The Carnegie Story 

The History of Carnegie began when the Scottish noble George Carnegie was forced to flee from Scotland after the English had won the battle at Culloden Moor in 1746.

After having hid in the Scottish highlands he succeeded in escaping to Gothenburg (Sweden) where he founded a widespread trading business in 1758 and soon thereafter had a small fortune. George Carnegie’s son, David Carnegie, founded D. Carnegie & Co. which rapidly turned into the greatest trading business in Gothenburg, the most important merchandise being sugar and stout.

David Carnegie even created a small society around his company: Housing for his workers, a school, a hospital, public baths and a church. The workers had privileges which at the time were extraordinary, such as free medical attention and medicine, a half day’s salary during illness and in order to “improve health" they received three porters a day!

In the beginning of the 20th century D. Carnegie & Co. was split up. The sugar production was sold to Svenska Sockerfabriks AB and the stout brewery to Pripp & Lyckholm.

In the 1930s the company bought a bank named Langeskiöld. The bank’s name was changed to Carnegie and during the following years the Group developed into a financial business primarily dealing with investments in securities.

In connection with the deregulation of the financial markets in the mid 1980s Carnegie expanded to the Nordic countries, southern Europe, Luxembourg, London and New York.

The company’s present strategy for the Nordic region was determined in 1994 when the English investment bank Singer & Friedlander bought 55% and the Carnegie employees the remaining 45% of the shares in the company from the former owner, Nordbanken. The activities in southern Europe were sold out and focus was directed at becoming the leading investment bank in Scandinavia.

After growing substantially throughout the 1990s Carnegie was listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange in the spring of 2001 under the name of D. Carnegie & Co. AB.

In the aftermath of the financial crisis in 2008, Carnegie Investment Bank AB reported large provisions related to credit engagements. Furthermore Carnegie Investment Bank AB received sanctions from a ruling by the Swedish FSA. The Swedish National Debt Office therefore took over ownership of Carnegie Investment Bank AB.

In February 2009 the private equity company Altor and the investment company Bure acquired Carnegie Investment Bank AB from the Swedish National Debt Office.

At the end of 2009 Carnegie Asset Management was separated from Carnegie Investment Bank AB. Carnegie Asset Management is now fully owned by Altor Fund III (65%) and Bure Equities AB (35%).