BrazilDanish online auction house Lauritz hires GCA Altium
Lauritz, one of the oldest auction houses in Scandinavia, has selected M&A consultancy GCA Altium to actively pursue the strategic possibilities for strengthening the capital base of the company.
Originally founded as Lauritz Christensen Auctions in 1885, Lauritz is a company dedicated to the auctioning of clothes, carpentry, jewellery, watches, cars, paintings and basically any asset that is put up for auction. In 1998 the Copenhagen-based company was acquired by Bengt Sundstrøm, the current Chairman of the Board of Lauritz.
Under his leadership, Lauritz has grown to an auction house generating revenues of around €80 million. Having transitioned to the modern digital era, today all auctions are delivered online, where lots are presented with descriptions, photographs and appraisal values. Through a range of functionalities and services, quality and reliability is safeguarded for buyers and sellers.
Lauritz owns 30 auction houses in six countries (fifteen in Denmark, nine in Sweden, three in Germany, and one each in Finland, Norway and Belgium), and last year completed the sale of roughly 230,000 lots to buyers from 100+ countries.
As part of a strategic review process, the board of Lauritz has hired consultants from GCA Altium. The M&A advisory firm – the European business of global investment bank GCA – has been tasked with exploring the strategic possibilities for bolstering the company’s financial buffers and redeeming its bond debt.
The project is led by the Stockholm office of GCA Altium. The engagement team will report the CEO and CFO of Lauritz, Carsten Rysgaard and Preben Vinkler Lindgaard.
