Partners Group to acquire Finnish edtech platform Parmaco

Partners Group has agreed to acquire Parmaco, a Finnish education infrastructure platform. The seller was a consortium led by Terra Firma and Metric Capital. No financial terms were disclosed.

PRESS RELEASE

Partners Group, the leading global private markets firm, has agreed to acquire Parmaco Oy (“Parmaco” or “the Platform”), a leading provider of premium quality modular education buildings in the Nordics, on behalf of its clients, from a consortium led by European private equity firms Terra Firma and Metric Capital.

Established in 1966 and headquartered in Tampere, Finland, Parmaco designs, builds and leases fully assembled and ready-to-use high quality wooden modular buildings that are used as schools and day care centers in Finland and Sweden. The Platform’s 353 modular buildings, which have a total leasable area of 280,000 square meters, host over 35,000 children, supporting communities across Finland with a growing presence in Sweden.

Today, c. 98% of Parmaco’s asset base is leased to public sector tenants, providing resilient and defensive cashflows with strong infrastructure characteristics, backed by contracts with AA+ rated counterparts, an average duration of over five years, and a strong track record of contract extensions. Parmaco is benefiting from transformative trends in the region’s educational infrastructure sector, such as increased urbanization and an urgent need to renovate or replace ageing educational building stock in certain regions, which are driving demand for more flexible space. Parmaco’s modular buildings also offer strong ESG characteristics, with a greenhouse gas footprint 54% lower than traditional concrete-frame schools over the whole building lifecycle, which reflects Partners Group’s focus on investing in sustainable businesses that have broad positive stakeholder impact.

Partners Group will work with Parmaco’s management team to build on the Platform’s position in the educational building market in Finland and transform it into a leading pan-Nordic modular buildings provider. Key value creation initiatives include expanding into adjacent market segments for modular solutions, such as elderly care and student housing, and ancillary services.

Livio Fenati, Managing Director, Co-Head Private Infrastructure Europe, Partners Group, states: “Parmaco is a great business with strong infrastructure characteristics. With its distinctive circular economy model, based on flexible and reusable modules, Parmaco provides essential infrastructure for the education sector with cost effective and low environmental impact solutions. The Platform is also benefiting from favorable macro trends, as identified by our research into the ‘new living’ giga theme, in which changing habitation and population trends are impacting the education sector. As well as having significant growth potential in Nordic countries, the Platform also offers the opportunity to have positive stakeholder impact on children, local communities and the environment, which is key for us.”

Sami Laine, Chief Executive Officer, Parmaco, comments: “Parmaco has seen rapid growth in recent years, driven by structural market changes and the Platform’s competitive advantage in Finland. Given its international reach and extensive experience executing the build-out of infrastructure platforms, we believe Partners Group is the right transformational partner for us as we look towards our next phase of growth and expansion into other Nordic markets.”

Florian Trapp, Member of Management, Private Infrastructure Europe, Partners Group, adds: “Parmaco is a platform expansion opportunity in line with our infrastructure investment strategy. The Platform has a solid market base in Finland and is well-positioned to expand into neighbouring countries, where the premium modular housing market is still highly fragmented. Importantly, Parmaco sources renewable wood from local suppliers, uses low-emitting materials in production and reuses modules where possible, which closely aligns with our focus on sustainable returns and stakeholder impact.”