The assets under management for both Handelsbanken and Skandia, the Swedish financial services providers, were up for the full year 2001, despite poor market conditions.

Handelsbanken Kapitalförvaltning's assets under management increased to Skr236bn (€25.6bn) from Skr146bn, but profits where down to Skr550m from Skr646m, or 15%, because of the weak markets. The purchase of the life and fund business of SPP, now named Alecta, in 2000 increased its assets under management by Skr83bn. Profits for the group in total were slightly down from Skr11.3bn to Skr11.2bn.