200 years of Carnegie

1803 The Carnegie trademark is one of the oldest in Sweden and has covered a wide variety of activities over the past 200 years, from import and export of iron and timber to production of sugar and porter, real estate administration, and trading in food commodities and securities. Carnegie was founded on 4 May 1803, when the Scotsman David Carnegie established the trading house D. Carnegie & Co AB in Gothenburg.

1836 David Carnegie Jr, the 23-year-old nephew of the founder, bought the Lorent
sugar refinery and porter brewery at Klippan. They were Gothenburg’s largest industries at the time.

1845 David Carnegie Jr returned to Scotland and employed Oscar Ekman to manage the business. When David Carnegie died in 1890, Oscar Ekman inherited a substantial number of shares in the companies.

1907 Responsibility for the business was taken over by Oscar Ekman’s son-in-law, Karl Langenskiöld. The sugar operations were divested and became part of Svenska Sockerbolaget AB.

1932 In the wake of the Kreuger crash, Karl Langenskiöld’s son, Carl Gustaf, founded an investment bank, Bankirfirman Langenskiöld. At the time, the porter brewery was sold. The remaining operation, Fastighetsbolaget D. Carnegie & Co, had an equity portfolio and operations in real estate and the packaging industry. Later on, the company sold all its direct holdings, and changed its name to Investment AB D. Carnegie & Co, with the investment bank Bankirfirman Langenskiöld as its subsidiary.

1955 Carl Langenskiöld succeeded his father as head of the investment bank

1968 Carl Langenskiöld recruited Erik Penser and Thomas Fischer. Turnover was multiplied many times and the investment bank became one of the biggest in the country.

1980 The Langenskiöld investment bank changed name to Carnegie in 1980. Erik Penser had become its principal owner.

In the late 1980s, Carnegie expanded its businesses into Denmark, southern Europe, London and New York.

1988 In 1988, Carnegie was sold to PKbanken (later Nordbanken).

1990 In the early 1990s Carnegie expanded into Finland, Norway and Luxembourg. Later, in the mid-1990s, Carnegie’s board of directors made the strategic decision to narrow the focus to the Nordic region, and between 1996 and 1997 Carnegie disposed of its southern European holdings.

The strategy was to become the leading Nordic investment bank.

1994 The newly formed
company Carnegie Holding – 55 per cent owned by Singer & Friedlander and 45 per cent by Carnegie’s personnel – acquired the operations from Nordbanken (now Nordea).

2001 D. Carnegie & Co AB became the parent company in the Carnegie Group and the shares were listed on the Stockholm stock exchange. Globalization and deregulation had made non-Nordic investors equally important for the business as Nordic investors.

2007 Independent pension advisory company Max Matthiessen was acquired. The year set a record in terms of income for Carnegie, despite the uncertainty in the financial market and despite revalations that the trading portfolio was substantially overvalued. Carnegie was named Best Brokerage House in the Nordic region.

2008 The financial crisis led to Carnegie reporting large writedowns related to uncertain loans, and following an investigation by the regulator, Finansinspektion, the Swedish National Debt Office took over ownership of Carnegie Investment Bank. The company underwent rapid risk reduction and received a large capital injection.

2009. Private equity company Altor Fund III and investment company Bure acquired Carnegie Investment Bank. The ambition is to re-establish Carnegie as the leading independent investment bank in the Nordic region.

2010 Carnegie acquired HQ Bank and HQ Fonder to create the clear Nordic leader in investment banking.