CapMan exits Finnish systems provider

Nordic private equity firm CapMan has sold the majority of its investment in listed Finnish information systems provider Sentera.
 
CapMan sold 3,997,811 shares, or approximately 30.1 percent of Sentera’s shares, for €3.20 per share to software house SysOpen Digia, generating total proceeds of €12.8 million ($16.4 million).
 
According to CapMan, the purchase price was 24.5 percent higher than the closing price of Sentera’s shares on 29 May 2005, the day prior to the sale, and 27 percent higher than the trade volume weighted share price on the Helsinki Stock Exchange during the previous 12 months.
 
Following the transaction, CapMan currently holds a 3.5 percent interest in SysOpen Digia. CapMan was not immediately available for comment.
 
CapMan originally acquired a 14 percent holding in integration solutions provider Solagem in the summer of 2000 before merging the business with fellow listed Finnish IT business Iocore in 2003 for €4.3 million. The transaction was made through CapMan’s Finnventure IV, Finnventure V and Finnventure V ET funds.
 
Formed through the 2003 merger, Helsinki-headquartered Sentera provides solutions for integration between systems, companies, business operation processes and delivery chains, as well as for enterprise resource planning and financial management. The company’s turnover in 2005 was approximately €27 million, with operating profit of €3 million.
 
In separate news, CapMan also announced the acquisition of Tamro MedLab, which provides healthcare, laboratory, diagnostics and biotechnical products to the Nordic markets, as well as Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The business was acquired for an undisclosed sum.
 
Finland-headquartered Tamro MedLab has approximately 270 employees and reported turnover of €133 million in 2005.
 
CapMan has offices in Helsinki, Stockholm, Copenhagen and Oslo and currently has approximately €2.3 billion of assets under management. The Helsinki Stock Exchange-listed firm held a first close of its eighth buyout fund, CapMan Buyout VIII, on €312 million last November with a target of €375 million. Listed Belgian private equity firm GIMV recently announced that it had committed €20 million to the fund.
 
CapMan Life Science IV, the firm’s fourth life science fund, held a first close on €45 million in February of this year with a final target of €100 million.