Nordic unquote"

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Despite a bad start to the Nordic summer weather-wise, June has been hot in private equity terms. Nordic Capital acquired Thule, the sports utility company, for approximately EUR1.3bn from Candover, a UK-based listed private equity group. Nordic Capital made an unsolicited bid for Thule just as Candover was preparing it for an initial public offering. UK-based Montagu has acquired Unifeeder in a very competitive bidding process for an undisclosed sum, but with a debt package exceeding EUR300m.

The Nordics have also witnessed some very strong exits. Norwegian Ferd Venture Capital, Viking Ventures and Verdane Capital Advisors sold Nacre, a hearing system provider, to Bacou-Dalloz generating staggering 12.5x average money multiple to the investors. Acrapita sold Norwegian Roxar, technology provider to the oil & gas sector, to industrial buyer CorrOcean for NOK 2.2bn. The exit yielded a 50% IRR to Arcapita after just holding the company for 16 months. Axcel made satisfactory returns on its sale of Danish Icopal, a building & construction company, to Investorcorp for EUR850m.

There have also been rumours about a EUR3.3bn bid for Actavis, the Icelandic pharmaceutical giant, made by Novator, a new buyout house. The private equity group is owned by Icelandic billionaire Bjorgolf Thor Bjorgolfsson. The bid has still not been approved by the shareholders of Actavis, but if it goes ahead, it will be the largest buyout by far in Iceland.