Nordic Capital and CVC exit Cloetta

The shares, trading on the Nasdaq OMX Stockholm, were placed at a price of SEK 19.40 per B-share through a book-building process. Overall, 46.4 million B-shares at a total value of SEK 901m were sold by both GPs, with 25.9 million shares sold by Nordic Capital and 20.5 million sold by CVC.

At the beginning of this year, the GPs sold half of their original stake in Cloetta, offloading a 15.6% stake worth SEK 792m.

Nordic Capital and CVC originally bought Amsterdam-based confectionery manufacturer Leaf for €850m in 2005, with a debt package of €500m provided by Svenska Handelsbanken. Nordic Capital provided equity for the transaction via its Nordic Capital Fund V vehicle.

The private equity houses then partially exited Leaf in a reversed takeover by listed confectionery manufacturer Cloetta in 2011. Leaf fully merged its operations with Cloetta, taking over the brand name as well. The transaction valued Leaf at SEK 6.8bn, with the transaction consisting of a SEK 1.5bn cash payment, a SEK 1.05bn rights issue as well as Leaf's net debt of SEK 2.9bn taken on by the new entity. After the transaction, Cloetta shareholders held a 42.4% stake and Leaf shareholders a 57.6% stake in the new entity, with CVC holding a 33% stake and Nordic Capital 24.6%.

Company
Cloetta produces confectionery, such as sugar confectionery, chocolate products, pastilles and chewing gum. Brands produced by Cloetta include Läkerol, Cloetta, Jenkki, Kexchoklad, Red Band, Sperlari and Malaco. Its products are sold in more than 50 countries with production plants in six.

Headquartered in Solna, Cloetta reported revenues of €586m in 2012. The firm was founded in 1983.

People
Bengt Baron is Cloetta's CEO. Hans Eckerström is a member of Cloetta's board of directors and a partner at Nordic Capital. Peter Törnquist is also a member of Cloetta's board of directors and a partner at CVC.

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• Topics
• Nordics
• Consumer
• Exits
• Sweden
• CVC Capital Partners
• Nordic Capital