Caverion, a Finnish listed company with €2.2 billion Euro revenues in 2020, is active in 11 countries in Northern, Central and Eastern Europe, supported by over 15,000 service and project employees. The group, formed in 2013 as a demerger of YIT Building Systems business, provides built environment services, such as technical maintenance and property management to facilities and infrastructure (63% of revenues), as well as installation of building technologies (37% of revenues).

Caverion’s offering focuses on selected smart technologies requiring regular maintenance and providing sustainable value for the customers over the life cycle. Examples of these include Building Automation, Security, Safety and Cooling. Digital solutions such as Caverion SmartView, Remote Services, IoT solutions and Analytics have been introduced to attempt to differentiate Caverion from its competitors.

Since July 2021, Caverion has been strengthening its building automation and physical security solutions and service business through three bolt-on acquisitions.

Caverion recently signed an agreement to acquire Felcon GmbH in Austria. Felcon Group is a small clean room specialist company based in Vienna, Austria. The company provides design, construction, installation, validation as well as technical services, among others. Through the acquisition, Caverion supports its growth strategy and strengthens its market position in the clean room business.

 Caverion announced its intention to acquire GTS, a well-known building automation provider in Austria. The acquisition is a bolt-on acquisition for Caverion. The company has approximately 40 employees. The purchase price was not disclosed. 

GTS was founded in 2006, initially operating in a partnership with an Austrian building automation group in Austria and Eastern Europe. Since this partnership ended in 2016, GTS has been concentrating on its key Austrian customers and followed them into Germany, Romania and other Central European countries. The transaction excludes the non-automation business and the Swiss operations.

“The acquisition further strengthens our capability to provide smart, digital and sustainable solutions. In this area the knowledge around building automation is a key enabler. Caverion has clear synergies with GTS, as both companies operate with the same building automation products. We see great potential in scaling up these services in Caverion’s operations,”said Manfred Simmet, Head of Caverion’s Division Austria.

Caverion also announced the acquisition of RPH Linc AB in Sweden, further strengthening its smart security solutions offering. RPH Linc is a systems integrator, founded in 1999, focusing on high-end security solutions for enterprise and multisite customers and the public sector.

Recently announced Caverion building automation projects have focused on the healthcare sector:

• The RWTH Aachen University Hospital, a maximum-care teaching hospital in Germany, has commissioned the consortium OIP with Caverion as the building technology solutions partner for their new Center for Operative Intensive Care / Perinatal Center (OIP-PNC). The overall solution includes building automation, security and safety, cooling, heating & sanitation and ventilation. The value of the contract is approximately EUR 20 million.

• Braunschweig Municipal Hospital chose Caverion as a building solutions provider for a new hospital building in Germany.  Caverion will install the ventilation systems in the building, which has a gross floor area of more than 37,000 m². These include partial air-conditioning units with a total capacity of approx. 103,000 m³ per hour and full air-conditioning units with a capacity of 60,000 m³/h. Ventilation-related fire protection measures such as fire dampers, smoke extraction systems and stairwell ventilation systems complete the services.

• Caverion was responsible for the technical installation of a building automation solution at the newly built surgery building at the Heidelberg University Hospital, Germany.  

With a leading market position in Finland, and highly ranked in Austria, Norway and Sweden, Caverion is well-positioned to compete against the established building systems vendors in Northern Europe. 

This article was written by Daphne Tomlinson, Senior Research Associate at Memoori.