The Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund’s (AP4) will carefully assess and evaluate the bid that now has been placed on Scania. It is an important task. Scania is a world-class company and holds a long track record of positive development as an independent and listed company. There are good reasons to believe that this can be upheld also in the future. We are, however currently at the trough of the economic cycle, a fact that makes any assessments difficult.
In parallel we have noticed that the last years with Volkswagen as dominating shareholder have been burdened by disagreements. Volkswagen has, by using the strength of its A-shares, to a large extent ignored the 40-percent shareholder minority group and barred it from insight as well as from influence.
For a long-term investor as AP4, all aspects must be taken into consideration. It is not evident that the price offered will benefit the Swedish senior citizens in the long run.
Stockholm, February 24, 2014
The Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund
AP4?s brief is to contribute to the stability of the national pension system through managing Fund capital with the aim of generating the best possible return over time. The Fund is one of the buffer funds (the AP Funds) in the national pension system.
