This analysis was first published in SvD Näringsliv, in Swedish, on March 16th, 2026. This piece was translated from Swedish by Claude. Some phrasing may differ from a human translation.

Kinnevik’s CEO is dismissed on the spot, a short-seller report sends the share price tumbling — and a newly installed board member is to conduct an “impartial evaluation” of the business. The crisis at the venerable investment company continues. But why did it become acute over the weekend?

There are really only three ways to leave as CEO of a major listed company. You get a new job, you retire — or you get fired.

That is why Kinnevik’s plan in November 2025 seemed very strange. Georgi Ganev, who had been CEO of Kinnevik for eight years, was to resign. But at the same time he was to remain in post until a new CEO was appointed.

That interim period came to a definitive end over the weekend. Ganev left with immediate effect. After Kinnevik’s dismal performance over many years, no one is surprised — except perhaps by the timing. What was it that meant the plan presented four months ago suddenly had to be redrawn?

The press release Kinnevik issued on Sunday states that a newly appointed board member, Rubin Ritter, is taking over as acting CEO. He is to conduct a “thorough and impartial evaluation of our team, our culture, our ways of working and our portfolio, as well as implementing changes where necessary so that my permanent successor can get started immediately.”

Of course that is not how it will turn out — unless Rubin himself takes over as permanent CEO.

Running an investment company is not an administrative role. The job consists of setting a strategy, building a team, and making good investments. The idea that a new CEO would walk in to a fully laid table and simply do what Rubin has decided is therefore not particularly plausible. A CEO will demand to put their own stamp on the company. Shareholders should reasonably agree with this.

The talk of an “impartial evaluation” therefore smells of something else. What is it that requires evaluation?

The short-seller firm Ningi Research has a list of their own suggestions as to what it might involve. When they presented their critical view of the company last week, the already depressed share price fell 17 percent. Ningi Research pointed to, among other things, favourable transactions conducted with parties they considered to be related. Kinnevik denied the claims.

It is not in itself unusual for activists like Ningi Research to swing with a sledgehammer to achieve an effect. But that the effect would be so powerful was likely a surprise even to them. The majority of what Ningi Research wrote was already known from before. One might consider the content remarkable — but it was not new.

The share price reaction — minus 17 percent in a single day — therefore says something much bigger than a short-seller report containing old news. It says that confidence in Kinnevik’s business is at rock bottom. If it takes no more than a couple of paragraphs to erase a fifth of one of Sweden’s most venerable investment companies, that is a crisis. A major crisis.

That is why Georgi Ganev is leaving. But the above is something many people — including myself — have written several times before. It was true in November when Kinnevik announced his departure, it is true now — and it was true long before Cristina Stenbeck decided to take back the reins and make changes. Why did it suddenly become acute?

One might have expected an explanation for this from Ganev himself. No such explanation was forthcoming, however, as he made no statement in the weekend’s press release.

Finding a new CEO is now priority one, two, and three for Kinnevik’s board. And it is urgent. Having an experienced business leader like Rubin Ritter take over is a stable temporary solution. For many years he ran one of Kinnevik’s most recently successful holdings, the e-commerce company Zalando. The relationship and trust with Stenbeck have been built since then.

Being CEO of an investment company is, however, something entirely different from running a fast-growing e-commerce company — even an exceptional one like Zalando.

And above all — being CEO of Kinnevik specifically is something else entirely.

There is a heritage, a culture, and an anchoring among shareholders on the Stockholm Stock Exchange that places the company under a spotlight that its competitors do not receive. Despite those competitors often having performed substantially better than Kinnevik over many years.

From the outside, it looks as though Rubin is to ensure that the short-sellers are not right. And to clear out any irregularities. But the most important question cannot be answered until the next permanent CEO is in place: what does Kinnevik want to be?

Until the board, management, and shareholders understand and accept that answer, the crisis risks only deepening.