THL, EQT sell stake in AutoStore to Softbank for $2.8bn

The deal values AutoStore at $7.7bn. Following the transaction, THL will continue to be a majority shareholder and EQT, which sold its majority stake to THL in 2019 but retained 10%, will also still be invested.

The deal will help AutoStore – which currently has offices and sites in Europe, South Korea and Japan – to expand further into the Asia-Pacific region. 

SoftBank chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son said in a statement that the company viewed AutoStore "as a foundational technology that enables rapid and cost-effective logistics for companies" and that it would work with the company "to aggressively expand across end markets and geographies".

The company's turnover has increased from around €50m in 2016 to €195m in 2019. 

The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to be completed this month, in April 2021.

Previous funding
EQT in December 2016 acquired AutoStore, deploying funds from EQT VII. In 2019, EQT sold its majority stake to THL for around NOK 16bn (€1.6bn), which, according to local reports at the time, was almost four times more than the original price.

Company
Founded in 1996 and based in Nedre Vats, AutoStore is a robotics and software company for warehouses. It has a customer base with more than 600 installations and 20,000 robots across 35 countries.

AutoStore has offices, warehouses and manufacturing sites in Norway, the US, the UK, Poland, Germany, France, South Korea, Japan, Spain, Italy and Austria.

The company had a 2019 turnover of €195m and employs around 400 staff.

People
AutoStore – Karl Johan Lier (president, CEO).
THL – Jim Carlisle (managing director); Mike Kaczmarek (managing director).
SoftBank – Masayoshi Son (chairman, CEO).

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