Kim Wahl
Strategic Concepts & Mechanics
Primary Evidence
"When Kim Wahl called Electrolux and asked to buy one of their subsidiaries, the old sewing machine manufacturer Huskvarna, he was turned down several times. “We don’t want to sell, Huskvarna is part of our core business,” was the response."
"Savén took the largest share, two-thirds, arguing that he was the initiator. He also had the most money. Harald Mix and Kim Wahl shared the rest; throughout the journey, they had equally large stakes. Both Mix and Wahl took out loans to become co-owners of Industri Kapital (later IK Investment Partners, here called IK), as the company was named. It would turn out to be a brilliant investment."
"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."