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Financials

REFILE-Sweden's Ratos sacks CEO as turnaround remains elusive

(Corrects spelling in headline)

STOCKHOLM, Dec 13 (Reuters) - Swedish private equity firm Ratos on Wednesday sacked its chief executive after just 13 months in the job saying it was displeased with the company’s performance.

Ratos, whose portfolio ranges from oil services to clothing retail, said that outgoing CEO Magnus Agervald would be replaced by Chairman Jonas Wistrom, who in turn would be replaced by Per-Olof Soderberg.

The company has struggled in recent years. Once an investor darling, it made a loss last year and is battling to turn around a weak earnings development in its portfolio.

“The Board is not satisfied with Ratos’s performance. To succeed in implementing the new strategic direction established during the year, we believe a different leadership is needed,” new chairman Soderberg said in a statement.

The Soderberg family is the main owner of Ratos.

The firm’s stock fell 5.2 percent in early trading in Stockholm, taking its drop this year to 16 percent.

Ratos’ stock, which soared in the years before the global financial crisis hit, has tumbled more than 70 percent since 2010.

Investments since then include a big bet on the oil market in 2013 with the purchase a large stake in Norwegian oil services Aibel just a year before oil prices collapsed. (Reporting by Johannes Hellstrom; editing by Niklas Pollard)

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