EQT, a northern European private equity fund, has completed its fourth investment from its Opportunity Fund after it bought a majority stake in Danish industrial engineering company Cimbria.
EQT, a northern European private equity fund, has completed its fourth investment from its Opportunity Fund after it bought a majority stake in Danish industrial engineering company Cimbria.
The shareholding was sold by its founding family, Sven and Ole Toftdahl Olesen, who continue to hold a stake in the business and maintain key positions in the company.
EQT’s Opportunity Fund, which was launched last year, makes investments in mid-sized companies in the Nordic and German speaking countries and has some £250 million (€372 million) under management.
Ole Toftdahl Olesen, Cimbria’s chief executive, said he is pleased to have secured the backing of a strong industrial and financial owner to help develop the company. “EQT’s industrial approach will be valuable and of use for implementing our strategy for the future.”
EQT senior partner Håkan Johansson said Cimbria is an interesting company exposed to fast growing markets, which has resulted in considerable growth during the last five years. “We look forward to working together with Cimbria, its management and employees to improve Cimbria’s operational infrastructure and support its continued growth.”
The selling shareholders were advised on the disposal by Lett Law Firm, led by partner Michael Skovgaard and assistant attorney Soren Stig Hansen.
Lett Law’s service included performing a vendor due diligence review, which involved several of the firm’s specialists, drafting heads of agreement, drafting various agreements concerning the financing structure and co-ordinating and closing the acquisition.
“The transaction was complex and time consuming as it included the target company and subsidiary companies in Denmark as well as several other countries,” Skovgaard said.
The commercial due diligence report on the target company was compiled on EQT’s behalf by Applied Value.
Jonas Fagerlund, the associate partner who led its team, said the firm spent three weeks on the assignment, which was challenging due to the lack of publicly available market data. The task was made more difficult with the company consisting of four different business areas, which had little in common and had to be treated separately from a commercial due diligence point of view.
“Still Applied Value modelled the global market sizes and growth based on its own research, which combined with frequent meetings with EQT provided enough comfort for a go ahead. The gathered information was also used to develop a tentative strategy for each of the business areas.”
Thisted-based Cimbria was established 60 years ago and produces machinery and turnkey plants in four business areas; grain and seed processing plants, bulk and waste handling technology, vegetable oil extraction and biodiesel plants and industrial air cleaning and process ventilation.
It has revenues of DKK1,250 million (£112.6 million) and 900 employees working in its network of subsidiaries and offices across 20 countries.
