An easing of the global economic free-fall has opened up extraordinary investment opportunities for those ready to take advantage, the top executive at Investor AB (INVE-B.SK) said Wednesday.

With valuations looking increasingly cheap, business sentiment stabilizing and long-term debt markets opening up for high-quality companies, the Nordic region's largest investment firm said it sees scope for add-on acquisitions, both of its own and for its core holdings.

"The current environment will provide investment opportunities for us, clearly, but it will also provide investment opportunities for our companies and we hope that they will be able to take advantage of that also," Chief Executive Boerje Ekholm told Dow Jones Newswires.

Investor, the main investment vehicle of Sweden's Wallenberg family, owns major stakes in some of Sweden's largest industrial, financial and telecommunications companies, including Atlas Copco AB (ATCO-A.SK), Electrolux AB (ELUX-B.SK), Husqvarna AB (HUSQ-B.SK), L.M. Ericsson Telephone Co. (ERIC) and Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB (SEB-A.SK).

Ekholm said add-on acquisitions provide opportunities to minimize risk and maximize synergies and tend to be good investments during a slowdown.

He added that merger-and-acquisition transactions, although few at the moment, should start to pick up this year.

"I think all of our companies are in a pretty good position to take advantage of tuck-on acquisitions, but today there are very few sellers," he said.

Investor helped recapitalize both SEB and Husqvarna in their SEK15 billion ($1.83 billion) and SEK3 billion ($365.7 million) respective rights issues this year. And while Ekholm said all of Investor's core holdings are now well-capitalized, the firm wouldn't rule out participating in capital raisings for other Nordic companies.

"We are not through the cycle of capital raisings yet," Ekholm said. Participating in others' rights issues "could be an interesting way for us to get an ownership position."

He added that Investor will only buy into firms in which it can become an active owner with influence.

The company acquired 23% of the capital in biopharmaceutical firm Biovitrum AB (BVT.SK) for SEK595 million in the first quarter, and Ekholm said Investor is interested in similar deals - that is buying well-managed companies with a strong market position and a strong product pipeline.

"Biovitrum has a very interesting platform for growth through both in-licensing and own-product pipeline," he said. "It is associated with risk but also has a lot of upside if you get it right."

Investor earlier Wednesday said its per-share net asset value dipped 4% quarter-on-quarter to SEK144 from SEK150 as of Dec. 31, as equity markets remained weak and its net cash position shrank following dividend payouts and rights issue investments.

Shares have fallen 13% in the past 12 months, outperforming the index of the Nordic region's 40 largest companies, which has lost 42%. At 1525 GMT, shares were down SEK0.75, or 0.6%, at SEK115.25, valuing the company at $10.89 billion.

Company Web site: http://www.investorab.se

-By Anna Molin; Dow Jones Newswires; +46 8 545 130 91; anna.molin@dowjones.com