# Case File - Indutrade ## What the model looks like when nothing goes wrong REQ's chosen exemplar, from the October 2005 IPO to Q3 2023 (REQ, Jul 2025, p.236–244): | | At IPO | 2023 Q3 TTM | | --- | --- | --- | | Sales | SEK 3.8bn | SEK 31.2bn | | EBITA | SEK 333m | SEK 4.7bn | | EBITA margin | 9% | **20%** | | EPS | SEK 0.62 | SEK 7.78 (**15% CAGR**) | **Total shareholder return: 4,300%, a 23% CAGR.** ## The specific things that made it work - **Never above 2.5× net debt / EBITDA.** Not once, in eighteen years. - **Acquired every single year**, including 2009 — nine deals in the depths of the financial crisis. - **Lowest reinvestment year was 36%** of funds from operations (2018). It has never been optional. - **Cash conversion averaging 72%** of EBITDA. - **ROIC consistently above 20%**, held up as invested capital grew. - **Multiples of ~5–7× EBITA** paid, throughout. - **Margins improved slowly and continuously** from 9% to 20% — predictability, not a step change. - **Second CEO since IPO.** A large owner with a multi-decade view. ## The part that is hardest to copy > [!important] Scaling without changing the shape of the deal > 8–10 acquisitions a year between 2006 and 2013; 13–15 in recent years. Average acquired sales rose gradually — bigger, but **still in the sweet spot for private transactions**. With only a few exceptions, Indutrade has refrained from acquiring anything with more than **SEK 250m in sales**, against its own SEK 31bn revenue base. > > That is the discipline the scaling problem tempts every compounder to abandon. See [[Scaling M&A and the Runway]]. More than 190 acquisitions since IPO (p.239). > [!quote] Bo Annvik, Indutrade CEO, Capital Markets Day, November 2022 > If you continue just to buy companies with low organic growth, it becomes quite a lot of acquisitions you have to do... the organic growth part is also de-risking the strategic perspective of Indutrade as a group. ## Why it matters Every criterion in [[The Compounder Screener]] is visible in this one company at the same time. It is the reference case against which a candidate can be scored — and the reminder that the numbers that matter are boring and consistent rather than large in any single year. ## Related - [[Acquisition-Driven Compounders MOC]] - [[The Compounder Screener]] - [[Case Files - When Compounders Break]] - [[Self-Financed Growth and the Balance Sheet]]