EQT in talks for majority stake in OMERS’ Trescal

• Trescal provides regulated calibration services for testing and measurement equipment
• OMERS bought a majority stake in Trescal from Ardian in 2018
• Trescal has an annual turnover of around €450m

EQT’s Infrastructure V fund has entered exclusive negotiations to take a majority stake in calibration laboratory firm Trescal. OMERS Private Equity, which bought a majority stake in Trescal for around €670 million from Ardian in 2018, will re-invest for a 25 percent holding.

Trescal provides regulated calibration services for testing and measurement equipment in sectors such as transport, healthcare and telecoms, among others. The company has an annual turnover of around €450 million and a network of 380 facilities in 29 countries. Headquartered in Paris, it became an independent company in 2007, having previously been part of Air Liquide.

“Trescal provides mission-critical services to its industrial customers in essential end-markets that are experiencing increasingly stringent requirements,” said Thomas Rajzbaum, managing director and head of EQT’s French infrastructure advisory team, in a statement. “We look forward to further strengthening Trescal’s market position through increased investment in the breadth of its laboratories’ capabilities and footprint, commercial excellence, sustainability and cutting-edge digitisation.”

The deal is expected to close in the first half of next year. If it goes ahead, Stockholm-headquartered EQT will have made three investments in France via Infrastructure V. It has also bought the European operator of nursing home facilities Colisee and the French water services management company SAUR. The acquisition of Trescal will take the fund to 80-85 percent invested.

Trescal has doubled in size, moved into new sectors such as life sciences and entered seven new markets including South Korea and Australia since OMERS made its initial investment in 2018. It has also completed 47 acquisitions, including announcing in September the purchase of Norway’s IKM Laboratorium, Romania’s Metrosenzor and Brazil’s Metracal.

OMERS Private Equity manages investments globally on behalf of OMERS, one of Canada’s largest defined benefit pension plans. It has teams in London, New York, Toronto and Singapore.