By Charles Duxbury
STOCKHOLM--Sweden's former finance minister, Anders Borg,
continued his smooth transition to the private sector Tuesday,
signing on with Citi as an adviser.
The job is Mr. Borg's fourth assignment since quitting politics
in the fall after his center-right party lost a closely fought
general election.
He already heads a project on improving the way the financial
sector works for the World Economic Forum, an institution promoting
interaction between the public and private sector. He has also
joined the boards of Swedish investment company Investment AB
Kinnevik and the Kinnevik-controlled telecommunications company
Millicom.
Alongside that he is compiling a report for Finland's government
on how the country should meet its mounting economic
challenges.
Mr. Borg's association with Citi is a coup for the bank, which
is seeking to expand in the Nordics, a market dominated by the four
big local players Nordea, SEB, Swedbank and Handelsbanken.
Citi has had a presence in the Nordics since the early 1970s and
is hoping Mr. Borg's expertise will boost its efforts to increase
market share, the head of Citi's Nordic investment banking unit,
Eirik Winter, said.
Mr. Borg--Sweden's finance minister between 2006 and 2014--was
one of the few European lawmakers whose reputation was enhanced by
his response to the economic crisis that gripped the region for
much of his time in office.
He won admiration even among his political adversaries with his
combination of budget discipline in the good times and measured use
of fiscal stimulus during the downturns.
As it began to look likely that Mr. Borg's party, the Moderate
Party, might lose power at the 2014 elections, speculation grew
that he might step up and take over as party leader from Fredrik
Reinfeldt.
However, Mr. Borg repeatedly rejected the idea, telling The Wall
Street Journal in a 2011 interview that he saw his time as a
lawmaker as a break from a career in the private sector. He worked
for ABN Amro, among other institutions, before entering
politics.
Write to Charles Duxbury at charles.duxbury@wsj.com
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