Investment firm Kinnevik buys into Swedish online grocer MatHem
14/02/2019 08:40
STOCKHOLM, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Kinnevik KINVb.ST is
spending 900 million Swedish crowns ($97 million) to buy a 38
percent stake in MatHem, an online domestic grocery retailer
that it sees benefiting from more Swedes shopping online for
food items, the investment company said.
The investment will include 400 million crowns in capital
and 500 million in secondary shares and will give it exposure to
a grocer that completed over one million deliveries last year,
Kinnevik said as it fourth quarter results.
Founded in 1936 by the Stenbeck, Klingspor and von Horn
families, Kinnevik today holds stakes in telecom players like
Tele2 TEL2b.ST and Millicom TIGOsdb.ST , as well as tech
startups like payments group Qliro and online classified
platform Quikr.
Under new Chief Executive Georgi Ganev, the Swedish firm has
been pursuing a strategy of increasing its exposure to private
Nordic companies as it battles for assets with larger hedge
funds and private equity firms muscling in on its territory.
Kinnevik reported on Thursday a 10 percent fall in net asset
value during the fourth quarter to 256 crowns per share, blaming
negative share price development in Global Fashion Group (GFG)
and other e-commerce assets.
Ganev said Kinnevik would focus on "active ownership,
increased activity in the private portfolio and an increased
engagement in the Nordics".
"In 2019, we will continue to drive this agenda, but I
expect the number of new investments during 2019 to be fewer in
favour of more sizeable investments as demonstrated by the
investment in MatHem," he said in a statement.
MatHem had a turnover of around 1.5 billion crowns in 2018
and in December partnered up with Clas Ohlson CLASb.ST to
deliver the hardware store chain's products and services on top
its own food assortment.
Kinnevik said its ambition with MatHem was "to deepen the
relationship with customers, extending it beyond the scope of
the online grocer itself".
($1 = 9.2421 Swedish crowns)
(Reporting by Esha Vaish in Stockholm, editing by Anna
Ringstrom and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
((esha.vaish@thomsonreuters.com; +46 8700 1122, +46 70 721
1122; Reuters Messaging:
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