Background
Reiten & Co initially invested in Euroskilt, a Norwegian company manufacturing signs and traffic safety products primarily for the Norwegian market, with some activities in Sweden and Poland. At the time of investment, Euroskilt had sales of €69 million and 390 employees.

Reiten & Co had followed the company for several years, and was well prepared when a structured sale process was initiated. Reiten & Co bought out two passive investors and made an equity installment  to get 68% of the shares in the company. The remaining shares were held by the management and the founders.

Over the investment period, Reiten & Co was diluted down to 51% following the merger with Ørsta Group, that brought in over 100 minority investors. The name "SafeRoad" was adopted following the merger.

Investment Rationale
Euroskilt was well positioned within the Scandinavian traffic safety and road infrastructure market. At the time of investment, this market had received considerable public attention, and there was a rare cross-party agreement among policy makers to invest in roads to improve communication and reduce the number of traffic accidents. The market was fragmented and Reiten & Co considered Euroskilt to be a strong base for a consolidation effort.

Euroskilt had made some initial investments in Eastern Europe, where the road infrastructure market was expected to boom as a result of structural investment programs put in place by the European Union. This was a very large market, without strong incumbents, and represented an exciting opportunity for further development.

During the investment process, Reiten & developed a strong relationship with Euroskilt's management team, and considered it to be both highly competent and very ambitious.   

Value Creation
Under Reiten & Co's ownership, SafeRoad grew from being a local player with most of its business in Norway, to becoming one of Europe's largest traffic safety suppliers, with the most complete product and service offering in the market. Reiten & Co was highly active in the building of SafeRoad both from board positions and direct involvement in key processes in the company.

Based on a thorough mapping of the industry, Reiten & Co, together with top management, developed a sound growth and M&A strategy. Reiten & Co headed most acquisition processes, resulting in a total of 14 successful acquisitions in 5 different countries and the merger with the Ørsta Group.

A strong board of directors with solid industry experience was established to support the company's strong growth. Reiten & Co was also engaged in recruiting several members of the top management team.

Reiten & Co was deeply involved in several operational initiatives during its ownership period. This includes the divestment of commercial signs division, a program for improving sourcing and working capital and the creation of a new name (SafeRoad) and company profile.

Following a very competitive auction process, SafeRoad was sold to a fund managed by the Swedish private equity investor Nordic Capital.