Palamon Capital Partners, a European mid-market private equity firm, has acquired a majority stake in Eneas Energy in a transaction valued at NOK375m.
Eneas is a supplier of corporate energy services in the Nordic region, generating revenue approaching NOK700m during 2010.
It provides a range of services aimed at reducing energy costs for the SME sector as well as large corporate and public authorities.
The company employs 350 staff in its operations based in Norway, Sweden and Germany and serves approximately 10,000 customers.
Eneas is now targeting further growth by broadening its reach both through developing a wider product range and expanding geographically, which will be facilitated through the support of Palamon.
The business was co-founded in 1995 by chief executive Thomas Hakavik and sold to Statoil in 2001. In 2005, Hakavik led a group of private investors to buy the company back from Statoil. In the current transaction, Palamon will replace the private investors and the company’s existing debt facilities will be rolled over. Hakavik and his team will continue to lead the company.
Erik Ferm (pictured), partner at Palamon Capital Partners, says: “Eneas has shown phenomenal growth over the last ten years and is now established as a leading player in Scandinavia. We have considerable experience in helping companies to grow internationally and in Eneas we see a company with the right credentials to achieve this.”
Hakavik says: “We continue to see exciting opportunities and therefore it was important to us to partner with a firm that could share our vision of expansion and has the capital to back further expansion. We look forward to our partnership with Palamon, which is an experienced pan-European player, and we are confident that it is the perfect partner for this next stage in our development.”
This transaction marks the 14th investment of Palamon’s second fund, Palamon European Equity, II, which now has over 67 per cent of its EUR670m invested.
