Interim Report January - September 2005

Important events in the third quarter

• Shares were acquired in Electrolux for SEK 909 m.
• On August 25, the mobile broadband operator 3 Scandinavia reported that it had 417,000 subscribers in Sweden and Denmark, a slight increase since March. The company reported comparatively high average revenue per user (ARPU) of SEK 396.

Financial information

• The net asset value amounted to SEK 123,927 m. (SEK 162 per share) on September 30, 2005, compared with SEK 92,915 m. (SEK 121 per share) at year-end 2004.
• Consolidated net income (in accordance with IFRS) totaled SEK 32,722 m. in the first nine months of 2005 (SEK 42.63 per share), as against SEK 10,413 m. for the corresponding period of 2004 (SEK 13.56 per share).
• Core holdings had an impact of SEK 28,292 m. on net income for the period (11,197). All core holdings had a positive effect. AstraZeneca, Ericsson and Atlas Copco had the biggest impact: SEK 7,234 m., SEK 5,678 m. and SEK 5,646 m., respectively.
• New investments had a positive effect of SEK 4,432 m. on net income in the first nine months of 2005 (34).