IK Partners (“IK”) is pleased to announce that the IK Small Cap III Fund has signed an agreement to invest in Veldeman Group (“the Company”), a Belgian designer and producer of temporary infrastructures which it rents out and sells to a broad range of industries globally. IK is investing from its dedicated pool of Development Capital and is acquiring its stake from the existing management team and a group of individual investors. Management will be reinvesting alongside IK. Financial terms of the transaction are not disclosed.

Headquartered in Bree, Belgium, Veldeman was founded in 1950 and the current management team has a total of 120 years of combined industry experience. The Company provides customised solutions of modular, demountable infrastructures and related customer services. Its offering includes rental and sale solutions for a multitude of markets, including the Industrial, Retail and high-end Events sectors. The Company is well-known for its innovative capabilities and offering of turn-key solutions, with the option for customers to access a broad range of additional services, including, for example, add-ons for services such as electricity, climate-control, ventilation, VIP spaces and decorations. This high level of customisation and broad suite of products and services allows Veldeman to differentiate itself from its main competitors.    

Veldeman has approximately 80 full-time employees complemented by an extensive network of subcontractors who serve customers in 60 locations out of its sites in Belgium, the USA and Chile. However, production takes place at the Company’s headquarters to ensure the highest level of quality control, increased reactivity and the ability to develop innovative solutions; all of which are overseen by the engineering team. The Company is led by CEO Andy Moors who has been with the company since 2005.

Under the existing management team, Veldeman has gone from strength-to-strength and with the support of IK, it hopes to further improve digitalisation and operational efficiencies; expand into adjacent niches; increase the number of value-added services to become a comprehensive rental provider; and execute a targeted M&A strategy to accelerate growth in the rental offering through internationalisation.

Andy Moors, CEO of Veldeman, said: “We are thrilled at the thought of a partnership between Veldeman and IK Partners as we feel that its significant experience in the Industrials sector and well-established track record in international expansion through buy and build will help us realise our ambitions. We are confident that, together, we can further develop the Company and its offering to provide best-in-class service for our large and loyal customer base. We look forward to working with the team at IK to continue nurturing a dynamic and exciting environment for our employees and are excited to see where this partnership will take us.”

Frances Houweling, Partner at IK Partners and Advisor to the IK Small Cap III Fund, said: “Veldeman is a leading provider of high-end temporary structures with ample opportunity for international growth. The fragmented nature of the market offers significant buy-and-build potential which will allow the Company to both further develop its offering and expand into adjacent markets and territories. We have been impressed by the Company’s journey to date and look forward to working with Andy and the team at Veldeman to help unlock significant additional value.”

For further questions, please contact:

IK Partners
Vidya Verlkumar
Phone: +44 (0) 7787 558 193
vidya.verlkumar@ikpartners.com

IK Partners (“IK”) is pleased to announce that the IK Small Cap III Fund has signed an agreement to acquire Ipsum Group Limited (“Ipsum” or “the Company”) from Aliter Capital (“Aliter”). IK will be investing alongside the existing management team. Financial terms of the transaction are not disclosed.

Headquartered in Chorley, United Kingdom and founded in 2017, Ipsum is a leading provider of specialist infrastructure services to highly critical assets within the UK power and water markets. The Company has approximately 570 employees spread across its 14 hubs, providing 24/7 coverage nationally and serving over 1,400 clients across the UK, including regulated public sector bodies, government-backed organisations and private customers.

Ipsum provides a range of asset maintenance, upgrade and repair services to owners of power and water infrastructure. These include low and high voltage component inspection; switchgear and transformer upgrades; overhead line maintenance and jointing; smart grid maintenance; wet well cleaning; drainage and desilting; sewer relining, patching and repairs; and CCTV surveillance and heat mapping.

Through the efforts of its existing owners and the current management team, the Company has enjoyed significant growth since its formation. With the support of IK, the business will continue to focus on both organic and acquisitive growth in markets which have compelling long-term growth dynamics and invest in its people, asset base and technology offering to scale its proposition further.

Tom Salmon, Partner at IK Partners and Advisor to the IK Small Cap III Fund, said: “Ipsum is an excellent business that operates in a market that presents significant opportunity for further growth. Richard Thomas and his team have built a business with strong customer centricity and a reputation for quality and reliability, which is supporting UK infrastructure players on their journey towards energy transition, sustainability and a low carbon agenda. We have been very impressed with the business’ development to date and look forward to supporting the team to grow the business both organically and via further acquisition.”

Richard Thomas, CEO of Ipsum, said: “We strongly feel that a partnership with IK will help us develop further and achieve growth by scaling and refining operations, while continuing to pursue a successful M&A strategy. For the past six years, we have been ably supported by Aliter Capital and we thank them for all their efforts. We look forward to working with the team at IK and are excited to see where this partnership will take us.”

Greig Brown, Partner at Aliter Capital, said: “We are extremely proud of the progress and growth that has been achieved with the team at Ipsum since our initial investment in 2017. The business has effectively executed several important acquisitions during this period, solidifying its position as a market leader in infrastructure services in the UK. This is the third successful exit from our first fund, further evidencing our ability to build great businesses and we believe an excellent outcome for all parties involved. We’d like to thank Richard and his team for all their hard work and wish them the very best of luck for the future.”

Completion of the transaction is subject to legal and regulatory approvals.

For further questions, please contact:

IK Partners
Vidya Verlkumar
Phone: +44 (0) 7787 558 193
vidya.verlkumar@ikpartners.com

Responda Group, a leading Swedish supplier of customer service, announced today that they have signed an agreement to acquire Personlig svarsservice AB and are thus further strengthening its offering towards the small to medium-sized enterprise segment. The acquisition is part of Responda Group’s strategy to expand its offering and further strengthen its capacity as the leading provider of outsourced customer service.

• “We are very pleased to welcome Personlig svarsservice as part of Responda Group. This acquisition is a part of our growth journey, as it will further strengthen our customer service offerings to small and medium sized clients” says Joakim Ögren, CEO Responda Group.

• “We are very happy that Personlig svarsservice is becoming part of Responda Group. They share our commitment and focus on providing excellent customer service. As a part of Responda Group, the business will be able to grow further to reach new levels” says Richard Ahnell and Niklas Berg owners and founders of Personlig svarsservice AB.

For further information and questions, please contact:

Joakim Ögren, CEO Responda Group
Tel: +4670-164 21 00
Email: joakim.ogren@respondagroup.com

IK Partners (“IK”) is pleased to announce that the IK Small Cap III Fund has signed an agreement to invest in Responda Group (“the Group”), a leading provider of business process outsourcing (“BPO”) services to small and medium-sized enterprises (“SMEs”) in Sweden. IK is investing from its dedicated pool of Development Capital and is acquiring its stake from the founding management team who will be reinvesting alongside IK. Financial terms of the transaction are not disclosed.

Headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, Responda AB was founded in 2008 by Joakim Ögren and Magnus Johannessen and later became Responda Group as a result of the acquisition of Kalix Tele24 in 2021. Both companies have an established track record in the industry and its core offering is centred around managing organisations’ customer service through an omnichannel approach consisting of phone, email, online chat and social media.

The Group has 250 employees who are spread across four offices and serve a diversified customer base of approximately 2,500 companies within the private and public sectors. Under the existing management team, the Group has gone from strength to strength and with the support of IK, it hopes to: further broaden its offering for existing customers; continue gaining market share in the SME segment through an enhanced go-to-market strategy; and drive consolidation in the market via strategic add-ons.

Joakim Ögren, Co-Founder and CEO of Responda Group, said: “We strongly feel that a partnership between Responda Group and IK Partners will help us further develop and achieve growth through the pursuit of a successful M&A strategy. Since inception, we have made considerable progress in our field and are proud to have become an industry-leading service provider trusted by highly successful companies in Sweden. We look forward to working with the team at IK and are excited to see where this partnership will take us.”

Carl Jakobsson, Director at IK Partners and Advisor to the IK Small Cap III Fund, said: “Responda Group is Sweden’s market leader in the inbound contact centre services market for SMEs and has great potential for future growth. We are well-positioned to help Responda Group deliver a targeted buy-and-build strategy and to use our extensive network in the Nordic region to support any future geographic expansion. We have been impressed by the Group’s journey to date and look forward to working with the team at Responda Group to help them realise their ambitions.”

Completion of the transaction is subject to legal and regulatory approvals.

For further questions, please contact:

IK Partners
Vidya Verlkumar
Phone: +44 (0) 7787 558 193
vidya.verlkumar@ikpartners.com

Jovana Stopic, ESG Director at IK Partners discusses the Firm’s sustainability achievements in 2022.

Against the backdrop of broader macro events in 2022, we remained resolute in our commitment to placing continued emphasis on ESG practices and initiatives and taking decisive steps to reinforce our strategic focus on sustainability. At IK, we are proud to have been among the earliest adopters of integrating material ESG considerations throughout the entire investment lifecycle and we believe that prioritising ESG in this way, creates fundamentally better companies. Our activities over the last couple of years reflect this belief and in December we were proud to publish our 2021-2022 Sustainability Report “Unleashing Potential”, a comprehensive document which outlines the activities and initiatives we execute to further advance our progress along our ESG journey.

Environmental

As a global financial risk, climate change is one of our most prioritised areas of focus. Most notably in 2022, we were pleased to have our greenhouse gas (“GHG”) emissions reduction targets approved by the Science-Based Targets initiative. The objectives we set cover both IK’s own emissions and our PCs’ where we hold a majority stake. During the course of the year, we supported many of our PCs in the measurement of their GHG emissions and subsequently produced our annual IK GHG Emissions Report which now includes financed emissions. We also became a formal supporter of the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures framework. In addition, 2022 saw us invest in carbon credits which support projects engaged in ocean and soil carbon sequestration as well as purchase Solvatten solar water purifying devices in Kenya.

Social

We believe that our colleagues are our greatest assets and we understand that the continued success of IK is highly dependent on the collective efforts of a range of diverse individuals. We are proud to be working towards gender parity with women accounting for more than 50% of new hires, 33% of internal promotions and 40% of all partner promotions in 2022. Continuing to support initiatives such as 10,000 Black Interns, offering paid work experience to members of the Black community, has allowed us to work with highly talented individuals who, in a short period of time, added great value to the business. In 2022, we also took steps to prioritise colleague wellbeing and engagement, introducing supportive parental policies and a flexible approach to working patterns.

When it came to our PCs, we continued to encourage them to adopt a similar mindset and supported them in their efforts to increase diversity within their firm and board of directors. At the end of 2022, we achieved our ambition of having, on average, women making up 30% of Non-Executive Directors across all IK Mid Cap and Small Cap Funds.

We recognise that both our firm and the wider PE industry have a long journey ahead and therefore we actively engage with various initiatives to help drive positive change.

Governance

Over the course of 2022, we worked hard to institute and maintain high standards of governance and business ethics, through the introduction and revision of various policies covering the Firm, the IK Funds and our PCs.

IK in the Community

Outside of our sustainable practices, we continued to support projects as part of IKARE, our venture philanthropy operated charity across three key projects and were proud to have each office dedicate time and resources to local charities to tackle various initiatives in their community.

If you have any questions, please contact:

ESG
esg@ikpartners.com

IK Partners (“IK” or “the Firm”), a leading European private equity (“PE”) firm, is pleased to announce that it has launched its Development Capital strategy in the Benelux and UK. The Development Capital pool sits within the IK Small Cap III Fund and invests between €10 million and €25 million in minority or majority situations to support growing businesses across the Firm’s core sectors of Business Services, Healthcare, Consumer and Industrials.

The Development Capital strategy in the Benelux will be led by Frances Houweling, who has been promoted to Partner and is based in IK’s Amsterdam office. She joined IK in 2013 and previously sat within the Benelux Small Cap team where she was involved in a range of transactions, including the recent 2Connect and Plastiflex transactions. Frances is also Chair of the Dutch Committee for Level20.

The strategy in the UK will be led by Simon May, who joined IK in 2020 and has also been promoted to Partner. Simon previously sat within the UK Small Cap team where he was involved in both the Forthglade and DA Languages transactions.

In addition, IK is delighted to announce three further promotions to Partner across the Firm’s Paris, Stockholm and Hamburg offices:

• Morgane Bouhenic – Small Cap Investment Team, Paris
• Henrik Geijer – Small Cap Investment Team, Stockholm
• Joachim Dettmar – Operations Team, Hamburg

Christopher Masek, Chief Executive Officer at IK, commented: “Reflective of the continued growth and success of our Firm, it is with immense pride that we have promoted five exceptional colleagues to the partnership in recognition of their achievements and longstanding commitment to IK. These individuals display significant potential to carry on delivering outstanding results for investors and drive numerous value creation initiatives within our portfolio companies.

We are especially thrilled to have Frances and Simon as our first Development Capital Partners in the Benelux and UK respectively. These are among the largest PE markets in Europe, so this is a logical next step for us as we continue deploying funds across our successful investment platform with a presence in key markets across the continent. We believe their experience, both at IK and prior, coupled with their broad professional networks, will position the Development Capital strategy for considerable success in the future.”

Frances Houweling, Partner at IK, commented: “The launch of Development Capital in the Benelux is a natural progression for IK as we aim to increase our presence in these important markets for the Firm. I look forward to being a part of the growth of this strategy throughout 2023 and beyond.”

Simon May, Partner at IK, commented: “I am delighted to be launching our Development Capital strategy in the UK, leveraging the success of the strategy across Europe and the Firm’s growing presence in the UK market. We aim to build on IK’s position as the leading investment partner for Europe’s small and medium-sized businesses.”

For further questions, please contact:

IK Partners
Vidya Verlkumar
Phone: +44 (0) 7787 558 193
vidya.verlkumar@ikpartners.com

ENDS

Frances Houweling

• Frances Houweling joined IK in 2013 and is the Partner responsible for the Development Capital Investment team, based in Amsterdam.
• She specialises in the Healthcare sector and has been involved in several transactions across the Benelux region.
• Prior to joining IK, Frances worked at J.P. Morgan, having gained an MSc in Finance and a BSc in Economics from the University of Groningen.

Simon May

• Simon May joined IK in 2020 and is the Partner responsible for the Development Capital Investment team, based in London.
• Sitting within the Industrials sector team, he is jointly responsible for portfolio investments across the UK.
• Prior to joining IK, Simon was a Partner at Graphite Capital in London and began his career with PwC, having graduated from the University of Bath with a first-class honours degree in Mathematics.

Morgane Bouhenic

• Morgane Bouhenic joined IK in 2017 and is in the Small Cap Investment team, based in Paris.
• Sitting within the Healthcare sector team, she is jointly responsible for portfolio investments across France.
• Prior to joining IK, Morgane worked at Bridgepoint and L.E.K consulting in Paris and Boston. She holds an MSc in International Management and Strategy from HEC Paris and a CEMS degree from the VSE University of Prague.

Henrik Geijer

• Henrik Geijer joined IK in 2019 and is in the Small Cap Investment team, based in London.
• Sitting within the Healthcare sector team, he has substantial transaction and board membership experience.
• Prior to joining IK, Henrik worked at Adelis Equity Partners in Stockholm and with the Bank of America Merrill Lynch. He holds a BSc in Economics and Business Administration from the Stockholm School of Economics.

Joachim Dettmar

• Joachim Dettmar joined IK in 2019 and is in the Operations team, based in Hamburg.
• He has extensive experience in management consultancy and PE and is responsible for the operational optimisation and support of portfolio companies.
• Prior to joining IK, Joachim was a Partner with H&Z and LEK Consulting, having gained a PhD in Applied Mechanics / Engineering from the University of Stuttgart.