Robert Andreen

"A couple of years earlier, in 2005, Nordic Capital had bought the subcontractor Plastal and begun building it into one of Europe’s largest in its niche, plastic components for the automotive industry. In 2007, Plastal had more than doubled in size through acquisitions, to 6,000 employees, of which 500 in Sweden, sales of 12 billion kronor and operations in about thirty countries. Nordic was looking for a buyer. But it was too late. The financial crisis crushed all such plans, and instead the venture capitalists were forced to put in more money and lay off 400 employees. In March 2009, it was over; bankruptcy was a fact. The bankruptcy administrator tried to sell the company in parts, and that summer the largest creditor, Handelsbanken, took over part of the business. Nordic Capital’s founder Robert Andreen says in the book “Swedish Billionaires” that it would not have helped if the company had zero kronor in loans; it was the market that collapsed. But the more capital a company has in the bank, the greater its chances of survival, of course. Nordic owned two more subcontractors, the roof rack manufacturer Thule and Finnveden-Bulten, and they managed to save those."

"In retrospect, it has become important to determine who was first. Who wrote the first chapter in the unlikely story that began in Sweden during the second half of the 1980s? One of the first to see the potential in trading unlisted companies was Skandia’s then CFO Björn Hall, when he founded Skandia Investment – but the one who handled the company acquisitions was Christer Dahlström. The first to start his own business and make acquisitions according to the American model was Mikael Ahlström. But Björn Savén started the first fund. One of Nordic Capital’s founders, Robert Andreen, is annoyed at Hall for taking credit for starting Nordic, when Andreen claims that Skandia was just a part-owner in the beginning. Hall then responds with a smile: “But you, who hired whom?”"