A four-year buying spree has transformed a Swedish dehumidification company into Northern Europe’s largest property damage restoration network. London-based KLAR Partners Ltd now controls operations across 130 locations in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Finland through its Oleter Group portfolio company.
The numbers tell the growth story. September 2021: 1,700 employees, two countries, SEK 2 billion in revenue. February 2026: 2,600 employees, four countries, operations spanning emergency response to pest control services.
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The Platform Deal
KLAR Partners structured the September 2021 entry around two established players. Ocab dominated Sweden’s dehumidification and decontamination market. Frøiland Bygg Skade held similar positions across Norway. Together, they operated 90 locations serving insurance companies and property owners responding to fire damage, water emergencies, and building contamination.
Bo Ingemarson, then Chairman of Oleter Group’s Board, framed the partnership clearly in the announcement: “We are excited to welcome KLAR as a new partner to accelerate the growth of Oleter Group, both organically and through acquisitions, into a market leader of PDR services.”
The private equity firm’s thesis centered on market fragmentation. Property damage restoration remained a local business across the Nordics. Regional operators handled emergency calls within their territories. Insurance carriers worked with dozens of vendors. Consolidation could bring procurement leverage, shared technology platforms, and national coverage for large clients.
Petter Darin, KLAR Team Leader, described the investment as fitting the firm’s focus on recession-resistant businesses. “The group is active in a highly attractive market and has a clear sustainability profile which forms a solid foundation on which we can build the next growth chapter of the business.”
Building Out Denmark
The first geographic leap came four months later. Trinava Skadeservice Danmark A/S gave Oleter six Danish locations and nationwide capabilities in January 2022. The country’s insurance market operated differently than Sweden or Norway, requiring local relationships and regulatory knowledge.
Klas Elmberg joined as Group CEO in November 2022 from facility services giant Coor, where he had run operations in both Sweden and Norway. His first sustainability report identified the Trinava acquisition as the transaction that made Oleter “a Scandinavian organization.”
Denmark got more attention in 2024. Dansk Industri og Skadeservice Vest ApS, a regional operator based in western Denmark, joined the portfolio. Oleter merged it with Trinava under the ISV/Trinava industri og skadeservice ApS banner, creating what the company described as nationwide Danish coverage.
Sweden and Norway Fill-Ins
The home markets saw targeted regional expansions. Brandsanering Avfuktningsteknik Väst AB brought 40 employees and SEK 80 million in revenue from three western Swedish cities: Gothenburg, Borås, and Varberg. The deal filled geographic holes where Ocab lacked presence.
Norway’s addition came through Bygg og Skadeservice AS, a 35-person operation serving Norway’s Helgeland region from four branches. The northern territory (Sandnessjøen, Brønnøysund, Mosjøen, Mo i Rana) extended Frøiland Bygg Skade’s reach beyond its historical southern and western strongholds.
The Finland Entry
VV-Kuivaus Group Oy represented the most substantial add-on. Founded in 2013 by Janne Haapamäki, the Finnish company had built operations across six cities in western and central Finland. By 2024, it employed 120 people and generated EUR 15 million in annual revenue specializing in water and fire damage response.
Elmberg announced the EUR 15 million deal in August 2024. “We share the same values and culture. VV-Kuivaus has consistently expanded its presence in new cities, and we are confident that it will serve as an excellent platform for our operations in Finland.”
Haapamäki, who had spent six years at Polygon (a European property damage services competitor) before launching VV-Kuivaus, emphasized the growth opportunity in his statement. “With Ocab’s support, we will be able to accelerate the development of our operations and continue our growth. We see significant opportunities, for example in areas such as digitalization and sustainability.”
The Finnish Competition Authority (Kilpailu- ja kuluttajavirasto) reviewed the transaction due to Oleter’s size. Regulators received public comments through August 27, 2024, before clearing the deal. Legal and financial advisor Lecklé represented VV-Kuivaus through the September 2024 closing.
Finland completed the Nordic footprint. The four-country network now covers the entire Scandinavian insurance market for property damage services.
What Got Sold
One business line didn’t fit the consolidation model. Oleter’s underground infrastructure maintenance operations (NHS, MCM Relining, S-Pipe) worked on sewer systems and pipe relining rather than property damage. These units merged with competitor Swoosh in a carve-out transaction, creating a SEK 500 million Swedish infrastructure services company.
KLAR Partners kept an ownership stake in Swoosh but separated it from the core property damage restoration business. The move sharpened Oleter’s focus on emergency response and remediation services.
Operations Today
The organization runs through four operating entities: Ocab Sweden, Ocab Norway, Ocab Denmark, and VV-Kuivaus Finland. Services include damage inspection, dehumidification, fire and smoke restoration, water damage mitigation, environmental decontamination, and pest control work tied to property emergencies.
Leadership changed in January 2025. Pål Nygaard, who had managed Ocab’s Norwegian operations, took over as Group CEO on January 13. The appointment brought continuity from someone with 15 years in property damage restoration. Elmberg left to pursue other opportunities outside the company.
The business carries ISO 9001 and 14001 certifications across Swedish operations. Norway maintains Miljøfyrtårn environmental certification. Oleter joined the Science Based Targets initiative in 2021, committing to temperature reduction goals of 1.5 degrees by 2030. UN Global Compact membership followed in 2022.
The Roll-Up Rationale
KLAR Partners runs a buy-and-build model across Northern Europe. The firm targets business services and light industrial companies generating EUR 50 million to EUR 500 million in annual revenue across the Nordics, Benelux, and DACH regions. Investment professionals work from London, Stockholm, Frankfurt, and Brussels.
The second KLAR fund closed at EUR 870 million, pushing total capital raised to EUR 1.5 billion since inception. Property damage restoration fits the portfolio focus on mission-critical services with stable demand patterns.
Insurance claims drive most restoration work. Property damage occurs independent of economic cycles. Buildings flood, fires happen, contamination requires remediation regardless of GDP growth or recession. That demand stability attracted private equity capital looking for downside protection.
Geographic density matters in emergency response. Faster arrival times win insurance carrier contracts. National coverage appeals to large property management firms and corporate real estate departments managing portfolios across multiple countries. The Oleter acquisition strategy built both local depth and regional breadth.
Scale also enables technology investment. Oleter developed digital tools for damage assessment, project management, and customer communication. Smaller regional operators struggle to fund software development. The consolidated platform spreads technology costs across 2,600 employees and 130 locations.
What Comes Next
No exit timeline has surfaced publicly. KLAR Partners typically holds portfolio companies for four to seven years. The September 2021 entry puts Oleter in the middle of that window.
The Nordic property damage market still contains independent operators across all four countries. Additional bolt-on acquisitions remain possible, particularly in Denmark and Finland where Oleter’s coverage remains thinner than in Sweden or Norway.
The property restoration roll-up playbook that worked across Scandinavia could extend into other European markets. KLAR Partners’ presence in Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands suggests potential geographic adjacencies if the firm chooses to expand the platform beyond the Nordics.
