via Bloomberg:
Sweden’s largest pension fund, Alecta, is facing losses of almost $2 billion as a result of a failed investment strategy that made it one of the biggest shareholders in two collapsed US banks and another that’s been caught up in the crisis.
The scale of the losses has become clearer after the private pension group sold all of its First Republic Bank stake at a loss of 7.5 billion kronor ($728 million), according to Chief Executive Officer Magnus Billing. That adds to the already expected losses of 8.9 billion kronor and 3.2 billion kronor in Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, respectively.
“The uncertainty about First Republic’s future was too great, partly due to the fact that the lender was downgraded to junk status,” Billing said in emailed comments, after Bloomberg News obtained a copy of a written response by Alecta to the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority.