Major owner disagrees over the direction of Creades

First North listed investment company Creades (STO: CRED B) was in the news yesterday over internal conflicts between major owners. Second largest owner Pan Capital AB, which apparently has a little under 25% of shares, said in a press release that the company is poorly structured and does not always put returns over other matters. Pan Capital Group is a privately held investment company.

Creades came to existence via a spin-off from Investment AB Öresund (STO: ORES) this February once business partners Sven Hagströmer and Mats Qviberg decided it is better to divide the portfolios they would manage. This also means that the newly listed company has about 10 000 shareholders. Pan Capital clearly wasn’t happy about that and feels that the company should be de-listed and instead managed as a fund. The way that the shares were distributed coupled with poor liquidity means in Pan Capital’s view that the owners cannot get a fair value of the share if they want to sell.

Hagströmer dismissed the criticism of Pan Capital in an interview with Affärsvärlden . He noted that a clear majority of owners were in favour of the spin-off and thus are voluntarily taking part in the Creades story. Closing of Investment AB Öresund was also on the table as an option in the beginning, and then, like at this point with Creades, tax exemption for below 10% holdings in listed companies tilts the balance clearly in favour of continued listing in his view. Hagströmer’s feeling is that a fund on the other hand would be too short-term oriented.

Hagströmer owns almost 37% of shares and just below 30% of votes, underscoring how the spin-off may seem confusing to many. About 59% of Öresund’s net asset value was allocated to Creades. Hagströmer says that since Pan Capital would want to close down the company, it has no business to be represented on the Board of Directors.