Carema

"The hottest thing on the financial market in the USA in 1987 was the “LBO,” leveraged buyout, or the acquisition of companies from the stock exchange. That was what Harald Mix wanted to work with, and he felt he should take the opportunity and stay in New York. There, he got to know several Swedes who would later become key players in Swedish venture capital, among them Peder Pråhl and Björn Nilsson, who founded the healthcare company Carema’s owner Triton."

"In 1988, financier Gustaf Douglas and then-CEO of Securitas, later billionaire Melker Schörling, secured the first private contract in elderly care with their newly founded Svensk Hemservice. During the 1990s, the company went through several mergers and was eventually sold to become part of the healthcare group Attendo, which in 2013 was owned by IK. For a few years, Uppsala economist Peter Weiderman was CEO of Svensk Hemservice, and he then caught wind of the opportunities the care market offered. In 1996, with a total investment of SEK 15 million from Björn Savén, Harald Mix, and Kim Wahl, all at IK at the time, he started the healthcare company Carema. They could not let any of IK’s funds buy the company—it was too small an investment—but neither could they turn down what they perceived as a fantastic opportunity. And it was."

"The eldercare commissioner Joakim Larsson thinks that Carema has received unduly harsh criticism, but also says that if a care company is not assumed to have any other interest than profit, there will be problems. “You have to have a well-known set of values, otherwise you will be questioned.” – In care, we need units where we feel that the management is proud of and takes responsibility for the operation. It is important that, as a complement to the larger municipal and contracted operations, we also create conditions for new smaller players, he says. But the small operators can never win big contracting agreements; they are crowded out by the large corporations that specialize in procurement. The small ones can really only get care assignments within the framework of “LOV,” the Act on Freedom of Choice. The actors who are approved can be chosen by the citizens, but the municipality/county council retains responsibility. Larsson believes that LOV agreements will increase going forward."

"Elderly care is a special market. The municipality that pays is the customer, but not the user of the services, and above all wants to keep the price down. Until the Carema deal, the general rule in the county councils was that the company that submitted the cheapest bid won the procurement. Previously, the agreements also did not take into account factors such as care units with patients who require more care must receive more money than those with less need. This was changed by the city of Stockholm after the Carema deal. The patients who are in nursing homes are rarely healthy enough to assert their rights and in practice cannot choose another home, even if they sit in their own excrement all day. They are often demented and their truth carries little weight. In the larger cities, staff turnover at the homes is high, making it difficult and time-consuming to plan and implement changes. In short, it is a tough industry. Especially for those who have never set foot there before."