Rune Andersson

"During their time at Electrolux, Carl Bennet and Rune Andersson developed a solid professional and personal bond, discovering that they shared a common mindset and worked well together. When Andersson took on the role of CEO at Trelleborg, Bennet, recognizing Rune’s skills, purchased 1% of Trelleborg’s shares and was at the time Trelleborg’s largest private investor. Over the next few years, this investment yielded a remarkable return of 3,000% (31×), driven by the company’s outstanding performance. This provided Bennet and Andersson with the capital they needed for a historical transaction that would shape Carl Bennet’s history as an industrialist and a long-term investor."

"Rune Andersson, moved on to lead Trelleborg, another prominent Swedish industrial firm."

"What happened during the 1990s and the early 2000s was that private equity firms, through the large amounts of money they earned, suddenly began competing for capital, deals, and smart people in a whole new way. They became a threat to both listed companies and wealthy entrepreneurs like Carl Bennet and Rune Andersson. That wasn’t the case before. In the PR war, the industrialists then began to polish up an old weapon – the argument of long-term perspective. “Long-term perspective” is a catchword in Swedish industry. It is almost emotional. Like loyalty."

"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."