Ahlsell – Ahlsell welcomes new investors and extends its partnership with CVC in preparation for further growth

September 11, 2025

Ahlsell, the leading B2B industrial distributor of technical products in the Nordics, is pleased to welcome a select group of blue-chip investors into the shareholder base, alongside controlling shareholder CVC and management, to support the next phase of growth.

Founded in 1877 and with headquarters in Stockholm, Ahlsell has a long track record of compounding growth through a combination of organic expansion and acquisitions. During the partnership with CVC over the past decade, Ahlsell has successfully executed on its differentiated multi-vertical strategy, developed its omnichannel presence and completed over 100 synergistic acquisitions. Ahlsell is also a leader in sustainability and was awarded a platinum rating by EcoVadis placing it among the top 1% of rated companies globally.

Claes Seldeby, President & CEO of Ahlsell, comments: “Over the past years, Ahlsell has achieved remarkable results reflecting our strong dedication to improving our value proposition for customers and suppliers. Today, we are a specialist across 12 verticals serving a broad customer base across industry, infrastructure and installation with mission-critical products. CVC’s supportive partnership has been instrumental to this success and we are delighted that they are extending their support. We look forward to continuing to execute our well-defined and ambitious growth plans over the coming years to the benefit of all our stakeholders.”

Gustaf Martin-Löf, Partner at CVC, said: “Ahlsell is an exceptional business with a Swedish heritage, a differentiated value proposition, and a leading position in a large and attractive market. As the lead investor for more than a decade, we have come to fully appreciate the repeatability of the model and how the growth opportunity has expanded over time as we have deployed the multi-vertical model across the Nordics. We are deeply impressed by the achievements of the management team who have built a resilient champion addressing the maintenance and repair needs as well as the structural investments in industry and infrastructure in the Nordic economies. We are pleased to welcome new investors on this continued journey.”

The transaction is expected to close in Q4 2025. BofA Securities and Lazard acted as financial advisors to CVC who will remain the controlling shareholder post completion.

SourceAhlsell

EMR Analysis

More information on Ahlsell: See the full profile on EMR Executive Services

More information on Claes Seldeby (President and Chief Executive Officer, Ahlsell Group): See the full profile on EMR Executive Services

More information on Kristian Ackeby (Chief Financial Officer, Ahlsell Group): See the full profile on EMR Executive Services

More information on CVC Capital Partners: https://www.cvc.com/ + CVC is a leading global private markets manager focused on private equity, secondaries, credit and infrastructure with a global network of 30 local offices and €200 billion of assets under management.

CVC has seven complementary strategies across private equity, secondaries, credit and infrastructure. CVC’s private equity platform manages €115 billion of assets and comprises four strategies: Europe/Americas, Asia, Strategic Opportunities and Growth. CVC’s Secondaries business manages €17 billion assets under management, the Credit platform manages €48 billion and Infrastructure manages €19 billion. CVC’s ability to bring to bear the full extent of its global resources on any situation gives it a competitive advantage when sourcing new investment opportunities and when creating value during CVC’s ownership period.

CVC Capital Partners plc is a public limited company listed on Euronext Amsterdam.

More information on Rob Lucas (Chief Executive Officer, CVC Capital Partners): https://www.cvc.com/about/our-people + https://www.linkedin.com/in/rob-lucas-010a4640/

More information on Gustaf Martin-Löf (Partner, CVC Capital Partners): https://www.cvc.com/about/our-people + https://www.linkedin.com/in/gustaf-martin-l%C3%B6f-9544985/

More information on EcoVadis: https://ecovadis.com + The World’s Most Trusted Business Sustainability Ratings.

Since its founding in 2007, EcoVadis has grown to become the world’s largest and most trusted provider of business sustainability ratings, creating a global network of more than 150,000+ rated companies.

Our team is composed of over 1900 highly-talented professionals from 80 nationalities.

The EcoVadis sustainability assessment methodology is at the heart of our Ratings and Scorecards and is an evaluation of how well a company has integrated the principles of Sustainability/CSR into their business and management system.

Our methodology is built on international sustainability standards, including the Global Reporting Initiative, the United Nations Global Compact, and the ISO 26000, covering 250+ spend categories and 185+ countries. The Sustainability Scorecard illustrates performance across 21 indicators in four themes: Environment, Labor & Human Rights, Ethics and Sustainable Procurement.

EcoVadis medals are awarded to the top 35% of companies assessed by EcoVadis:

Medals are awarded based on the percentile rank of a company which is calculated at the time of scorecard publication. It compares a company’s performance with all rated companies in our database over the previous 12 months. The percentile rank is calculated across all companies in all industries, not per industry.

Platinum – Top 1% (99+ percentile)
Gold – Top 5% (95+ percentile)
Silver – Top 15% (85+ percentile)
Bronze – Top 35% (65+ percentile)

To be eligible for a medal, a company must achieve a minimum score of 30 in each of the four themes:

Environment
Ethics
Labor & Human Rights
Sustainable Procurement

More information on Pierre-François Thaler (Co-Founder & Co-Chief Executive Officer, EcoVadis): https://ecovadis.com/leadership/ + https://www.linkedin.com/in/pfthaler/

More information on Frédéric Trinel (Co-Founder & Co-Chief Executive Officer, EcoVadis): https://ecovadis.com/leadership/

More information on Bank of America (BofA): https://www.bankofamerica.com + Bank of America is one of the world’s leading financial institutions, serving individual consumers, small and middle-market businesses and large corporations with a full range of banking, investing, asset management and other financial and risk management products and services. The company provides unmatched convenience in the United States, serving approximately 69 million consumer and small business clients with 3,700 retail financial centers, approximately 15,000 ATMs (automated teller machines) and award-winning digital banking with approximately 58 million verified digital users. Bank of America is a global leader in wealth management, corporate and investment banking and trading across a broad range of asset classes, serving corporations, governments, institutions and individuals around the world. Bank of America offers industry-leading support to approximately 4 million small business households through a suite of innovative, easy-to-use online products and services. The company serves clients through operations across the United States, its territories and more than 35 countries. Bank of America Corporation stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: BAC).

More information on Brian Moynihan (Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Bank of America (BofA)): https://newsroom.bankofamerica.com/content/newsroom/executive-bios

More information on Lazard Frères SAS: https://www.lazard.com/ + Lazard’s mission is to provide the most sophisticated and differentiated advice and investment solutions for our clients, backed by the intellectual capital of our firm.

Founded in 1848, Lazard is one of the world’s preeminent financial advisory and asset management firms, with operations in North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Australia. Lazard provides advice on mergers and acquisitions, capital markets and capital solutions, restructuring and liability management, geopolitics, and other strategic matters, as well as asset management and investment solutions to institutions, corporations, governments, partnerships, family offices, and high net worth individuals.

During our more than 175-year history, we have built a global network of relationships with key decision makers in business, government and investing institutions. We have deep local knowledge from our well-established operations in each market, which we pair with broad global perspective, serving clients with multinational resources.

More information on Peter Orszag (Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Lazard Frères SAS): https://www.lazard.com/our-people/leadership-board/ + https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterorszag/

EMR Additional Notes:

Blue-Chip:
- The term ‘blue chip’ originates from poker, where blue chips hold the highest value. A blue chip is a publicly traded company that is recognised nationally for its positive reputation and high-quality product or service. Blue chips are successful businesses that can be trusted to perform well and operate profitably even under adverse market conditions. A blue chip company is widely considered a solid long-term investment due to its established position in its industry. Blue chips have a large market share, seasoned management, solid and reliable financials, and brand recognition.