Boliden

"He points out that although Kreuger juggled the companies’ finances, he also built solid businesses that still exist today, such as the forestry company SCA and the mining company Boliden. There are financially oriented actors who also build industries."

"My idea was to try to gain control over the Chest's holdings in Boliden, Ahlsell, and the security company Securitas, and to acquire a large ownership in Trelleborg. We were not so interested in the other parts. Behind the plan lay an analysis and a belief that true long-term value creation must have its basis in Swedish industrial companies. The belief in the future of Swedish industry was an opinion I had the opportunity to express in several newspaper interviews, which provided good headlines in the 1980s environment where much was about real estate and "quick deals.""

"Additionally, a reasonably large institutional owner appeared in Boliden, Carlsons funds with the stock guru Björn Carlson. He argued that our purchase offer should have also included their Boliden shares. The argument was that Carlsons funds had been part of the placement solution when the Wallenberg family bought the Boliden shares from Volvo."

"My first focus was Skrinet's shareholding in Boliden, a competent mining company that had been training on complicated and low-grade minerals in the hard-processed Swedish bedrock since the 1920s. Over the years, the company had built up outstanding exploration expertise, leading-edge techniques for mining, enrichment, and world-class smelters. The industry is notoriously volatile with large fluctuations in results following global metal prices, but Boliden has weathered the valleys thanks to good strategies and skilled management. However, the volatility has always been discouraging. Boliden had rarely had long-term stable owners. I saw significant value potential in Boliden, including a structural business and divesting the company's power interests."

"My analyses of the prospective companies gave me a wish list. We wanted an ownership position in the rubber company Trelleborg for its stable operations, and therefore good dividends, to live on, furthermore the undervalued Boliden and Ahlsell to turn them around, and the majority of the security company Securitas for future long-term development. It would also be good to have an option on the skilled textile company Almedahl-Dalsjöfors. We also wanted a debenture to manage the financing. We would release all shares in Herakles, which essentially then became a cash reserve, or as Robert Weil's partner and CEO of Proventus, Gabriel Urwitz, put it: a financial muscle. We would not argue with each other going forward."

"In addition to the "heavy holdings" in Trelleborg, Boliden, and Securitas, Hevea had also acquired a significant ownership in the diversified investment company Almedahl-Dalsjöfors, with textile and other operations in subsidiaries and a stock portfolio. It seemed rather dull, but the CEO, Göran Sundblad, probably thought I should take a closer look at the company. We obtained two board positions and began to investigate. The more we saw, the more enamored we became. Particularly, the textile manager Göran Wirenstam immediately sparked our strong interest. He had spent his entire life working in constant challenging conditions and managed to defy the textile crisis that had virtually wiped out the entire industry in Sweden. Through continuous restructuring, wise investments, and constant adaptation upwards in the value chain, he had managed to retain manufacturing in Sweden. It was an incredible survival ability, and the company had always been profitable."

"When we got our noses above the waterline in the winter of 1986, we could begin to make some larger structural moves. In January, Boliden, as the largest owner of the technology and wholesale company Ahlsells, made a bid to the other shareholders. At the press conference, John Dahlfors explained the logic with "Boliden needs to advance its positions from mining to more technology and trade" in line with our strategy to make the volatile Boliden more insensitive to fluctuations in the global metal market."

"In the group surrounding Bo Sandell, there were a number of energetic people of varying quality who pushed for larger power-related deals. There were some significant positions in established large companies such as the rubber company Trelleborg via the investment company Hevea, controlled by Skrinet, the mining company Boliden, and the trading wholesaler Ahlsell. Bo Sandell's colleague Michael Hasselqvist built up the finance company Nyckeln but eventually left Skrinet for other tasks with Anders Wall, the big star of the 1980s and a pioneer in bold corporate deals with his Beijerinvest. Nyckeln later acquired a new ownership group outside of Skrinet and met a grim fate during the financial crisis in Sweden in 1990."