Sweden’s AP3 forced to cut stake in wind power firm Arise

Tredje AP-fonden, the SEK208.6bn (€22.2bn) third Swedish buffer fund (AP3), will have to cut its stake in wind generation firm Arise Windpower because it has breached ownership limits.
AP3 bought a 17% stake in Arise in September last year before it listed. AP3’s alternative investments head Bengt Hellström sits on Arise’s nomination committee which appoints the board.
Arise floated on the NASDAQ OMX Stockholm in March, raising SEK550m and on June 30 AP3’s stake was 14.7%. This exceeds the 10% that the AP funds are allowed to hold in any single company.
“The National Pension Funds Act requires us to sell any shareholding that exceeds the 10% limit as soon as possible, with due regard to market conditions,” AP3 said in its first half-report.
Other Swedish institutional investors with stakes inArise include Nordea Fonder (10%), Länsförsäkringar Fonder (5.6%) and Alecta Pensionsförsäkring (4.75%). Denmark’s ATP has a 4.5% holding. Arise was founded in 2006 and plans to produce two terawatt hours of electricity per year by 2014. It’s chaired by prominent Swedish business figure Pehr Gyllenhammar, the former chairman of Volvo and UK insurer Aviva.
Meanwhile, AP3’s second-half report revealed that it voted at 52 domestic and 375 foreign company annual general meetings during the period.
AP3 also announced that it would be issuing a report on its corporate governance activities in late September.
In July AP3 and its fellow buffer funds AP1, AP2 and AP4 tendered for a supplier of environmental, social and governance analysis and advice.