Silverfleet invests in Phase One

Silverfleet purchased its holding from the management team, which reinvested in the business to secure a "substantial" minority stake.

Henrik Håkonsson was the majority shareholder before the deal and will continue as CEO of the business.

The fresh capital will help finance innovation and new product launches, as well as additional marketing efforts. Potential add-ons and technology acquisitions will also be considered.

Previous investment
Phase One received a €6m investment from a syndicate of investors led by 3i and including existing shareholders Danish Business Investment, LMX , DICO and TIC in November 2001. 3i invested €4.8m, with the remaining €1.2m provided by other investors.

In August 2006, four members of the Phase One management team, together with minority shareholder Dansk Erhvervsinvestering, acquired the company from 3i, according to unquote" data.

Debt
Nordea provided debt financing to fund the purchase.

Company
Founded in 1992 and based in Copenhagen, Phase One designs and manufactures camera systems for professional photographers and advanced amateurs. The company also has an industrial division supplying camera systems and providing software for processing raw images.

Phase One has offices in New York, London, Cologne, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Sydney and Tel Aviv and employs 175 people. The company generates sales of around DKK 425m.

People
Gareth Whileyis, partner at Silverfleet Capital, led the deal and will join the board as a non-executive director. Alfa Chan, Rob Knight, Mark Piasecki and Jack Priestman also worked on the deal for Silverfleet. Henrik Håkonsson is the CEO of Phase One.

Advisers
Equity- KPMG (Corporate finance), Accura (Legal), Deloitte (Financial due diligence, tax), Roland Berger (Commercial due diligence); PwC (Tax).

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• Topics
• Nordics
• Buyouts
• Technology
• Denmark
• Silverfleet Capital