Maths-Olov Sundqvist (October 23, 1950 - September 23, 2012) was a Swedish

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values th ...

and

business magnate A business magnate, also known as a tycoon, is a person who has achieved immense wealth through the ownership of multiple lines of enterprise. The term characteristically refers to a powerful entrepreneur or investor who controls, through perso ...

. Sundqvist was one of Sweden's wealthiest individuals, but in the wake of the financial crises of 2008, he was forced to sell most of his possessions at huge losses.Maths O. Sundqvist död
Dagens Nyheter, September 23, 2012

Life and career

Sundqvist was born in 1950 in

Offerdal Offerdal is a parish (so called ''socken'') and former municipality (pop. 2,100) in Krokom Municipality, Jämtland in the middle of Sweden. The seat of the former municipality Offerdal, Änge, is situated 50 kilometres northwest of Östersund, th ...

Krokom Krokom (from Old Norse ''krókar'', dat. ''krókum'', 'bends Indalsälven.html"_;"title="f_the_Indalsälven">f_the_Indalsälven_river)_is_a_Urban_areas_in_Sweden.html" "title="Indalsälven_river.html" ;"title="Indalsälven.html" ;"title="f the I ...

municipality in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

.Sveriges befolkning 1990. Sundqvist, Maths O. He began his business career by developing his father's bus company and finally selling it in 1979 to the municipality of

Östersund Östersund (; sma, Staare) is an urban area (city) in Jämtland in the middle of Sweden. It is the seat of Östersund Municipality and the capital of Jämtland County. Östersund is located at the shores of Sweden's fifth-largest lake, Storsjön, ...

for 8.7 million

Swedish kronor The krona (; plural: ''kronor''; sign: kr; code: SEK) is the official currency of the Kingdom of Sweden. Both the ISO code "SEK" and currency sign "kr" are in common use; the former precedes or follows the value, the latter usually follows it b ...

.LT:s räddare död
, Resume, September 24, 2012. He used the proceeds to found his personal investment company ''Skrindan'', which grew aggressively to become a big player in real estate. In 1992, he rescued the local newspaper ''Länstidningen'' in

as it fell into financial difficulties. In 2002 he controlled a majority stake at the ''Länstidningen'', as well as several other local companies. Sundqvist was ranked in 2007 by the Swedish business magazine the ''

Affärsvärlden ''Affärsvärlden'' (Swedish for "Business world") is a Swedish language weekly business magazine published in Stockholm, Sweden. History and profile ''Affärsvärlden'' was founded in January 1901. Its former publisher was Ekonomi och Teknik F� ...

'' as one of Sweden's wealthiest individuals after his acquisition of large blocks of shares in a number of Swedish corporations such as

Hexagon In geometry, a hexagon (from Ancient Greek, Greek , , meaning "six", and , , meaning "corner, angle") is a six-sided polygon. The total of the internal angles of any simple polygon, simple (non-self-intersecting) hexagon is 720°. Regular hexa ...

, Fabege, Industrivärden and

SCA SCA may refer to: Biology and health * Sickle cell disease, also known as sickle cell anaemia * Spinocerebellar ataxia, a neurological condition * Statistical coupling analysis, a method to identify covarying pairs of amino acids in protein mult ...

. In 2008, his total portfolio was worth 10.4 billion Swedish kronor, and his portfolio of real estate was worth 7-8 billion Swedish kronor.Maths O. Sundqvist hittad död
Aftonbladet, September 23, 2012. Due to declining stock prices during the 2008 financial crisis, Sundqvist was forced to sell large blocks of shares to refinance loans. Sundqvist had more than a billion in debts at the

Carnegie Investment Bank Carnegie Investment Bank AB is a Swedish financial services group with activities in securities brokerage, investment banking and private banking. Founded in 1803, Carnegie is headquartered in Stockholm with offices across the Nordic region, as ...

, and was a contributing factor that the bank lost its banking license and was taken over by the

Swedish National Debt Office The Swedish National Debt Office ( sv, Riksgäldskontoret or shortly ''Riksgälden'') was founded by Gustav III at the Riksdag of the Estates in 1789, through the Act of union and security. It is a Swedish Government agency. The first task of the ...

. As Sundqvist was forced to sell most of his shares, he suffered huge losses.

Death

Sundqvist died in 2012. He was found dead next to his

all-terrain vehicle An all-terrain vehicle (ATV), also known as a light utility vehicle (LUV), a quad bike, or simply a quad, as defined by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI); is a vehicle that travels on low-pressure tires, with a seat that is stra ...

near his residence in

Häggenås Häggenås is a locality situated in Östersund Municipality, Jämtland County Jämtland County ( sv, Jämtlands län, ) is a county or ''län'' in the middle of Sweden consisting of the provinces of Jämtland and Härjedalen, along with mino ...

, north of

. He was 61.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sundqvist, Mats O. 1950 births 2012 deaths People from Jämtland Swedish businesspeople