Hevea

"When Forsinvest was cleared of the majority of Volvo shares and had fulfilled its role for Pirre in the power struggle with Gyllenhammar, Forsinvest was put up for sale. I formed a consortium, including among others the investment company Hevea and Forsinvest's CEO Gunnar Ekdahl. We completed the acquisition and reached over fifty percent control. Wasatornet was the largest owner with twenty-six percent. The Wallenbergs remained with twenty percent."

"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."

"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."