Swedish fund group Alecta is overhauling its senior management following €1.7 billion of losses made in US bank investments.
Current CEO of the 1,120 billion Swedish kroner (€100 billion) group, Magnus Billing, is stepping down with immediate effect. Billing – the CEO since 2016 – will assume an unnamed position in the company, according to an official statement. Another CEO has not yet been named.
Current head of equities Liselott Ledin has been placed on leave and replaced with former SEB CIO and current board member Ann Grevelius and former AP3 CIO Kerim Kaskal has been named interim CIO at Alecta with immediate effect, taking over from Henrik Gade Jespen, who is on extended sick leave.
The management changes are part of fallout from heavy losses sustained by the group due to the Silicon Valley Bank collapse. Alecta had been invested in Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank and confirmed following both banks’ collapse, it would likely lose all of its 12 billion Swedish kroner (€1.7 billion) investment as a result.
At the time, a statement stressed this would have “marginal impact” on client portfolios.
Prior to stepping down, Billing had been in the process of overhauling the firm’s asset management division to avoid repeat mistakes.
The collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank has spread contagion fears around the global banking industry. In March, the European Central Bank was forced to hold an emergency meeting of its supervisory board with regulators around the EU issuing coordinated statements to markets.
Despite this, Credit Suisse was forced into a buyout with UBS, which created one of the biggest asset management firms in Europe with $1.5 trillion in combined AUM.
The $3.25 billion deal has since come under regulatory scrutiny.
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