3i, Europe’s leading private equity and venture capital company, and the leading Swedish lower mid-market private equity firm Litorina Kapital, together with the founding families, have signed an agreement to sell their stake in Q-Matic Holding AB, the world leader for advanced queue management systems and customer flow management, to Altor Fund II (”Altor”).

Although the purchase price is undisclosed, the transaction represents a money multiple of more than 9 times the owners’ original investment.

Litorina Kapital and 3i jointly acquired 70 per cent of Q-Matic in the autumn of 2004. Since then, the company has successfully continued its international expansion. Revenues have since risen 20 per cent per annum, while profits have more than doubled in the period. Q-Matic has successfully strengthened its position in all of its key markets and benefited from substantially increased resources for product development, which has helped speed up new product launches.

“We identified Q-Matic as an interesting investment back in 2004 based upon the company’s global dominance within its niche, which had successfully been established by the founding families over a 20-year period,” said Harold Kaiser, Senior Partner at Litorina Kapital. “We are pleased to say that Q-Matic’s managing director, Åke Stråberg, who joined the business in 2005, and his managing team have succeeded in accelerating growth and profits substantially. Q-Matic is now an even stronger company with tremendous potential for further development.”

”Q-Matic has developed strongly since our initial investment in the company in 2004. In the three years of our stewardship we have actively contributed to improving Q-Matic’s market position and product offering. We have helped strengthen the board and further enhanced the company’s processes in sales, R&D and quality assurance,” said Magnus Ramström at 3i Nordic.

Q-Matic has more than 25 years’ experience in queue management, with in-depth knowledge of how to optimise customer flows within financial institutions as well as in the public sector, healthcare and retail. Established in 1981, the company is currently the market leader with more than 25,000 installations worldwide. It works together with over 52 distributors, and its systems are sold in more than 102 countries. The company’s revenues amounted to SEK 386 million in 2006.