Aervent sold for €7.5 million

DUBLIN-based ventilation firm Aervent has been bought by a Swedish company Lindab International for nearly €7.5 million.

Aervant supplies air-duct and air movement systems and has 30 employees in Cork and Dublin.

The sale’s main beneficiaries are the company’s founder Walter Hobbs and venture capital firm ACT.

Lindab said Aervent generated net sales of €12m and recorded an operating profit of €0.9m in the 12-month period ending 30 June 2007.

The most recent accounts for Aervent, which cover the 12 months to December 31 2006, do not give any sales figures but show operating profits of 253,384. The company had retained losses of €3.6m at the 2006 year end.

Lindab, which is listed on the OMX Nordic exchange in Stockholm, said the takeover will make it the leading provider of ventilation products in the Irish market.

“We are delighted to enter the thriving Irish market, which is a new market for us,” Lindab chief executive Kjell Akesson, said in a statement.

“This deal represents yet another step in our strategy to accelerate growth in the circular duct business outside of the Nordic countries and it strengthens our position in Western Europe.”