SWEDEN – Bo Ennerberg, the chief financial officer of Stockholm-based asset management company, Länsförsäkringar, has left the company to start his own alternative asset management company. Only property is now managed inhouse at Länsförsäkringar, whose total assets under management fell from SKr 130bn (€14.2bn) in 2000 to SKr 118bn (€12..9bn) last year.

In a deal struck with his former employees, Ennerberg will continue to manage Länsförsäkringar’s alternative investments portfolio, worth SKr 6.6bn (€723m), making Länsförsäkringar effectively his first client.

The deal means that more or less all Länsförsäkringar’s assets are now managed by external partner companies. An agreement struck earlier this year saw ABN Amro take over the company’s equity and bond portfolios.

“We have limited resources at Länsförsäkringar to keep up the quality and control that we consider essential to our continued growth. The agreement with Ennerberg allows us to strengthen our capabilities in alternatives in the long run,” comments Tommy Persson, Länsförsäkringar CEO.

Persson says 2001 was weak for asset management. “After focusing for a number of years on finding successful, well-run companies in growth areas, it was difficult to exceed the respective comparison indices. The greatest deviations from index occurred in the North American and European management of shares,” he explains.

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