IK Small Cap II Fund has signed an agreement to sell its entire stake in BST Group Nordic AB (BST or the Company) to Norvestor. Financial terms of the transaction are not disclosed.
Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, BST is a full-service provider of active fire protection services. The Company, which is the largest pure-play active fire protection services provider in Sweden with an emerging presence across the Nordics, employs approximately 430 people across the region.
IK partnered with BST in May 2019 and since then has helped facilitate the Company’s strategic development through its investments in the operations and leadership functions as well as accelerating the Company’s organic growth in existing business areas. During the partnership, BST has also expanded into new service niches such as fire engineering. The organic growth-focused efforts were paired with an ambitious buy-and-build strategy, which entailed six bolt-on acquisitions in addition to greenfield establishments in Denmark and Norway.
Kristian Carlsson Kemppinen, Managing Partner at IK Partners and Advisor to the IK Small Cap II Fund, says: “BST has grown substantially over the course of our partnership from a local sprinkler specialist in Sweden into a national active fire protection leader with a growing Nordic presence. Through a focus on operational excellence and strong organic growth coupled with selective acquisitive growth, we’ve achieved almost a tripling of EBITA and entry into new attractive business areas and markets. We wish the team at BST every success in the future.”
Peter Bühler, CEO and Co-Founder of BST, comments: “IK has been a terrific partner over the last two and a half years, combining direct knowledge of our sector and offering value accretive hands-on support. Their support enabled our growth ambitions to materialise, allowing us to accelerate the growth of our core business as well as expanding our service offering organically and through complementary acquisitions.”
