How our partnership began
Credo invested in Frisk in February 2018 by bringing together Din Utvikling and Oppfølgingsenheten Frisk. The two companies were focused on niche services in labour market measures in Norway, with additional small units within occupational health. Our investment idea was to reinvest predictable cash flows from long-term labour market contracts with the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration, (NAV) in occupational health services for private businesses, as well as in a much more scalable business platform.
The transformation
First, we completed the platform by acquiring additional volume in occupational health, growing that business from NOK 35 million in revenues to over NOK 200 million. Then we modernised the business model for scale: new IT infrastructure, enhanced data capture and analytics, professionalised tendering processes, professionalised and centralised all group functions, and integrated the acquired companies into one Frisk Gruppen. And to drive this, we built a new group management team, CEO, CFO and other key positions. The result was improved outcomes for patients and the unemployed, allowing Frisk Gruppen to expand its partnerships with Norwegian municipalities and NAV, a revenue increase of 74% and an EBITDA increase of 8 times the entry-level.
Exit
In September 2021, Frisk Gruppen was sold to Falck Group, the Denmark-based provider of health and rescue services with 30,000 employees worldwide. The exit strategy was to build a must-have market position for the right strategic buyer, such as Falck, and in parallel de-risk the investment case to enable financial buyer interest.
