This audio is automatically generated. Please let us know if you have any comments.
Magnus Persson, CFO of Skanska, will resign from its position, the Swedish-based builder and developer announced on April 11.
Magnus Persson
Permission granted by Skanska
An 18-year veteran of the company and a member of the management team since 2018, Persson will continue in his role until the company has selected a successor.
He will join Evroc, a company that is building what it says will be Europe’s first secure, sovereign and sustainable hyperscale cloud. There, Persson will lead the financial operations while Evroc wants to operate 10 hyperscale data centers by 2030according to a press release.
“I am incredibly grateful but also proud of what we have achieved together,” Persson said in a statement. “Skanska is about people and I am very grateful for the colleagues I have had the privilege to work with and know.”
The move was the second high-profile departure of a chief financial officer from a major public construction company in as many weeks. Dallas-based Jacobs Solutions announced on April 1 CFO Claudia Jaramillo was leaving after only eight months on the job.
In Skanska’s statement, the company’s president and CEO Anders Danielsson thanked Persson for his contributions to the company.
“He has played a central role in the development and implementation of the strategy we put in place in 2018 to increase profitability in all areas of the business. His deep knowledge of the financial markets, leadership skills and drive, has added great value to the company. I wish him all the best in the future,” said Danielsson.
Recent financial results
In Skanska’s latest earnings report the contractor reported fourth-quarter profits of SEK 957 million ($91.5 million) and SEK 3.2 billion for the full year 2023. Although in the black, this represented year-on-year declines of 74% and 65%, respectively, for the quarter and the full year.
The company largely attributed the decline to a poor commercial leasing market in the US, although civil and commercial construction strengthened the company’s balance sheet.
In January, Skanska assumed impairment charges worth 2 billion kroner in its commercial real estate development, residential development and investment properties.
Low office return rates since the COVID-19 pandemic have really hurt the office leasing market, Persson said at the time. This effect will also last.
“I don’t think we will return to the same market we had, for example, three or five years ago in one or two years. I think that would be too optimistic. It might take some time,” Persson told Construction Dive after Skanska reported fourth-quarter earnings.
High property values mean Skanska faces an uphill battle to find the right tenant. However, in January, Skanska signed the largest lease in company history to an undisclosed tenant.
