IK Partners (“IK”) is a European

private equity Private equity (PE) is stock in a private company that does not offer stock to the general public; instead it is offered to specialized investment funds and limited partnerships that take an active role in the management and structuring of the co ...

firm focused on small and mid cap investments in the

Benelux The Benelux Union (; ; ; ) or Benelux is a politico-economic union, alliance and formal international intergovernmental cooperation of three neighbouring states in Western Europe: Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. The name is a portma ...

, DACH (

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, the Nordics countries and

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. The firm is led by Christopher Masek who has been the CEO since 2012.

History

IK Partners was established in 1989. Founded under the name Industri Kapital by

Björn Savén Bjorn Saven, (born 1950) is a Swedish industrialist and investor. He is the founder and former chairman and chief executive of IK Partners (formerly Industri Kapital) a leading European private equity firm focused on acquisitions across the Nord ...

and Kim Wahl, the partnership's origins lie in Enskilda Ventures, which in 1989 sponsored Björn Savén in raising the Scandinavian Acquisition Capital Fund (SAC) and established the London office. SAC closed with approximately €108 million in commitments, mainly from

Scandinavia Scandinavia is a subregion#Europe, subregion of northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It can sometimes also ...

n investors. In 1993 Industri Kapital became independent through the

management buyout A management buyout (MBO) is a form of acquisition in which a company's existing managers acquire a large part, or all, of the company, whether from a parent company or individual. Management- and/or leveraged buyouts became noted phenomena of 19 ...

of SAC's assets and activities from

Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB (; lit. "Scandinavian Private Bank"), abbreviated SEB, is a Swedish bank headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. In Sweden and the Baltic countries, SEB has a full financial service offering. In Denmark, Finland, Nor ...

, the parent of Enskilda Ventures. SAC's was renamed the Industri Kapital 1989 fund. In the same year, the company established offices in

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

and

Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...

. After having its name changed to IK Investment Partners in June 2008, it became known as IK Partners in September 2021. In December 2023, it disposed of CDMO Klingel Holding to Swedish medical devices developer and manufacturer Elos Medtech for a sum of €370m. In May 2024, Wendel announced that it had completed the acquisition of a 51% stake in the company for approximately €3.8 million.

Funds

Industri Kapital's second fund, IK 1994, held its final closing with commitments totalling €250 million. In 1997 Industri Kapital inaugurated its Hamburg office and closed its third fund, IK 1997, with commitments of €750 million. The year after, the firm completed its first investment in Germany. The fourth fund, IK 2000, closed with €2.1 billion in commitments in the year 2000. IK 2000 made its first investment in France. Three years later, in 2003, Industri Kapital began raising its fifth fund, IK 2004. IK completed fundraising in 2004 with €825 million in commitments. The firm's Paris office was opened two years later. In the year 2007 Industri Kapital closed its sixth fund, IK 2007, with commitments of €1.7 billion. In October 2013, IK closed its seventh fund, IK VII, with investor commitments of approximately €1.4 billion. In 2015, IK closed its first small cap fund, IK Small Cap I, at its hard cap of €277 million. The following year, IK closed its 8th mid-cap fund, the IK VIII Fund, at its hard cap of €1.85 billion. In 2017, the firm opened its Amsterdam office. IK continued to grow its small cap team through the IK Small Cap II Fund, which closed in February 2018 with total commitments of €550 million (almost twice the size of its predecessor). In 2019, IK introduced its minority partnership investment strategy and closed its first fund, IK Partnership I, with commitments of €300 million. The firm's ninth mid-cap fund, IK IX, was closed in May 2020, at its hard cap of €2.85 billion. IK closed its IK Small Cap III in April 2021, after raising and reaching its €1.2 billion hard cap in three months (more than twice the size of its predecessor). The fund included a dedicated pool to fund smaller transactions as part of the firm's Development Capital strategy. In 2021, the firm closed IK Partnership II with commitments of €335 million. In 2024, IK introduced its first continuation vehicle, IK Strategic Opportunities I, which closed with commitments of €505 million. IK closed it's most recent Mid Cap fund, IK X, in April 2025, at its hard cap of €3.3 billion, the largest fund to date.

Acquisitions

In March 2023, IK Partners acquired UK-based Ipsum Group, specialist infrastructure service provider, from Aliter for an undisclosed amount. In April, it acquired

teleradiology Teleradiology is the transmission of radiological patient images from procedures such as x-rays photographs, Computed tomography (CT), and MRI imaging, from one location to another for the purposes of sharing studies with other radiologists and p ...

provider Medica Group for a sum of £269m. In June 2023, the firm acquired Dutch

snack food A snack is a small portion of Human food, food generally Eating, eaten between meals. Snacks come in a variety of forms including Food packaging, packaged snack foods and other processed foods, as well as items made from fresh ingredients at ho ...

producer GoodLife Foods for an un-disclosed amount. In July, IK Partners, together with

Summit Partners Summit Partners is an American investment firm based in Boston, Massachusetts. The firm focuses on investing in technology, healthcare, life sciences and other growth industries. Background Summit Partners was founded in 1984 by E. Roe Stamps ...

, acquired a majority stake in the Swiss independent wealth management service provider Cinerius Financial Partners for an undisclosed amount.

References

External links

WebsiteLinkedIn
{{Authority control Private equity firms of the United Kingdom Private equity firms of Sweden Financial services companies established in 1989 Financial services companies based in London 2024 mergers and acquisitions

History

Funds

Acquisitions

See also

References

External links