Adelis secures first deal from debut fund

Adelis Equity Partners has completed its first deal by agreeing to acquire Logent, a Swedish and Norwegian logistics service provider from the company’s founders and Inter IKEA Investments, an investment firm within the Inter IKEA Group which backs unlisted Swedish companies.

Financial details of the deal were undisclosed. The transaction is expected to be completed at the end of November 2013.

Adelis invested alongside the existing management team. Together, the group will own 100 percent of the business, Adalbjörn Stefansson, head of investor relations at Adelis, told Private Equity International.

Logent was founded in Stockholm in 2006 by the merger of two logistics consulting organisations. For the last five years it has generated sales growth of approximately 60 percent per year, both through organic growth and strategic acquisitions, according to a statement.

Logent, which has a workforce of approximately 3,500, operates within five main business areas and offers a range of logistics services such as staffing and site solutions, logistics consulting and port and terminal services. Logent's sales for 2013 are estimated to be SEK 1.3 billion (€150 million, $200 million).

The business has “a unique value proposition, an impressive customer base as well as an unmatched platform for growth” according to Jan Åkesson, co-managing partner of Adelis.

This is Adelis’ first investment after it closed its maiden fund on its hard cap of SEK 3 billion (€420 million, $690 million) having spent just eight months in market, PEI exclusively reported in October.

Adelis Equity Partners Fund I, which was “significantly oversubscribed”, a source close to the matter told PEI at the time, held a SEK 2 billion first close in July.

The firm is led by Jan Åkesson, a former executive at Triton Advisors in Stockholm for 11 years, and Gustav Bard, who spent more than a decade at 3i Group.

Adelis seeks to acquire majority interests in businesses with enterprise values between €20 million and €200 million located in the Nordic region. The firm is based in Stockholm but also has a Copenhagen office.