Acquisition of Superfos finalised
Industri Kapital has included the Swedish investment company Ratos as part owner of one third of the shares in the new Superfos group.
The final procedures regarding the divisions of the Superfos group that were not being sold to the American company Ashland Inc., have now been finalised. As planned, the individual business areas of Superfos have now been separated with Ashland acquiring US Construction, while the private equity firm Industri Kapital and Ratos through a new joint company, Frydenlund Invest a/s, have acquired Superfos’ three other business areas, i.e. packaging, chemicals and aerosols.
The total consideration for the three business areas amounts to approximately DKK 2.7 billion. Industri Kapital found it beneficial to include a large shareholder as investor in the new Superfos group. The well-known Swedish investment company Ratos (listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange) is acquiring approximately a third of the shares. Ratos also holds large shareholding positions in well-known companies like Scandic Hotels, Dahl, Esselte and Telelogic.
“We have joined Industri Kapital because the investment in Superfos fits perfectly into our strategy and I am convinced that the investment will generate a good return to our shareholders,” says Arne Karlsson, managing director of Ratos.
The three business areas had a total turnover in 1998 of almost DKK 3.3 billion with DKK 174 million in operating profit and DKK 150 million in operating profit over the first 6-month period of 1999. In recent years the business areas have primarily grown through add-on acquisitions and are market leaders in a number of geographic areas and within several product categories. “It is our opinion that together with Ratos and the executive management of Superfos we can create considerable value, amongst other things through efficiency improvements and expansion,” says Mads Ryum Larsen, a director of Industri Kapital. The executive management of Superfos are also looking forward to the new ownership: “With Industri Kapital and Ratos as owners, we, who work on a day-to-day basis in Superfos, will have a good opportunity to develop the company further with the owners’ full support – and we are fully aware of the new owners’ expectations with regard to the strategic development of Superfos”, says managing director of Superfos, Per Møller.