Translations:

Current press release is available also as a translated version. Please, select your language from the menu above.

Stock exchange release - 31 March 2005

CapMan Mezzanine IV fund closes on EUR 240 million

CapMan announces the final closing of its fourth mezzanine fund CapMan Mezzanine IV with EUR 240 million in total commitments, making it one the largest mezzanine fund ever in the Nordic countries. The closure of the fund, which has focus on mezzanine investments in Nordic middle market buyouts, raises the cumulative capital in funds managed/advised by CapMan to EUR 1,377.5 million.

CapMan Mezzanine IV makes mezzanine investments in middle market Nordic companies in the manufacturing, retail and service industries with net sales between EUR 50 million and 500 million. The fund has already finalised one investment in the Finnish non-food discount store chain Tokmanni Oy. In addition the fund has announced investments in Finnish Metso Drives Ltd, the supplier of mechanical power transmission equipment and Norwegian Cardinal AS, which is Norway’s second largest supplier of poultry products and eggs.

Part of CapMan Mezzanine IV is securitised, offering investors an opportunity to participate in the fund by subscribing asset-backed bonds issued by Finnish special purpose vehicle Leverator Plc and listed on the Helsinki Stock Exchange. The new fund structure has enabled such institutional investors to invest in CapMan Mezzanine IV who due to their own investment allocations have previously been unable to invest in CapMan funds or in the private equity asset class in general. There are 33 institutional investors in the fund. For the first time, in addition to Nordic investors the investor base also comprises substantial investors from Western Europe.

CapMan funds have made 38 mezzanine investments in Nordic companies in the manufacturing, retail and service industries since 1995, investing approx. EUR 240 million in total. Mezzanine financing is typically used to finance rapid growth, MBOs/MBIs, acquisitions and large investments. Mezzanine is also a useful instrument for financing of successions in family-owned companies that want to retain ownership of the company within the family. The majority of CapMan’s mezzanine investments are made alongside CapMan’s equity fund. CapMan is an active owner and participates hands-on in the development of its portfolio companies to create value in the investment, through active Board work among others. To date, CapMan has achieved a number of successful realisations from its mezzanine investments in portfolio companies.

CapMan’s own commitment into the fund is EUR 7 million. The management fee and carried interest arrangements of the fund are in accordance with common practice in the industry.


For further information, please contact:

Mr Jerome Bouix, Director, Fundraising & IR, CapMan Plc, tel. +358 40 820 8541


CapMan Group
CapMan is one of the leading private equity investors in the Nordic countries and specialises in middle market buyouts in various industry sectors, technology investments in the IT and communications sectors and investments in life science companies. The CapMan team comprises around 80 people in Helsinki, Stockholm, Copenhagen and Oslo. CapMan manages/advises Nordic funds with approx. EUR 1.4 billion in total capital. To date, the funds managed/advised by CapMan have invested in 150 companies in the Nordic countries and exited from 73 companies. The latest investments are made in Norwegian Cardinal AS, Finnish Metso Drives Ltd, Swedish SciBase AB and Danish Anhydro Group. CapMan Plc is listed on the Main List of the Helsinki Stock Exchange.