Longship Fund I (“Longship”) has as on April 13th, 2021 divested 100% of its shares in Norian Topco AS and its subsidiaries (“Norian”) to the Norwegian accounting and IT company ECIT AS. The management team will continue to work in Norian, and will retain an ownership stake in Norian as well as reinvest part of the proceeds in ECIT. Norian is the second exit from Longship Fund I in 2021.
Norian is a BPO service provider within accounting, payroll, and automation. In 2020 Norian had consolidated revenues of NOK 265 million, and 550 employees. Norian is headquartered in Norway and is present in Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Germany with nearshore centers in Poland and Lithuania.
Norian was a carve-out of the accounting services business from OpusCapita Group Oy in 2017. During the ownership period of Longship, the company has been transformed into a leading BPO player in the Nordics with a significant improvement in EBITDA in 2020 compared to the pro-forma accounts of the business for 2017.
“The management team of Norian, together with their dedicated employees, have delivered on the ambitious strategy set out in 2017. We have enjoyed supporting Norian through a challenging carve-out and transformation process resulting in a significantly improved competitive position. Norian has become a differentiated BPO-player combining low-cost, high competence nearshore resources with a significant in-house robotics and automation competence”, says Espen Stenumgård, partner for Longships investment in Norian.
“Together with Longship we have transformed a loss-making business unit of a large corporation into a leading player in the industry. Longships’ engagement and understanding of both the soft and hard aspects of a service business has certainly enhanced our development. It has been a true partnership that has created a robust and profitable company positioned for further growth. We are now looking forward to continue the journey with the ECIT group”, says Knut Anders Opstad, CEO of Norian.
Longship is a transformational growth investor, developing successful and promising lower mid-market companies into mature growth businesses with institutional and strategic value. We aim to create a scalable platform for sustainable growth and profitability in our portfolio companies, and support them on their accelerated growth journey. Longship is targeting excess return from its transformational approach.
For more information, please contact:
Espen Stenumgård, Partner, Longship AS
+47 992 44 678
espen.stenumgard@longship.no
Knut Anders Opstad, CEO, Norian Topco AS
+47 917 86 843
kao@norian.no
About Longship:
Longship is a Norwegian private equity investor established in 2015 by an experienced team of investment professionals. Longship invests in companies with significant growth potential in the Norwegian lower mid-market, and are applying a transformational growth approach, organically and through M&A. The investment team currently consists of eleven professionals, making it the leading player in the Norwegian lower mid-market. Longship closed its second fund in November 2020 with commitments of NOK 1.7 billion.
