Nordstjernan acquires 29.9 % of the share capital and 29.7 % of the votes in Swedol from the Zetterberg family’s holding company Zelda. The acquisition is made at a price of 20 SEK per share. The Zetterberg family retains 21.5 % of the share capital and 29.7 % of the votes. Zelda has committed to reclassify 5 million Class A shares into Class B shares.

Swedol is a leading player within the sale of high quality goods to the professional market through its own stores, mail order and e-commerce. The operations include four customer segments – building & plant, industry & workshop, agriculture & forestry and haulage & transport. The company had a turnover in 2014 of 1.4 billion SEK.

FIELDS Group is pleased to announce that they have a Agreement reached to acquire 100% of the shares of SULO EMBALLAGEN GmbH. SULO develops EMBALLAGEN and produces steel drums for the chemical and food products industry and is based in Herford, North Rhine-Westphalia. The company is a of the leading suppliers
of steel drums in Germany and has more than 90 years in the market active. The annual turnover is approximately € 40 million. The company is sold by Plastic Omnium Environment, the environmental division of Compagnie Plastic Omnium of France. The acquisition will be completed in the coming months.

Anne Willem de Vries from FIELDS GROUP ”
Sulo EMBALLAGEN produces high quality steel barrels large volumesen therefore fits the profile of FIELDS Group. The acquisition will SULO EMBALLAGEN enable the activities based on its high quality and good customer relations in the years to further expand. Henry Freudenreich, CEO of SULO EMBALLAGEN adds: “By working together with FIELDS Group we can benefit from the extensive experience and expertise of FIELDS Group in the field of high quality, high volume production. Together with FIELDS Group SULO EMBALLAGEN activities develop its current and adjacent markets and we continue our clients and meet their needs for packaging and of steel.

IK Investment Partners (“IK”) is pleased to announce that the IK VIII Fund has reached an agreement to acquire Ellab A/S (“Ellab” or “the Company”), a leading manufacturer of thermal validation solutions, primarily used for validation for food and pharmaceutical industries, from a group of private investors. Financial terms of the transaction are not disclosed.

Founded in 1949, Ellab is a leading global supplier of solutions for measuring, recording, monitoring and validating critical parameters of thermal processing, selling its products in over 65 countries across the globe. The Company offers a wide product range of high-precision systems for temperature, pressure and humidity monitoring and validation based on either data loggers or thermocouple based wired instruments. Ellab’s products are used by the pharmaceutical and food industry as well as hospitals, where accurate and complete documentation is essential.

Groupe BPCE has announced today the signing of an agreement with the key shareholders and the founders and managers of Fidor Bank AG related to the acquisition of their equity interests in the company.

The planned acquisition of Fidor is fully in line with Groupe BPCE’s strategic plan “Another Way to Grow” and will contribute to the acceleration of the rollout of the group’s digital strategy.

Founded in 2009 by its CEO Matthias Kröner, Fidor is one of the world’s first “Fintech Bank”, pioneering the collaboration between traditional financial services and technology businesses and having developed an innovative approach to retail banking. Fidor offers a unique proposition by combining an innovative customer experience relying heavily on the involvement of the 350,000 members of its community and an open organization and architecture to foster flexibility and agility.

Fidor has developed in particular a proprietary digital banking platform – Fidor Operating System – allowing for fast and easy functionality and enabling open and most advanced API Banking. Telefónica has announced this week the launch of O2 Banking, its mobile-only bank account in partnership with Fidor using the API Banking infrastructure.

By joining Groupe BPCE, Fidor will be able to capitalise on the support and backing of a solid banking group to accelerate its own growth and international development.