Sweden’s national pensions buffer funds have defended themselves after being awarded a booby prize by investigative journalists last weekend for lacking transparency over huge losses on their investment in failed battery firm Northvolt.
At Swedish Association of Investigative Journalism (FGJ) event last weekend, where several Swedish journalists were celebrated for deep-dive reporting work, the association’s chair Ulla Sätereie announced that the AP funds had been awarded the “Roller Blind of the Year” prize – signifying a lack of transparency.
According to a report by Swedish pensions news service Pensioner & Förmåner, Sätereie gave the following justification for the award: “Because through illegal confidentiality decisions, a veiled policy for regulatory compliance, strange company structures and stubbornly avoiding journalists’ questions, they tried to hide the fact that they had squandered several billion kroner of pensions money on questionable Northvolt investments.”
AP2, AP3, AP4 and the now defunct AP1, which collectively managed around SEK2trn (€180bn) in Sweden’s first-pillar income pension system, have come under intense political and media scrutiny about whether they were right jointly to invest in Northvolt in 2021 – a decision that led to a SEK5.8bn loss.
At the FGJ event, SVT News journalists Kristina Lagerström and Johan Zachrisson Winberg won an award for their work around the AP funds’ Northvolt investment, entitled: “About how the state pension funds ignored the rules and lost 6 billion”.
Responding to the booby prize and criticism from the FGJ chair, Tobias Fransson, head of sustainability, finance and communications at AP4 told Pensioner & Förmåner that the justification contained factual errors, for example, that it was incorrect that the AP funds had tried to hide information.
“The AP funds have reported transparently about the investment in Northvolt and have agreed to interviews with Dagens Nyheter, Svenska Dagbladet, Ekonomiekot, DI, EFN and DiTV. We have answered questions that journalists have asked and offered to participate in live television interviews,” Fransson said.
Citing a judgement last September by the Court of Appeal in a case brought by one of the SVT journalists seeking information from the AP funds on the Northvolt investment, he said it had been incorrect at the FGJ awards to use the words “illegal confidentiality decisions” since the court had agreed that confidentiality applied to the AP Funds’ decision in question, and that the information that had been withheld could not be disclosed.
Fransson also said it was incorrect to say the pension funds had squandered pensions money.
“It is a central part of the AP funds’ mission to take risks in their investments, in order to achieve a long-term high return”
Tobias Fransson at AP4
“It is a central part of the AP funds’ mission to take risks in their investments, in order to achieve a long-term high return. This also means understanding that some investments will do well and others will do worse. Since 2021, when the AP funds invested SEK5.8bn in Northvolt, the AP funds have together created a result of SEK594bn,” he said, according to Pensioner & Förmåner.
Meanwhile, Åsa Norman, head of press and communications at AP2, told the news service: “The justification for the award reflects neither facts nor the course of events, and it is of course never fun to receive negative attention.”
AP2 always answered questions from journalists as soon as it could, she said, and had replied to all questions from the SVT journalists in detail.
“In the context and with the statement in the justification about ‘illegal confidentiality‘, it feels important to emphasise that we have obligations under the Act on Public Access and Secrecy, which defines the legal secrecy that we apply,” Norman told Pensioner & Förmåner.
Caroline Glans, senior communications consultant at AP3, acknowledged the negative award the funds had received and said: “The [award] is of course not a desirable award and in retrospect, the criticism surrounding the AP funds’ actions on Northvolt-related issues is something we are learning from.”
“The AP funds have never ‘tried to hide’ anything but it is unfortunate that it was experienced that way and we will take that into account going forward,” she said.
The AP3 spokeswoman also said the justification for the award contained factual errors and cited, among other things, the Court of Appeal judgment referred to by Fransson.
“Not all investments will go as planned, but overall the AP funds have created a good return, delivered on their mission and thereby contributed to strengthening the income pension system,” Glans said, as reported by Pensioner & Förmåner.
