Nordic Private Equity: 2010 in review

January

• Confidence had resurged going into 2010 following a strong end to 2009 for the Nordic market.
• AAC Capital Partners' acquisition of Envirotrainer and CapMan's sale of Pretax to Sponsor Capital marked the start of a large increase in SBO activity in 2010.

February

• Eqvitec's mezzanine team spun out to form Armada Mezzanine, led by Pertti Nurmio.
• Triton Partners acquired Ambea from 3i for €850m, giving 3i a 3.5x return on investment. KKR joined Triton as a co-investor in the Ambea deal in April.

March

• Valedo Partners sold Solhaga to Bridgepoint Development Capital, highlighting the interest in the healthcare sector.
• Herkules Capital acquired New Store Europe with equity from the NOK 6bn Herkules Private Equity Fund III.

April

• PAI Partners announced its intention to list Chr Hansen, while Nordic Capital and CapMan were preparing listings of Falck and Cardinal Foods respectively. This suggested confidence in the Nordic stock markets was increasing.
• EQT launched an offer of SEK 190 per share for AcadeMedia, which was increased to SEK 205 in May.

May

• HgCapital acquired Frösunda LSS from Polaris Private Equity, further showing that foreign GPs were increasingly interested in the Nordic markets.
• Procuritas made two buyouts; Swedish dental care provider Oral Care, and Norwegian canned seafood supplier King Oscar. Equity for both transactions was provided by the Procuritas Capital Investors IV fund.

June

• Polaris held final close of its €365m Polaris Private Equity III fund, having exceeded its €350m target.
• Danish venture capital firm Olicom filed for bankruptcy signalling a difficult period for venture players. In contrast, Chalmers Innovation announced six investments.
• Northzone Ventures and Amadeus Capital cancel plans for an IPO of EPiServer, citing volatile market conditions as the cause.

July

• July proved to be a strong month for Nordic buyout activity with Triton, CapMan, Segulah, HitecVision, Ratos, Herkules, Intera Equity Partners and Karnell all completing deals.
• CapMan Buyout IX fund raised €294.6m at final close. The fundraising environment was described as challenging.

August

• Danish pension funds were urged to join a DKK 5bn venture capital pool set up by the Danish government.
• Triton acquired the bar, bright bar, tube and ring divisions of Swedish steel producer Ovako Group. The deal was believed to be valued in the region of €500-600m.

September

• KKR acquired a 76.9% stake in Visma, which saw HgCapital partially exit its investment in the company. The deal gave the company an enterprise value of NOK 11bn
• The private equity division of Pohjola Capital Partners agreed a management buyout with majority shareholder Pohjola Bank. The division was renamed as Vaaka Partners.

October

• Axcel's IPO of Pandora valued the company at DKK 27.33bn, making it the largest flotation in Denmark for 16 years.
• Nordic Capital secured Munters following a bidding war with Alfa Laval. The take-private gave the company an enterprise value of approximately SEK 6.5bn.
• Litorina IV closed on its SEK 2.5bn hard cap after fundraising started five months earlier.

November

• An investigation was launched by the Swedish tax agency into the taxation of carried interest by private equity firms. They claimed it should have been taxed as income, not capital gains. This claim was refuted by the tax board later in December.
• Accent Equity Partners completes two buyouts; Troax and Aviator Airport Alliance, a new aviation service provider.

December

• Apax Partners, Blackstone Group, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, Permira and Providence Equity Partners partially exited TDC through a share buyback and public offering. The deal valued TDC at approximately DKK 65bn.
• Apax Partners entered exclusive talks with EQT and GS Capital Partners, with a potential $8.5bn ISS deal reported.

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