Capidea acquires Obsidian Group

Eliza Punshi
08 April 2021

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Danish private equity firm Capidea has acquired a 51% stake in digital marketing agency Obsidian Group alongside the management.

The company's management group is made up of Emil Reinholdt, Sasa Kovacevic, Halfdan Timm, Jacob Eldon and Emil Børsting, who will continue as co-owners and retain the remaining 49%.

The deal follows an auction process initiated by the company at the end of summer 2020 and was led by Deloitte. The GP told Unquote that Obsidian's management were keen on keeping a high involvement and a high-ownership stake, and did not approach trade buyers.

The investment is the GP's seventh from its third fund, Capidea Kapital III, including its recent investment in Maki, which is waiting for regulatory approval.

The vehicle, which is now around 50% deployed, held a final close on DKK 861m in February 2019 and will make a total of 11-12 platform investments. The GP typically invests DKK 30-120m, acquiring majority stakes of 51-95% in Danish companies.

Partner Henrik Normann Karlsen told Unquote that it "shouldn't be unrealistic to double the turnover in around three years", but that it depended on "how the cards fall relating to the add-on acquisitions".

Karlsen said that, for Capidea, the ambition was "to grow the business organically, but especially through acquisitions, and to do that with a good partnership with the management and keep the culture and the current placement in the market".

Karlsen added that the add-on acquisitions could be outside of Denmark, but alternatively, the GP could look to establish offices abroad. He said: "When you're thinking about acquisitions, you have to be opportunistic, so we can't only focus on specific markets, but it's likely that we won't do any add-ons that are geographically very far from Denmark, because we have people on the ground, so it'd be nice to have them geographically close by as well."

Company
Founded in 2016 and based in Copenhagen, Obsidian Group is a digital marketing agency that helps with execution through channels such as Google, Facebook, LinkedIn and Amazon.

Its sister company, Obsidian Media, was founded in 2019 and runs a portfolio of digital media that helps local and global brands drive revenue and leads.

The company has 80 employees and had a profit of DKK 11.6m in 2020.

People
Obsidian Group – Emil Reinholdt (CEO).
Capidea – Henrik Normann Karlsen (partner).

Advisers
Equity – Horten (legal).
Company – Deloitte (M&A).