Ahlström Capital in brief
Ahlström Capital is a family-owned company that focuses its investment activity on industrial companies, real estate and forest. We are one of the largest and most significant investment companies in Finland with a long history of 170 years. Ahlström Capital creates long-term shareholder value by actively developing its portfolio.
Key figures 2020
Revenue and comparable operating profit, MEUR
Revenue
Comparable operating profit
* Adjusted
Profit for the period, MEUR
Profit for the period
Impact from divestments and Ahlstrom-Munksjö merger
* Adjusted
Balance sheet total, MEUR and net gearing, EFV-adjusted
Balance sheet total
Net gearing, EFV-adjusted
* Adjusted
External fair value (EFV) per share and dividend per share, EUR
External fair value (EFV) per share
Dividend per share
Total dividend per share
* Board's dividend proposal: A Dividend of EUR 0.48 per share will be paid in two equal instalments. The first instalment of EUR 0.24 per share will be paid in April 2021 and the second instalment of EUR 0.24 per share to be paid in October 2021.
Number of shares was increased in 2017 (share issue without payment), comparative figures restated correspondingly.
”Our companies were successful in mitigating the negative effects of the corona pandemic and our portfolio proved to be notably resilient. We decided to accelerate the development of our biggest asset, Ahlstrom-Munksjö, by a public tender offer together with key partners. The deal flow in the real estate portfolio was active during 2020.”
Lasse Heinonen
President and CEO
At Ahlstrom-Munksjö profitability improved despite a reduction in revenue base. The company received excellent scores in both its customer satisfaction survey and the employee survey. Sustainability is high on the company’s agenda and is visible in new sustainability product launches, in campaigns like ‘from plastic to purpose’ and external recognitions including the EcoVadis Gold rating.
Detection Technology continued to develop its business in line with the DT-2025 strategy. The number of new customers increased by 20% and the company launched new products in all target markets. A new production site in Wuxi in China was opened and the Beijing subsidiary was granted the High and New Technology classification. The company has been active in developing its “beyond hardware” concept.
At Glaston, the demand for insulating glass offerings - originating from the transformational Bystronic acquisition two years ago - was strong, as the demand is driven by the necessity to improve the energy efficiency of buildings. However, the demand for heat treatment machines declined significantly. Fortunately, demand is picking up as Glaston had a strong recovery in orders received at the end of 2020.
Suominen reported strong performance in 2020. The demand for wipes clearly increased; a result partly driven by the pandemic. The company announced three investments supporting the new strategy aiming for growth and improved profitability. A new sustainability agenda with KPIs and targets focusing on People and safety, Sustainable nonwovens, Low-impact manufacturing and Corporate citizenship, was also announced.
Destia was awarded several big contracts such as the Kalasatama tramway alliance project, and several large maintenance contracts were also signed in 2020. Destia´s customer and employee satisfaction measures both clearly increased during 2020. Destia’s objective is to connect northern life and to grow as an increasingly strong urban developer together with partners.
Enics: the electronic component market was strongly hit by the Covid-19 pandemic. Strong cost-efficiency actions were taken. The ‘Back to Basics’ program has delivered good results, and this became visible in increased productivity and quality metrics. As part of the program, a new governance model and global processes were implemented. A new factory will open in Malaysia during April 2021.
The deal flow in our real estate business was active. A new real estate development project for a logistics and operational centre for Cramo started in Vantaa. The planning of a new real estate project in Tampere, next to the city centre, was also started. At the beginning of 2021, an investment of 25% in Avain Yhtiöt was announced. This investment expands our real estate allocation in the residential sector.
Sustainable and good forestry keeps forests vital and maintains growth, enabling forests to best sequester carbon. The estimated annual growth for Ahlström Capital’s forest assets, 189,000 m³, exceeds the annual loggings. Strategic measures to increase forest adaptation to climate change have been taken such as increasing the shares of deciduous trees and the mix of deciduous and coniferous trees.
Our portfolio
~ EUR 4.5 billion
revenue of portfolio companies, total
~14,600
employees in portfolio companies
30
operating countries
Listed companies
Ahlstrom-Munksjö is a global leader in fibre-based materials, supplying innovative and sustainable solutions to its customers. The company’s mission is to expand the role of fibre-based solutions for sustainable everyday life.
Revenue
Comparable operating profit
* Pro forma
Ahlström Capital’s shareholding
18.7%
Market capitalisation
2,081 MEUR
Detection Technology is a global provider of X-ray detector solutions for medical, security and industrial applications.
Revenue
Comparable operating profit
Ahlström Capital’s shareholding
36.7%
Market capitalisation
343 MEUR
Glaston is the glass processing industry’s innovative technology leader supplying equipment, services and solutions to the architectural, automotive, solar and appliance industries.
Revenue
Comparable operating profit
* Pro forma
Ahlström Capital’s shareholding
26.4%
Market capitalisation
75 MEUR
Suominen manufactures nonwovens as roll goods for wipes and other applications. The company’s vision is to be the frontrunner for nonwovens innovation and sustainability. The end products made of Suominen’s nonwovens are present in people’s daily life worldwide.
Revenue
Comparable operating profit
Ahlström Capital’s shareholding
24.0%
Market capitalisation
292 MEUR
Privately held companies
Destia is a Finnish infrastructure and construction service company that creates tomorrow’s infrastructure for its customers, society and people in general. The company creates urban construction innovations and smart infrastructure solutions that are built on a sustainable foundation.
Revenue
Comparable operating profit
* Adjusted
Ahlström Capital’s shareholding
100.0%
Enics is the partner of choice for professional electronics in the fields of energy, industrial automation, transportation, building automation and instrumentation.
Revenue
Comparable operating profit
Ahlström Capital’s shareholding
100.0%
Real estate and forest
Real estate
Ahlström Capital’s real estate portfolio includes prime location buildings in Southern Finland. Our portfolio also includes heritage assets in Noormarkku.
65,600 m2
real estate
area in total
151 MEUR
External fair value of
real estate
Forest
Ahlström Capital’s forest assets are mainly located in Western Finland in the Satakunta region, and in Central and Eastern Finland.
34,000 ha
Forests in total
159 MEUR
External fair value
of forests
Sustainable value creation
Ahlström Capital continuously improves the ESG impact and performance in our own operations and in our investments. We have published a Sustainability Policy to set a framework for the development and implemented KPIs to measure the ESG impact in order to drive the improvement in our portfolio. Our ESG focus areas: climate & resource efficiency, employee well-being and business ethics & Nordic governance model.
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