Ceder Capital holds SEK 1.5bn final close for third fund

Despite a challenging fundraising environment, the fund is 1.5x larger than its predecessor vehicle, Ovrén said.

"It's a difficult market for sure, but we're a niche fund in terms of our size and what we target," he noted. "The track record is also strong, so we experienced a high level of interest in Ceder, and LPs are still attracted to the Nordics."

The fundraise was launched in August 2022, Ovrén said.

Athos Partners acted as placement agent on the fundraise, while Mannheimer Swartling provided legal advice.

The fundraise follows the full realisation of the sponsor's debut fund, generating a total gross return of over 5x, Cedar said in a statement. Its second fund is deployed across nine investments, it added.

"When it comes to exits, we don't usually go for IPOs, and the trade sale market is still open," he said. "We will be opportunistically looking at exits."

Ceder Capital was formed in 2013 by Ovrén and fellow co-founder Thomas Ramsay. Ovrén previously held roles at firms including ABN Amro Capital and ABG Sundal Collier, while Ramsay has prior experience as a partner at EQT and IK Partners.

The firm's recent investments include the formation of accounting and payroll services platform Klara Consulting through the merger of KlaraPapper and MPC Consulting.

Investors
The fund's LP base is made up of European institutional investors, Ovrén said. The vehicle fund has around six to seven LPs and existing LPs have contributed 60%-70% of its capital, he added. The fundraise was oversubscribed, the firm said in a statement.

Investments
The fund will invest in small- and medium-sized asset-light businesses in Sweden and Finland. It will deploy equity tickets of EUR 10m-EUR 20m per deal, focusing on companies with EBITDA of EUR 2m-EUR 25m.

"We will do a few more deals in this fund, building a portfolio of eight companies, but we will work even harder with add-ons," he said, noting its larger size versus its predecessor vehicle.

"It feels like we are now in a normalised market – 2020/21 was overheated, but it's a good market to operate in now," he said. "We feel that we're coming to the end of a period where valuations were too inflated. In a lot of cases they have already adjusted, and I feel that the situation will be more normalised by Q3 or Q4."

Ceder is therefore confident about its deal pipeline, despite a broader slowdown in areas exposed to cyclicality, including construction. "We're active and hoping to make the first deal from the fund this year – we usually target two deals per year," said Ovrén.

"We aim to cover all possible ways of producing dealflow and do a lot of work ourselves in terms of finding companies," he added. "The Nordic market is transparent in terms of information, and we are also open to advisers approaching us."

People
Ceder Capital – David Holm Ovrén, Thomas Ramsay (co-founders).

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