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The biggest owner of Thule, a Swedish maker of ski racks, bike carriers and rooftop boxes for cars, announced Monday at has acquired more shares of the Swedish company from a consortium of banks and now plans to float the company on the Stockholm exchange.

The acquisition will give Malmö-based Thule, which has been burdened by heavy debts, “financial strength to support the Group’s continued expansion”, private equity firm Nordic Capital said.

“With Nordic Capital Fund VII's acquisition of the banks’ shares, the Thule Group can now prepare for the next phase of expansion and work towards a future IPO”, said Ulf Rosberg, director of Thule and Partner of Nordic Capital.

During the financial crisis the company was hit by a fall-off in consumer demand for automotive products. Now demand for outdoor lifestyle equipment is picking up across Europe. The company has some 3,500 employees at more than 50 production facilities and sales offices worldwide. Last year sales amounted to 5.8 billion kronor ($830 million).

"Thule has developed very strongly over the past two years, and the repositioning initiated by efficiency gains, sale of non-core businesses and the clear commitment to a brand and consumer focused strategy looks promising. This strategy can now be further accelerated by add-on acquisitions”, said Hans Eckerström, director of Thule and Partner of Nordic Capital.

Three years ago private equity firm Nordic Capital won permission from the European Commission to acquire the Swedish car rooftop accessories maker from British-based private equity firm Candover for about 1.2 billion euros. Thule was also being prepared for an IPO in 2004 when Candover fought off competition from several private equity rivals to buy it.

In 2008 Nordic Capital injected some 500 million kronor into Thule to preserve its controlling stake in a restructuring that wiped out a loan from Goldman Sachs.