Nordic nets 8x on Cary Group IPO

Greg Gille
23 September 2021

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Cary Group, a vehicle glass repair and replacement provider backed by Nordic Capital, has listed in a EUR 908m IPO on Nasdaq Stockholm.

The offering price was set at SEK 70 per share, corresponding to a market cap of around SEK 9.2bn (EUR 908m).

The offering attracted "very strong" interest and was "multiple times" oversubscribed, Cary said in a statement. Trading on Nasdaq Stockholm commenced on 23 September.

Around 47 million shares were to be sold by Nordic Capital, the Ryd family and other shareholders, with the PE house committing to sell another 9.8 million shares as part of the overallotment option.

Nordic Capital secured an 8x return on its investment following the IPO, according to a source close to the situation.

The GP was invested in the business via its Nordic Capital VIII fund. It acquired a 90% stake in Swedish vehicle glass repair and replacement company Ryds Bilglas in 2018, buying the shares from Swedish buyout firm Nalka Invest and the founding Ryd family, who retained 10% of the company. The company was marketed with a projected SEK 150m EBITDA and was expected to achieve a purchase price of up to 10x, according to a Mergermarket report at the time.

Through organic growth and M&A, the business has since expanded outside Sweden to target the Nordic region, and more recently the rest of Europe. Cary has grown fourfold since the 2018 deal, Nordic Capital said. Its number of workshops has increased from 100 in Sweden to more than 520 across Scandinavia, the UK and Spain; employee numbers went from 350 to 1,400; and pro forma revenues have grown from around SEK 700m in 2017 to SEK 2.14bn in 2020. Operating profit for 2020 stood at SEK 258m.

Company
Founded in 1947 by the Ryd family and headquartered in Sundsvall, Sweden, the firm repairs and replaces glass for the automotive industry. Its brands include Ryds Bilglas, Svenska Bussglas, Mobile Windscreens, Crashpoint, Cary and Ralarsa.

People
Nordic Capital – Joakim Andreasson (principal).
Cary Group – Anders Jensen (CEO).