Bridgepoint sells Eurocom Depora

Bridgepoint Capital continues its recent spate of exits with the sale of Eurocom Depora to Finland Post for an undisclosed amount. This marks Bridgepoint’s second sale to Finland Post who acquired another Bridgepoint company, Swedish Capella Group last August. The realisation is said to have generated a very attractive return.

Bridegpoint acquired Eurocom Depora, German specialist data storage and output provider, in October 1998 in a EURO17 million management buyout from Microgen. The company has around 200 employees and operates mainly in Frankfurt and Duisburg. Its products are aimed at the insurance and finance sectors and include microfilming, electronic management and filing of mass information, information retrieval systems and document management and printing services. Net turnover in 2001 was EURO21.1 million.

The acquisition is part of Finland Post’s ongoing growth strategy in the electronic data management sector.

The business already has two companies in this sector Finnish Atkos and Swedish Capella Group. The combined group will offer major international organisations, such as financial organisations and industrial groups end-to-end services that utilise cutting-edge technology from the reception and processing of electronic data to printing and filing services.

Advisers on the transaction for Bridgepoint were Nordea Securities (corporate finance) and Pllath & Partner (legal). Legal advisers for Finland Post were Freshfields.

Bridgepoint has been investing in the Nordic region since 1995 and the team has completed eight buyouts, four follow-on acquisitions and four successful realisations. In July it completed the buyout of the largest privately owned car park in the region, Nordisk Parkering, in a deal that exceeded SEK800 million. Last year, the firm also opened its first office in the Nordic region. The new office is based in Stockholm and is headed by director, Graham Oldroyd. Chris Busby and Chris Bell, who were part of the Nordic team that was previously located in London, have also joined the team.