Altor sells Navico, DMS to Goldman Sachs and reinvests

Goldman Sachs acquired the two companies alongside Altor's most recent fund, the 2014-vintage €2bn Altor Fund IV.

Though a GP selling an asset from one fund to another can create issues surrounding valuations and LP returns, Altor director David Hess told unquote" these issues had been addressed before the sale.

"The deal underwent a series of processes and passed through the Altor Funds' advisory committees before the sale was approved," Hess said, noting it was handled to minimise the conflict of interest between the LPs in the two funds.

The decision by Altor to continue as an owner in Navico and DMS was made due to the companies' performance and perceived value creation opportunity.
"Navico has had an impressive journey under the ownership of our first fund and remains an attractive prospect for Altor Fund IV," said Hess. "Altor Fund IV has previously partnered with Goldman Sachs, on Hamlet Protein, and saw them as a good fit for Navico and DMS as well. The management team has done a great job and there are still aspects of the company to improve and work with, which we look forward to partnering with Goldman on."

DMS was originally acquired by the Altor 2003 Fund separately to Navico and the two companies remain separate entities. Goldman Sachs' acquisition of both was based on the perceived synergies and complementary aspects of the two companies, according to Hess.

Hess said he was unable to disclose any details about how ownership will be split between Goldman and Altor, or the financing of the deal due to confidentiality agreements. However, he claimed Altor Fund IV is seeing strong interest in the deal from debt providers due to Navico and DMS's performance in recent years.

For Goldman Sachs, the buyout is its second investment with Altor, having previously partnered with the GP for the acquisition of Danish animal feed ingredients manufacturer Hamlet Protein from Danish GP Polaris.

According to unquote" data, the sale of Navico and DMS leaves one asset remaining in Altor 2003 Fund: Enhanced Drilling, a former subsidiary of oil services group AGR, which the GP retained following the sale of AGR to Silverfleet in July 2014.

The SBO sees Altor continue its 11-year run as an investor in Navico and DMS, the former of which it has been growing as a buy-and-build case since October 2005.

Previous funding
Navico was the result of the Altor 2003 Fund's carve-out of Simrad and other subsidiaries from Norwegian maritime group Kongsberg Gruppen in October 2005.

After the carve-out, Altor supported the acquisitions of Lowrance Electronics and Brunswick New Technologies to form Navico. Additionally, the GP completed the bolt-ons of Maritime Information Systems, Concilium's radar division and Contour Innovations.

Digital Marine Solutions was also owned by the Altor 2003 Fund and is principally the owner of marine cartography business Jeppesen Marine, which it acquired in a carve-out from Boeing in March 2016.

Company
Headquartered in Egersund, Navico is a Norwegian group specialising in marine electronics such as GPS, radar and charting.

Navico's brands include Simrad Yachting, Lowrance and B&G, among others. The company employs a staff of 1,500 and generated $62m in EBITDA from $309m of revenues in 2015.

Digital Marine Solutions is the owner of marine cartography business Jeppesen Marine.

People
Altor – David Hess (director); Hugo Maurstad (partner).
Goldman Sachs Merchant Banking – Michael Specht Bruun (managing director).

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• Topics
• Exits
• Buyouts
• Nordics
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• Altor
• Goldman Sachs
• Secondary buyout