The day his family almost lost its bank is still fresh in the mind of Jacob Wallenberg, one of the fifth generation of a dynasty that controls almost a third of the value of companies on the Swedish stock-market. It was in1993, in the depths of Sweden's banking crisis, and accountants were totting up the results for Skandinaviska En-skilda Banken (seb), upon which the Wallenbergs' business empire had been built a century and a half earlier. The bank's capital ratio was being steadily depleted by a torrent of bad debts. If it fell below 8%, the bank would probably be nationalised. When the final tally came, the figure was 8.04%. "There was a deep sigh of relief," Mr Wallenberg recounts.
展开▼
