SEB Venture Capital makes further clean tech investment and acquires KMW Energi

SEB Venture Capital, the private equity business of SEB, has together with CapMan and Aloe Private Equity agreed to acquire a majority stake in KMW Energi AB, a leading supplier of bio fuel combustion plants. The transaction is expected to be completed by mid July.

 

KMW Energi is a leading supplier of biofuel combustion plants and a supplier of biofuel heating plants and Combined Heat and Power (CHP) plants, predominantly for the Swedish market. KMW Energi supplies turn-key solutions, where the Company designs the entire combustion process. The combustion systems operate on a wide range of cellulose fibre based fuels, such as forest and saw mill waste, briquettes and pellets. KMW Energi was founded in 1958 but has focused on the development of CHP plants since 2001.

 

As a result of today's agreement CapMan funds, SEB Venture Capital and Aloe Private Equity will own a majority stake of 80% of KMW Energi's shares with equal holdings. The current owners will hold the remaining 20% of the shares in the company.

 

Jonas Nyman, Lars Hagdahl and Hadar Cars who coordinated the investment on behalf of respectively SEB Venture Capital, CapMan and Aloe Private Equity will join the board of KMW Energi as non-executive directors.

 

"KMW Energi has excellent prerequisites to grow its customer base especially in the industrial sector and to expand operations internationally. The Company is profitable and recognised for its high quality products and its combustion technology competence in particular," says Malin Carlström, Investment Manager at SEB Venture Capital.

 

"KMW Energi is a leading clean-tech company in its segment. CHP plants have superior efficiency and economy compared to many other energy solutions. Plants based on KMW Energi's technological competence and solutions are safe and efficient with low environmental impact. We also believe that our new ownership will help us realise our international growth potential, and we are looking forward to working together with this new team", says Leif Granroth, CEO of KMW Energi.

 

SEB Venture Capital, with offices in Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmö, Vilnius and London, is an evergreen investor with SEK 2 billion under management. Since inception in 1995 we have made more than 70 investments and 35 exits. SEB Venture Capital has 20 investment professionals targeting Technology, Life Science and Industrial growth investments across the Nordics, Baltics and U.K. New investments in 2007 include SP Devices Sweden AB and Quickcool AB.

 

 

KMW Energi AB was founded in 1958 and is the leading supplier of mid-range bio fuel combustion plants in Sweden. The Company's peak competence and patented combustion technique guarantee safe and efficient solutions combined with a low environmental impact. KMW Energi's corporate office and manufacturing facility is located in Norrtälje and the Company employs 40 persons. KMW Energi is a member of the Swedish Bioenergy Combustion Association (SBCA). www.kmwenergi.se

CapMan is one of the leading private equity investors in the Nordic countries and manages Nordic buyout, mezzanine, technology, life science and real estate funds with approximately EUR 3.0 billion in total capital. Each investment area has a dedicated team and altogether CapMan employs around 100 people in Helsinki, Stockholm, Copenhagen and Oslo. Established in 1989, CapMan has strong experience as a fund manager and as a partner for investors and entrepreneurs. To date CapMan has made over 150 Nordic investments and over 90 exits. The current portfolio encompasses over 60 companies with an aggregate turnover of approx. EUR 2.7 billion and aggregate personnel of 17,000 people. The latest investments are made in Finnish Movial Applications Oy, Danish ScanJour A/S, Swedish QuickCool AB and Norwegian InfoCare ASA. In addition, CapMan has invested in almost 30 real estate assets and exited from 22. The B shares of CapMan Plc are listed on the Main List of the Helsinki Stock Exchange since 2001. www.capman.com

 

The investment in KMW Energi is made by CapMan Technology 2007 fund, in which CapMan Plc is a substantial investor. CapMan Technology invests in Nordic expansion and later stage technology companies. The portfolio companies of CapMan Technology typically deliver industrial (OEM) and B-to-B infrastructure, applications or services.

 

Aloe Private Equity is a global firm with offices in London, Paris, Stockholm, Beijing and Hyderabad which manages two Private Equity Funds which are dedicated to the Energy and Environment. These Funds are focussed on investing in companies who have proven technologies and products who wish to expand into Europe, India and ASEAN countries.  The Aloe team members are experienced entrepreneurs who have developed long-term strong trustworthy relationship in the markets mentioned.  The Funds' strategies are to invest in only a few companies and to partner with the company to grow the business together.  Aloe actively supports Management Buy Outs and consolidation strategies. www.aloe-group.com or aloe@aloe-group.com

 

The SEB Group is a North European financial group for 400,000 corporate customers and institutions,
and 5 million private customers. SEB has local presence in the Nordic and Baltic countries, Germany, Poland, the Ukraine and Russia and has a global presence through its international network in another 10 countries.
On 31 December 2006, the Group's total assets amounted to SEK 1,934bn while its assets under management totalled SEK 1,262bn. The Group has about 20,000 employees. Read more about SEB at www.sebgroup.com.

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