What does the state own, and what do the companies give back?
Short answer: The state owns 38 limited companies, 33 wholly and 5 in part, and also runs the public enterprise Svenska kraftnät. The companies were worth 890 billion kronor at the end of 2025. That same year they paid about 24 billion kronor in dividends to the state, just under 2 percent of state revenue. The largest contributors since 2010 are Vattenfall, Telia and LKAB. SSAB, Nordea, Vin & Sprit and SAS were once owned by the state but have been sold or left.
More about money: State budget shows what the state takes in and spends, The banks what the banks earn, The electricity price what electricity costs. What research says about the state selling assets is on Privatisation. What Systembolaget and Svenska Spel exist for is on Alcohol, drugs and gambling. What LKAB mines and where is on Mines and critical minerals.
What the companies have paid out to the state since 2010.
Billion kronor per year, in the year the money was paid out: the dividend for financial year 2024 is decided at the annual general meeting in 2025 and appears under 2025. Click a bar or drag the slider to choose a year; the bars below use the same scale for every year. Svenska Spel and Systembolaget are included, although their money is reported under separate revenue heads in the central government budget. Nordea was sold in 2013. Other is the sum of the remaining companies, among them PostNord, SJ, Swedavia, Jernhusen, Specialfastigheter, SBAB and Systembolaget.
The dividend is decided by the state as owner at each company's annual general meeting. The government sets targets for how much of the profit the companies should pay out; for Vattenfall the target is 40 to 70 percent of the year's profit. Companies with a special public-service mandate, such as Samhall and Swedavia, often pay no dividend at all.
2022 was an exceptional year. The electricity price and the iron ore price were high 2021, and Vattenfall paid out 23.4 billion kronor and LKAB 12.4 billion, more than twice as much as in a normal year. Some other peaks are one-off amounts: in 2011 Apoteket paid 4.5 billion after the pharmacy monopoly was abolished, and in 2012 Sveaskog paid an extra 4 billion.
The companies and the public enterprise, financial year 2025.
| Public-service mandate |
|---|
Financial year 2025 from the government's report on companies with state ownership (Govt. Comm. 2025/26:140, table 2.1) and Svenska kraftnät's annual report. The state's share is its share of the capital; in PostNord the state and Denmark each hold half of the votes. Revenue and employees refer to the whole group, even where the state owns only part. Dividend is the amount decided at the annual general meeting in 2026 for 2025, the state's share. Employees is the average over the year. Sveaskog's operating profit is higher than its revenue because the increase in the value of the forest is included. A public-service mandate is an assignment decided by the Riksdag that the company would not carry out for commercial reasons. A public enterprise is an agency that charges for its services, not a company. Ten smaller companies are not included, among them Dramaten, the Opera, Göta kanalbolag and VisitSweden.
Vattenfall and LKAB over time.
Billion kronor per financial year, group. The dividend is the one decided for the financial year, at the annual general meeting the year after; that is why the years differ from the chart at the top. Vattenfall from the multi-year overviews in the annual reports 2019, 2020 and 2025, LKAB from the annual reports on state-owned enterprises 2010 to 2013, the year-end report 2015 and the ten-year overview in the annual report 2025. The numbers in the chart mark events that are explained below it.
Vattenfall bought coal power and nuclear power in Germany and the Netherlands during the 2000s. When electricity prices fell and Germany decided to phase out nuclear power, the company wrote down the value of the assets by 30.1 billion kronor in 2013 and 36.8 billion in 2015, and paid no dividend for 2013 to 2016. In 2016 the lignite business in Germany was sold to the Czech companies EPH and PPF, which produced a loss of 22.1 billion kronor in the result (the annual report 2019, s. 179).
The decision to close Ringhals 1 and 2 early was taken in 2015; Ringhals 2 was shut down in December 2019 and Ringhals 1 at the turn of the year 2020/21. In 2021 Vattenfall received compensation from Germany for the early phase-out, 1.6 billion euros, and sold the electricity grid in Berlin at a profit of 8.4 billion kronor; that made 2021 the record year. In June 2026 the company chose Rolls-Royce SMR as supplier for new small reactors at Värö. The owner's target is that the dividend should be 40 to 70 percent of the year's profit (the annual report 2025, pp. 13 and 209).
LKAB's results follow the iron ore price. When the price fell in 2015, the company wrote down assets by 7.1 billion kronor, made a loss and paid no dividend for 2015 and 2016 (the year-end report 2015). In 2021 the price was high and operating profit reached 26.9 billion kronor, the highest so far. The mines beneath Kiruna and Malmberget require large parts of the towns to be relocated; since 2006 LKAB has paid about 37 billion kronor for the community transformation and has a further 32 billion set aside (the annual report 2025, pp. 41 to 42).
In 2017 LKAB, SSAB and Vattenfall formed HYBRIT to produce iron with hydrogen instead of coal, and in 2021 the first sponge iron was made that way. In 2020 the company presented a strategy with investments of up to 400 billion kronor. The Swedish National Audit Office (Riksrevisionen) reviewed the plans in 2025 and found that the demonstration plant is expected to cost 31 billion kronor and that the investment decision has been postponed (RiR 2025:7). Since 2021 the owner's target is that the dividend should be 40 to 60 percent of profit.
What the state has sold.
SSAB
The steel company was formed in 1978 when the state took over failing steelworks. Privatisation began in 1986, it was listed on the stock exchange in 1989 and the state sold its last shares in 1994. SSAB is today a private listed company and takes part in HYBRIT together with LKAB and Vattenfall.
Telia
Televerket became the limited company Telia in 1993 and was listed on the stock exchange in 2000. After the merger with Finland's Sonera in 2002, the state owned 46 percent. In 2007 the state sold 8 percent for about 17.9 billion kronor. The Riksdag withdrew the mandate to sell more in March 2011, and in 2024 the state owned 41.1 percent.
Vin & Sprit and Vasakronan
In 2008 the state sold Vin & Sprit, whose brands include Absolut Vodka, to France's Pernod Ricard for about 55 billion kronor. The same year the property company Vasakronan was bought by AP Fastigheter, which is owned by AP2, AP3 and AP4; the state received 24.6 billion kronor. With other sales, that came to 81 billion kronor that year.
Nordea
The state became a major owner of Nordbanken during the banking crisis at the start of the 1990s. In 2011 the state sold part of the shares for 19 billion kronor, and in 2013 the rest in two rounds for 19.5 and 21.6 billion. In total, Nordea yielded 60.1 billion kronor.
SBAB
The mortgage institution was meant to be sold from 2007, but the Riksdag withdrew the mandate in March 2011 (Committee report 2010/11:NU7). SBAB is still wholly state-owned and is included in the table above.
SAS
The state sold part of its holding in 2016 for 214 million kronor and put in new capital, 4.3 billion kronor, during the 2020 pandemic. When SAS was restructured in the US, the old shares were cancelled without compensation in August 2024, and the state no longer owns anything.
Annual report on state-owned enterprises 2024, pp. 10 and 83 to 84
In total
From 2008 to 2024 the state received 149.8 billion kronor for companies and shares that were sold. Smaller companies have been sold since: Apoteksgruppen 2017, Metria and Orio 2022, Bilprovningen 2024 and Lernia 2025.
What the dividend means for the state's finances.
Revenue head 2411 Income from state shares, as a percentage of total state revenue the same year, from the Swedish Agency for Public Management's outcome for the central government budget. The bars compare with the four expenditure areas closest in size the same year. The dividends of Svenska Spel and Systembolaget are under other revenue heads and are not included, nor is money from selling companies, which is reported as revenue from sold property.
The dividend does not go to any particular purpose. It is entered in the central government budget as a revenue among others and used for whatever the Riksdag decides, just like taxes. It is small compared with taxes but between what the state spends on culture and on student support.
Money from selling a company is not counted as revenue in the budget in the same way. It has instead been used to pay down the national debt, as when the state sold parts of Telia 2007, Vin & Sprit and Vasakronan 2008 and Nordea 2011 and 2013.
Where the figures come from.
- The government's annual reports on companies with state ownership (Govt. Comm. 2009/10:140 to 2025/26:140, 2025/26:140) and the Government Offices' annual reports on state-owned enterprises 2010 to 2024: dividend per company and year, ownership shares, key figures and the value of the portfolio.
- Annual information on companies with state ownership 2025 (Ministry of Finance, July 2026): the companies' mandates, employees and dividends.
- Svenska kraftnät's annual report 2025: the public enterprise's revenue, operating profit, payments to the state and employees.
- Vattenfall's annual reports 2019 (p. 179), 2020 (p. 183) and 2025 (pp. 13, 209): revenue, profit, write-downs and dividend per year.
- LKAB's annual reports on state-owned enterprises 2010 to 2013, the year-end report 2015 and the annual report 2025 (pp. 41 to 42), and The Swedish National Audit Office (Riksrevisionen), RiR 2025:7.
- The state's sales: Govt. Comm. 2013/14:140, Govt. Comm. 2008/09:120 and the annual report on state-owned enterprises 2024.
- The Swedish Agency for Public Management and ESV (CC0): the outcome of the central government budget per revenue head and expenditure area, the same data as State budget.