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Litorina-backed Fresks acquires Färingsö Trä

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Swedish building materials retailer Fresks Group, backed by private equity investor Litorina Capital Advisers, has acquired building materials retailer Färingsö Trä.

Previous owners of Färingsö Trä will reinvest part of the proceeds from the transaction in Fresks, and Peter Skoog will remain CEO of Färingsö Trä after the transaction.

Fresks was acquired by Litorina in January 2016 with capital invested from the Litorina IV fund.

Previous funding
Small-cap buyout firm Litorina acquired a majority stake in Swedish building materials retail chain Fresks from the company's founding family. The deal saw Litorina buy into Fresks through the GP's 2010-vintage Litorina IV, a SEK 2.525bn fund focused on the Swedish small-cap and mid-markets.

The Oscarson family retained a significant minority stake in the company through Oscarson Invest following the buyout, as did CEO Leif Lindholm. Management also invested alongside Litorina and the Oscarsons.

CEO Leif Lindholm said Fresks would increase its focus on growth through acquisitions with Litorina as backer.

Company
Färingsö Trä was founded shortly after World War II and is headquartered in Ekerö, outside Stockholm. Peter Skoog and Stefan Poulsen, who started working at the company in the 1980s, have run the company and been its main owners since 2004.

The building supplies retailer employs a staff of 40 and posted a turnover of around SEK 130m in 2017.

Founded in 1862, Fresks is a Swedish building materials retailer, operating as part of the XL Bygg purchasing group under the XL Bygg Fresks and Gärdin & Pärsson brands. The company operates in the north of Sweden, mainly as a materials retailer to small and mid-sized professional builders.

Based in Östersund, it employs a staff of 170 and generated sales of SEK 875m last year. According to one publicly available source, accounts filed for 2014 show the group generated EBITDA of around SEK 32.1m.

Post-acquisition, the Fresks group will operate a total of 26 stores with a revenue of around SEK 1.7bn and 470 employees.

People
Litorina Capital Advisers – Lars Verneholt (partner).
Fresks Group – Pehr Oscarson (chairperson); Leif Lindholm (CEO).
Färingsö Trä – Peter Skoog (CEO).

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