CFA Society Sweden
Brunnsgatan 21 A, 3 tr
111 38 Stockholm
Sweden
email: info@cfasweden.se
ChemSec – The International Chemical Secretariat wins CFA Sweden ESG Award 2022
Every year CFA Society Sweden, through the “CFA Sweden ESG Award,” recognizes an individual, organization or group that has raised awareness of the importance of ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) considerations in the investment process. The CFA Sweden ESG Award was presented to ChemSec – the International Chemical Secretariat at the Society’s Annual Forecast Dinner on May 25 in Stockholm.
“ESG and the responsibilities of the Chemicals sector is a complicated topic for many investors. ChemSec – the International Chemical Secretariat has for many years scrutinized the sector in a professional manner and shone a much-needed light on chemicals and risks associated with them. It was not until the investment community was invited to join the campaign against poly fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), also called “forever chemicals”, that ChemSec and its work became known in wider circles. ChemSec is awarded the CFA Sweden ESG Award for bringing the important topic of hazardous chemicals to the table of the wider investment community!” says John Howchin, Co-Chair of CFA Society Sweden’s ESG Committee.
ChemSec – the International Chemical Secretariat – is an independent non-profit organisation that advocates for the substitution of toxic chemicals for safer alternatives. Founded in 2002 and based in Gothenburg, Sweden, ChemSec engages the work of chemists, political scientists, business experts and communicators, as well as the investment community.
Previous recipients of the CFA Sweden ESG Award are:
- 2022 – ChemSec – the International Chemical Secretariat
- 2021 – Anthropocene Fixed Income Institute and Ulf Erlandsson
- 2018 – Norrsken Foundation
- 2017 – Corporate Human Rights Benchmark (CHRB)
- 2016 – Örebro Kommun and Region Västmanland
- 2015 – Steven Smit, Morningstar.
- 2014 – Mats Andersson AP4, Liza Jonson Storebrand AM and G. Hahn S. Kyrkan.
- 2013 – Hennes & Mauritz AB.
- 2012 – Peter Norman, Finansdepartementet.
- 2011 – Gunilla Hjalmarsson, Meta AM. and Anna Nilsson, Swedbank Robur.
- 2010 – Sasja Beslik, Nordea Investment Management.
Contact for inquiries:
President: Fredrik Nilsson, CFA
Vice President: David Krook, CFA
CFA Society Sweden info@cfasweden.se
About CFA Society Sweden:
CFA Society Sweden is a not-for-profit organisation of investment professionals based in Sweden, founded in 2003. It aims to promote a high level of professionalism among its members and the broader investment community. The organisation has 165 members who are CFA Charterholders. www.cfasociety.org/sweden
About CFA Charterholders:
A CFA Charterholder is a person who successfully completed the CFA program, which is considered amongst the most challenging financial exams in the world. There are currently over 150,000 CFA Charterholders worldwide. The CFA program is administered by the CFA Institute. www.cfainstitute.org/programs/cfa
About CFA Society Sweden ́s ESG Committee:
The CFA Society Sweden’s ESG Committee is composed of John Howchin and Henrik Malmsten. Howchin is the former Secretary-General of Council on Ethics for the First, Second, Third and Fourth Swedish national pension funds. Currently, he oversees sector strategy for the work on the Transition Decade project with the focus on the hard to abate sectors, at IIGCC and for the Climate Action100+ project, among many other engagements. Malmsten is the founder of Durable Vision Invest. An experienced portfolio manager and entrepreneur, he has a history of working in the environment industry.
The Swedish EU Presidency – Sweden’s Focus on Green Transition and What This Means for Swedish Companies and Investors
Sweden recently took over the Presidency of the Council of the EU at a time when EU legislators face numerous issues, such as the economic consequences of the conflict in Ukraine, the recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic, and the legislative progress towards the EU green transition. One of the main priorities of the Swedish Presidency, which began on 1 January 2023, is to tackle high and volatile energy prices while continuing to work towards the green transition and further implement the agenda on the European Green Deal.
The webinar on the Swedish Presidency of the Council of the European Commission was held on 23 March. This virtual event, jointly hosted by CFA Society Sweden and CFA Institute gathered EU and Swedish regulators, and industry representatives to dive deeply into the most urgent questions faced by the Swedish Presidency.
Panellists Johanna Fager Wettergren, Head of Sustainable Finance at Finansinspektionen; Ulf Erlandsson, Founder & CEO of Anthropocene Fixed Income Institute; Svante Forsberg, Director at Styrelseakademien; Jonas Thulin, Head of Asset Management at Erik Penser Bank; Anna Viefhues, ESG Manager at SSAB explored the emerging questions for Swedish companies and investors.
Research Challenge 2023
CFA Society Sweden is pleased to announce that Linköping University team 2 has won the Swedish CFA Research Challenge 2023. The winning team members, including Erik Brandt, Jakob Engvall, Johan Rosberg, Mattis Utterberg and Simon Poschén, have delivered a written buy recommendation on Saab AB and presented it to a panel of distinguished graders and judges from the investment community. The winning team was mentored by Mark Shay (Accendo Capital) and had guidance from their faculty advisor Rickard Wilhelmsson, Senior Lecturer in Finance.
This year’s CFA Research Challenge was hosted by David Krook, CFA, Vice-President of CFA Society Sweden. “I was truly impressed by the quality of the analysis presented by the four teams and by the different investment cases they built for Saab. On behalf of the Board of CFA Society Sweden, I sincerely congratulate the winners and wish them good luck for the next step in this worldwide competition. Well done also to the other teams! By showcasing your hard work and putting your analytical skills at the service of this tough competition, you have proven that you have what it takes for an aspiring financial analyst career.”
The Board of CFA Society Sweden would like to thank all the volunteers and sponsors that made this year’s competition a great success:
- Mentors: Alexandra Voss, Catarina Ihre, and Mark Shay.
- Graders: Mats Waldemarsson, Stefan Ericsson and Sven Zetterqvist.
- Judges: Andreas Brock, Simone Hirschvogl and Fredrik Ahlin.
- Sponsors: Handelsbanken Capital Markets, Refinitiv and Saab.
Finally, we would like to thank all the students that took part in this competition. The following Swedish universities were represented in the CFA Institute Research Challenge:
- Gothenburg School of Economics
- Linköping University
- University West
About the CFA Institute Research Challenge
The CFA Institute Research Challenge is an annual global competition that provides university students with hands-on mentoring and intensive training in financial analysis and professional ethics. The students are tested on their analytic, valuation, report writing, and presentation skills. They gain real-world experience as they assume the role of a research analyst. www.cfainstitute.org/researchchallenge .
Anthropocene Fixed Income Institute wins this year’s prestigious CFA Sweden ESG Award
Stockholm, May 30, 2022
Every year CFA Society Sweden, through the “CFA Sweden ESG Award,” recognizes an individual, organization or group that has raised awareness of the importance of ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) considerations in the investment process. The CFA Sweden ESG Award was presented to Anthropocene Fixed Income Institute (AFII) and Ulf Erlandsson at the Society’s Annual Forecast Dinner on May 24 in Stockholm.
“Despite the enormous increase in focus on ESG-issues within the financial industry for the past few years, fixed income has remained slightly in the shadows. The Anthropocene Fixed Income Institute and Ulf Erlandsson have done a tremendous job of both shining a light on inconsistencies of fixed income market players and widening the debate on sustainable bonds. This reinforces the public trend of “follow the money” into banks, trading desks and their responsibilities and will be very important in the years to come when all commitments to Net Zero will be scrutinized,” says John Howchin, Co-Chair of CFA Society Sweden’s ESG Committee. “The Anthropocene Fixed Income institute and I, personally, are honoured by this award and very grateful to the CFA Institute Sweden for highlighting, through this award, the absolutely crucial climate change mitigation capital reallocations that need to happen in fixed income,” says Ulf Erlandsson.
Launched in July 2020, AFII is a non-profit thinktank and research institute taking a markets-based approach to positive climate impact in the fixed income markets. The image of green sprouts growing out of a trading terminal encapsulates AFII’s basic philosophy: it’s through the buy and sell decisions by bond portfolio managers and traders out there that we can change the cost-of-capital in favor of a sustainable future. It’s a gritty, technical, and quantitative effort, an everyday struggle for alpha. Yet fixed income can be extremely powerful when you direct it for a sustainable purpose. AFII founder and Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Ulf Erlandsson, has a professional background as a credit portfolio manager at the Fourth Swedish State Pension Fund (AP4) and as a quant strategist at Barclays Capital. He was one of the pioneers in the green bond market as well as in high-frequency credit derivative trading and has written extensively on credit trading, climate impact in fixed income and the combination thereof over the past 15 years. Erlandsson earned his Ph.D. in Economics from Lund University.
Previous recipients of the CFA Sweden ESG Award are:
- 2021 – Anthropocene Fixed Income Institute and Ulf Erlandsson
- 2018 – Norrsken Foundation
- 2017 – Corporate Human Rights Benchmark (CHRB)
- 2016 – Örebro Kommun and Region Västmanland
- 2015 – Steven Smit, Morningstar.
- 2014 – Mats Andersson AP4, Liza Jonson Storebrand AM and G. Hahn S. Kyrkan.
- 2013 – Hennes & Mauritz AB.
- 2012 – Peter Norman, Finansdepartementet.
- 2011 – Gunilla Hjalmarsson, Meta AM. and Anna Nilsson, Swedbank Robur.
- 2010 – Sasja Beslik, Nordea Investment Management.
Contact for inquiries:
President: Fredrik Nilsson, CFA
Vice President: Alexander Öhrn, CFA.
CFA Society Sweden: info@cfasweden.se
About CFA Society Sweden:
CFA Society Sweden is a not-for-profit organisation of investment professionals based in Sweden, founded in 2003. It aims to promote a high level of professionalism among its members and the broader investment community. The organisation has 165 members who are CFA Charterholders.
About CFA Charterholders:
A CFA Charterholder is a person who successfully completed the CFA program which is considered amongst the most challenging financial exams in the world. There are currently over 150,000 CFA Charterholders worldwide. The CFA program is administered by the CFA Institute. www.cfainstitute.org/programs/cfa
About CFA Society Sweden’s ESG Committee:
The CFA Society Sweden’s ESG Committee is composed of John Howchin and Henrik Malmsten. Howchin is the former Secretary-General of Council on Ethics for the First, Second, Third and Fourth Swedish national pension funds. Currently, he oversees sector strategy for the work on the Transition Decade project with the focus on the hard to abate sectors, at IIGCC and for the Climate Action100+ project, among many other engagements. Malmsten is the founder of Durable Vision Invest. An experienced portfolio manager and entrepreneur, he has a history of working in the environment industry.
Research Challenge 2022
Thursday the 23 February, the CFA Society Sweden was proud to host the 2022 edition of the CFA Institute Research Challenge final, in person, at Handelsbanken’s headquarters in Stockholm. After five month of intense work, two teams from Linköping University and one team from University West presented their recommendation and target price on Clas Ohlson AB at the Swedish final.
This year’s judges, Andreas Brock (Coeli), Fredrik Ahlin (If) and Erik Karlsson (Cape View Capital) were impressed by the teams BUY recommendation, supported by an high quality presentation, which showed an in-depth analysis of the company’s fundamentals, financials and ESG factors. The team’s written report also convinced the graders, Mats Waldemarsson (Swedbank), Stefan Ericson (Pareto Asset Management) and Sven Zetterqvist (Stena).
Linköping University’s team 2 was composed of Patrik Egléus, Linus Alentun, Leon Schroeder, Louice Karlsson and Simon Elfstrand. The team was mentored by Mark Shay (Accendo Capital) and had guidance from their faculty advisor Öystein Fredriksen, Senior Lecturer.
The Board of CFA Sweden would like to thank all the volunteers that made this year’s challenge a great success: mentors, graders and judges. A big thank you goes out to the challenge sponsors; Handelsbanken, Refinitiv and Clas Ohlson.
Linköping University may now participate in the EMEA semi-finals on April 7. This may lead them to the EMEA final on April 28 and, ultimately, to the Global final which will air on May 17 during the CFA Institute’s Alpha Summit GLOBAL.
Participating teams came from Linköping University and University West.
About Research Challenge:
The CFA Institute Research Challenge offers students the unique opportunity to learn from leading industry experts and compete with peers from the world’s top finance and business programs. This annual educational initiative promotes best practices in equity research among the next generation of analysts through hands-on mentoring and intensive training in company analysis and presentation skills. The challenge gathers students, investment professionals, publicly traded companies and corporate sponsors together locally for a real world competition on a global scale.
CFA Society Sweden – Virtual Research Challenge 2021
CFA Society Sweden is pleased to announce that Linköping university has won the Swedish CFA Research Challenge 2021. The winning team members, including Ludwig Andersson, Felix Gratte, Paulina Hansson, Fredrik Svensson and William Stignäs, have delivered a written buy recommendation on Skanska AB and presented it to a panel of distinguished graders and judges from the investment community. The winning team was mentored by Catarina Ihre, financial consultant, and had guidance from their faculty advisor Öystein Fredriksen, Assistant Professor Linköping University.
This year’s CFA Research Challenge was hosted by Karin Larsson, Board Member of CFA Society Sweden. “It is inspiring to host the CFA Research Challenge, in which the most promising rising stars within equity research take part. It takes time, commitment and collaboration to end up in the final, and all teams have proven that they got the qualities needed to be successful equity analysts. Well done to all students and big congratulations to the winning team!”
The Board of CFA Society Sweden would like to thank all the volunteers and sponsors that made this year’s competition a great success:
- Mentors: John Afzelius (CFO at Nelly.com), Catarina Ihre (Financial consultant), Marcela Klang (Deputy Head of Equity Research at Handelsbanken Capital Markets), Alf Riple (Chief Analyst at Västra Hamnen Corporate Finance), Mark Shay (Senior Partner at Accendo Capital) and Alexandra Voss (Director, Investment Strategy at IPM).
- Graders: Carl Bertilsson (Portfolio Manager at Didner & Gerge), Stefan Ericsson (Pareto AM) and Mats Waldemarsson (Investment Strategist at Swedbank).
- Judges: Fredrik Ahlin (Senior Investment Manager at If P&C Insurance), Andreas Brock (Portfolio Manager at Coeli Global), Thomas Brodin (Partner, Investment Manager at Cliens Kapitalförvaltning) and Erik Karlsson (Investment professional at CapeView Capital).
- Sponsors: Handelsbanken Capital Markets, Refinitiv and KaplanSchweser.
- Skanska AB: André Löfgren, Senior Vice President Investor Relations and Annika Winlund, Investor Relations Officer.
Finally, we would like to thank all the students and faculty advisors. The following Swedish universities were represented in the CFA Institute Research Challenge:
- KTH Royal Institute of Technology
- Linköping University
- University West
- Mälardalen University
- Lund University
About Research Challenge:The CFA Institute RESEARCH CHALLENGE offers students the unique opportunity to learn from leading industry experts and compete with peers from the world’s top finance and business programs. This annual educational initiative promotes best practices in equity research among the next generation of analysts through hands-on mentoring and intensive training in company analysis and presentation skills. The challenge gathers students, investment professionals, publicly traded companies and corporate sponsors together locally for a real world competition on a global scale.
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Norrsken Foundation wins 2018’s prestigious CFA Sweden ESG Award
Every year CFA Society Sweden, through the ”CFA Sweden ESG Award,” recognizes an individual, organization or group that has raised awareness of the importance of ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) considerations in the investment process. Tonight, the CFA Sweden ESG Award will be presented to Norrsken Foundation at the Society’s Annual Forecast Dinner.
“This year’s award will be given to an organization which leads the way and thinks big. Norrsken’s investments show how businesses can combine financial returns with positive impacts on society within wide areas such as for instance: food waste, the sharing economy, education, e-health, and sustainable agriculture” announces Henrik Malmsten, Chairman of CFA Society Sweden’s ESG Committee.
Norrsken was founded by Niklas Adalberth in 2016 and has since created a portfolio consisting of start-up companies with three investment criteria:
- First is the expected impact, i.e. the positive effect of the business on people or our planet
- The second criterion is the expected scalability, i.e. the solution should be rapidly scalable and generate a big impact within a short time period.
- The third criterion is the financial robustness of the business model.
Apart from investing in businesses with potential to radically improve world sustainability, Norrsken Foundation also runs ”Norrsken House” which is a creative cluster for over 350 entrepreneurs who want to improve the world by solving society’s biggest challenges.
Contact for inquiries: Magnus Kovacec, CFA, Executive Director of CFA Society Sweden info@cfasweden.se Tel.: +46 (0)76 426 4980
Press statement issued 2019-03-07
CFA Society Sweden is a not-for-profit organisation of investment professionals based in Sweden, founded in 2003. It aims to promote a high level of professionalism among its members and the broader investment community. The organisation has 165 members who are CFA Charterholders. www.cfasociety.org/sweden
CFA Charterholder is a person who successfully completed the CFA program which is considered amongst the most challenging financial exams in the world. There are currently over 150,000 CFA Charterholders worldwide. The CFA program is administered by the CFA Institute. www.cfainstitute.org/programs/cfa
Picture courtesy of Norrsken House
Research Challenge 2019
After five months of research on this year’s subject company Axfood. Thursday the 21st of February saw the three finalist teams; Linköping University, Lund University and Jönköping University, in the 2019 Swedish IRC final present their recommendation and target price on Axfood.
Linköping University’s written report impressed the graders. The judges, Thomas Brodin (Cliens), Fredrik Ahlin (If), Nicklas Skogman (Handelsbanken Capital Markets) and Andreas Brock (Coeli) were equally convinced by the team’s SELL recommendation. The team gave a very professional presentation supported by robust financial analysis and conclusions.
Linköping University was represented by Erik Almgren, Eric Olsson, Carl Gustafson, Karim Sabbagh and Fredrik Kronström. The team was mentored by Mark Shay (Accendo Capital) and had guidance from their faculty advisor Öystein Fredriksen, Senior Lecturer.
The Board of CFA Sweden would like to thank all the volunteers that made this year’s challenge a great success: mentors, graders, judges, Cecilia Ketels at Axfood. A big thank you goes out to the challenge sponsors; Handelsbanken, FactSet and Kaplan Schweser.
Linköping University will participate in the EMEA regional final in Zürich on April 10-11 and possibly also in the global final in New York on April 25.
Participating teams came from:
- Linköping University
- Lund University
- Jönköping University
- Mälardalen University
- University West
About Research Challenge:
The CFA Institute RESEARCH CHALLENGE offers students the unique opportunity to learn from leading industry experts and compete with peers from the world’s top finance and business programs. This annual educational initiative promotes best practices in equity research among the next generation of analysts through hands-on mentoring and intensive training in company analysis and presentation skills. The challenge gathers students, investment professionals, publicly traded companies and corporate sponsors together locally for a real world competition on a global scale.
CFA Sweden ESG Award 2017
The ESG Committee of CFA Society Sweden has decided to present the Corporate Human Rights Benchmark (CHRB) with the CFA Sweden ESG Award for 2017.
Human Rights is a challenging and sometimes complex topic for business, investors and governments. With the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights setting a de-facto standard on the responsibilities for business, investors and governments the need for transparent tools to both clarify expectations but also to quantify to the extent it is possible the efforts of companies in this area is much needed.
With the Corporate Human Rights Benchmark (CHRB), a consortium of Aviva, APG, Business & Human Rights, EIRIS, IHRB, VBDO and Nordea are addressing this issue in a very ambitious manner and taking the topic to the financial markets through transparency, accessibility and a form of standardization previously missed.
The Corporate Human Rights Benchmark (CHRB) aims to measure the human rights performance of the world’s 500 largest publicly listed companies. “CHRB provides a comparative snapshot from year to year of the largest companies on the planet, looking at the policies, processes and practices they have in order to systematize their work on human rights and how they respond to serious allegations of human rights violations. CHRB is publicly available to all stakeholders at no cost. “
The award was accepted by Magdalena Kettis PhD, Head of Thematic Engagement, Group Sustainable Finance, Nordea and CHRB Advisory Council Member.
CFA Society Sweden would like to thank the members of the ESG-jury for their commitment: Henrik Malmsten (CEO, Durable Vision Invest) Jenny Askfelt Ruud, (CEO, Enwise) and John Howchin (Secretary-General, Council on Ethics of the Swedish National Pension Funds).
ESG (environmental, social and governance) refers to the three main areas of concern that have developed as central factors in measuring the sustainability and ethical impact of investments. ESG represents concepts and approaches that influences and governs how asset managers construct portfolios and evaluate investments, examples including as examples carbon footprints, board independence and different codes of conduct.