Ratos sells Gadelius
Ratos has today signed an agreement for the sale of the Japanese trading house Gadelius. The purchaser is a Swedish private consortium of people with long industrial experience of Swedish-Japanese business. The selling price amounts to approximately SEK 190m.
Ratos made its original investment in Gadelius in 2001 in conjunction with Ratos's and 3i's joint acquisition of Atle. In spring 2004, Ratos acquired 3i's 50% holding in Gadelius, making the company a wholly owned Ratos subsidiary.
During its period as a holding Gadelius's management, which took over in 2002, has carried out restructuring designed to make the company's operations more efficient and streamlined. Under Ratos's ownership, the company rationalised its tied-up working capital and overheads, set up a company-wide business support for its operations, and launched new agencies in the Japanese market with good long-term prospects. While implementing these changes the company has been forced to deal with weak economic development in Japan. Gadelius' CEO Hans Porat will remain in his position.
- Ratos CEO, Arne Karlsson, comments: "In view of the circumstances that Gadelius has been operating under over the last five years, we are highly impressed by the ability of its management to continue to develop and improve these operations."
Gadelius is being acquired by a consortium made up of private individuals with long experience of Swedish-Japanese trading connections and industrial development. The consortium is headed by Bo Dankis, CEO-designate for chemical Group Perstorp AB and with previous experience from Gadelius and ABB Japan.
- Ratos CEO, Arne Karlsson: "The new owner group has considerable knowledge of Gadelius and Swedish-Japanese business activities. The new owners, together with the company's management, are best placed to manage Gadelius's multi-year history as a leading Japanese trading house."
Today's deal will provide Ratos with an exit loss of approximately SEK 10m. The average annual return (IRR) on the investment was 2%. Calculated in yen, the return (IRR) was 4%.
For further information, please contact:
Arne Karlsson, CEO of Ratos, +46 8 700 17 43
Anna-Karin Celsing, Head of Corporate Communications, Ratos, +46 703 99 62 39
| Interim report January-September 2006 | 10 November 2006 | |
| Year-end report 2006 |