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Industri Kapital makes first investment out of 2003 fund into Swedish housebuilder

Nordic buy-out firm Industri Kapital has made its first investment out of its recently closed 2003 fund with the €58m buy-out of Swedish prefabricated house manufacturer Myresjohus.

Myresjohus employs 2390 people and had sales of €106m in 2003. It has a ten per cent share of the prefabricated house market in Sweden, making it one of the biggest firms in its segment.

Samir Kamal, head of IK's Swedish team, said, 'The Swedish market for single-family houses has a positive outlook and this transaction manifests IK's intention to take part in the consolidation and development of the fragmented prefabricated housing industry.

'We view this as a buy-and-build case where we expect to make further acquisitions within the next couple of years,' he said.

IK suffered a difficult fundraising to close its 2003 fund and was eventually forced to settle for a much smaller sum than its original target. The fund closed with commitments of around €900m, compared with ambitions for €2.5bn.

The result has been a reorientation of investment strategy back towards the sort of mid-market deals it was doing some years ago.

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