Litorina acquires Johan i Hallen to build platform company

The Swedish GP deployed equity to acquire the business, which will form a partnership with Litorina portfolio company Bergfalk.

As a newly launched group, the business is expected to generate a turnover of SEK 1.2bn. Litorina will be the main owner of the group, with the entrepreneurs and key management team members holding a minority stake, Litorina partner Lars Verneholt told Unquote.

Litorina backed Stockholm-based fresh food distributor Bergfalk in January 2018. The owners and management reinvested 30-50% of the proceeds they received from the sale. The GP had been eyeing the fresh food sector long before making the acquisition, with potential targets including restaurants and wholesalers, Verneholt told Unquote at the time.

The firms are expected to complement each other in the way they work with customers, as well as geographically, with Bergfalk focused on the Stockholm region and Johan i Hallen being a pan-Swedish wholesaler.

Capital for the acquisition was deployed from Litorina's current flagship buyout fund, Litorina V, which held a first close on €256.7m in November 2017.

Fundraising efforts are going well, and the vehicle is expected to close around its target of €300m in August after the Swedish vacation period, Verneholt said.

Company
Established in 1916 in a market hall in Gothenburg, Johan i Hallen is a fresh foods distributor with a focus on meat and delicatessen products, primarily to restaurants and hotels. It reported a turnover of SEK 640m in its last financial year. 

People
Litorina – Lars Verneholt (partner).
Johan i Hallen – Johan Andersson (partner). 
Bergfalk – Lars Bengtsson (CEO).

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• Topics
• Buyouts
• Nordics
• Consumer
• Sweden
• Litorina
• Buy-and-build