Ocorian acquires Nordic Trustee as it targets growth in fast-growing regional bond market
Ocorian, the financial services group and provider of fund, corporate, capital markets and private client services, has acquired Nordic Trustee, a provider of trustee and agency services for bonds and direct lending in the Nordic region, from Altor Fund IV.
Ocorian, which has a presence in Bermuda, said the acquisition was part of its strategy to build its capital markets offering, which it noted is one of its fastest growing business lines.
Nordic Trustee was founded in 1993 and has been instrumental in the development of the Nordic bond market, Ocorian said, facilitating issuers’ access to capital and monitoring and securing bondholders’ rights. It has advised on more than 400 bond restructurings and 2,000 bondholders’ meetings and is the largest independent loan agent in the Nordic private credit market.
It has over 3,000 running assignments in the non-bank lending sector for more than 850 issuers and borrowers from 30 countries. It also provides bond reference data, pricing information and indexes to institutional investors through its proprietary platforms Stamdata, Nordic Bond Pricing and eFIRDS. It has offices in Oslo, Stockholm, Copenhagen and Helsinki and is led by Cato Holmsen, its chief executive officer (CEO), who will continue to run Nordic Trustee’s business.
Frederik van Tuyll, chairman and CEO at Ocorian said: “This exciting acquisition allows Ocorian's clients to tap into the fast-growing Nordic bond and direct lending markets. The transaction also significantly expands the breadth and depth of solutions that Nordic Trustee can offer their clients and help them to be even more successful.”
Holmsen added: “This is great news for everyone at Nordic Trustee and our clients. We are delighted to be partnering with Ocorian and welcome this opportunity to team up with a fast-growing global business to offer our combined client base an enhanced service."
Ocorian is backed by Inflexion Private Equity. Flor Kassai, partner at Inflexion, said: “Ocorian is a dynamic, growing business with great potential and we’re delighted to support its continued development. Nordic Trustee is highly complementary to Ocorian’s existing global network and this partnership is an exciting part of its business growth."
Ocorian was advised in the deal by Thommessen, White & Case, PwC, DNB and Oliver Wyman. Altor Fund IV was advised by Arctic Securities, PwC and Wikborg Rein.
