Update No.19
June 2026
This newsletter arrives at a significant milestone for Merito. After eighteen months of work — due diligence, negotiation, structuring, and closing — we have completed Merito’s largest private equity buy-out to date. The acquisition of Livlande Agro, the most efficient pig farming group in the Baltics, closed in June 2026. It is the most complex transaction we have executed, and it marks a new chapter for Merito Partners.
This transaction does not change what Merito is — it confirms it. We have always focused on succession-driven situations in the Baltic region, where ownership transitions create windows that are too short for most institutional capital to act on. Livlande is exactly that: a sector-leading business, built and run by its founder, now entering its next phase with Merito as the strategic partner.
At the end of 2024, we started looking seriously at the Livlande Agro brand. By June 2026, we had closed. Eighteen months of work on what we internally called Project Truffle – culminating in one of the largest local capital buy-outs in Latvia in recent years.
The deal sits squarely in the kind of situation Merito was built for: a founder-led business with a 29-year track record, institutional-quality operations, and a succession dynamic that created a window of opportunity. NCH Capital and the original Danish financial investors had been with the company for over fifteen years. They were ready to exit, while the founding CEO, Alex Rasmussen, was not going anywhere – he wanted the business to continue growing with new partners and increase his stake in the business.
What is Livlande?
Livlande is the second-largest pig farming group in Latvia, with approximately 20% of the domestic market. It operates four farms – two near Cēsis, two near Bauska – producing over 100,000 finisher pigs per year. The business is vertically integrated: it grows a significant share of its own feed on 1,414 hectares of owned arable land and over 400 hectares of leased land, generates solar energy on-site, and uses pig manure as fertilizer in a closed-loop system.
The numbers are straightforward. Revenue of €17.1 million in 2025. Normalized EBITDA of €5.4 million. An equity ratio of 88%. The business has never posted a loss in its history, and since 2022, it has distributed more than €14.5 million through dividends and share capital reductions to its shareholders and an additional €4.8m to debt providers.
What makes Livlande exceptional is not the scale – it is the efficiency. Compared to Latvian and British benchmarks, Livlande produces more piglets per sow, has lower post-weaning mortality, and uses less feed per kilogram of pig weight. At identical facility and market conditions, that efficiency advantage translates to approximately €1.4 million more in EBITDA per year versus the industry average. That edge has been built over decades and is impossible to replicate for newer and smaller players.
While pork is the most consumed meat in the Baltics and Latvia, we experience a significant production deficit (~50% imported meat) and as a result all the major local players, including Gaižēni are systemic companies with very strong entry barriers.
The Baltic pig farming market is consolidating. Industrial-scale farms with 500+ sows have held their position, while small farms have closed down. The top five players in Latvia already control 60–70% of the market. Livlande is positioned to continue gaining share — both organically and through acquisition.
The deal structure
Total enterprise value was financed by €9 million of equity, €11m of bonds, and several million euros of deferred payments. Merito and co-investors contributed €9.1 million in equity. A private placement of €11.0 million in senior secured bonds – arranged by Signet Bank, secured against the farms and land at a conservative 51% LTV – was oversubscribed and provided the debt component. The founding CEO rolled over his stake and increased his shareholding to approximately 12.5% while also participating as a bond investor. Further payments to the sellers are based on future performance, structured to provide significant downside protection for equity holders.
The bonds carry a coupon of 7.5%, paid quarterly, with a 3.5 year maturity. Listing on Nasdaq Riga First North is planned within twelve months. Bond investors benefit from first-ranking pledges on both the real estate and the operating company shares.
This is Merito’s largest private equity buy-out – and our most complex transaction to date. It takes us into a different league in terms of deal size, capital structure, and Pan-Baltic visibility.
Livlande has all permits in place to expand capacity organically by approximately 20% in an industry where new permits are a key barrier to entry. Additionally, there are a handful of meaningful acquisition targets in the Latvian pig farming market, several of which have active succession situations in the near term. There are also energy-side opportunities we will evaluate as part of a longer-term strategy.
The foundations are solid – the business has been consistently maintained and the farms are in good operational order. We will build on that and pursue the opportunities above more actively than the previous ownership structure allowed.
We have said since the beginning that Merito targets situations where a transition in ownership – not a macro bet, not a sector dynamic – creates the investment opportunity. Livlande is the clearest example of that thesis working at scale.
Alex Rasmussen founded the business in 1997. He built it from a greenfield project, scaled it through Danish private investment and later institutional capital from NCH, and took it to market leadership. After 15+ years, the institutional shareholders wanted liquidity. Alex wanted continuity and growth capital. The resulting window — a motivated seller combined with a highly capable management team that is staying put — is exactly what we look for.
Pan-Baltic: what comes after Livlande
The next transaction is already in progress – and the pipeline beyond it is taking shape. We are looking at several sizeable businesses, some with Pan-Baltic footprints, some national sector leaders. What unites them is the same angle that brought us to Livlande: a succession situation in the broadest sense. That can mean a founding generation ready to hand over the keys, institutional investors who have held a position for ten or fifteen years and need a credible exit path, or ownership structures that have simply outgrown their original purpose. In all cases, the business itself is sound; what is missing is the right next owner. We think that is where Merito fits.
We will share details as soon as the process allows. For now, we would simply note: if Livlande confirmed our ability to execute a private equity buy-out in Latvia, the next step is to demonstrate that the same approach works at Pan-Baltic scale.
Merito is not changing strategy. We are executing it at a larger scale – and with a clearer mandate to build a meaningful Pan-Baltic investment platform around businesses that deserve better ownership.
Looking Ahead
Q2 2026 has been the most active quarter in Merito’s history — and the pipeline going into the summer suggests that pace is not slowing down. The Livlande buy-out was the headline, but it was far from the only thing in motion. We are working in parallel on several significant transactions and initiatives: BESS (battery energy storage solutions) across our solar portfolio, new real estate special situations, a feeder fund for Mintos growth case and a healthcare consolidation play.
A lot has been done. A lot has been set in motion. Summer will be busy.
For our current investors, thank you for the trust you placed in us – in some cases before we had a track record in this type of transaction. For those following from the sidelines: our door is open.
📧 investor.relations@meritopartners.com
— The Merito Partners Team