Fifth First Republic shareholder liquidates its stake

(ANSA) - MILAN, MARCH 21 - Alecta, Sweden's largest pension fund, sold its entire stake in FirstRepublic Bank on March 15, recording a loss of 7.5 billion Swedish kronor, equal to about 680 million euros.

"The uncertainty about the bank's future was too great, partly due to the institution's rating being cut to junk," CEO Magnus Billing told Bloomberg.

Alecta, which began buying shares in First Republic in 2019, was the bank's fifth-largest shareholder.

The pension fund, which manages the savings of 2.6 million Swedes, was already on the grill after losing $1.1 billion on investments in SVB and Signature.

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