Exits
In the Nordic PE industry, there has been a decline in exits in the later years. The number of exits in H1 fell by a third compared with the same period last year. Compared to the five-year average for H1, the number is down more than 50%.
In H1 2020, PE funds exited forty-seven Nordic companies, which is the lowest level recorded since Argentum began systematic monitoring of the Nordic market in 2003.
Within the venture segment, the picture is mixed: There are few PE-backed exits in a historical perspective, but an increase compared to the corresponding half-year period in 2019.
In the buyout segment, the number of exits in a half-year period has not been lower in ten years. One possible reason may be that the corona pandemic makes it challenging to achieve the right price and that the managers, therefore, put exit processes on hold.
The venture segment
There were 14% more Nordic venture exits in H1 2020, compared to the corresponding period in 2019. If we look at the average for the last five years, the volume is 50% lower. The decline in venture exits in recent years seems to have stabilised.
Most exits were carried out in Sweden (36%), followed by Finland, Denmark and Norway (all with a 22% share).
Notable exits include:
- Blueprint Genetics, a Finnish health tech company that was sold by a group of venture investors to the American industrial player Quest Diagnostics;
- Mapillary, a Swedish company specialising in digital maps, was sold by, among others, Wellington Partners and Playfair Capital to Facebook,
- And the Danish biotech company Symphogen, a developer of antibodies, was sold to the French industry player Servier.
The buyout segment
The number of PE-backed exits in the buyout segment was meagre from a historical perspective: We need to go back ten years to find the previous half-year period with fewer exits. Company prices have been very high and rising until 2019, and the uncertainty caused by the corona crisis has rocked with this notion. A result might be that buyer and seller choose to postpone the transaction in anticipation of a more clarified market situation.
Most buyout exits in H1 involved Swedish companies (57%), followed by Denmark (19%), Finland (14%) and Norway (10%).
Among the largest exits were:
IPOs
In H1 2020, two PE-backed IPOs were conducted, one in each quarter:
- EQT-owned Musti Group was listed on NASDAQ Helsinki on February 13. The Finnish company is the largest pet store chain in the Nordic region, with stores in Norway, Sweden and Finland. At the end of 2019, the chain employed 1.100 people in 277 stores. The company was valued at 293 million euros at the listing.
- Swedish Calliditas Therapeutics had Investinor and Industrifonden among its owners when it was listed on NASDAQ (US) in June. The company was valued at $467 million at the listing. Calliditas develops and improves medicines for new patient groups and markets.