Norvestor closes Fund V

Norvestor Equity, a Norwegian mid-market private equity house, has raised €236m (US$355m) for its fifth fund, Norvestor V.

Campbell Lutyens was placement agent on the fundraising, for which Kirland & Ellis and Bugge, Arentz-Hansen & Rasmussen acted as legal advisers.

Fund V’s predecessor, the 2004-vintage €157m Norvestor IV, made six investments in Norwegian and Nordic mid-market companies, along with several follow-on acquisitions.

Transactions included Norwegian jeweler Panorama, an investment in Oslo-based seismic survey business Scan Geophysical and the simultaneous acquisition and merger of three Swedish health food companies.

More recently, the fund bought Nordic travel agents Seat24 Travel and SRG Online and merged the two for an undisclosed sum. Campbell Lutyens was also placement agent for Fund IV.

Like its predecessor, Fund V targets investments of €10m to €45m in mid-market companies with enterprise values of between €20m and €125m. To date, it has made three investments: Nordic Vision Clinics, a chain of laser surgery eye clinics; RenoNorden, a municipal waste collection business; and Wema Group, a supplier of senors to the heavy truck industry.

Norvestor’s first two private equity vehicles, Norsk Veskst I and II are both fully invested.