Sustainable value creation through active long-term ownership

We are long-term owners with a Strategic Core built around industrial companies in the Forest & Fiber and the Environmental Technology sectors.

At A. Ahlström, we create Shared Value by building profitable businesses as well as supporting actions that mitigate climate change, protect biodiversity, and increase circularity, and social sustainability. From our beginnings in the Finnish forests to future driven innovative solutions, we have always been driven to identify business opportunities, drive sustainable progress, and improve people’s everyday lives.

We are like no other company. Rather than being just owners, we are builders with an entrepreneurial mindset and an ability to make bold decisions to acquire, merge, and divest businesses. We combine the best of Ahlström’s industrial heritage with the team and capabilities built during last two decades. Our unique way of working, the Ahlström Way, brings together the best practices from well-run private equity, industrial and family companies.

Our way of working – The Ahlström Way

Cornerstones of the Ahlström Way are Strategic Core and Diversification. Strategic Core aims to build leading global specialist positions in Forest & Fiber and Environmental Technology sectors while Diversification de-risks Ahlström family assets, manages liquidity, and generates stable cash flow, by investing in financial assets, real estate, and forestry.

Strategic core

In A. Ahlström’s Strategic Core we integrate synergistic businesses into a handful of world-leading specialist platforms in Forest & Fiber and Environmental Technology sectors. We develop a selection of these platforms by being active owners and leveraging our industry knowledge. Our flexible ownership model, international mindset, vast network, long history, and reputable brand, provide us with unique opportunities to do this. A. Ahlström’s has a lead or majority owner role in the platform companies. In the target state, Strategic Core forms 75-80% of A. Ahlström’s assets.

Diversification

With Diversification we de-risk Ahlström family assets, manage liquidity, and generate stable cash flow, by investing in financial assets, real estate, and forestry. Our competitive advantage in real estate and forestry stems from our flexibility as a long-term player, our experience, network, and an established and trustworthy brand. In financial assets we have professional asset management practices, and our team invests in sectors and asset classes that have limited or no correlation with Strategic Core sectors’ risks and cycles. In the target state Diversification would form 20-25% of Ahlström’s total assets.

The real estate and forest holdings are managed by our fully owned subsidiary, A. Ahlström Real Estate Ltd. We also own and develop culturally and historically significant Noormarkku Works.

Strategy