Advania, 30% investment by VIA Equity & PFA

September 2018 – Advania, 30% investment by VIA Equity & PFA

About the deal

In 2018 Bryan, Garnier & Co was the exclusive advisor to the owners of Advania on the divestment of 30% of the shares in the company to leading Northern European private equity firm VIA equity and PFA, Denmark’s largest pension fund.

Advania Group was acquired partly by a group of investors, including Nordic Mezzanine from Finland and a group of Swedish investors along with the management team in 2014 and then fully in 2015. The current deal means that VIA equity and PFA join them as owners of Advania Group.

“The Bryan, Garnier & Co team has supported us throughout this whole journey, and in this most recent transaction they have again done an excellent job. I look forward to a continued mutually successful cooperation,” says Thomas Ivarson, Chairman of Vianada.

“We are very proud of our advisory teams in this latest transaction for one of our most loyal clients. The transaction presents an opportunity for Advania Group to continue their growth path and we look forward to continue advising them on that journey.” says Adalsteinn Johannsson, Partner of Bryan, Garnier & Co and deal captain for the transaction.

Deal team

Adalsteinn Johannsson | Partner | Reykjavik | Investment Banking | ajohannsson@bryangarnier.com

Dadi Janusson | Director | Reykjavik | Investment Banking | djanusson@bryangarnier.com

Henrik Foyn-Laukvik | Vice President | Oslo | Investment Banking | hfoynlaukvik@bryangarnier.com

Nicoleta Rosu-Brekko | Associate | Oslo | Investment Banking | nrosubrekko@bryangarnier.com

Bodil Erdal | Associate | Oslo | Investment Banking | berdal@bryangarnier.com

About Advania

Advania AB is a Nordic IT services company that provides a wide range of IT-services, platforms, cloud solutions and support to multinational enterprises, governments, big, small and medium sized businesses. Their mission is to help our clients to simplify IT-infrastructure, enhance functionality and reduce costs.. Advania reported revenue of approximately SEK 2.8bn in 2017 and has a workforce of more than 1,000 employees.

About VIA equity

VIA equity is a leading Northern European Multi-stage private equity firm focusing on technology and service industries. VIA equity Fond I K/S, Fond II K/S and Fond III K/S all have a confirmed capital of DKK 1 billion (i.e. DKK 3 billion in total). VIA equity is more focused on specific industry segments than many of the capital fund colleagues in the industry. Historically, VIA equity has among others invested in software, internet, technology, energy- and service companies. Examples of current and exited software and IT-companies include among others: Adra Software AS, KMD A/S, Adform ApS, ePocket Solutions AS, DDD Retail A/S, Projectplace AB, ComActivity AB, Dolphin Software AS, Frontmatec A/S, Daldata AS, Hostnordic A/S, UVData A/S, Conscia A/S, Nets A/S, Profit Software Oy and Mansoft A/S.

About PFA

PFA was founded in 1917 as an independent company by a number of labour organisations, with the sole purpose of ensuring a financially secure future for the employees and their families. Today, PFA is the largest commercial pension company in Denmark with more than DKK 500 billion (EUR 67 billion) under management. PFA has approximately 1.2 million individual customers from a wide range of the largest companies and organisations in Denmark. PFA has made significant direct investments in recent years as part of its alternative investments portfolio across private equity, infrastructure and credit including investments into Walney Extension Offshore Wind Farm, Danish Ship Finance, Avantor and TDC.