02 Aug 2007 Sale of Svensk Pantbelaning
Rutland Partners LLP, the UK private equity partnership, announces that it has completed the sale of its investment in Svensk Pantbelåning AB (“SP”) to Preato Capital Ltd. Preato Capital is the parent company of Finland’s largest pawnbroker, Helsingin Pantti-Osakeyhtiö.
SP is Sweden’s leading pawnbroker with 12 outlets across Sweden. Since acquiring SP, Rutland has reshaped the senior management team, overseen an improvement in the efficiency of the operations and steadily increased the profitability of the business.
Rutland acquired SP at the same time that it acquired Harvey & Thompson Ltd (“H&T”) in September 2004 from Cash America International, Inc. (NYSE:CSH). Rutland fully realised its investment in H&T through a successful listing on AIM in May 2006.
Rutland’s £3.0m investment in SP has returned a total of £5.8 million. This transaction brings the total proceeds received by Rutland on the H&T/SP transaction to over £50 million representing a money multiple of 2.7x the initial investment.
Commenting on the realisation, Paul Cartwright of Rutland said:
“The disposal of Svensk Pantbelåning marks the conclusion of the highly successful H&T/SP acquisition in less than three years. After the float of H&T it was always our intention to exit SP as soon as practicably possible.”
Commenting on the sale, Ulf Bergenudd, Chairman of SP said:
“Rutland has been a very supportive shareholder over its period of ownership and has transformed SP into a more efficient and focused business. We now look forward to working with Preato as the clear market leader in the Nordic region.”
The sale of SP was led on behalf of Rutland by Ben Slatter with financial advice from Ian Henderson and Jussi Vuorinen of MCF Corporate Finance.