Livonia Partners has agreed to acquire a majority stake in CSUB AS, a specialised developer of composite solutions for the subsea, offshore, aquaculture, renewables, and civil engineering industries. It is the first investment for Livonia’s second fund, which recently held its first close.
“CSUB has a solid record of growth and profitability in recent years with good further opportunities, especially in land-based aquaculture, renewables, and civil engineering,” Mindaugas Utkevičius, Partner and Co-Founder of Livonia Partners, says.
The company develops structures and products in glass fibre reinforced polyester (GRP), which is an environmentally friendlier replacement for materials like steel and concrete. Based in Arendal, Norway, CSUB has three production sites, of which the largest is in Klaipeda, Lithuania. The company currently has 180 employees. Its 2020 annual sales were NOK 300 million.
Livonia Partners acquired control of CSUB from the founders and a group of financial investors. The company’s experienced management team will continue and retain a significant equity stake.
“We sincerely thank the outgoing investors for supporting the company’s growth in recent years, and we welcome Livonia on board, looking forward to benefitting from their expertise in the development of manufacturing companies,” CSUB Group CEO Anders Holm says. “This transaction supports the company’s growth ambitions in the aquaculture, marine renewables, and civil engineering industries and we are looking forward to developing the business further in co-operation with Livonia Partners’ experienced team.”
“CSUB is in an attractive sector, with both manufacturing and engineering know-how, so in some ways is similar to our very successful investment in Thermory, where we oversaw a mix of organic growth and buy-and-build,” Utkevičius notes. Thermory is a leading producer of thermowood, with facilities in Estonia and Finland and a sales office in the USA, which Livonia’s first fund exited in 2020.
The Livonia team actively partners with ambitious entrepreneurs and management in the Baltic region and beyond, with the ambition to help them become leaders in their industries and markets and make a positive environmental impact while generating outstanding returns. The KS Livonia Partners Fund II, which closed in September at €147 million, intends to continue the previous fund’s focus on investing in areas such as TMT, manufacturing, business and consumer services, and other sectors.
About the CSUB Group:
CSUB, established in 2003, is a leading EPC supplier of composite products and solutions for the oil and gas, civil and renewable industry. An in-house engineering department tailors products to the needs of clients worldwide. CSUB also operates in the aquaculture market through the HighComp™ brand of solutions.
About Livonia Partners:
Livonia Partners is a pan-Baltic private equity investment firm currently managing assets of €230 million. Fund investors are Baltic and Nordic pension funds, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the European Investment Fund (EIF) investing through the Baltic Innovation Fund 2 (an initiative created by cooperation between the Republic of Estonia, the Republic of Latvia, the Republic of Lithuania, and the EIF) and others.