Sponsor Altor has selected Citi to guide an auction process for Eleda, a Swedish infrastructure projects and services company, three sources familiar with the situation said.
Eleda is expected to be marketed off circa EUR 100m EBITDA, the first source said, and may fetch an enterprise value in the range of EUR 1.5bn to EUR 2bn, the second added. Information packages have yet to be distributed, the second and third source said.
Altor, which acquired the business barely three years ago, is looking to retain a minority, the second source added.
Sponsors are already taking a keen interest in the asset in pre-marketing with financiers at the ready to support an eventual buyout, the first two sources said.
At the time of publishing, Eleda had a score of 39 according to Mergermarket’s Likely to Exit (LTE) predictive algorithm*, which is partially driven by the number of acquisitions the company has made during Altor’s ownership.
Under the sponsor’s tenure the business has been a keen consolidator acquiring among others Gjermundshaug Anlegg AS and Anlegg Øst Entreprenør AS, which carry out road, railway, and other infrastructure projects in Norway, as well as Vastkustens Brygg and Transport in 2021, as reported.
Altor’s 2020 majority buyout was supported by a SEK 2.1bn (cEUR 176m) unitranche and a SEK 400m (cEUR 33m) acquisition facility supplied by Ares, as reported. The company also got access to a SEK 650m (cEUR 54m) super senior RCF provided by Nordea.
Eleda's circa SEK 15bn (EUR 1.25bn) in annual sales are generated by four business segments, as per its website. Its power distribution & production segment accounts for 40% of sales, followed by data & logistics centers and others which make up 23%, transmission infrastructure accounts for 20% while its transportation segment is responsible for 17% of its sales.
Citi and Altor declined to comment. Eleda did not respond to a request for comment.
*Mergermarket's LTE predictive analytics assign a score to sponsor-backed companies to help track and predict when an exit could occur through M&A, an IPO, a direct listing or a deSPAC transaction.
