Sale of Cardel Group Limited by LDC to Lifco AB

Deal typePrivate Equity & Transaction Services
IndustryManufacturing
Client nameLifco AB
Cardel is a leading manufacturer and supplier of specialist components used in the production of secure ID documents, payment cards, printed circuit boards (PCB), fuel cells, wooden furniture and other laminated products. Its materials are used to make a wide range of industrially laminated products, including an estimated third of bank cards produced globally and around 60 per cent of all identity cards and passports.

LDC first backed Cardel’s management team in May 2017 to support the business’ international and domestic growth plans, including the acquisition of Germany-based VTT in 2022, a market-leading supplier of identity card, driving licence, passport data page and PCB bare board lamination components to the global security market. 

Listed Swedish investment group Lifco has invested to support Cardel on the next stage of its growth journey, as it looks to target further global expansion, product development and application development, such as within the PCB market, which uses a lot of the same technology Cardel already uses to support its secure payments customers.

The BDO team provided sell-side financial and tax due diligence to Cardel Group and then buy-side top-up financial and tax due diligence to Lifco.

The BDO project team included:
Graham Elsworth, Andrew Sproule, Theo Chauhan-Jenkins, Faye Allison (Financial due diligence)
Chris Bond, Terry Jones, Susan Cameron (Tax)