Roger Akelius’s first statements after the purchase that profit hunting and dividends are not important, came as a shock to the shareholders and the stock price plummeted on Wednesday by nearly seven percent. Something Dagens Industri was the first to report on.
Academedia has over 700 preschools, primary schools, upper secondary schools and adult education, 100,000 students and nearly 20,000 employees. Akelius buys 28 percent of the company via his foundation, which makes him one of the most powerful people in school Sweden.
According to him, he and his foundation did not buy the shares of Academedia primarily to make money.
– I can imagine that the Akelius Foundation should pay to these schools just to raise the quality. And then Akelius doesn’t want to donate money to the school if the money will then go to dividends, to capitalists like me and others, he says.
Less focus on grades
Akelius says that he has read hundreds of research articles and books on pedagogy.
– I am overjoyed to have found new ways to learn much more easily. For example, many people think that math is strange and difficult. But those who don’t like X have good legs and arms and can build different things – and in that way understand the logic, says Roger Akelius.
He also believes that there will be less focus on grades in Academedia in the future.
– I think grades are disgusting. I myself have always been bad at getting good grades. Only the best in the class get good grades. For the others, it’s just a stress and the parents scold the teachers for giving the children too bad grades.
Sweden’s largest private housing owner
The 78-year-old Akelius was known as a tax expert during the 1980s. Later he entered the real estate business. Akelius properties eventually became Sweden’s largest private housing owner.
In 2021, Akelius sold a large part of the real estate empire to the now-crisis real estate company Heimstaden for SEK 92 billion.