EUROPE – Jonas Granholm, group pension manager at Skanska, and Gustav Lundeborg, managing director of the Swedish group's pension foundation, are teaming up with former Skanska CFO Hans Biörck to launch a hedge fund.
Lundeborg's last day in the office was 11 January, and Granholm is to leave the company on 18 January, while Biörck left his position at Skanska in 2011 but has continued on as an adviser.
Granholm, who will become chief executive of the new entity, told IPE the fund had applied in October to Finansinspektionen, the Swedish regulator, for permission to start trading. He said he expected to be granted a license at the end of the first quarter.
Granholm hopes to be able to launch the fund, Crescit, with close to SEK800m (€93m) in assets under management.
In addition to his role as chief executive, he will also manage the portfolio along with Lundeborg, while Biörck will serve as the company's chairman.
They will manage the fund using derivatives on equity indices rather than owning any physical stocks. However, Crescit will also include a bond and a CTA component within it, Granholm said.
The focus for the fund is to attract institutional assets such as foundations and pension funds, as well as family offices.
Granholm said Skanska had been advised of the trio's plans to set up the hedge fund for some time, and that it had already hired replacements for him and Lundeborg.
Granholm will be replaced by industry veteran Jan Åhlander, previously head of pensions at Sandvik, the industrial conglomerate, in mid-February.
Lundeborg will be replaced by Anton Ranta-Eskola, former head of research and analysis at Skanska Financial Services.
Biörck was replaced by Peter Wallin, an internal hire, in 2011.
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