrate.
In November 2015, Handelsbanken sold its 10% controlling item in SCA, at the same time that SCA sold its controlling item in Industrivärden. In August 2016, Handelsbanken sold its 10% controlling item in Industrivärden.
The fact that Oktogonens is now being scrapped, which the bank announced Wednesday, can be seen as the last piece of the puzzle in dismantling the white-collar government of the Handelsbanken sphere, says Joakim Bornold, a savings economist at Söderberg & Partners.
– Fredrik Lundberg has become a factor of power and has become more and more influential. And then you might think that it is natural that the octagon, one of the pillars of public function, also disappears.
After Handelsbanken has made no provision for Oktogonen in two years, there has even been speculation that Fredrik Lundberg is trying to “starve” the foundation. Something that Lundberg denied in an interview with Dagens Industri.
But since Oktogonen still has to pay the pensions at the same time that there are no payments, the staff foundation will be forced to sell shares to meet its obligations.
It has already started with the sales of the stakes in Volvo, Essity, Sandvik and Industrivärlden. In these companies, the foundation has sold between 41 and 57 percent of the shares since the end of 2019 according to Realtime calculations.
Sooner or later, the exploitation in Handelsbanken may be next. And Oktogonen’s shares in the bank are probably something Fredrik Lundberg is interested in. In the last two years, Lundberg’s sphere has grown from 61 million to 75 million shares.
– Will Lundberg be on the other side as a buyer of Oktogonen shares? No I dont think so. That would seem too complicated. I think the Octagon will be sold on the market. But when asked whether Lundberg will strengthen his power over the bank, the answer is unequivocally yes, says Joakim Bornold.
