Phonero

With a strong salesforce and excellent customer support, the company has achieved steady high growth, becoming a sizable Norwegian telecommunication player.

From being a startup company in 2008, the company has grown organically and through the acquisition of Ventelo in 2014 to become a central virtual operator in the Norwegian business market with revenue exceeding 1 billion NOK and with more than 250 000 active users. The acquisition of Ventelo have strengthened the organization and improved the customer diversification due to Ventelo’s large share of government clients.

On November 9, 2015, Kistefos announced a sale of the majority shareholding in Phonero to Norvestor VI L.P a fund managed by the private equity company Norvestor.

Kistefos’ consideration for its ownership share was MNOK 758, which constitute a booked profit of approximately MNOK 680 and an IRR of more than 65%.

Kistefos reinvested MNOK 152 and owned 20,13% of the shares in Phonero after the transaction with Norvestor. The remaining 20% was sold to Telia in 2016 for a gross exit value of MNOK 400, corresponding to a multiple to cost of 2.7x.