Lindab acquires ATIB: extending its French buy-and-build into technical ventilation products

Lindab, Europe's ventilation leader, on a French buy-and-build

Founded in 1959 in Båstad, Sweden, Lindab develops, manufactures and distributes products and systems for energy-efficient ventilation and a healthy indoor climate, with the stated ambition of becoming Europe's leading ventilation group by 2030. Listed on Nasdaq Stockholm, the group reported revenue of SEK 13,323 million in 2024 and employs around 5,000 people in some twenty countries — Western Europe accounting for 44% of sales — including 300 people in France generating around EUR 115 million in revenue. Its strategy openly makes complementary acquisitions a core pillar: in France, after acquiring the distributor Liftasud in 2022, the acquisition of ATIB is the second step of a methodical expansion, this time focused on technical products and the west of the country.

ATIB, the technical ventilation distributor of western France

Founded in 1973 and based in Nantes and Bordeaux, ATIB — Aéraulique Thermique Industrie Bâtiment — is a well-established distributor of ventilation and indoor air quality (IAQ) systems. Its range covers air handling units, silencers, air diffusion, fire protection and filtration, mainly for commercial buildings. What sets it apart is technical sales: 40 employees, around EUR 22 million in revenue, an operating margin on a par with the acquirer's — a fact published by Lindab itself — and, above all, long-standing relationships with the largest HVAC contractors, its products being widely specified by ventilation consulting engineers. Management continuity is secured: Cyril and Emmanuel Ravon, the managing directors, continue to run ATIB within the group, in a deal funded from Lindab's own resources and scheduled to complete in the fourth quarter of 2024.

What the press said about the Lindab–ATIB acquisition

The deal was announced on 9 September 2024 by the group, which is listed on Nasdaq Stockholm, and set out in detail in French by its subsidiary. The two key publications:

Why this acquisition, and why this target

For Lindab, the name of the game is buy-and-build. In a fragmented French market, the European leader is rolling out a plan of complementary acquisitions — the distributor Liftasud in 2022 for the South-East and acoustics, ATIB in 2024 for the West and technical products — each one adding a region, a product range and a sales channel. This channel is strategic: technical products are sold through specification by consulting engineers, an access that cannot be built from scratch but can be acquired together with the teams who have nurtured it for decades. “We are pleased to welcome ATIB to Lindab,” said Ola Ringdahl, the group's CEO, pointing to the new growth opportunities created in a product segment he considers attractive, and to the expected transfer of know-how to the rest of the group.

On the target side, ATIB had exactly the profile a demanding consolidator looks for: fifty years of technical sales, a full range — from air handling units to fire protection —, complementary sites in Nantes and Bordeaux and, above all, what the acquirer publicly praised: a well-run business whose operating margin matches its own. This detail, rarely published, says it all: an acquisition that calls for no turnaround, only synergies — access for Lindab products to ATIB's specification portfolio and, in return, the backing of an international group for the Nantes and Bordeaux teams. For the owner-managers, the Liftasud precedent, whose managers stayed on after 2022, was worth more than any promise: with this acquirer, announced continuity is continuity delivered.

HVAC distribution consolidation, one acquisition at a time

This deal illustrates the ongoing reshaping of HVAC distribution in Europe. Faced with the combined demands of indoor air quality, building energy performance and environmental regulation, manufacturers are integrating downstream — into distribution and its close relationships with consulting engineers and installers — to control the specification of ever more technical products. The French market, still fragmented into regional and often family-owned distributors, offers European consolidators fertile ground for a methodical buy-and-build: each acquisition adds a region, a range and a network of relationships built up over decades.

The deal also shows how a successful serial acquisition strategy works: a listed acquirer that publishes its criteria — complementarity, quality of management, comparable margin —, funds deals from its own resources, announces a timetable and retains management builds, deal after deal, a reputation that becomes its best argument when approaching targets. For western France, jobs and the Nantes and Bordeaux sites are now backed by a group of 5,000 people; for France's technical distribution sector, the signal is clear: selling to an international manufacturer is now a well-trodden — and well-documented — path.

Collaboration Capital's added value as buy-side adviser on this deal

On this deal, Collaboration Capital acted as buy-side adviser. An acquisition that forms part of a serial buy-and-build plays out in four stages — and a successful precedent changes each of them.