Triton in €60m Suomen Lähikauppa trade sale

The debt-free acquisition is structured as a share purchase, valued at approximately €60m, and sees Kesko acquire the entire share capital of Suomen Lähikauppa.

Triton's exit comes just two-and-a-half years after the private equity firm's €2.25bn Triton Fund III acquired Suomen Lähikauppa in an SBO from IK Investment Partners.

According to publicly available information, the company made losses of around €3.28m and €11.74m in 2013 and 2014, respectively, from revenue of around €1bn both years.

The GP approached the investment as a turnaround case, and considered Suomen Lähikauppa to have been under-invested. Triton's strategy for the company included operational improvements, shop renovatons and a new loyalty scheme by providing the company with €18m and €34m of capex in 2013 and 2014 respectively.

Previous funding
Triton Fund III wholly acquired Suomen Lähikauppa from IK in March 2013. IK had bought the company – then Tradeka – in a 2005 MBO through its Industri Kapital 2000 fund.

Company
Headquartered in Helsinki, Suomen Lähikauppa is a Finnish grocery shop chain focused on local neighbourhood locations.

The company operates two chains of stores, Siwa and Valintatalo, across the whole of Finland.

According to publicly available information, the company employed 3,220 people and had sales of around €1bn in 2014.

People
Peder Prahl is the managing partner of Triton.

• Tweet  
• Facebook  
• LinkedIn  
• Google plus  
• Send to  

• Topics
• Nordics
• Exits
• Consumer
• Finland
• Triton Partners
• Trade sale