In brief: FSN unveils succession plan

FSN Capital, an ESG-forward firm which closed its sixth fund on €1.8 billion this year, will transition its leadership from January, the firm has said.

Frode Strand-Nielsen, who co-founded the firm in Oslo in 1999, will hand over the reins to co-managing partners Robin Murer and Ulrik Smith. Smith joined FSN Capital in 2005 as an associate. Murer joined the firm in 2018 having previously spent more than 10 years at Apax Partners.

Strand-Nielsen founded the firm with Cato Holmsen, who retired in 2010. Today the firm has around 70 employees and €3.5 billion under management.

As Morten Welo, who remains in his role as COO, told New Private Markets in June this year, ESG has “always been part” of the firm’s culture. The firm uses the strapline “decent people making a decent return in a decent way” and has been reporting publicly on its portfolio companies’ ESG performance annually since 2013. In November it became one of the first private equity firms to receive approval for its emissions reduction targets by the Science Based Target initiative.