CapMan buys engineering company

CapMan, a Nordic private equity investor, will buy Komas Oy, a supplier of mechanical sub-assemblies for the engineering industry, from private equity investor Midinvest Management, for an undisclosed amount.

CapMan funds will have an approximately 80 percent stake and Jukka-Pekka Nikula, managing director of Komas Oy, will hold the remainder.

The deal is expected to complete in January 2007. 

Komas supplies products to the metal, vehicle, defence and electronics industries.  Its estimated turnover for 2006 is more than €90 million ($119 million).

Veli-Matti Helenius, investment director of Midinvest Management, said: “We have grown for the last three years and now is the time for Komas to grow more, operating in Nordic countries other than Finland.  We are too small to fund that growth.”

CapMan’s legal advisors are Castren & Snellman, a Finnish firm.

Midinvest Management’s legal advice comes from Midlex while financial advice comes from Actis Advisors and Finland-based Advium Partners.

The investment is the third from CapMan Buyout VIII, which held its final closing in June at €440 million, exceeding its initial target of €375 million.  Funding also comes from CapMan Mezzanine IV, which held its final closing last year at €240 million.

Yesterday CapMan sold its real estate portfolio to Samson Properties, a real estate company, the Royal Bank of Scotland, a UK bank, and Ajanta Oy, a private Finnish investment company, for €377.5 million.

In October CapMan sold the “unsuccessful” RGS 90, a Danish recycling and soil treatment business, to DSV Miljø, a rival trade buyer, for an undisclosed amount.

CapMan invests in mezzanine, technology, life science and real estate funds with about €2.6 billion in total capital.