Investor to shut London base

Swedish holding company, Investor AB will close its London office by the end of the year. The office in Mayfair was set up in 1996 when Investor formed Investor UK Limited to manage the firm’s new investments and core holdings in the information technology sector.

The London business was taken over in 1999 by New York-based Investor Growth Capital and the core holdings were transferred to Investor’s headquarters in Stockholm. The London base has since been used as a representative office. There is currently a team of five administration personnel whose future within the business is as yet undetermined.

Managing director, Fredrik Hillelson said of the decision:

“Since we no longer have our business activities in London, we cannot justify the costs of running an office there.” He added that, from a VC perspective, the firm will be using London-based VC players b-business partners as a point of reference for future investments. Investor was part of an illustrious group of corporates who last year provided backing of around o1 billion to b-business partners. The idea for the venture, which is focused on business-to-business investments, originated from Investor, which pledged o300 million to the fund.