01/07/2019
LitCapital, a dedicated private equity growth investor in the Baltics, has successfully exited Baltik Vairas, a leading e-bike and bicycle manufacturer in Nordics and CEE. Baltic Bicycle Trade, a parent company of Baltik Vairas was acquired by a KJK Management advised fund. This is the fourth and so far the largest exit from LitCapital I KŪB fund.
LitCapital together with a Co-Investor Asgaard A/S invested in Baltic Bicycle Trade in 2013. The goal of the investment was to finance the venture for development and manufacturing of electric bicycles in Lithuania. Baltic Bicycle Trade took over Baltik Vairas after one of the venture partners decided to withdraw from it. All operational e-bike activities were moved to Baltik Vairas afterwards with the aim to create a leading e-bike and bicycle manufacturer in Europe. Baltik Vairas focused on becoming a preferred production partner to European brands with a perfect position to offer large scale and highly efficient service accompanied by a deep product development experience and know-how.
“With continuous support from LitCapital and Asgaard A/S the company focused on adopting LEAN principles by transforming its processes and culture and became one of the most efficient companies in the industry. It now is perfectly positioned to grow further to become an even more serious player in Europe’s cycling industry” – commented Niels Peter Pretzmann, Chairman of the Board at Baltik Vairas
„We invested more than 6 years ago with the aim to create a sizeable company within a relatively short period of time. With the help of a great management team, we supported building core competencies that the company didn’t have at the time, specifically, in areas like international sales, customer support, purchasing & supply chain management, finance and human resources.” – says Šarūnas Šiugžda, Founder and Managing Partner of LitCapital.
The demand for electric bicycles in Europe has been growing at a very fast pace for the last few years and is expected to increase further as a result of increased environmental awareness and ever growing need for convenient and clean transportation in urban areas. Furthermore, advances in e-bike technology allows to tap previously unavailable opportunities in such niches like cargo e-bikes. Favorable market conditions and management focus on operational excellence led to continuous improvements in the company’s financial results. The company’s revenues reached more than EUR 70M and EBITDA increased by more than 4 times during the ownership of LitCapital and Asgaard A/S. An exit process attracted a very strong interest from strategic and financial investors. All management team members of Baltik Vairas are staying with the company and will continue to execute the growth strategy going forward.
Swedbank Investment Banking Lithuania acted as a financial adviser and TGS Baltic was a legal counsel to the sellers.