FSN sells EET to Pamplona in SBO

Wahida Ahmed
30 November 2021

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Pamplona Capital Management has agreed to acquire Nordic technology distributor EET Group from FSN Capital in a secondary buyout.

Pamplona is investing through its Pamplona Equity Partners fund. The deal is expected to complete in the first quarter of 2022. Financials were not disclosed.

FSN backed EET in 2015, investing via FSN Capital IV in a secondary buyout from Alipes for a reported DKK 1.2bn. FSN was believed to have won the bid for EET ahead of EQT and Segulah, while Nordic Capital, Altor and Axcel were also said to have shown an interest, according to Unquote coverage at the time. According to local media reports, the sale was the result of a dual-track process launched in 2014, with an IPO the preferred exit route. Alipes, the private equity fund of Inter Ikea Investments, had owned a 75% stake in EET for four years prior to the sale, with management holding the remaining 25%.

At the time of the 2015 deal, FSN planned to double the company's turnover within five years from a base of EUR 221m, growing EET both organically and via acquisitions, according to the Unquote report.

Over the holding period, the company made 25 add-on acquisitions and grew its EBITDA by 2.5x, FSN said in a statement.

Mergermarket reported in August 2021 that FSN had mandated Baird to guide a sale of EET, based on the company's EBITDA of around EUR 50m and a turnover of EUR 500m. According to the report, EET posted 2020 EBITDA of DKK 292m (EUR 39.2m), a 31% increase from 2019 EBITDA of DKK 222m (EUR 29.8m). The company reported revenues of DKK 3.3bn (EUR 443m) in each of 2019 and 2020.

Company
EET was founded in Sweden in 1986, and is now headquartered in Birkerød, Denmark. It is a distributor of specialist IT components with offices in Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland, and operates in 24 European markets. It has more than 600 employees and revenues of EUR 500m.

People
Pamplona Capital Management – Martin Schwab (co-managing partner); João Saraiva e Silva (partner).
EET Group – Søren Drewsen (CEO).
FSN Capital – Lars Denkov (partner); Morten Welo (partner, chief operating officer).

Advisers
Equity – GCA Altium (M&A); Carnegie (M&A); Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom (legal); Bruun & Hjejle (legal); Houlihan Lokey (debt advisory); Kirkland & Ellis (legal).
Vendor – Baird (M&A); Accura (legal); PwC (financial, IT and ESG due diligence); BCG (commercial due diligence).