Acquisitions are central to growth creation and business development. Acquired businesses add new products, extend the customer base and bring new expertise to the Group. The aim is to add sales each year of approximately SEK 200 million through acquisitions.
OEM primarily strives for three kinds of acquisitions. The first two described here are the most common:
The managers of all of OEM's operations have a responsibility to look for and identify potential takeover targets. The Group also works with brokers, audit firms and banks, which helps ensure a flow of interesting acquisition targets. OEM strives to engage in dialogue at an early stage with the owners of potential targets. This builds trusting relationships and gives oem an opportunity to present itself as a long-term owner that can help the acquired businesses to continue to expand and evolve. The ideal acquisition targets have a number of common features:
Central to OEM's culture is a strong commitment to the operations and business. When analysing acquisition targets, there is therefore a strong focus on the business and areas such as the organisation, company culture, portfolio of offerings and future potential. In addition, an appraisal is performed to determine the effects of the acquisition on oem's other operations and what synergies could be achieved. OEM makes acquisitions either by purchasing companies (with or without the previous owner remaining with the company) or by purchasing a company's assets.
Based on its philosophy to be an active and long-term owner, oem creates a development plan during the acquisition process for the business it is acquiring. oem can, for example, make existing operations work to the advantage of the acquired company by opening up new markets and customer groups. The acquired company can continue to operate as a separate company or can be integrated into one of the existing operations. The basis for these considerations is what is best for the current business and where are the greatest opportunities for growth.