AMF, Sweden’s second biggest labour-market pension fund, announced this morning it has invested SEK400m (€37.4m) in Swedish electric vehicle firm Polestar, in connection with its new listing on Nasdaq in New York today.

Anders Oscarsson, head of equities and responsible ownership at AMF, said: “Polestar has an exciting position in the electric car market as a completely electric brand, with an interesting product portfolio and a broad global presence.

“We can make the investment at a good price, and believe that it will be a good deal for our savers,” he said.

The new listing of Polestar was conducted via a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) process – where a shell company is first listed on an exchange, holding cash raised from the IPO, and subsequently merges with a targeted business.

AMF, which manages around SEK800bn of assets, said today’s listing of Polestar was completed through a merger between Polestar and Gores Guggenheim – which is a SPAC formed by affiliates of private equity firm The Gores Group and Guggenheim Capital.

Overall, Polestar said it had raised approximately $890m (€845m) in gross proceeds from the capital raising exercise, through a combination of “a fully-committed PIPE, anchored by top-tier institutions”, and cash held in trust.

PIPEs (Private Investment in Public) are private placements of shares of an already-listed company – often SPACs – to a select group of investors.

AMF’s Oscarsson said that as the largest Swedish owner of Polestar’s main owner Volvo Cars, AMF had followed Polestar closely for a number of years, and this had strengthened its image of the company as one with good opportunities to grow and develop in an interesting way within its segment.

“The listing gives Polestar financial muscle to accelerate the planned global expansion, and the planned product development,” he said.

Last September, AMF invested in the EV sector by acquiring a 10% stake in the unlisted company Cake, a Swedish electric motorcycle manufacturer, for SEK200m.

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Rachel is IPE's Nordic correspondent. She has long been a freelance writer, and over the years, has written for The Telegraph, The Independent, The Observer, AMWatch and elsewhere. In 2001, Rachel's personal finance book Kickstart Your Money was published by John Wiley & Sons.View full Profile

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