The State of Nordic Private Equity 2025 (Gain.pro)

Summary

• EQT is the leading Nordics-headquartered investor, with an estimated €92.9 billion in enterprise value across Europe; the largest 50 Nordic HQ'd investors manage €193 billion.p.8
• 47% of PE-owned EV assets in the Nordics are owned by domestic investors, and North American sponsors hold the lowest share of any European region (18%).p.6
• Sweden accounts for 40% of all Nordic PE entries.p.27
• Nordic PE entry activity has declined 40% from 2021 levels, a far steeper drop than the 10% decline seen across Europe.p.21
• The median holding period for exited Nordic PE assets is 6.2 years, up from 4.3 years in 2020.p.37
• 82% of all PE deals in 2025 were add-ons, up slightly from 80% in 2024, with Services the largest sector for add-ons (47% of deals).p.30
• The Nordics is the most add-on-heavy region in Europe, with 54% of portfolio companies pursuing a buy-and-build strategy.p.31

Key insights

1. EQT is the largest global investor in the Nordics with an estimated enterprise value of €28.3bn, followed by Hg Capital (€19.8bn) and CVC Capital Partners (€16.1bn).p.4
2. The top 10 Nordics HQ'd investors account for roughly €158bn (82%) of the €193bn managed by the largest 50 across Europe.p.8
3. On average the largest Nordics HQ'd investors manage 17 companies each, with 798 new investments and 481 exits over the last 6 years.p.8
4. Of the 50 largest Nordic investors, 23 are headquartered in Stockholm, 11 in Copenhagen, 6 in Oslo and 6 in Helsinki.p.11
5. TMT (30%) and Services (26%) together accounted for more than half of all new PE entries.p.24
6. Compared with the rest of Europe, the Nordic PE market is overweight in TMT (+13pp) and underweight in Consumer (-8pp) and Industrials (-5pp).p.25
7. Among transactions above €200m EBITDA, 18% are carve-outs and 22% are take-privates.p.28
8. PE-backed businesses in the Nordics with over 5 acquisitions grew at a 5-year CAGR of 23.1% compared to 7.1% for businesses with no acquisitions.p.32
9. Nordic PE-backed companies account for 32 of the top 100 European platforms by add-on count, despite representing just 12% of all European PE portfolio companies.p.32
10. PE-backed businesses in the Nordics employ ~1m people.p.40