Viking Venture portfolio company, Grade acquires Finnish Industry leader FCG Digital Oy. Through this acquisition, Grade strengthens its position as the leading Nordic HR-tech players within the public sector.

FCG Digital is Finland’s leading digital solutions provider for job advertising and recruitment towards the public sector. Many Finnish municipalities and governmental bodies currently use the recruitment software. FCG Digital OY and its main product Kuntarekry handles over 4 million unique visitors annually with over 55,000 job advertisements and half a million job applications floating through the platform.

The agreement between the seller, FCG, and the buyer, Grade, was signed on January 25, 2024. Completion, which takes place when conditions have been met, is expected to take place during the first quarter of 2024.

Market-leading in HR-tech for the public sector

– Grade has experienced strong organic growth since 2021, when Grade, Varbi, and Workbuster merged. Our customer base within the public sector is steadily expanding, and our existing customers are choosing to digitalize more and more of their processes related to the employee journey. In 2023, we entered the Norwegian market through the acquisition of Jobbnorge. Entering Finland is a natural next step, so when the opportunity to merge with FCG Digital materialized, it felt like a strategically important decision and something we are very excited about, says Rickard Kajson, CEO at Grade.

Through the acquisition of FCG Digital Oy, Grade becomes the leading Nordic HR-tech players within the public sector. Grade’s customer base consists of numerous Norwegian and Swedish regions, municipalities, universities, authorities, and major private companies. Now, they have a significant part of the public sector in Finland as well.

– When Viking Venture invested in 2021, our goal was to build Grade to become the number one player within HR recruitment tech in the Nordics. With the acquisition of FCG Digital OY we have accomplished our initial goal, and we will continue to strengthen our position, says Joar Welde, Partner at Viking Venture and Chairman of the Board at Grade.

Digital solutions for the entire employee journey

– It’s fantastic that we have found an owner for our system solutions with such focus on recruitment and employee development within the public sector. With the sale, the offering significantly improves for FCG’s current system customers, says Tommi Kajasoja, the CEO of FCG.

– We look forward to welcoming 54 new colleagues to Grade. Together, we will be able to offer FCG Digital’s customers additional opportunities to digitize the employee journey with digital reference checking, candidate feedback, learning, competency management, and employee development. The strength of our product suite lies in seamlessly following the employee throughout the entire employee lifecycle – of course, based on the requirements that organizations within the public sector demand, such as accessibility and security, says Rickard Kajson, CEO at Grade.

Business as usual for FCG Digital’s customers

As part of the acquisition, Grade acquires all shares of FCG Digital Oy from FCG. The operations continue as previously operated. Misa Leiber will continue as Country manager and responsible for the day-to-day operations and looks positively towards FCG Digital’s future.

– By becoming part of Grade, we can further enhance and develop our digital solutions to meet the needs of our customers. All our well-known system solutions, including their support and maintenance, will continue just as usual without interruption, along with the employees that our customers are familiar with, concludes Misa Leiber, Operations Manager at FCG Digital.

About Grade

The growing Grade Group now consists of the companies FCG Digital, Jobbnorge, Varbi, Grade, Workbuster, Realcruit, and Refensa. Grade provides flexible solutions in Talent Management for the entire employee journey. In 2024, Grade is expected to generate approximately 390 MSEK in revenue, of which around 370 MSEK is recurring revenue. The largest owner is Viking Venture.

About FCG Digital

FCG Digital is Finland’s leading provider of digital solutions for job advertising and recruitment within the public sector. The company had a turnover of approximately 67 MSEK in 2023.

Contact

Rickard Kajson – CEO, Grade: +46 76 501 05 36

David Pode – M&A, Grade: +46 70 540 99 55

Header Image (from left): Rickard Kajson, CEO at Grade and Misa Leiber, Operations Manager at FCG Digital.

CapMan commits to net-zero by 2040 and sets out to develop framework for driving value creation within planetary boundaries

CapMan commits to become net-zero by 2040, managing its overall real estate and infrastructure assets and portfolio companies in line with net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, a decade ahead of the global target. At the same time, CapMan expands its sustainability roadmap to consider nature more broadly, aligning with the latest scientific research on preventing nature decline. To enable this, CapMan is establishing a nature positive framework to drive value creation while staying within the planetary boundaries. The framework will be based on relevant initiatives, such as the Science-based Targets on Nature and the Task Force for Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD). As a result, CapMan has become an early adopter of the TNFD, further solidifying its commitment to sustainability.

CapMan is proud to announce its commitment to net-zero by 2040, adding a long-term date that builds on its current short-term targets, which were validated by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) in 2023. This commitment means that CapMan will manage its overall real estate and infrastructure assets and portfolio companies in line with net-zero by 2040 at the latest, a decade earlier than the global target of 2050. Further and specifically, the real estate portfolio is targeting in-use operational net-zero emissions by 2035, and upfront and in-use embodied net-zero emissions by 2040.

Looking ahead, CapMan is poised to submit its long-term net-zero targets to the SBTi for validation as soon as the financial institution methodologies become available. CapMan Real Estate, a part of CapMan Group, has been selected to participate in the SBTi Buildings pilot test project, where the real estate specific methodologies mentioned above are tested. The real estate net-zero targets will be submitted for validation once the pilot project and the SBTi Building Guidance are finalized.

As an active private asset manager investing across multiple sectors, CapMan invests in companies and properties with significant value creation potential both from a financial and sustainability perspective. Our practical experience from a wide range of industries makes us well-equipped to manage and transition the underlying assets in our funds under management toward achieving net-zero emissions.

Action beyond climate

In addition to the climate emergency, the world is facing an even larger crisis, already overshooting six out of the nine planetary boundaries, which represent the critical processes within which humans can thrive. Crossing these boundaries is putting Earth well outside of the safe operating space for humanity. These impacts are already being felt and are expected to grow exponentially, indicating that the current linear economic system of production and consumption is not sustainable in the long run. Policy makers have started responding, and with the deteriorating conditions more stringent regulation is also expected. As an asset manager it is our responsibility to stay vigilant of these changes and prepare our assets, ensuring they remain relevant and profitable in this new reality.

Image: The 2023 update to the Planetary boundaries. Licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. Credit: “Azote for Stockholm Resilience Centre, based on analysis in Richardson et al 2023”

Anticipating the constraints from the planetary boundaries, CapMan is taking decisive steps to address its wider environmental impacts, dependencies, risk, and opportunities, while integrating climate actions within a larger nature context. To tackle this challenge, CapMan is developing a nature-positive framework that will guide the sustainable transitions of assets and portfolio companies, ultimately aligning them with the planetary boundaries.

“We are proud of our climate targets and commitments, but focusing on climate is not enough. For long-term sustainable operations we need to stay within the planetary boundaries. It is in CapMan’s core to create value which is sustainable in the long run and serves the communities in which we operate. Understanding our dependencies and impacts on nature makes business sense, as it reduces risks and can provide business and growth opportunities. As the scientific community is clear about the direction in which the world needs to go, it’s now time for companies to take this into practice and start building the societies we want to see in the future”, says Pia Kåll, CapMan’s CEO Pia Kåll.

CapMan’s framework will be built around the planetary boundaries approach, a science-based concept applying best practice standards such as Science Based Targets for Nature, Climate, and established reporting frameworks. The practical approach of the framework will be tested and refined with case studies across CapMan’s portfolio. The framework will also help devise concrete nature-positive transition plans for each investment team, incorporating social impacts to enable equitable transitions.

Solidifying its ambition, CapMan has become an inaugural TNFD Adopter, committing to start providing its nature-related reporting in line with the TNFD recommendations for fiscal year 2024 in its financial disclosures package. This commitment places CapMan’s disclosures ahead of the evolving regulatory requirements.

CapMan’s comprehensive approach to sustainability, encompassing both climate and nature positivity, reaffirms the company’s unwavering commitment to responsible investing and creating a more sustainable and equitable future.

“We want to understand how we can put all our real estate and infrastructure investments as well as portfolio companies on the path towards staying within the planetary boundaries, warranting their viability in the future. This way we ensure informed investment decisions and continue creating long-term financial value while driving sustainable transitions. As active managers, it’s our duty to turn scientific insights into actionable, tangible results. It’s a challenging task, but we’re confident it’s achievable,” shares Anna Olsson, CapMan’s Head of Sustainability.

For more information, please contact:

Anna Olsson, Head of Sustainability, CapMan, +46 73 387 75 61

Linda Tierala, Director, IR & Sustainability, CapMan, +358 40 5717895

Pia Kåll, CEO, CapMan, +358 40 766 4446

About CapMan

CapMan is a leading Nordic private asset expert with an active approach to value creation. As one of the private equity pioneers in the Nordics we have built value in unlisted businesses, real estate, and infrastructure for over three decades. With €5 billion in assets under management, our objective is to provide attractive returns and innovative solutions to investors. We have set greenhouse gas reduction targets under the Science Based Targets initiative in line with the 1.5°C scenario. We have a broad presence in the unlisted market through our local and specialised teams. Our investment strategies cover minority and majority investments in portfolio companies and real estate, and infrastructure assets. We also provide wealth management solutions. Our service business consists of procurement services. Altogether, CapMan employs approximately 180 professionals in Helsinki, Jyväskylä. Stockholm, Copenhagen, Oslo, London and Luxembourg. We are listed on Nasdaq Helsinki since 2001. Learn more at www.capman.com.

Continued strong cash flows, reduced leverage and improved results. The result was positively affected by reversed write-downs in Aibel and negatively affected by write-downs in Expin Group and Plantasjen.

Q4 2023
 

–   Net sales amounted to SEK 7,960m (8,195)

–   Adjusted1) EBITA amounted to SEK 326m (318)

–   EBITA amounted to SEK 1,982m (318). EBITA was positively affected by a reversal of a previous write-down of the holding in Aibel of SEK 1,656m

–   Operating profit amounted to SEK 1,206m (282) and was positively affected by a reversal of a previous write-down of the holding in Aibel and negatively by a write-down of goodwill and book values ​​in Expin Group as well as a write-down of goodwill in Plantasjen.

–   Adjusted diluted earnings per share amounted to SEK 0,15 (-0,11) 2)

–   Diluted earnings per share amounted to SEK 1,45 (-0,11)

–   Cash flow from operating activities amounted to SEK 882m (21)

Full-year 2023
 

–   Net sales amounted to SEK 33,748m (29,875)

–   Adjusted1) EBITA amounted to SEK 2,244m (1,966)

–   EBITA amounted to SEK 3,901m (1,718)

–   Operating profit amounted to SEK 3,010m (1,618)

–   Adjusted diluted earnings per share amounted to SEK 2.43 (2.08) 2)

–   Diluted earnings per share amounted to SEK 3.72 (1.68)

–   Cash flow from operating activities amounted to SEK 4,275m (1,431)

–   Adjusted leverage excluding financial leasing amounted to 1.1x (2.5x) 3)

–   Leverage excluding financial leasing amounted to 0.7x (2.5x)

–   The Board of Ratos proposes a dividend for full-year 2023 of SEK 1.25 per share (0.84)

1) For definition see https://www.ratos.com/sv/investerare/definitions/. EBITA is adjusted for the reversal of the write-down of the holding in Aibel by SEK 1,656m (Refers to Ratos controlling share).
2) Earnings per share are adjusted for the reversed write-down of the holding in Aibel with SEK 1,060m and the write-down of goodwill in Expin Group and Plantasjen.
3) Adjusted for the reversed write-down of the holding in Aibel.

Reversal of write-down of the holding in Aibel
Aibel has developed very positively in recent years and a transformation from fossil to renewable energy is ongoing. A majority of the order book today consists of contracts related to offshore wind and electrification. For 2023, EBITA amounted to NOK 899m and the company ended the year with a net cash position of NOK 1,865m and an order backlog of NOK 32 billion. As a result of this, the write-down that took place of the holding in Aibel during 2016 is no longer justified and has therefore been reversed in the period.

Impairment of goodwill and book values in Expin Group
During the period, Ratos has identified errors in the accounting within NVBS Projekt and NVBS Anläggning (two subsidiaries of the Expin Group), which are mostly attributable to the time before Ratos’ acquisition of the company. Ratos investigates whether the now corrected errors arose due to irregularities. As a result, the acquisition analysis has been adjusted, which increased the originally reported goodwill by SEK 308m. Expin Group has also decided to leave the market for civil engineering projects and focus its operations on railway track, electrification, signal and telecom. All in all, this has resulted in a write-down of goodwill of SEK 524m in the period. Expin Group operates in a market with strong growth and the identified, now corrected, errors in previous projects are not judged to affect the company’s long-term earning capacity. Overall, the amount of goodwill attributable to the acquisition has decreased from SEK 666m to SEK 450m after the implemented adjustments.

Impairment of goodwill in Plantasjen
During the last two years, Plantasjen has had a weak financial development. In connection with the annual impairment test in the fourth quarter, a write-down of goodwill of SEK 250m was made. In 2024, a comprehensive cost-saving program will be implemented.

Representatives of the media are welcome to contact Josefine Uppling, Vice President Communication, for interview requests.

Stockholm 22 January 2024
Jonas Wiström
President and CEO

For further information, please visit www.ratos.com or contact:

Josefine Uppling, Vice President Communication and Sustainability
+46 76 114 54 21
josefine.uppling@ratos.com

Jonas Ågrup, CFO and IR
+46 8 700 17 00

Jonas Wiström, President and CEO
+46 8 700 17 00

This is information that Ratos AB is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation. The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact person set out above, at 07:00 a.m. CET on 22 January 2024.