Frida Olsson is a senior portfolio manager at Sweden’s fourth national buffer pension fund, Fjärde AP-fonden (AP4). With a focus on unlisted real estate investment within the scheme’s Alternative Investments unit, she enjoys great trust and respect within AP4 and has significant responsibility for its long-term success. Her major contributions to a major and complex restructuring project of one of AP4’s unlisted real estate investments during 2023, her work with corporate dialogue to develop the unlisted real estate portfolio’s carbon reporting and the companies’ climate goals, as well as her new role as a board member in Rikshem, one of Sweden’s ten largest unlisted real estate companies, are key to her nomination of this new award.

The restructuring project involved a real estate company that AP4 originally invested in in 2016. It grew quickly and is very well-managed. But when market conditions were not deemed optimal for an exit strategy, its owners decided to continue owning and developing the company as an unlisted entity. However, this required significant and complex changes to its structure, including at both board and operational management levels, buying out some of its founders and reviewing share ownership among the remaining investors. With the restructuring complete, the company now has the conditions to further evolve along its optimal path and thus contribute to AP4’s and other stakeholders’ long-term returns. Its exit conditions have also improved, such that an IPO or sale would be possible when considered appropriate. Olsson represents AP4 on its board.

AP4 started its own collection of carbon data for the unlisted real estate portfolio in 2019. Since then, Olsson has been responsible for dialogue with the companies on their respective climate strategies and risks and their work to further reduce their CO2 emissions. These dialogues take place every year to two years contributing to transparency and the development of market practices. Since 2019, the property portfolio’s carbon emissions have more than halved. Today, all the unlisted real estate companies aim to be carbon-neutral, with 90% setting 2030 as their goal.

In the past year, Olsson assumed responsibility as AP4’s representative on the board of Rikshem, one of Sweden’s 10 largest unlisted real estate companies focusing on social properties and housing. The company’s property value amounts to more than €5bn and is AP4’s second-largest portfolio holding with a portfolio weight of nearly 3% of total fund capital. This illustrates the company’s importance to AP4 and thus the significance of Olsson’s role on its board.