Max Matthiessen is one of the leading financial advisors within pensions, insurance and investment in the Nordic region. The company was founded in 1889 and has been active in the insurance sector for more than 130 years.

Nordic Capital made its first investment in the company in 2020 and Max Matthiessen has since made 38 acquisitions, expanded into Denmark and Norway, and increased its corporate client base to over 18,000 clients, reflecting robust growth and trust in its services.

The company manages broad employee equity plans to align incentives and share ownership across its team of financial advisors. Max Matthiessen adopted Centi as their ownership management solution in 2023. Learn more about why they choose Centi, how they evaluated it and what it takes to successfully deliver broad based employee equity plans.

The switch to Centi - Jens Aleljung, Investment Director at Nordic Capital elaborates on his experience since the switch

Why did you switch to Centi from your previous processes?

Max Matthiessen’s shareholder base was already large and growing, both through organic recruitment and acquisitions. The administrative burden of managing equity plans was becoming a distraction, not just for us, but also for our management team and legal advisors.

We needed a platform that would increase transparency and improve communication with our shareholders while reducing time spent on administrative tasks. Centi offered exactly that.

What mattered in your decision making process?

Our equity structure is not straightforward. We needed a platform that could manage the complexity as well as adapt to our processes rather than forcing us to change how we operate. Given the nature of our business, responsiveness is critical. We needed a partner that could offer quick support and an expert team we could rely on. Lastly, mistakes aren’t an option—everything has to be correct, down to the last detail. Centi met this requirement with a platform and team that we could trust.

How has the switch impacted your processes?

Best thing was that we didn’t need to change our existing processes. The transition was seamless—there was no disruption, just a significant reduction in administrative workload.

Moreover, Centi allows us to tailor communication and workflows to our specific needs. This means our shareholders get the transparency and clarity they need, which is essential for maximising the benefits of the equity plan.

A joint acquisition with Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan

In November 2024, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and Nordic Capital announced the signing of a joint investment in Max Matthiessen. The new joint ownership will support Max Matthiessen in fulfilling its accelerated international growth plan both organically and through acquisitions.

In preparation for the new ownership structure, Centi collected reinvestment commitments, power of attorneys and bank details.

How was the experience of having Centi already in place when the transaction was announced?

Great. Instead of coordinating with hundreds of individual shareholders, we are managing  everything through a single platform—without compromising on format, quality, or speed.

Nordic Capital was advised by Cederquist in connection to this joint investment. Isabel Cantos, partner at the firm, comments on her experience working with Centi throughout the process as well as digital solutions for ownership management in general:

We have been working together with Centi since we onboarded the Max Matthiessen equity plans on Centi in 2023, and have since then jointly handled transactions in the equity plans on a more or less daily basis, as well as in connection with multiple acquisitions, most recently in connection with Nordic Capital’s sale and reinvestment in the group alongside Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan. 

The platform is intuitive and very user-friendly with custom-made interfaces for each type of user, which is something that our team of lawyers really appreciate when communicating with different stakeholders. We know the team at Centi well and they have been very responsive to our feedback as part of their constant improvement of the user experience. By using Centi on large scale employee equity plans, we have been able to focus our time on less administrative tasks and train our lawyers on issues where we – as lawyers – can provide most value for our clients.

Centi is proud to continue supporting MaxMatthiessen and Nordic Capital going forward.