OCTOBER 01 2018
Nordic Capital is pleased to have won this year’s Private Equity International Operational Excellence Award in the EMEA Large Cap Award category for its support of global payments business Bambora.
This is the fourth time that Nordic Capital has been awarded the Operational Excellence Award, which recognises the achievements of private equity owners that add significant value to a portfolio company's operations. Nordic Capital has previously won the Operational Excellence Award for Thule in 2015, Permobil in 2013 and Nycomed in 2012.
When announcing the Award in Private Equity International’s Operational Excellence Special 2018, jury member Katja Salovaara (Senior Portfolio Manager at Ilmarinen) described Nordic Capital Fund VIII’s investment in Bambora as “a truly impressive case”. She highlights “its vision and use of strong sector expertise and networks to create a payments powerhouse with an end to end offering for the mid-market distributed on a global scale”. Noting the impressive speed and extent of the transaction, she comments that Nordic Capital’s engagement with Bambora shows “exceptional execution with investments in products, capabilities and organisation.”
During its three-year ownership period, Nordic Capital helped Bambora to become a global payments market leader, executing a carefully crafted acquisition strategy and making significant investment in products, capability and organisational framework and hence accelerated the business to reach the highest organic growth in its segment. During this time, the business expanded its operations into new markets including Norway, Denmark, Finland, the US, Canada, Switzerland, Australia and New Zealand, serving customers in over 70 markets and the number of employees grew from 50 in the platform investment to more than 700 people at the time of the exit.
The business was sold to Ingenico in July 2017 for EUR 1.5 billion in one of the most successful payments transactions globally to date.
Fredrik Näslund, Partner, Advisor to the Nordic Capital Funds, said: “Nordic Capital is very proud to have won this award which is a great credit to the hard work and dedication of the team behind Bambora. It is an excellent example of entrepreneurial business innovation, and another great “Swedish Unicorn” leveraging strong local tech capabilities to create a global digital leader.”
Fredrik Näslund added: “Operational improvement is key to ownership excellence, which lies at the heart of Nordic Capital’s approach to value creation. Working in close collaboration with portfolio companies, Nordic Capital contributes significantly in this area in order to create growth and value faster.”
Media contacts:
Nordic Capital
Katarina Janerud, Communications Manager
Advisor to the Nordic Capital Funds
Tel: +46 8 440 50 50
e-mail: katarina.janerud@nordiccapital.com
About Nordic Capital
Nordic Capital is a leading private equity investor in the Nordic region with a resolute commitment to creating stronger, sustainable businesses through operational improvement and transformative growth. Nordic Capital focuses on selected regions and sectors where it has deep experience and a proven track record. Core sectors are Healthcare, Technology & Payments, Financial Services, Industrial Goods & Services and Consumer & Retail, and key regions are the Nordics, Northern Europe, and globally for Healthcare. Since inception in 1989, Nordic Capital has invested EUR 13 billion in over 100 investments. The most recent fund is Nordic Capital Fund IX with EUR 4.3 billion in committed capital, principally provided by international institutional investors such as pension funds. The Nordic Capital Funds are based in Jersey and are advised by advisory entities, which are based in Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Germany and the UK. For further information about Nordic Capital, please visit www.nordiccapital.com