Altor and Bure acquire Carnegie

Swedish private equity firms Altor, via Altor Fund III, and Bure Equity have jointly acquired Swedish investment bank Carnegie and Max Matthiessen Holding, a pension and insurance adviser, from the Swedish National Debt Office for a combined value of around SEK 2.275bn.

Altor and Bure were chosen based on a combination of price and their suitability for the continued running and development of Carnegie. Additionally, Altor gained support from key management throughout the sale process. Harald Mix of Altor comments: "Carnegie has a large pool of talented and loyal employees. Few employees left the business during the difficult months the bank experienced in 2008."

Carnegie suffered in 2008 in the wake of compliance and risk management related problems, culminating in the bank's licence being revoked in November. The bank also suffered as a result of its decision to divert from its core business model, expanding into loan-financed equity deals for clients that involved accepting unsustainable risk and leverage levels.

Mix's focus going forward will be on operational activity. "We are taking Carnegie back to basics," he explains. "Its core business is in fact not capital intensive and therefore fairly low risk. We will strengthen the focus on advisory services such as corporate finance, equity sales driven by research, asset management and private banking." He adds that: "There are also opportunities for strengthening the local offices as well as expanding geographically. But in the short term, our focus is to get Carnegie back on our clients' lists."

ScandiTek-backed Bure Equity has known Harald Mix since they were colleagues at Enskilda, and later Industri Kapital (now IK Investment Partners) (Page 46).

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