Category Archives: News

Request for a share buyback programme of up to 25% of the outstanding registered shares

Castle Private Equity Ltd today published an invitation for an extraordinary general meeting to seek shareholder approval regarding a fixed-price share buyback programme of up to 25% of outstanding registered shares. In addition, the Board of Directors proposes a reduction of the minimum shareholding for placing items on the agenda.

The main objective of the buyback for cancellation purposes will be to distribute liquidity to shareholders. Castle Private Equity Ltd. will contact major shareholders on their willingness to tender shares to the transaction in the next weeks.

 

If approved by extraordinary general meeting, the share buyback is anticipated to occur subject to conditions in November 2017. Details regarding the transaction will be published following the extraordinary general meeting.

 

Categories: News

Tags:

Ardian sells its stake in TimeOne

Ardian

Paris – October 2nd 2017 – Ardian, the independent private investment company, today announces the sale of its stake in TimeOne, the independent French leader in digital marketing, to Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners’ ActoMezz investment team.

Ralph Ruimy, co-founder of TimeOne, sells its stakes and Sylvain Gross, co-founder of TimeOne, becomes Group CEO. Sylvain Gross and the Group managers strongly increase their stake.

TimeOne was created as a result of the merger of Public-Idées and Place des Leads in 2016, with the support of Ardian Growth. Following the transaction, TimeOne cemented its position as an independent French leader in online marketing in France, with a consolidated turnover of nearly €50 million.

Specialising in data analytics, the company’s activity is structured around three priorities: Content, Data and Technologies. TimeOne covers all stages of the client conversion funnel (reputation, engagement, conversion, re-purchase) via its online marketing solutions: Performance, Mobile, Lead Management Technology, Native, Social, Programmatic and Publishing.

In addition to France, the Group is present in the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, South Africa, Asia, and South America.

Through close collaboration between Ardian Growth and the TimeOne management team, the Group successfully adopted a new identity, integrated technological solutions and developed a complete service offering, while maintaining steady and profitable growth of over 10%.

Sylvain Gross, CEO of TimeOne Group, said: “With the support of Ardian Growth, TimeOne has undergone transformational change. We look forward to working with Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners as TimeOne continues to realise its ambitious growth plans.”

Romain Chiudini, Senior Investment Manager at Ardian Growth, added: “We are pleased to have supported the founding team in the development of TimeOne Group. It was an important stage in which we played a key role as a strategic partner. As ever, it was also important to us that the management team had the right resources to maintain the company’s growth dynamic after the sale, which will certainly be the case with a partner like Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners.”

Ralph Ruimy, co-founder of TimeOne said: “I’m delighted to sell my stake to leading investors as Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners and wish every success to my former partners and colleagues.”

Arnaud Faure, Deputy Director at ActoMezz within Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners, added: “We are convinced that TimeOne has the strong basis needed to pursue its development in France but also abroad. Its Data Marketing Platform, unique technological expertise across all its activities, and its numerous innovations have propelled the company to become a leader within the digital marketing sector. Together with the management, our ambition is to grow the turnover to over €70 million in four years.”

ABOUT TIMEONE

TimeOne is an innovative Marketing Services group. The Group’s activities are structured around three priorities: Content – Data – Technologies. By combining expertise in content creation, machine learning, prescriptive marketing, performance and real-time activation, TimeOne is adding new value to media. With a well-established reputation in prescriptive marketing and a common technological base (DMP), TimeOne is founded on strong innovation made possible through its substantial Research and Development activity. TimeOne covers all online marketing solutions: Performance, Mobile, Lead Management Technology, Native, Social, Programmatic and Publishing. The Group is present in France, the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, South Africa, Asia and South America.

https://www.timeonegroup.com/

ABOUT EDMOND DE ROTHSCHILD INVESTMENT PARTNERS

About Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners

Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners, a leading firm in the area of unlisted investment, manages over €1.8bn in life sciences (BioDiscovery), growth capital and succession (Winch Capital for mid caps and Cabestan Capital for small caps) and mezzanine financing (ActoMezz).
Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners will continue to raise funds in its current segments, soon bringing its assets under management to more than €2bn. Based in Paris, Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners is a firm with 58 employees of which 40 are investment professionals. It is 51% owned by the Edmond de Rothschild Group and 49% owned by the management company’s partners and employees.

ABOUT ACTOMEZZ

ActoMezz is a team of eight investors who support via mezzanine and minority capital (i) the management teams of French small-mid-cap SMEs valued between €15m and €200m in their efforts to take over the majority shareholding of their company (sponsorless transaction) or in the financing of their development and (ii) investment funds via mezzanine sponsor transactions. With €700m under management, ActoMezz has carried out 37 transactions since its creation in 2006 and invests €5m to €45m per transaction.

www.edrip.fr

ABOUT ARDIAN

Ardian, founded in 1996 and led by Dominique Senequier, is an independent private investment company with assets of US$65bn managed or advised in Europe, North America and Asia. The company, which is majority- owned by its employees, keeps entrepreneurship at its heart and delivers investment performance to its global investors while fuelling growth in economies across the world. Ardian’s investment process embodies three values: excellence, loyalty and entrepreneurship. Ardian maintains a truly global network, with more than 470 employees working through twelve offices in Paris, London, Frankfurt, Milan, Madrid, Zurich, New York, San Francisco, Beijing, Singapore, Jersey, Luxembourg. The company offers its 610 investors a diversified choice of funds covering the full range of asset classes, including Ardian Funds of Funds (primary, early secondary and secondary), Ardian Private Debt, Ardian Buyout (including Ardian Mid Cap Buyout Europe & North America, Ardian Expansion, Ardian Growth and Ardian Co-Investment), Ardian Infrastructure, Ardian Real Estate and Ardian Mandates.

www.ardian.com

LIST OF PARTICIPANTS

Ardian: Laurent Foata, Romain Chiudini
Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners: Arnaud Faure, Christine Martinovic, Antoine Soucaze
TimeOne: Sylvain Gross, Ralph Ruimy
Banks: LCL (Chloé Fournier, Laurent Suscosse), Crédit du Nord (Pierre Delorme), Caisse Epargne Ile de France (Philippe De Oliveira, Julien Jonasson), BNPP (Hélène Faure, Amélie Roseandrieux, David Eyraud)

Sales advisory:

Investment banker: DC Advisory (François Prioux, Alexis Baron, Timothée Héron)
Lawyers: McDermott Will & Emery (Diana Hund, Marie-Muriel Barthelet, Claire Barra)
Tax: McDermott Will & Emery (Antoine Vergnat, Romain Desmonts)
Financing: McDermott Will & Emery (Pierre-Arnoux Mayoly, Benjamin Briand, Alice Beral)
Social: McDermott Will & Emery (Myrtille Lapuelle)
Financial review: KPMG (Antoine Bernabeu, Guillaume Staal, David Martinet)

Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners Advisors:

Legal: Hogan Lovells (Stéphane Huten, Florian Brechon, Sarah Naidji)
Tax: Hogan Lovells (Bruno Knadjian, Laurent Ragot)
Social: Hogan Lovells (Thierry Meillat, Alexandra Tuil)
Financing: Hogan Lovells (Alexander Premont, Guergana Zabounova, Isabelle Rivallin)
Strategic: Neovian (Patrick Richer, Kevin Bailey)
Financial: ACA Nexia (Hervé Krissi, Olivier Duval, Maxime Grélou)

Banking advisory:

Legal: CBCH Associés (Chukri Serhal, Carole Geara)

PRESS CONTACTS

Categories: News

Tags:

Progressus portfolio company Viju sold to the Dutch-German Private Equity firm Avedon Capital Partners

EV Private Equity

Senior Partners in EV Private Equity, Rune Jensen and Per Arne Jensen, who
established the Norwegian Private Equity fund manager Progressus in 2006, sold the Progressus portfolio company Viju to the Dutch-German Private Equity firm Avedon Capital Partners.

Under Progressus active stewardship Viju has grown its revenues from NOK 80 million to more than NOK 800 million through strong organic and acquisitive growth. Number of employees have grown from 25 to 280 and number of offices from 1 small office in Stavanger to 11 across Norway, UK, USA, Singapore and Malaysia.

Avedon Capital Partners acquires VisionsConnected and Viju to create a leading global provider of video conferencing, audiovisual and collaboration solutions

The ambition for the new combined company is to build a leading global visual collaboration company specializing in designing, installing, servicing and supporting physical and virtual meeting environments for global customers with a strategic need for videoconferencing, collaboration and audiovisual solutions.

The combined company today serves corporate and public customers in about 100 countries. It will have its official headquarter in Amsterdam, the Netherlands and will continue to serve customers from multiple office locations throughout EMEA, USA & APAC. A new brand, that reflects the evolution of these two reputable businesses into an integrated global organization, is expected to be launched in early 2018.

Rune Jensen (Progressus Private Equity, majority owner Viju): “Under our ownership, Viju has tenfolded revenues and established offices around the globe. We look forward to following the new company’s continued journey, and believe Avedon is very well positioned to take it to the next level”

 

About Viju
Viju is a global visual communications specialist, whose aim is to transform the way people communicate and collaborate in the workplace. Their solutions and services include video conferencing, audio visual integration and unified communications and collaboration.

www.vijugroup.com

About VisionsConnected
VisionsConnected is a global visual collaboration specialist on a mission to change the way people collaborate. They create and deliver cloud-based, high quality, secure and user-friendly video conferencing services to customers in over 120 countries.


www.visionsconnected.com

About Avedon Capital Partners
Avedon Capital Partners is an investor passionate about supporting outstanding entrepreneurs and management teams of growth companies to realize their ambitions together. It is located in Amsterdam (NL) and Düsseldorf (GER). Avedon focuses on niches within four sectors: Software & Technology, Business Services, Industry & Engineering, and Consumer & Leisure. Since it was established, the team has invested in over 20 growth capital transactions and has achieved a strong track record of growth

www.avedoncapital.com

About Progressus

Progressus is a private equity company based in Stavanger, Norway,  providing capital and competence to growth companies in the oil and gas and technology sectors. In 2015 Progressus Management joined Energy Ventures to form EV Private Equity.

www.evpe.com

 

Categories: News

Tags:

22 million to the Future Ordering

Almi Invest

Future Ordering has raised 22 million from investors Fort Knox Storage and Partners Invest North – partly owned by Almi Invest. The company is developing a cloud service for online orders over the phone, web and kiosk for large restaurant chains and catering operators.

Future service Ordering manages an unbroken chain from marketing / loyalty, pre-order via the Web, mobile to the kiosk and Delivery – fully integrated with the restaurant’s cash register system. Behind the company’s experience from ten years of working with digital orders, which today generates millions of transactions.

Considerable resources have been devoted to creating a service where, in real time and with the support of machine learning to optimize offer, beställningstid and the average bill and hence the restaurant’s entire profitability. The system will be a natural interface to the new digital assistants that found their way into our homes, cars and telephones.

– All restaurant chains now have to build its own digital ordering channel. It is a global industry that needs this type of solution is enormous. Thrill to a company that started in Luleå quickly come to be regarded as the leader in digital self-service in Europe “, says Henrik Wimelius, investment manager at Fort Knox in Umeå.

– Being able to develop and manage their own integrated ordering channel is expensive for a restaurant chain, regardless of size. It is much more cost effective to subscribe to a flexible standard and Future Ordering provides just this opportunity, “says Lena Fridlund Forsgren, Investment Manager at Partners Invest.

– It is incredibly inspiring with so much confidence from our investors to kickstart marketing. Now we are looking more employees, first customer is live since a few months back in Denmark. We have also become a Gold Partner and made a verified integration with cash register system from Oracle Hospitality. The expansion plan is aggressive, so now it’s about to sell and continue the development of future orders, says Andreas Stormvinge, CEO and co-founder of Future Ordering.

www.futureordering.com

Categories: News

PSW Group Capping Stack Exercise for new operator – Wellesley Petroleum

Hercules
PSW Group has taken a strategic step to provide operators with a capping stack as part of Norwegian Oil & Gas emergency response plans.
PSW Group’s capping stack was mobilized and deployed in Fensfjorden on the 22nd of August, successfully demonstrating the company’s ability to immediately respond to a well control incident.
PSW Group’s capping stack was mobilized and deployed in Fensfjorden on the 22nd of August, successfully demonstrating the company’s ability to immediately respond to a well control incident.

In preparation for their first operated well, Wellesley Petroleum tested the mobilization and deployment procedures of PSW Group’s stack to ensure their well could be capped within a 72 hour target. The exercise not only tested the capping stack and deployment team, but the associated support systems in Wellesley and Well Expertise incident teams.

“The capping stack deployment exercise with our Well Incident Team has increased our knowledge and confidence to react in a well control situation. We are very pleased with the collaborative efforts from all concerned” says Callum Smyth, Country Manager i Wellesley Petroleum.

The capping stack is stored at the PSW Group facilties at Mongstad and has a 24/7 duty team available.

“Our capping stack can be ready at Mongstad quayside within 24 hours of notification. We have the facilities, tools and personnel to maintain, test and mobilise the stack, as well as deploy and install on the relevant well” says Oddbjørn Haukøy, CEO of PSW Group.

 

Contact:

Oddbjørn Haukøy, CEO of PSW Group

Telephone: + 47 91 17 19 14

Callum Smyth, Country Manager of Wellesley Petroleum

Telephone: + 47 95 27 15 68

Michael Simpson, CEO of Well Expertise

Telephone: + 47 48 09 98 41

 

PSW Group is a company which delivers multidiscipline services to the oil and energy sector, both onshore and offshore, with a strong customer base within subsea and drilling. The company is organised in the following entities: PSW Technology, PSW Solutions, PSW Integrity and PSW Power & Automation. The company is headquartered at the Subsea & Drilling base at Mongstad, and has additional offices at Ågotnes, Bergen, Liverpool and Aberdeen. For more information, please see www.psw.no

 

Wellesley Petroleum is a newly established Norwegian oil and gas operator with an extensive licence portfolio and an active exploration program. The Company has built a team of highly experienced industry professionals and completed their first operated well less than a month after the capping stack deployment exercise. For more information, please see www.wellesley.no

Well Expertise is a well management company with main office in Stavanger providing well planning and operational support aswell as a well incident team and support resources. For more information, please see www.wellexpertise.com

Categories: News

Tags:

ALMI Invest error handling in automatic

Almi Invest

Almi Invest invests one million crowns in Falun 1TCompany The company, which has developed a cloud-based service for automatic error handling in applications.

In the issue of a total of two million is also participating the privately owned regional venture capital company Dalecarlia Growth. The investment will be used to market the service.

1TCompany, founded in 2017, develops tjänstenCodeRR that automates error handling for applications based on Microsoft’s popular .NET platform.

– With CodeRR increases quality and avoids manual error handling, saving time, resources, and reduces the risk of lost revenue, says Håkan Alfon, investment manager at Almi Invest.Med already thousands of downloads we think CodeRR is ready for the next step, and commercial launch. We look forward to be part of that journey.

Today, corrected errors generated by IT applications manually by the developer goes through the program to try to identify the error, which is a time consuming job. CodeRR detect errors, analyzes and can provide suggestions for actions automatically. The error handling is faster because CodeRR specify where and how it went wrong in the code.

– After many years as a developer, I know that it spends several hours to find and analyze errors that occurred. That’s how I got the idea to create a tool that automates the management of errors so that I can focus on better solution quality, says Jonas Gauffin, founder of 1TCompany.

CodeRR launched as open source by the end of last year and is already available for free download and evaluation. 1TCompany are now ready to launch the service with extended functionality ready for operation environments.

Categories: News

Tags:

Helsport and Swix: Stronger together

Helsport and Swix: Stronger together

Swix Sport has acquired the entire share capital of the well-known company Helsport. The acquisition makes the Ferd-owned brand aggregator almost a complete supplier in the outdoor segment of the sports industry, which is to say a supplier of products for anyone who loves the great outdoors.

Helsport is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of lightweight sleeping bags and tents. Now the company will join Swix, Ulvang, Lundhags, Hard Rocx and Toko as part of Swix Sport.

“In the outdoor segment, we already offer a wide range of equipment, footwear and clothing from Lundhags and Ulvang. We can now supplement this offer with tents, lavvus, sleeping bags, backpacks and mountain trekking equipment for the full range of users, whether they need equipment for extreme conditions or favour comfort and user-friendliness”, explains Tomas Holmestad, CEO of Swix Sport, in an interview with Ferd Magazine.

A good owner
Stein Helliksen, the owner and CEO of Helsport since 1974, emphasises that he regards Swix Sport as a good and reliable owner with regard to the company’s further development now that he is selling. He will continue, however, to serve as the CEO of Helsport, and there are no plans to move its head office from Melhus just south of Trondheim, which is where 16 of the company’s employees will remain. The company also has a marketing office in Oslo with a further two employees, who will now be moving to Swix premises.

Record profit
Stein Helliksen has decided to sell the company following a period of strong growth. With record turnover of NOK 120 million and its best ever profit, 2016 was the company’s best year ever. 2017 is shaping up to be even better in every way.

“Helsport has never been better positioned than it is today – and I see this as a good starting point for becoming part of a larger constellation in an industry that is facing both restructuring and challenges, but that also offers great opportunities”, he comments.

Stein emphasises that there is a clear trend towards bigger units and stiffer competition, and innovation is becoming increasingly important, while the industry will also have to meet new and stricter requirements in terms of environmental sustainability, fair trade and willingness to engage with corporate social responsibility. Like Tomas Holmestad, Stein Helliksen thinks there is the potential for significant synergies now that Helsport and Swix Sport are combining forces, with particularly sizeable opportunities in exports:

“We have a range of products that have features that make them the best in the world. With Swix Sports’ resources, international subsidiaries and distribution facilities, both parties will be able to reap significant benefits”, he explains.

The whole interview is available in the Ferd Magazine in Norwegian).Photo: Helsport

Categories: News

Tags:

IK Investment Partners to sell Evac Group to Bridgepoint

ik-investment-partners

IK Investment Partners (“IK”), a leading European private equity firm, is pleased to announce that the IK VII Fund (“the Fund”) has reached an agreement with private equity funds managed by Bridgepoint (“Bridgepoint”) to sell Evac Group (“Evac” or “the Company”), the world’s leading provider of integrated waste, wastewater, and water management systems for the marine, offshore and building industries.

Evac designs and markets environmentally friendly waste and wastewater collection and treatment systems for the marine, offshore and building industries. The Company has successfully carried out over 20,000 marine, 2,000 offshore and 2,000 building projects for customers around the world. It has employees in Brazil, China, Finland, France, Germany, Korea, Norway, Sweden and the USA, as well as representatives in more than 40 additional countries.

Sustainability is one of the cornerstone of Evac’s operations. The Company’s technologies address the increasing need for innovative cleantech solutions, driven by the megatrends of climate change, the need for energy efficiency, and increasingly scarce freshwater resources. An example of an innovative waste management system is the Evac briquetting unit used for minimising the storage volume of recyclable and non-recyclable dry waste on board vessels. The technology reduces ship waste by a factor of 10.

The IK VII Fund acquired Evac in December 2014 as part of its strategy of acquiring and developing mid cap companies headquartered in Northern Continental Europe. In the course of the Fund’s ownership Evac has achieved strong growth, with company turnover increasing by 55% exceeding MEUR 100 for the first time in the company’s history.

“During the past few years, we have strategically repositioned Evac from a component provider to a fully integrated cleantech solutions supplier, consequently further strengthening the Company’s position as the global market leader. We have only been able to do so with a talented management team at Evac, and we wish them continued success under Bridgepoint’s ownership,” said Kristian Carlsson Kemppinen, Partner at IK Investment Partners and advisor to the IK VII Fund.

“It has been a pleasure working with the IK team. With their support, we have completed two significant add-on acquisitions as well as boldly invested in our in-house development capabilities and product offering, and we now have the largest and most advanced cleantech system portfolio in our sector,” said Tomi Gardemeister, CEO of Evac Group.

Evac is the first exit of the IK VII Fund and the second exit IK has announced in a week. Financial terms of the transaction are not disclosed. Completion of the transaction is subject to legal and regulatory approvals.

Parties involved

Seller Financial advisors: Danske Bank, Carnegie, Alantra
Seller Strategic VDD: Roland Berger
Seller Financial VDD: EY
Seller Legal advisor: Roschier

For further questions, please contact:

IK Investment Partners
Kristian Carlsson Kemppinen, Partner
Phone: +46 8 678 95 00

Mikaela Hedborg, Director Communications & ESG
Phone: +44 77 87 573 566
mikaela.hedborg@ikinvest.com 

Evac
Tomi Gardemeister, CEO
Phone: +358 20 763 0200

Carita Lehmusmetsä, Director, Marketing and Communications
Phone: +358 44 761 9559
carita.lehmusmetsa@evac.com  

About IK Investment Partners
IK Investment Partners (“IK”) is a Pan-European private equity firm focused on investments in the Nordics, DACH region, France, and Benelux. Since 1989, IK has raised more than €9 billion of capital and invested in over 110 European companies. IK funds support companies with strong underlying potential, partnering with management teams and investors to create robust, well-positioned businesses with excellent long-term prospects. For more information, visit www.ikinvest.com

About Evac
Evac is the world’s leading provider of integrated waste, wastewater, and water management systems for the marine, offshore, and building industries. We have successfully carried out over 20,000 marine, 1,500 offshore and 2,000 building projects for customers around the world. For more information, visit www.evac.com

Categories: News

Tags:

IFS acquires WorkWave

eqt

Based in New Jersey, USA, WorkWave’s software seamlessly integrates back office, field operations and front-end marketing solutions, enabling businesses to streamline tasks such as scheduling, planning and billing, productivity, automate marketing and sales activities.

When EQT VII acquired IFS in 2015, the ambition was to further accelerate an already strong growth through selective investments in IFS’ focus verticals. With the acquisition of WorkWave, IFS is increasing its global leadership within Field Service Management and is further expanding its North American footprint, making America IFS’ largest geographical region.

“The management team, led by CEO Alastair Sorbie, does an impressive job strengthening IFS’ leadership positions in the verticals it serves. Following the acquisition of Mxi within the IFS aviation and defense segment, WorkWave is an important milestone in realizing IFS’ global field service management and cloud strategy. The growth path that IFS has embarked on is remarkable and it is another great example of EQT’s ambition to future proof its portfolio companies”, says Per Franzén, Partner at EQT Partners, Investment Advisor to EQT VII.

Read IFS’ full press release here.

Categories: News

Tags:

Almi Invest invests in Applied Group

Almi Invest

Almi Invest invests SEK 1.6 million in Sundsvall company AppliedGroup Nordic, which develops a cloud-based customer loyalty programs for online merchants.

In the issue of a total of over three million is also participating Savings Bank Foundation and private sector investors. The money will go to the development and marketing for the launch of its service in October.

With AppliedGroups service called Penguin (formerly Applied Loyalty), e-retailers flexibly design their own loyalty programs. The system collects data about customers’ interests and buying habits, in order to offer benefits and discounts specifically tailored for each customer.

The system also rewards e-commerce customer engagement in social media. A customer, such as parts or like Facebook Posts from an e-retailers will be rewarded. What kind of reward given is up to the individual e-retailer.

– Customer loyalty is key to e-retailers, says Mats Håkansson, Investment Manager at Almi Invest. AppliedGroup offers a concept of the end customer’s perspective in mind and we believe that this responds to a wide customer needs.

The underlying need for AppliedGroups service is increased sales and improved margins for e-retailers, primarily through increased frequency of repeat purchases from customers. The service was developed in cooperation with a major e-retailers, with positive results. In October, it’s time for a broader rollout.

– With this investment we will be able to carry a full introduction to the market and get the show in black and white what great benefit traders get out of our service, says Johan Wikström, President of AppliedGroup.

Categories: News

Tags: