RANTALAINEN GROUP ACCELERATES ITS NORDIC EXPANSION BY JOINING FORCES WITH KLARA CONSULTING IN SWEDEN
Rantalainen Group has made its largest acquisition to date by acquiring Klara Consulting Holding AB, one of the leading accounting, payroll and HR services providers in Sweden. Klara Consulting has its headquarters in Stockholm with presence also in five other locations in Central and Southern Sweden, a turnover of 26 million euros and 300 employees. The sellers include private equity firm Ceder Capital with majority share and fifty key employees, all of whom will continue as minority shareholders in the combined Group. Klara Consulting will continue its operations in Sweden under its own brand.
“This is an important step in our strategy to build Rantalainen into a leading Nordic outsourced accounting and payroll services provider, and a market consolidator. Klara Consulting is an excellent platform for M&A driven growth in Sweden”, says Marika af Enehjelm, Chairman of the Board of Rantalainen and partner at Norvestor Advisory.
Klara Consulting is among the largest accounting and payroll services providers in Sweden, where Rantalainen already precedingly owns two smaller businesses. With the aggregate revenues of almost 35 million euros from the three, Rantalainen will now rank among the largest players in Sweden, where the market for financial administration services is twofold in size compared to Finland, however simultaneously more fragmented in terms of competition.
“We are both growth-oriented Nordic companies. For both companies, the focus is in customer centric services and experienced people. This already gives enough reasons to combine our strengths instead of competing with each other in the same market”, says Magnus Ramfelt, the CEO of Klara Consulting.
In Sweden, the financial management services industry is concentrated around the Stockholm metropolitan area, but Ramfelt states that the ambition will be to grow across the country, as Rantalainen has done in Finland.
According to Marika af Enehjelm, the aim is to leverage the successful acquisition and integration model established in Rantalainen across the other Nordic countries. With Norvestor as the majority owner, the resources for growth have been increased and the pan-Nordic Norvestor team supports the management in finding potential acquisition targets.
The CEO of Rantalainen, Jukka Rosenberg, considers that the Finnish team of Rantalainen also has such know-how and leadership experience that can be utilized for the digitalization of the Swedish operators.
“Klara Consulting is a great company that has demonstrated also strong organic growth. Our target is to offer our clients seamless and comprehensive services for outsourced accounting and payroll services across the Nordics. For our employees and management, expanding will offer interesting career prospects in an international work environment.”
For further information and inquiries:
Jukka Rosenberg, CEO, Rantalainen Group, phone +358 50 311 2194, and email jukka.rosenberg@rantalainen.fi
Marika af Enehjelm, Partner, Norvestor, phone +358 40 553 6934, and email marika.af.enehjelm@norvestor.com
Magnus Ramfelt, CEO, Klara Consulting, phone +46 70579 7024, and email magnus.ramfelt@klaraconsulting.se
Rantalainen is a leading provider of outsourced accounting and payroll services in Finland, employing 1400 finance and payroll administration professionals. The company offers comprehensive and modern financial administration services locally to companies and other organizations of all sizes, and Rantalainen’s customer base consists of approximately 23 000 companies and organizations. Rantalainen was founded in 1972, and currently has over sixty offices in Finland and Sweden with aggregated revenues of over 115 million euros. Rantalainen Group is owned by the Nordic private equity company Norvestor, the group management, Ceder Capital and key employees. For more information, please visit rantalainen.fi
Klara Consulting is one of Sweden’s largest providers of outsourced financial management services. The group was founded in 2021, with its roots going back to 1997. Klara Consulting serves customer companies of all sizes in Stockholm and five other locations in central and southern Sweden, as well as digitally, and it is proud of its employee-driven company culture. The group currently has 300 employees and 1700 customers, and the goal of Klara Consulting is to attract, develop, and attain talent in the industry offer the customers the best service in the industry. For more information, please visit klaraconsulting.se
Norvestor is a leading private equity company focusing on mid-market buyouts in the Nordic region with offices in Oslo, Stockholm, Helsinki, Copenhagen and Luxembourg. The team has worked together since 1991, making it one of the most experienced private equity teams in the Nordics, having executed 84 investments with over 400 add-on acquisitions, in addition to executing 59 exits, including 16 IPOs. The Fund seeks to invest in growth companies in the Nordic mid-market that have the potential to achieve a leading Nordic or international position, typically through organic growth, acquisitions across fragmented industries or by geographic expansion. For more information, please visit www.norvestor.com
