eEquity sell its shares in WhiteAway

eEquity sell its shares in WhiteAway, the leading player in selling whitegoods online, to Aktieselskabet af 10.6 i Danmark controlled by Anders Holch Povlsen owner of Bestseller generating a 4.5x multiple in return for eEquity

eEquity, the leading private equity company within internet retailing, carried out its first investment, of three in total, in WhiteAway Group A/S in December 2010. The company had at the time sales of DKK 150 million and an EBITDA of 6 million compared to sales of DKK 765 miljoner during 2013 and an EBITDA of 17 million. WhiteAway has today a runrate above DKK 1 billion in sales. Hvidevarer was founded by Johannes Gadsboll, Esben Gadsboll and Jesper Bang in 2003 at a small scale. Ib Norsholm engaged himself in the company in 2007 when the name was changed to WhiteAway. WhiteAway acquired Skousen 2011 and Lavpriskoekken 2012. The proportion of whitegoods being sold online is today approx. 20 percent in Denmark, 6 percent in Sweden and 2-3 percent in Norway. WhiteAway has today approx. 50 percent of the Danish online market and is growing organically by more than 100 percent yearly in Norway and Sweden.

By selling 28.1 percent of WhiteAway, eEquity realises a value equal to 88 percent of the total amount that the limited partners have invested in eEquity I and eEquity II.  The return, measured in multiple of the investment amounts to 4.5 in average for both funds with an average of both funds of 2.6 years. IRR amounts to 69 percent for eEquity I and 79 percent for eEquity II.

“This is our first larger exit in eEquity and we are very pleased and proud. We made a plan when we invested the first time to build a company with sales of DKK 1 billion in five years, which our runrate already exceeds after only 3.5 years” says Patrik Hedelin, responsible partner at eEquity. ”We also felt that our plan for increased product assortment, launch of two new markets, two add-on acquisitions in Skousen and Lavpriskoekken and implementation of our own private labels has been achieved and that the timing was right for us to sell. The value creation is mainly coming from migrating customers from offline to online that creates the foundation for strong organic growth in combination with strategic add-on acquisitions without any financial leverage”.

For additional information, please contact:

Patrik Hedelin, patrik@eequity.se or +46 70 545 2889

About eEquity

eEquity was founded in 2010 and has today become the leading private equity firm for investments within internet retailing, both concerning physical products and services. eEquity is working actively with its portfolio and is supporting the entrepreneurs in building more profitable and faster growing companies at lower risk by enhanced competence and an operational framework in order to build long term profitable companies. eEquity today has 10 portfolio companies and has five limited partners across Europe as investors. The company was founded by Magnus Wiberg and Patrik Hedelin. Magnus Wiberg previously co-founded Pricerunner and built it to become a leading price comparison site in Sweden and England and sold it ValueClick, listed on Nasdaq. Patrik Hedelin previously co-founded boo.com where Patrik was executive chairman with responsibility for the fund raising. Please visit www.eequity.se for more information.

About WhiteAway

WhiteAway is today leading in selling whitegods online in the Nordics. The company has it’s headquarter in Århus, Denmark with 85 employees. Sales are conducted online in Denmark, Norge and Sweden and through the franchise chain Skousen in Denmark. WhiteAway has since the start always experienced strong organic growth and profitability. WhiteAway sells approx.  4 000 whitegoods products from all large brands and three private label brands.

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