Return Of The (Homecare) Vikings

What do Industri Kapital, Nordic Capital and Ferd have in common?

In a homecare / rehabilitation / mobility marketplace where the aging population demographic is no longer a sure fire way to print money, companies are restructuring like crazy, products are being outsourced to Asia, companies are setting up their own operations in Asia, share holders in publicly traded companies are on the whole watching stock prices fall. Products are being standardized and de-featured…. and yet

These three Scandinavian based organizations have all fairly recently invested serious money in the “home healthcare” industry. The obvious question is why - and while I am not privy to all the reasons I would speculate as follows.

Industri Kapital is the owner of Welzorg in the Netherlands - the largest supplier of home medical equipment in the Netherlands - by far. Reimbursement for HME products there, continue to be among the highest in Europe.

Ferd is the finance group behind Handicare in Norway who recently made acquisitions in Denmark and the Netherlands (Movingpeople). They sell high value added products.

Nordic Capital is the group behind Permobil. Permobil manufactures high end Power chairs and is thriving in today’s tough reimbursement environment.

It seems to me that these three groups are betting on the higher value end of the business with good products and customer relationships, where they directly solve individual needs in the disabled and geriatric community. Of course they will have to continue to reduce the cost of their products - but then again doesn’t everybody?

There are several other companies in this industry for sale today, and have been for some time - but not many in this high value category.