About us

Entrepreneurs at heart. Engaged in partnerships built on curiosity, creativity and achieving a lasting impact.

If it wouldn’t have been for Altor – we would probably all have been entrepreneurs. That is our spirit and mindset. Be creative. Be sustainable in all we do. Transform. Always challenge the norm. The more complex, the more exciting. An ambitious group of people from quite humble backgrounds.

So, an entrepreneurial firm with strong values, owned and led by the Altor Partners. This set-up enables to create our own destiny, to think and more importantly act long-term – for the benefit for all involved.

We have married this with our investing skills and then partnered up with some truly exceptional founders and leaders. Looking back over our close to 20 years as a firm, this set-up has given us the privilege of becoming the partner of choice to a set of industry-transforming entrepreneurs and companies. What we refer to as our community of challengers and change-makers.

Looking at the years ahead, we see that the speed of change will only accelerate; companies old and new will seek to resolve urgent global challenges such as climate change, resource scarcity and an aging population. We believe the separation between the companies winning and others will widen, and the disruption will make room for an explosion of new entrepreneurs that will create new solutions to the challenges ahead. It will create profound complexities and put enormous pressures on society, but it will also create opportunities. We don’t claim to know exactly what the future will demand of us. But we know this much: no one can do this alone.

We have, since the beginning, been an active partner to entrepreneurs and companies, based on the fundamental belief that great things are achieved together. To win in the long run, a company must be willing to redefine its industry, and with an ambition like that, partnerships are essential. Building the tomorrow is the work of many people and it creates value that lasts. Value we can look back on with founders and management, agreeing that together we made a positive difference.

We are certain that our passion for partnerships creates real value. Value that lasts. Value we can look back on with founders and management, agreeing that together we made a positive difference.

With a focus on developing companies to their full potential and reflecting a strong belief in sustainability, our family of investment funds has a notably longer horizon than many others.

An evolving investment strategy

To date, we’ve invested in close to 100 companies as well as more than 300 add-on acquisitions, consistently generating strong returns. But it takes exceptional people to lead and support extraordinary companies. We have built a unique network of experts from some of the most renowned companies to help drive lasting impact for our partner companies, be it as Board members, advisors, or operational and sector specialists.

Then there is the Altor team; based out of five offices in the Nordics and DACH, each with a very strong local franchise leadership. We have nurtured a culture which in many respects is just as entrepreneurial as that in the companies we partner with. Naturally, we seek to complement the skill sets in the portfolio companies, but we also share important traits with our entrepreneurs: such as having the highest of ambitions, being passionate about what we do, persistent and with the ability to be both bold and creative when it is needed.

Our deep belief in entrepreneurship and partnerships has stayed true over time, but our investment mandate has gradually evolved. Today we are active across the spectrum, from classic value transformations of more mature companies to partnering with young, high growth businesses. We are able to invest in both private and public companies as well as through selective minority shareholdings. In such investments we have also been able to successfully apply our governance model of a genuinely active ownership.

We thrive when faced with complex transformation challenges. While our focus is mainly set on a handful of sectors, each situation and therefore each transaction needs its tailored structure. We are selective but at times also contrarian in our investments. Our strategy is based on identifying and realizing sustainable performance improvements, often in situations with multiple value creation levers, such as revenue growth, margin expansion and capital efficiency. It’s a strategy that naturally leads us to long-term investments.

Altor’s strong commitment to ESG goes hand in hand with our belief that it has a positive impact on investment returns, and it is therefore a natural part of our investment strategy. Sustainability has always been a significant part of our mission to create superior and lasting value in our portfolio companies, but recent years have made this conviction even stronger. With our heritage in Scandinavia, we are at the very center of some of the world’s most exciting climate initiatives. Continuing our tradition of building great businesses in deep partnerships, we have already made a handful of exciting investments in companies that can accelerate the green transition and redefine the industry landscape.

Again, we have a genuine enthusiasm for partnerships. We believe that previous owners are goldmines of experience. Bridging this experience is a valuable, and to us, an obvious way not only to share sector insights and expertise, but to make it possible for incumbent owners to participate in the upside of continued value creation.

The Altor values

It is a demanding purpose to create the foremost community of challengers and change-makers. And it requires an every-day behavior, driven by every Altor employee in the way we act, and in the way we relate to each other and to other stakeholders. To cherish this Altor-style and carry the legacy forward, we have expressed it in five values.

The first is Aim High, it is about our passion and persistence and setting our hearts and minds to delivering world-class in everything we do.

The second is Brave and Bold, which is about embracing complexity, curiosity and to forge new paths by opening new doors and discovering unseen opportunities.

The third is to Be Nice. It is about staying humble and paying attention to and truly care about the people around us.

Team Always is our fourth value. We are energized by what others can bring to the table and believe that diversity of background and thought is crucial. To listen and learn, must be the essence of our partnerships.

Finally, our fifth value is Act Responsibly, which is about operating with a purpose and an opportunity to do something good for people, communities and the planet.

These values are ambitious and gives us room to grow, they are not fully accomplished yet, but they are fundamental and true to who we are and how we operate.

The Altor way

Insight, insight, insight. Behind every Altor success is a deep understanding of both the portfolio company itself and the industry it operates in. Each potential opportunity is evaluated on industry attractiveness, market position and its value creation potential, with the Altor team drawing on sector specific experience to spot similar business opportunities, both in sourcing new investments and as an owner.

Once an investment is completed, the real work begins. We look at how we can maximize the full potential of this company, starting off with a common understanding of the current market position, what is the performance versus what is world class. We look at strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats before forming a joint vision of what a truly successful journey could look like. Then external Board members are appointed, with the just-right background and vision to match the opportunities ahead.

Together with the management team, we work as allies to build a truly world-class business, benchmarking the strategic agenda and operating targets against the most reputable and admired companies.

By staying true to this approach, our portfolio companies often still have significant value creation potential after a number of years. This is why we take a longer hold than many other funds. For example, the four latest funds have a 15-year horizon.

The funds and the investors

Leading European and US institutional investors have committed a total of more than EUR 11 billion to Altor in six funds. This helps Altor scale itself for new challenges but just as importantly, it gives Altor sufficient capital to help the portfolio companies to scale. The Altor funds have secured strong support from leading international institutional investors who share Altor’s long-term perspective on value creation. They include high quality institutions, university endowments, pension funds, charitable foundations and other leading international institutions. 66% of the committed capital in our latest fund comes from investors outside the Nordic countries and DACH.

Operating model and governance

We have gradually shifted our operating model towards a cross-office sector focus to maximize the build-up of knowledge and our contributions to each situation. We believe that this, together with our strong local presence and deep knowledge of each local market is key to our success. At the end of the day, we are truly one Altor and have at the same time strengthened our firm-wide collaboration. We staff our teams cross offices; we have an integrated value creation team and transparency in the portfolio review that is second to none.

Looking at governance, Altor Fund Manager AB, is the main operating entity for Altor Fund IV, Altor Fund V and Altor Fund VI, which has its legal domicile in Sweden and is regulated as an authorized manager of alternative investment funds under the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive. Altor Equity Partners is the investment advisor to the three first funds, which are domiciled in Jersey. Both Altor Fund Manager and Altor Equity Partners are private companies owned and controlled by the Altor Partners who put in a significant amount of own capital to work alongside the outside investors.

Altor 2003 Fund GP Limited, Altor Fund II GP Limited and Altor Fund III GP Limited have a Board consisting of Chairman Hans Henrik Klouman, and members Heidi Birtwistle and Brendan McMahon. In Altor Fund Manager AB, Hans Henrik Klouman is Chairman and Board members are Cecilia Lager, Eivind Kolding and Christian Salamon.

The investment professionals operate out of offices in Copenhagen, Helsinki, Oslo, Stockholm and Zurich, consisting of roughly 120 dedicated investment professionals.

At Altor we have a number of policies which help build the foundation of the firm. Being a regulated business in a global society, this is not only a natural necessity but also something that we constantly oversee and improve.

Internal Code of Conduct
Compliance
Risk management
Internal audit
Conflicts of interest
AML and CTF
Personal account dealings and market abuse
Anti-corruption
Responsible Investment and Ownership
Whistleblower