M&A as a Key Tool in Elcoline’s Growth Strategy

M&A

April 29, 2025

M&A

Elcoline Group, specialized in industrial technical services, is an excellent example of how crucial mergers and acquisitions can be as part of a growth strategy. We at Eversheds Sutherland Finland have acted as the company’s advisor ever since the business, which started in Varkaus, Finland, decided to pursue a determined growth path.

Elcoline’s target is to reach 1,700 employees and €250 million in revenue by 2028. Over the past decade, the company has been growing at an annual rate of 40%, and acquisitions have long been a vital part of its strategic toolkit. Several acquisitions have been made over the years, most recently Maintpartner AB in Sweden and Fortum’s turbine and generator services businesses in Finland, Sweden, and Germany.

Elcoline’s Chairman of the Board and co-founder Jere Räisänen emphasizes that acquisitions are often both a fast and cost-effective way to meet the needs of major customers and to acquire new clients.

We want to be the strongest player in the local market. Often, buying an existing business is worthwhile because otherwise, we would have to invest an enormous amount of time and money to build operations from scratch, he points out.

Dancing with the Swedes

Jere Räisänen gladly relates to Lieutenant John Dunbar, played by Kevin Costner in the classic movie Dances with Wolves, where Dunbar seeks to understand the Sioux people’s way of thinking. With a twinkle in his eye, Räisänen says he adopted a similar mindset when entering a new culture after Elcoline acquired the operations of Maintpartner AB in Sweden from funds managed by CapMan Buyout in 2022.

At that time, we realized that we needed to form a deep understanding of the business and the culture, and that can only be achieved by being physically present.

Therefore, Räisänen moved with his family to Örebro even before the acquisition between Elcoline and Maintpartner had been finalized. He highlights that while the project phase of an acquisition is important, the integration phase is even more critical.

You must be able to commit the experts and key personnel so that they genuinely want to work towards the €250 million revenue target. That is crucial for achieving results — and above all, it makes the work much more fun!

On Elcoline’s growth journey, many steps have hit the mark precisely — and this is no coincidence.

Good advisors are worth their weight in gold. Elcoline’s expansion into Sweden was carried out together with Eversheds Sutherland, and the results have been excellent! For example, our EBITDA in Sweden has quintupled through organic growth. The previous owner did not succeed in that, Jere Räisänen summarizes the journey so far.