Sweden Launches $4 Billion Support Plan to Save Ailing Companies

The Swedish government has announced a 39 billion krona ($4 billion) support package for companies struggling to cope with the Covid-19 pandemic.

“This will make it easier for companies to survive and for people to keep their jobs,” Sweden’s Finance Minister Magdalena Andersson said at a press conference in Stockholm.

To receive aid companies must have lost 30% of their sales in March and April compared to the same period of last year, as well as generate annual turnover of at least 250,000 kronor, according to a statement. Entities resident in tax havens won’t be eligible, and the maximum amount to be paid is 150 million kronor per company.

In recent weeks the Swedish Federation of Business Owners and other lobby groups have called on the government to inject direct revenue support into companies, similar to programs introduced in Norway and Denmark. The continued standstill in the Nordic region’s biggest economy has already led to bankruptcy levels reaching the highest in a decade.

“There have been plenty of distress calls, and companies in tourism, service and other sectors have seen very large and very rapid declines in revenue,” said the Center Party’s Emil Kallstrom. “This measure is the largest we have announced so far to save jobs and companies.”

The plan announced on Thursday brings total pledges by the government to fight the corona crisis to 170 billion kronor, which is more than 3% of the country’s GDP, according to Andersson.

The Social Democrat-led administration expects the package to take effect from July 1.

To contact the reporters on this story:
Rafaela Lindeberg in Stockholm at rlindeberg@bloomberg.net;
Niclas Rolander in Stockholm at nrolander@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Charles Daly at cdaly22@bloomberg.net

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