Industri Kapital cashes in shares

In a move that will no doubt boost its current fund raising efforts Industri Kapital is returning money to investors from two investments that were listed on the Stockholm bourse last year. The Nordic group is currently seeking €2.5bn for its fifth fund, which last month held a first close at €500m. Industri Kapital has reduced its holding in Swedish heating equipment manufacturer Alfa Laval and fitted kitchen company Nobia.

Alfa Laval went public in May 2002 with an IPO price of SEK91. The total offer, which was over 3.5 times oversubscribed, was valued at SEK5.657bn making it Sweden’s largest listing in two years. Industri Kapital acquired a controlling stake (51%) in the business in August 2000 from packaging company Tetra Laval, which retained a 49% holding. Both groups reduced their stake at the time of the IPO, after which Industri Kapital held 26.9%. The investor has now reduced its ownership of Alfa Laval to 17.9% by selling a further 10,000,000 shares. This deal will return capital to investors in Industri Kapital’s 2000 fund, including HarbourVest Partners, Danske Bank, SEB, Standard Life and BNP Paribas.

Industri Kapital’s 1994 fund acquired a 95% stake in Nobia from Stora in 1996 and listed the company on Stockholm’s O-list last year, at which point it held a 58% stake. The initial public offering, priced at SEK78 per share gave the company an enterprise value of SEK4.5bn, was approximately three times oversubscribed. The total number of shares sold at the IPO was 19,933,297 or 34.6% of Nobia’s capital. After floatation Industri Kapital held 38.4% of shares and was subject to a lock-up period before it could complete the current deal, through which it is reducing its stake to 25.4%.

The listings of Alfa Laval and Nobia contributed to a flurry of private equity-backed activity on the Stockholm market last summer. In June debt collecting business Intrum Justitia, another of Industri Kapital’s portfolio companies, went public and EQT also realised its investment in kitchen company Ballingslov through the public markets. However, the planned IPO of wind turbine manufacturer LM Glasfiber was pulled in May last year, to the disappointment of investor Doughty Hanson, due to poor market conditions. Industri Kapital is currently mulling plans to list Swedish cosmetics group Oriflame next year.