Tillväxtbolaget enables investments and ownership transitions worth billions for the Swedish agriculture

Given the challenges of recent years, the conditions for investments in agricultural companies have become significantly more difficult. But Tillväxtbolaget, in which Lantmännen is a part-owner, is now presenting figures for 2023 that show a brighter picture – through Tillväxtbolaget’s top loans, 82 agricultural companies have been granted investments of SEK 2.2 billion and the age of the recipients breaks the general trend.

16 February 2024, Sweden: Volatile prices for input goods, rising interest rates for companies with a lot of tied-up capital, component shortages and last year, unfavorable weather with a weak harvest outcome as a result. In a short period of time, the investment climate for agricultural companies has become tougher. But even when looking long-term, there are trends such as arable land decreasing by one (1) hectare per hour since 2010 and that ownership transitions are becoming increasingly difficult to achieve as agricultural companies grow in size.

“In recent years, this development has made it difficult for many agricultural companies to obtain investment loans for several reasons. For instance, there is a general shortage of agricultural expertise in banks and advisory services, investment costs versus returns, especially in a high interest rate environment, a volatile market and lack of a long-term political framework,” says Ulf Möller, Senior Account Manager and Head of Credit, Tillväxtbolaget.

“It’s an exciting time to work with these issues. On the one hand, one gets perplexed by the scope of the challenges that individual entrepreneurs are facing, and on the other hand, it is fantastic to be part of the solution and enable investments on this scale,” says Helena Silvander, CEO of Tillväxtbolaget.

Tillväxtbolaget attracts many younger farmers and thus, breaks the negative trend of diffult ownership transitions, which has long been a problem for Swedish agriculture. 

“It is gratifying that we can grant loans to younger owners, but we are far from finished with that work and in order to future-proof such an important industry, we need to inject more venture capital. The gratifying thing about this process is that we can show that our model works and that it has so many upsides to it,” concludes Helena Silvander.

Tillväxtbolagets loans has led to underlying investments of SEK 2.2 billion. These investments go mainly to productivity initiatives but also to areas such as local energy production. Together, these have also created more than 400 jobs across the country.

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