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Investor 100 Years - "To move from the old to what is about to come..."


John Hjorth

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Full title: Investor 100 years - "To move from the old to what is about to come is the only tradition worth keeping."

 

I bought the books [both the Swedish version and the English version] in the beginning of October 2016, and I have just finished reading the English version.

 

The book is about the first 100 years of the history the Swedish investment company Investor AB - the central and core company in "the Wallenberg sphere", today actually in control of quite a large part of Swedish international business, and quite a large part of the companies listed on the Swedish stock exchange Nasdaq OMX Stockholm.

 

Ticker: INVE A [sTO] & INVE B [sTO].

 

The book was written by the Swedish journalist Ronald Fagerfjäll. To me, it's very well written. I have the feeling after reading the book [i have only read the English version so far], that the author is a quite skilled investor himself.

 

It's the story about how about aproximately SEK 500 thousand has been turned into about SEK 290 billion during the work of 6 generations of the Wallenberg family within 100 years, in a historic Swedish business context.

 

I have learned a lot about the Wallenbergs and how they work by reading it, and it has been a really interesting, entertaining and educational read, all at the same time, with everything put in a historic perspective with regard to Swedish business.

 

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Scandinavian investors outside Denmark can get the books at a 46% discount [price: SEK 179.00 each] here.

 

As a Danish investor, I found the books cheapest including postage and VAT at CDON.COM.

 

The English version of the book is available on Amazon UK at GBP 29.00 here.

 

I haven't been able to find the Swedish version of the book available outside www.adlibris.com and CDON.COM.

 

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Disclosure: INVE A [sTO] ~3% position. I will perhaps buy more in 2017.

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500 k to 290 Billion. Not at all bad, given two world wars, depressions, etc about 14%.  Do you know what the inflation adjusted original stake was worth? The dollar has gone down by a factor of 22 or so, i.e. a dollar in 1916 bought the equivalent of $22 today, at least in potato chips not microchips.

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500 k to 290 Billion. Not at all bad, given two world wars, depressions, etc about 14%.  Do you know what the inflation adjusted original stake was worth? The dollar has gone down by a factor of 22 or so, i.e. a dollar in 1916 bought the equivalent of $22 today, at least in potato chips not microchips.

 

netnet,

 

Thanks, I will try to open a topic in the investment ideas forum within a few weeks about Investor AB. I'll do my very best to do the opening post - consider me as reference - well thought out.

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  • 5 months later...

I haven't had the time and energy yet to do write up on Investor AB in the investment ideas forum - I'm still studying this thing on/off. It's a never ending story studying it, like it is with Berkshire.

 

Today I found this short presentation  of the company made by the Swedish singer Liselotte Östblom. [Just press the start button on the upper video clip].

 

Let me just say I coulden't do it better my self! Sometimes it's enternaining in more than one way to study companies! ; - )

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I look forward to your write up on Investor.  I have been intrigued by them for a while, as part of a bigger fascination with family holding companies (Exor, HAL Trust, Jardine etc.).

 

My main problem is that I can't get a sense of how good the current generation of Wallenbergs are, and how plans for future succession is.  Stewardship is so important.

 

There was an interesting feature on Jacob, Peter & Marcus in the FT a couple of years ago.  You can dodge the paywall if you google the headline.

https://www.ft.com/content/4f407796-0a35-11e5-a6a8-00144feabdc0

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