An arbitration tribunal has ruled against Sweden’s largest pension fund in its bid to apportion blame for some of the losses around a controversial property investment.
A claim by occupational pensions giant Alecta a year ago that its co-investor in residential real estate firm Heimstaden Bostad had breached the terms of their agreement over joint ownership was rejected by the panel of adjudicators, it was announced yesterday.
Heimstaden, the listed Malmö-headquartered property firm majority-owned by Norwegian billionaire Ivar Tollefsen – the majority owner of Heimstaden Bostad, in which Alecta has a large minority stake – said the tribunal had decided in favour of Heimstaden in its final award, confirming there had been no breach of the non-compete undertaking in the shareholders’ agreement.
Alecta had argued that the establishment of Heim Global Investor by Tollefsen and his company Fredensborg, and the investments into its fund, competed with the business of Heimstaden Bostad, breaching the shareholders’ agreement.
Christian Fladeland, co-chief executive officer of Heimstaden, said yesterday: “We are pleased that the arbitral tribunal has confirmed our interpretation of the Shareholders Agreement.
“We look forward to leaving this dispute behind us and continue with what we do best, and what we have continued to do throughout these proceedings, to create steadily improved results and value for all Heimstaden Bostad shareholders,” he said.
Asked for comment on the decision, Peder Hasslev told IPE: “We have taken note of the arbitration panel’s decision. It is good that we now have more clarity on what applies in this matter.”
Losses on the Heimstaden Bostad investment exacerbated a crisis of confidence around Alecta in 2023, which began after investments in US niche banks went bad.
In August, Alecta revealed its investment in Heimstaden Bostad – the institution’s single largest holding – had come back from previous lows to a value of SEK41.5bn (€3.8bn) at the end of June, but it was still below its September 2023 state value of SEK49bn.
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