Melker Schörling

"The founder is in his 70s, and the eldest daughter, Sofia Schörling Högberg, has not yet turned forty. The process has been ongoing for a few years, but it was brought to the forefront in October 2016 when Melker Schörling unexpectedly announced he would be ending all his assignments as chairman in conjunction with the general meetings. He has been affected by gradually deteriorating health. Carl-Henric Svanberg was elected in May 2017 as a new board member of MSAB. Schörling and Svanberg have been colleagues and friends for a long time. Svanberg has previously served on the MSAB board and is also a shareholder in the investment company. Svanberg has extensive experience in Swedish industry, including as CEO of Assa Abloy and Ericsson, and as chairman of BP and AB Volvo. Mikael Ekdahl has been appointed chairman of Melker Schörling AB after many years as vice chairman. It cannot be easy to take over after a masterful investor who is called a magician in terms of creating growth and value. Melker Schörling remains on the board as a member."

"Melker Schörling"

"With many good deals since the first major investment of 25 million kronor in Securitas in 1987, Schörling’s capital has grown rapidly over a generation. As the owner of Edeby Manor, he is also one of Sweden’s largest real estate owners. Melker Schörling announced in the fall of 2016 that he would scale back for health reasons. Active in the next generation are his daughters Sofia Schörling Högberg and Märta Schörling Andréen. Melker Schörling’s fortune is valued at 55 billion kronor."

"Melker Schörling is an active and long-term owner who has created one of Sweden’s largest fortunes through business development, dividends, and spin-offs of companies that have become new stars on the Stockholm Stock Exchange."

"Melker Schörling and Gustaf Douglas became a dynamic duo, and their approach to driving development in companies left a mark on Swedish business. In many ways, they are contrasts as individuals. Douglas is impulsive and has strong opinions that he readily expresses. Schörling is calm and thoughtful. But not when it comes to business, where they strive in the same direction. Their contrasting personalities provided dynamic collaboration that led to one of the major stock market successes of the 1990s when Securitas conquered the world. This is how Bengt Ericson describes Schörling’s and Douglas’s collaboration in the book The New Upper Class from 2010."

"But in the beginning, money mattered to Melker Schörling. He did not inherit a fortune but built it himself. Today, he manages the capital and invests the money where it yields the greatest return in the long term. During his upbringing in a farming family in the small community of Götlunda with three hundred twenty inhabitants, in the municipality of Arboga outside Örebro, he learned that it required effort to make money in small business and that bank loans and repayments could give a sense of lack of freedom. His father lay awake at night pondering how to make the money stretch to cover the loan repayments for the agricultural machinery."

"The farmer’s son Melker Schörling has made a remarkable journey. He has gradually built an enormous fortune, valued at 55 billion, starting from two empty hands. Nothing has come for free, even though global growth and the stock market have contributed. As recently as 2005, the fortune was valued at “only” 5 billion kronor according to Veckans Affärer 2016."

"In the business press, Melker Schörling is most often described as a major shareholder and investor with a focus on large wealth. It is easy to forget that he had nearly two decades of operational experience in Swedish industry and service behind him when the main owner Gustaf Douglas wanted to engage him as CEO of the troubled security company Securitas. He was a sought-after CEO at that time.”"

"Gustaf Douglas only wanted to part with 10 percent of the shares, but Melker Schörling wanted 25. They met halfway. After a well-conducted negotiation, Schörling paid 25 million SEK for 17.5 percent of the company’s share capital. Schörling had some money after a few successful stock investments, but he borrowed most of the purchase price for the shares in Securitas from the bank."

"Revenue growth, improved results, cost control, and international expansion became trademarks of Schörling and Douglas. As long as the company develops, the value of the owners’ holdings also increases. Melker Schörling was the driving force behind Securitas’s international expansion and the company became enormously successful for a Swedish-owned service company. Melker Schörling stepped down from the chairmanship at Securitas in the spring of 2016 after thirty years with the company. The new chairman is Marie Ehrling."

"Melker Schörling also has private ownership outside of Melker Schörling AB. He owns 40 percent of Greenbridge Partners, which is run by Ola Rollén. He owns as much of the company as Schörling. The rest is shared among a smaller number of shareholders. The company, among other things, has invested in the Norwegian biometric company Next Biometrics."

"Melker Schörling has fundamentally worked in the same way in MSAB as he did at the beginning of his career as CEO and major owner of Securitas and owner of Assa Abloy. Through his own company, he has invested in Swedish-owned quality companies that have had the potential to develop and grow internationally. He wants to have significant influence in the companies in which he invests. When the company grows and makes money with global risk distribution, it is not only good for the company but also for the owner. If value is created in the company, it also creates value for the shareholders. And capital in the form of dividends."

"In the beginning, it was possible to buy the companies for relatively little money because no one else wanted them. There wasn’t much trading in the shares either. The banks had no coverage, and the institutions did not want to buy. This led to “nice price tags,” as Melker Schörling expressed it in an interview with Affärsvärlden in 2016. It was also important that there were conditions for an international business within a foreseeable time. That Schörling managed to buy into companies at a low price increased the possibility of substantial value growth."

"Melker Schörling also owns shares in the heating pump company Nibe and the engineering group VBG Group. Melker Schörling’s fortune is valued at 55 billion kronor. This placed him in 6th position on the list of Sweden’s billionaires in 2016, just after Antonia Ax:son Johnson. Her fortune was valued at the same amount."

"Everyday life as a farmer’s son ended already at the age of 15. The father thought that the brother was more suitable as a farmer and handed over the farm to him. Melker Schörling became an economist at the School of Business, Economics, and Law in Gothenburg instead, after a technical high school in Örebro. He started by acquiring solid industrial experience before making the deal of his life with Gustaf Douglas during the crisis years following the prosperous 1980s. Schörling entered at the right level when he became both CEO and owner of Securitas—and that was something he had consciously aimed for. The investment in Securitas, and several successful deals that followed the first in 1987, meant that the goal of becoming financially independent was realized faster than planned."

"Melker Schörling is an active owner and company builder with a focus on global expansion. The long-term development of companies with a focus on value creation has always been at the center of his attention."

"According to the business description, Schörling’s investment company is to distribute at least half of the dividends that the investment company receives from its core holdings. Thereafter, the owners, who mostly comprise Melker Schörling and family, receive dividends from MSAB."

"Melker Schörling has a well-documented ability to choose the right people to have in his business environment. Among the selected was Thomas Berglund for a long time, who succeeded Schörling as CEO when he became chairman of Securitas, but he lost his CEO position after the company’s weak performance in the USA. After that, he disappeared from the picture. Carl-Henric Svanberg and Ola Rollén have long been engaged in Schörling’s sphere of influence. Schörling is evidently long-term in both business and relationships."

"The family’s fortune largely consists of the value of holdings in the company Melker Schörling AB. Melker Schörling and family control the investment company with 86.1 percent of the votes (31.12.2016). The ownership in MSAB causes the value of the fortune to fluctuate between years, and the actual value is not realized until the shares are sold. And that is not the intention. It is a long-term capital that continually grows."

"“Melker Schörling has shown that he is truly long-term as a principal owner. He has an eternal investment horizon. Building good companies seems to be his life’s elixir. And he makes things happen in the companies.”"

"The lands on Edeby’s property invite high-level hunting. Melker Schörling has always appreciated hunting and fishing. Since the early 1990s, he has been able to hunt deer, roe deer, hare, and partridge on his own land. With his successes in Swedish business and ownership of Edeby, he has also been invited into the exclusive circle that hunts with King Carl XVI Gustaf. Moreover, the forest is a valuable investment. “It’s forestry that I’m interested in because I come from a farming family. I think it’s good to invest in Swedish forests,” he told Lantbrukets Affärstidning."

"As soon as a year after the stock listing of Securitas, Melker Schörling bought the Edeby manor by Lake Båven outside Norrköping in 1992 for 32 million kronor. The area was close to 3,200 hectares at the time of acquisition, mostly forest. Schörling has gradually bought more land since then and is described by Forbes as one of Sweden’s largest landowners."

"Melker Schörling is also aware of his role as a role model, not only over two decades as CEO but also as an owner and chairman. Active ownership requires commitment. Sitting on many boards and assuming a passive role is not for Melker Schörling. For him, ownership and active board work go hand in hand: “As chairman of the board, you work three times more than as a board member. As non-operational, you work normal hours, which actually means much more than normal time,” Melker Schörling stated in Sydsvenskan."

"One of Melker Schörling’s personal traits is said to be his backing of business decisions all the way without interfering in the operational work. It’s a good way to get selected CEOs and capable colleagues to stay."

"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."

"In the group “owners of flesh and blood” are also included others with inherited fortunes, the heavyweight Fredrik Lundberg, as well as a number of medium-sized, more unknown families whose main wealth consists of the family company. To these is added a handful of new active capitalists such as Gustaf Douglas, Melker Schörling, Rune Andersson, and Carl Bennet. They have built their corporate groups themselves and became rich in connection with the historic stock market boom of the 1980s and the later part of the 1990s. Bennet bought Getinge from Electrolux and listed it on the stock exchange, Schörling laid the foundation for his corporate group when, as CEO, he was allowed to buy 20 percent of Securitas before it was listed. Securitas also helped make Douglas rich, and Rune Andersson, as CEO of the listed company Trelleborg, bought shares there. With luck, skill, timing, and some loans, they have built their empires. Each of them constitutes a force in Swedish business, with their opinions and their capital. Carl Bennet has good contacts in politics, mainly with the Social Democrats, and Gustaf Douglas sits on the Moderate Party’s executive committee."

"What distinguishes these leaders, among other things, is an almost supernatural ability to understand and develop the culture that exists in a company. They listen to it and become catalysts. As owners, it is important to capture those who have this catalytic ability. They are unique in being able to unleash the creative in the company and create confidence. It is difficult to move forward if many employees worry about not being on board. These leaders know that self-esteem, being seen, and feeling needed are powerful human drives and cornerstones in the culture that require respect and understanding from everyone all the way up to the owners. I always see strong culture in companies that are doing well. In Securitas, it existed even before the successes came, but it was somewhat sidelined in the security guards. Melker Schörling's crucial contribution was that as CEO he unleashed this culture, aligned the organization with the culture, and made people grow. It became a company where people talked about values and principles. When the company's management fixed and highlighted them, conditions for rapid growth were created. In this belief in people, Latour's employees grow, and so do I."

"That employees should be compensated according to their importance is an opinion I have long had to fight for. Especially one shareholder was quite upset over what they considered a terrible deal when Melker Schörling negotiated the right to buy 9.9 percent of Securitas with the option for more when I appointed him as CEO of the group. I have found it very difficult, as the main owner, to be moved by this concern for my own best interest that the shareholders showed me then. Instead, I have rejoiced over one of the best decisions I have made in my life. As the main owner, I have always advocated for significant shareholding for the CEOs of the companies and have facilitated such risk-taking on commercial terms. Then it is a given that Latour conforms to the norms applied by Swedish listed companies, including through the Swedish Corporate Governance Code, regarding the processes for compensation."