Verso Capital acquires and accelerates carve-outs with a new €100 million fund

The new €100 million fund acquires businesses that have strong growth potential but are not living up to their full potential in the current ownership.

Verso Capital is a growth stage buyout investor with a special focus on carve-out situations. The new €100 million sector agnostic fund acquires businesses that have €5-50 million revenues but suffer from growth or profitability bottlenecks. Typical cases are carve-outs from larger corporations and rearrangements of joint ventures, but the fund also invests in existing growth companies to help drive accelerated growth through M&A transactions. With offices in Helsinki and Munich, Verso Capital invests across Europe with a focus on the Nordic, DACH and North-European markets.

“The shift in the world economy forces companies to focus on their core activities. Verso has a quick and efficient process to carve out businesses that are not able to grow to their full potential in the current ownership”, says Anssi Kariola, Managing Partner, Verso Capital. “We build new growth companies from non-core businesses working in close co-operation with the current operative management.”

The first investors in Verso Fund III are KRR III, Tesi, pension funds Ilmarinen, Varma and Elo, as well as Nokia, Valeado AB and Etrisk Oy with a total investment commitment of €66 million. The target size for the fund is €100 million and fundraising will continue until the end of 2020.

Unique investment focus: turning non-core businesses into new growth companies.
Verso Fund III acquires businesses that can grow faster as new independent companies. The Verso team has extensive transaction expertise and own methodology to speed up and simplify the carve-out process while reducing carve-out costs. The Verso team then actively supports these new growth companies to achieve international success.

Acquisition and investment targets can include non-core businesses inside larger companies, rearrangement of joint ventures, or any business that is unable to live up to its full potential in the current ownership. For example businesses that were transferred to a new owner as part of a larger M&A transaction, but do not fully fit the buyer’s strategy, may have a better chance of success as independent companies.

“Not all businesses can be optimally developed inside large organisations. We create new international growth companies by focusing on the needs of the business as an independent company”, says Anssi Kariola, Managing Partner, Verso Capital. ”Our team has experience from more than 100 carve-out transactions, making us an efficient and reliable partner in all possible transaction situations.”

Verso Capital
Verso Capital is a growth stage buyout investor that specialises in carve-out situations. We acquire and invest in European B2B companies and businesses that have good growth potential and revenues up to €50m, but currently are suffering from growth bottlenecks. Our team has experience from over 100 carve-out and M&A transactions – we have the necessary know-how and methodology to execute even complicated transactions quickly and efficiently. We are typically a majority investor and spend a considerable amount of our time working together with the management in order to solve growth and profitability bottlenecks. We manage three funds with a total of €126 million in assets under management. Our offices are in Helsinki and Munich.

Contact:
Anssi Kariola

Managing Partner
Verso Capital Oy
+358 50 589 0520
anssi.kariola@versocapital.com