A few tales of portfolio companies

During its time as a GP, Berling Capital's operating concept was buyouts, while the strategies would’ve been classified as either “buy and build” or ”turnaround”. The starting point was that the company's acquisitions were made at an affordable price. The companies were either bought at a very early stage, the companies were loss-making or otherwise in poor condition at the time of purchase. Leveraged buyouts were especially done in the beginning. High returns were achieved due to the cheap acquisition price, leverage and the development of the companies.

The company has held several significant majority and minority holdings, which have been divested as part of the company's strategy. Accordingly, the ownership of companies should be disposed of when the owner has made their contribution to the company's development. The development period in Private Equity may last for a minimum of 3-5 years, but in most of our cases they lasted 10 years or even more.

Here are four stories of ownership:

Kämp Collection Hotels 2004-2019

Kämp Collection Hotels is a hotel company that owns the legendary Kämp luxury hotel, which was founded in 1887 in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area, and nine other hotels and their accompanying restaurants. In 2018, the company's net sales were just under 90 million euros.

The history of Kämp Collection Hotels began in 2004 when Berling Capital acquired 100 % of the shares in Kämp Hotel Oy from Merita Bank (currently Nordea). During Berling Capital's 10 years of ownership, the four-hotel Glo hotel chain was built around Hotel Kämp. In addition, a company consisting of six independent restaurants was named Kämp Group Oy. This company was sold to Capman's funds in 2014. At the same time we became a minority shareholder in Kämp Collection Hotels, which had been jointly renamed with Capman. During five years, the company became a key player in the hotel business in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area by buying 4 hotels and opening an all-new hotel, St George, in Yrjönkatu, Helsinki. In August 2019, the company, which at this point had 10 hotels, sold all its shares to the Norwegian company Nordic Choice Hotels.

This transaction ended the 15-year journey of Berling Capital as an operative in the hotel business, 10 years of which the company was a 100% owner and 5 years as a minority shareholder with a venture capitalist.

Taaleri 2007-2019

Taaleri is a financial group whose parent company, Taaleri Oyj, is listed on the stock exchange list maintained by Nasdaq Helsinki Oy. Berling Capital was one of the founding shareholders of Taaleri when it started operating in 2007. Sampo Group had sold Sampo Bank to Danske Bank, which wanted to terminate the Mandatum asset management unit of Sampo Bank. Mandatum's management and staff formed the frame of a new asset management company called Taaleritehdas, which was later shortened to Taaleri and grew into a significant financial house. Berling Capital was a significant minority owner of the company until 2020. For further information, please visit taaleri.com

eQ 2006-

The asset management company eQ was born from a merger with Amanda Capital Oyj and has been listed on the Helsinki Stock Exchange for more than 20 years. The following are important events concerning its birth and transformation into its present form:

2000 Amanda Capital is founded in 2002 Amanda begins private equity investments fund operations in 2005 Amanda Capital Oyj enters Helsinki Stock Exchange’s main list Sampo Oyj as majority shareholder in 2006 Sampo Oyj divests its ownership

Sampo Oyj sells 2006 approximately 45% of its shares in Amanda Capital Oyj to Berling Capital Oy, Umo Capital Oy and Veikko Laine Oy, with approximately 15% going to each company. New active owners are starting a period of growth and new business. New funds are being set up, the customer base is expanded, the organization grows in size.

Amanda Capital and eQ merge together in March 2011

On 16 March 2011, Amanda Capital's Annual General Meeting approved the acquisition of 100% of the shares of eQ Asset Management Group Oy and changed its name to eQ Oyj. In conjunction with this the ownership of the majority-owned shareholders diluted by around one-third in 2006, and less than 10% thereafter.

The change, initiated by the owners of the companies that became such in January 2006, has led to the creation of a successful asset management company. The ownership share of these shareholders has decreased over the years, and the companies are no longer significant shareholders. The owner registry for 2006 can be viewed here.

Uneco Juomat 1994-2002

When Uneco Juomat in english Uneco Drinks was founded in 1994, alcohol companies were agencies in Finland, but there were already signs of change present. Legislation changed at the beginning of 1996 and the agencies were allowed to become importers, and this was an opportunity for Uneco Juomat.

The company became an importer among the first, and at the same time around ten alcoholic beverage agencies were acquired, whose product ranges were integrated into the product portfolio of Uneco Juomat. In a short period of time, the company grew organically and through acquisitions became the largest importer of wines in Finland, holding a 25% market share of all wines imported to Finland in 2002. In this situation, the company formed a contract with a well-known and experienced Private Equity company (GP) in Helsinki for the acquisition of the country's largest alcoholic beverage company. Berling Capital and the Private Equity company negotiated the acquisition of Altia Oyj on the basis that each, the State, the Private Equity company and Berlin Capital would all own one third. The trade negotiations were relatively straightforward and reached the point of contract creation, after which they required parliamentary authorization for the transaction, i.e. the divestment of more than 50% of the ownership, with the state retaining 1/3 of the company's shares in the agreement.

When the application for this permit was made, the trade union movement launched a movement called 'Pro Koskenkorva', which opposed divesting the state's majority share, which resulted to a situation where no parliamentary majority was found to decide on the divestment.

Evidently this process gave rise to the idea for Altia Oyj's acting management to do the same thing the other way round, i.e. buy Uneco Juomat Oy. Negotiations on this started a few months after the parliament had rejected the application to divest the majority of company shares. Subsequently, in 2002, the company's entire share capital was sold to the state-owned Altia Oyj, which is now a company listed on the Helsinki Nasdaq stock exchange under the name Anora Oyj.