Cultural impacts in private equity deals: a case study of Dometic

Abstract: The thesis chronicles Dometic's different ownerships from 2001 up to a stock exchange listing in 2015, and analyzes the specific context that played a significant role in the contrasting approaches of private equity firms EQT and BC Partners. Through a case study I investigate the impacts of Swedish national values and characteristics as well as the private equity firms' values and principles on performance, leverage, and conduct of business. I find several cultural aspects that can have great implications in private equity deals, such as the level of transparency, communication with the unions, commitment to a local market, and choice of a CEO. Given that both private equity firms possess relatively the same experience and resources, I hypothesize that the divergent results can come down to the impacts of culture. Although this is a particular caste study and thus cannot test general theories, the study sheds light on the importance and implications of culture in private equity.