Congratulations to Thomas H. Lee Partners (THL) for their investment in inriver – and congratulations to Verdane for continuing their journey with inriver.
It has been a pleasure working with Gazal Sikand, Jeff Swenson, Jesse Searby,Tabish Valliani, Rohan Angle, Ben Y., Sarah Spotts, MBA, Cliff Longley and the entire THL team assisting them with this strategic growth investment.
I appreciate the trust they placed in me and my experience and industry relationships as we together with the in-river executive leadership team, investors, bankers, Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and other advisors to agree on this investment.
Congratulations to CEO Thomas Zanzinger and Chairman Jorgen Smidt on leading the business to this successful outcome. And special congratulation to Johan Boström and his co-founding team with Johan Billgren, Fredrik Gustavsson, and Roland Persson who started inriver back in 2004. And lastly to Pål Malmros from Verdane.
As a Dane with Swedish roots, it has been a pleasure to follow the company and see what passion, friendship, hard work, humble confidence and dedication from all the people in the organization, partner network, and customer community combined with the right owners can achieve together.
I’m happy to have been part of helping THL with this growth investment that will enable inriver to double down on their vision, strategy, and ambitious goals.
As an expert member of the Danish Regulatory Foum I can testify that the number of regulatory initiatives which are also requiring non-financial disclosure is growing rapidly. A recent report shows that between 2013 and 2018, there has been a 72% increase in the number of recorded regulations. Especially in the past years, this trend took an even broader and more defining role and are the reason of this CSRD related post.
On an EU level, the Non-Financial Reporting Directive (NFRD) came into effect in all member states in 2018. Since then, all 28 countries have adapted the NFRD into national law, and it is now up to companies to comply. With the EU Taxonomy, the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive(CSRD), and the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) among others, the European Union is moving on to the next step of regulations on sustainability reporting and sustainable finance. More precisely, the CSRD aims to ensure that businesses report reliable and comparable sustainability information to re-direct investments towards more sustainable technologies and companies. It is estimated that this would affect around 50.000 companies in the EU.
In April 2021, the European Commission published its proposal for the CSRD to replace the existing NFRD. The NFRD is undergoing a fundamental update with the CSRD. While the proposal still has to pass through the instances, it already offers a preview of the changes that will come to companies, banks, and insurance companies. The current stage of “passing through the instances” brings lots of uncertainty and constant changes. With this post, it is my intention to to draw a picture of what is happening right now as it will generate several market opportunites in european Enterprice software market.
Following its adoption at the EU level, the directive must be transposed into national law by December 1st, 2022 for it to take effect for companies. That is in a littel more than 6 month. According to the previous timetable, the regulations are to apply from January 1st, 2024 for the 2023 financial year. However, the timetable appears to have been pushed back, proposing a delayed introduction and change of scope.
Framework
The proposed directive introduces European reporting standards, which are still in development. According to current proposals, the CSRD will be composed of sector-independent, sector-specific and organization-specific standards.
Additionally, it adopts a so-called “double materiality” approach, which will change the principle of materiality that is currently known, particularly in Germany. The “double materiality” requires companies to report on both the impact of sustainability on segments on their balance sheet as well as the impact companies have on the environment and society.
If the EU sticks to its current schedule, the first core standards will be available for review by mid-2022 and adopted by October 31, 2022. As of now, a slimmed-down version of the standards for SMEs will be available by October 31st, 2023 .
Who will be affected by the CSRD?
Compared to the NFRD, the CSRD aims to significantly expand the scope of companies subject to reporting requirements:
All large companies with 250 employees or more, regardless of a capital market orientation. The second threshold for large companies continues to be a turnover of > 20 million euros or sales of > 40 million euros.
All capital market-oriented small and medium-sized enterprises, except for micro-enterprises (from 01.01.2026). According to Directive 2013/34/EU, companies are considered small if they exceed two of the three characteristics 1) 10 employees, 2) 350,000 euros total assets and 3) 700,000 euros net sales (see also chapter timeline changes).
Reporting at the Group level continues to exempt subsidiaries from their reporting obligations. The subsidiary must refer to the Group report.
What kind of information need to be disclosed?
The CSRD will require a statement containing all information necessary for an understanding of the organization’s business performance, results, position, and the impact of its activities.
In the future, the required information needs to be included in the annual management report. This is to be published no later than four months after the end of the financial year. The publication has to be in a machine-readable format.
Possible timeline and -scope changes:
The European Parliament and the Member States are continuing their negotiations on the CSRD proposal. The European Parliament has now announced its position, introducing several changes to the proposed legislation.
One part of these changes demands that SMEs would be taken out of the scope of mandatory reporting. Since SMEs form an essential part of the European economy, with most business enterprises in Europe belonging in this category, this would be a setback for the EU towards achieving net-zero. Initially, SMEs were included via a simplified framework with a three-year application delay compared to the timeline for large companies.
As the second part of these changes, the European Parliament asked for a delayed implementation of CSRD by one year. The delay means that all large companies will be required to disclose in line with the new rules as of 2024, publishing their reports in 2025.
While these changes are not finalized, many involved parties have expressed concern about a possible delay and scale-down of scope as it would create a clear risk of a funding gap at a critical time for the EU economy.
New challenges for companies and how DFGE can help
The CSRD builds on existing concepts of sustainability reporting. Larger capital market-oriented companies have long been required to disclose sustainability information.
Nevertheless, there is still a significant proportion of companies that do not yet conduct sustainability reporting, or at least not yet to the structured extent that is expected by the CSRD. Due to the expanded group of reporting companies, it will be a major challenge to introduce sustainability reporting across the board and establish appropriate processes for reporting.
In addition, for the companies already reporting, the requirements for data quality and data scope will increase. Companies will have to make their sustainability information auditable and potentially develop new topic areas. The collection of quantifiable key figures, the setting of concrete targets, and the progress report on the achievement of these targets represent further key challenges of the new reporting obligation.
As compliance with the CSRD calls for increasing integration of sustainability aspects into corporate strategy, the CSRD fundamentally strengthens the trend toward anchoring sustainability aspects more and more into business.
European Commission (2021). Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Directive 2013/34/EU, Directive 2004/109/EC, Directive 2006/43/EC and Regulation (EU) No 537/2014, as regards corporate sustainability reporting (Proposal Corporate Sustainabiltiy Reporting Directive (CSRD)). ( https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:52021PC0189 )
With the development of Boyum cloud applications, Boyum have today started their internal and external communication to inform partners about these upcoming innovations and to get valuable feedback.
Today, they are several steps ahead, making significant progress, and are proud to have already released 3 powerful role-based cloud applications that continue growing and evolving. Therefore, Boyum today takes the opportunity of re-branding and positioning their products Build, Produce and Inspect as well as future products as standalone cloud applications. All of these products will be part of a product family that we call Cloud Apps.
Website content that was previously available on boyumcloud.com has already been moved to the boyum-solutions.com site. Check out the new pages here! Marketing, sales and pre-sales resources are still available through their Marketing Resource Hub, you can find them under the product names Build, Produce and Inspect.
This re-branding is an important step for the right positioning of the Cloud Apps as well as for achieving the strategic goals.
Lanell suggest to listen to the latest podcasts and learn more about the cloud apps Build, Produce and Inspect, which target group they serve and the problems they can solve.
Lanell has detected fraudulent use of its brand, one of its company names (“Stenfeldt Capital Aps”) and its Danish office address by a company via http://www.stenfeldtcapitalaps.com.
The company is wholly unconnected to Lanell and Stenfeldt Capital, and measures are currently being taken to remedy the situation (including files with Danish Police and US SEC). We strongly advise any individuals or organisations contacted by the company to refrain from engaging in any and all business activity or collaboration.
For further information, please contact info@lanell.com.
As co-founder and investor in ClearView Trade we are pleased to announce that CIBT, the leading global provider of visa, immigration, and legalization services, operating under the CIBTvisas and Newland Chase brands, has announced a technology partnership with us at ClearView Trade. We are the market leader in export documentation management software and together we will digitalize and streamline export trade, regulatory affairs documentation and certificates for international shippers and exporters moving goods worldwide.
The technology partnership combines CIBT’s unparalleled global consular services and legalization capabilities with ClearView Trade’s innovative export document software to provide clients with a unique online platform to facilitate global trade compliance with digital verifications of document data, document templates and certificates.
Clients can more efficiently process and manage export documents reducing document lead-time and errors related to manual processes through a complete digital solution from order to delivery that connects all partners in international trade within a single window environment.
And as Florent Frapolli, Managing Director – EMEA, CIBT states: “We are excited to partner with the market-leading software solution for managing export documents. Our new and existing clients will benefit from the unique combination of services and software. We believe this partnership will allow us to bring a service offering to our client base that is unmatched in the document legalization market.”
Proud to be co-founder and investor through Lanell.
On May 4th 2021, Trifork announced its intention to launch Initial Public Offering on Nasaq Copenhagen with first expected trading day on June 1st, 2021.
Today, on May 17th, the offer period commenced and will close no later than 31 May 2021 at 2:00 p.m. CET, but may be closed in whole or in part at the earliest on 26 May 2021 at 00:01 a.m. CET. The Offer Period for orders up to, and including, DKK 3 million may be closed before the remainder of the Offering is closed. Any such earlier closing, in whole or in part, will be announced through Nasdaq Copenhagen.
Ferd Capital have committed to subscribe for shares in the contemplated IPO for DKK 270 million based on a post-money equity value of up to approximately DKK 2.96 billion.
Trifork is a next-generation IT and business service provider, founded in Denmark in 1996 and now headquartered in Switzerland. Trifork is striving to be at the forefront of technological innovation by inspiring and teaching customers about new technological possibilities, building innovative software solutions and operating and maintaining these solutions, matching the strength of Ferd’s other shareholdings in listed companies.
Long-term relationships with blue-chip and other customers driving growth through repeat business.
Innovative approach to R&D by investing in promising technology start-ups trough the Trifork Labs segment.
Full-year 2021 financial targets: Revenue of EURm 140-150 and Trifork segment adjusted EBITDA of EURm 23.7-28.5.
Lanell’s Role
Lanell served as strategic buy-side advisor to Ferd Capital supporting the creation of a 360 degree perspective on Trifork.
Lanell continue to serve as strategic advisor for Ferd Capital covering the Nordics.
SAP service provider Domani Business Solutions will be responsible for Boyum’s SAP Business One Produmex team as of May 1, 2021.
With this, employees and SAP customers of Produmex join the portfolio of Domani Business Solutions. Produmex WMS is Boyum’s Warehouse Management System with which SAP Business One users control their logistics processes and support warehouses. The solution supports the supply chain of companies, ensuring speed, agility, traceability and the timely delivery of goods. Partly due to barcode scanning, a standard part of the WMS solution, users achieve enormous time savings.
As of May 1, the team, which within Boyum was responsible for implementations and support of SAP Business One and Produmex WMS, will join Domani Business Solutions. This will further expand the expertise of WMS and Beas within the Domani Business Solutions team, allowing all Produmex SAP Business One customers in the Benelux to benefit from an even broader knowledge of SAP Business One and SAP HANA.
The Domani Business Solutions team has been active as an ICT service provider since the end of 2003 with SAP Business One in the Benelux. This SAP Gold Partner was involved in hundreds of implementations, known for innovative achievements and won several SAP Awards including Partner of the Year, highest customer satisfaction and SAP Quality Awards. The company was also the first in the world to implement SAP Business One on HANA. By merging the SAP Business One team of Produmex and Domani Business Solutions, customers can also count on the very best service in the future for issues related to WMS and Production in combination with SAP Business O
Buying a company outside Denamrk with travel restrictions is not easy. So today, Lanell is pleased to announce the completion of the acqusition Lanell have been working on for BitPeople A/S.
With the acquisition of Adiles AS, the IT consulting house BitPeople continues its Nordic acquisition strategy and thus becomes an even stronger player in the Nordic market. At the same time, we at BitPeople can now offer local service and expertise in the western part of Norway with the company’s new office in Bergen.
The financial statements for 2020 have not yet been completed for BitPeople, but the company will continue in 2021 in the same high gear with new customers and another acquisition. It is only half a year ago that BitPeople acquired Danish Acomi, and this merger has proceeded according to plan.
Last year was an eventful year for the company’s major shareholder Mikael Boyum. The sister company Boyum IT Solutions entered into a partnership with English Volpi Capital and before that, BitPeople had undergone a name change and the hiring of a new Nordic director. “So yes, it has been an eventful year. All changes must be anchored, and we have simultaneously had to navigate with the influences from Covid-19, but the board and management have kept their eyes firmly on our customers and towards integration and hiring new employees – this is where value is created, and we close 2020 with solid growth – both organic and non-organic “, says Mikael Boyum.
The acquisition of Adiles takes place 10 years after BitPeople made its first acquisition in Norway. At the time, it was the SMB Group in Oslo and it is this platform that is now being further consolidated. But buying with travel restrictions is not easy. Niels Stenfeldt from the company’s board and CEO in Lanell has been in charge of this acquisition and states “We have not met each other physically in this process – everything has taken place in video meetings and emails. But we can not sit down and wait for a vaccine to save us; we have to adapt our way of working, but it will be a little strange to celebrate a signature with champagne via Teams ”, concludes Niels Stenfeldt.
Adiles has many years of experience in offering ERP solutions to small and medium-sized companies and Geir Heggertveit and Jan Gerhard Nilsen, who have headed Adiles, are both looking forward to the future and comment on the new joint activities: “We look forward for Adiles to become part of something bigger, and I see BitPeople as the right buyer compared to our original strategy. With the larger company, both parties get access to critical mass on solutions, customers and employees. In other words, we get more competent pieces that we can bring into play to become the ERP partner that gives the customer the best experience. Thus, the change of ownership will not lead to significant changes for our customers ”.
With the acquisition of Adiles, BitPeople expands the product catalog for the company’s customers and BitPeople’s Nordic director, Filip B. Andersen, is also incredibly happy. “With the acquisition of Adiles, we are even stronger because the two companies have competencies that complement each other and match customers’ requirements and needs further,” says Filip, who is very optimistic about 2021 and continues. “We are very happy to welcome the employees from Adiles, who all continue their work with us. Together with the rest of our talented team, we are extremely well positioned to create additional value for our customers in the coming years ”.
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