Helix Kapital acquires NCS Colour
Helix Kapital acquires NCS Colour – invests in continued international growth
Stockholm, 18 December 2025 – NCS Colour, the global leader in colour communication, announces a new partnership with Helix Kapital, which is acquiring an ownership stake from Sobro after 15 years. The acquisition marks the beginning of a new growth phase in which NCS Colour intends to accelerate its international expansion, strengthen its global position and continue investing in both digital and physical colour-communication tools.
NCS was founded in 1945 and has grown from its base in Stockholm into the global industry standard for colour communication within the coatings industry as well as the architecture and design sectors. NCS offers a comprehensive ecosystem of licences for the NCS system, digital tools, training, and physical design products, and currently sells to approximately 100 countries. The company’s leading market position is built on a research-based system grounded in the human visual perception of colour, combined with a deep functional and commercial understanding of customer needs. NCS enables colour precision, higher quality and greater efficiency throughout the entire value chain, resulting in long-term relationships with international players in the paint industry.
NCS has an established organisation and an experienced management team, who will remain as significant co-owners. Together with Helix Kapital, the company now enters its next growth phase, focused on continued strong customer relationships, further internationalisation and expansion into new verticals where the demand for precise and standardised colour communication is rapidly increasing.
'NCS is a well-established quality company with a unique position in its niche. The company combines strong customer relationships, long-term stability and an offering that delivers concrete value creation for its global customer base. We look forward to continuing to develop the business together with the management team.’
– Stefan Lambert, Partner at Helix Kapital.
‘Thanks to our strong partnership with Sobro, NCS has developed into a growth company with a significant global position. We now look forward to the next phase with Helix Kapital as our owner – accelerating our international expansion as well as developing and offering our customers even more value-adding and innovative colour solutions through the NCS System’
– Elin Askfelt, CEO of NCS.
'We are proud of the journey NCS has made in recent years and grateful for the trust placed in us as an ownership partner during part of the company’s 80-year history. During this period, NCS’s management and employees have established a strong global position and broadened the digital offering in an impressive way. We are convinced that NCS will continue to create value for both customers and employees with Helix Kapital as its new majority owner. We look forward to following the company’s continued success with its new ownership partner’
– Louise Saatchi, Partner at Sobro.
