Finland. YIT Oyj

The 9-year-maturity loan totalling EUR 35 million has been provided for financing the acquisition of the German company Caverion Gmbh.

Caverion provides a wide range of building maintenance and operation services related to technical building systems in Germany, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland, as well as in other countries on a project basis. Caverion manufactures ventilation and heating systems. The company employs 1,900 people. The acquisition of Caverion will double YIT’s operations in Central Europe and make YIT one of the leading companies in this region.

YIT is the biggest company in the area of building systems in the Nordic countries. In recent years, YIT has developed as a service providing company, rather than a construction company, as approximately 60% of the turnover comes from building and industrial service segment.

The acquisition of Caverion is part of YIT’s strategy to increase its building system operations in Central Europe. The acquisition also improves YIT’s possibilities to provide a wide portfolio of services to the customers in all markets. The results of Caverion’s R&D facility can be adopted in other countries, where YIT is active. The know-how of the personnel in Caverion and YIT will complement each other.  

The main environmental issue in an acquisition is related to the environmental liabilities. Given Caverion’s focus on services and the light nature of its production, the risk for environmental liabilities associated with the acquisition is low.