Wetz­lar / Rüssels­heim / Bad Homburg — ELIQUO WATER GROUP GmbH, specia­list for muni­ci­pal water and waste­wa­ter tech­no­logy, takes over all shares of the Gesell­schaft für Elektro‑, Auto­ma­ti­sie­rungs- und Leit­tech­nik mbH (GEAL mbH) in the course of the perspec­tive age succes­sion. For GEAL, the tran­sac­tion process was exclu­si­vely mana­ged by the M&A consul­ting boutique Nach­fol­ge­kon­tor. The previous owners, Chris­tian Schön and Michael Wein­del, will initi­ally conti­nue to run the busi­ness to ensure an opti­mal transition.

The company GEAL specia­li­zes in the auto­ma­tion of water and waste­wa­ter faci­li­ties, as well as remote moni­to­ring and control of trans­por­ta­tion and infra­struc­ture networks. GEAL, head­quar­te­red in Rüssels­heim, Hesse, was foun­ded in 1996 by five former employees of the elec­tri­cal company AEG. In addi­tion to the plan­ning, deli­very, programming, assem­bly, instal­la­tion and commis­sio­ning of control and process control systems, the service scope also includes the coor­di­na­tion of suppli­ers and a 24/7 on-call service.

Mana­ging part­ners of GEAL are Chris­tian Schön and Michael Wein­del. Schön is the last of the five foun­ding part­ners, having alre­ady reti­red four of the five foun­ders. Wein­del has been streng­thening the company since 2001 and has been a member of the manage­ment team since 2006. In order to secure the succes­sion of the company, Schön and Wein­del sell the company to ELIQUO in a share deal. In the future, GEAL will comple­ment ELIQUO’s port­fo­lio. Estab­lished on the market as a group of compa­nies since 2014 and with many deca­des of expe­ri­ence, ELIQUO, as one of the largest German muni­ci­pal plant cons­truc­tors for water and waste­wa­ter tech­no­logy with its more than 500 employees, bund­les the Euro­pean acti­vi­ties of SKion Water GmbH in this field.

“The long-term perspec­tive of our employees and custo­mers was parti­cu­larly important to us,” says Chris­tian Schön, Mana­ging Direc­tor at GEAL. “Through a regu­la­ted tran­si­tion and the extre­mely good coope­ra­tion with ELIQUO in the tran­sac­tion process, we look forward to a future full of oppor­tu­ni­ties.” “With ELIQUO, we were able to find an ideal part­ner for the succes­sion at GEAL,” explains Sebas­tian Wissig, who, along with Phil­ipp Spel­kus, is the project mana­ger at Nach­fol­ge­kon­tor. “The syner­gies of the two compa­nies and the level of part­ner­ship were alre­ady clear in the initial discus­sions — toge­ther they form a stable foun­da­tion for provi­ding opti­mum support to the custo­mers of both companies.”

Gauke Reit­sma, CEO of ELIQUO, explains: “Our auto­ma­tion team is perfectly comple­men­ted by GEAL. GEAL’s custo­mers, in turn, can now also bene­fit from our range of services in the field of mecha­ni­cal and elec­tri­cal engi­nee­ring, e.g. control cabi­net cons­truc­tion. In addi­tion, digi­tal networ­king is beco­ming incre­asingly important for the infra­struc­ture of muni­ci­pal water and waste­wa­ter plants. GEAL’s in-depth exper­tise in the field of digi­ta­liza­tion enables us to expand this compe­tence in-house. This puts us in an even better posi­tion for the future. We are very plea­sed to welcome the GEAL team to the Group.”

About Nach­fol­ge­kon­tor / sonn­tag corpo­rate finance

Nach­fol­ge­kon­tor GmbH, in asso­cia­tion with sonn­tag corpo­rate finance GmbH, is one of the leading M&A consul­ting firms in the German SME sector. The team of almost 30 experts accom­pa­nies medium-sized entre­pre­neurs exclu­si­vely through the entire sales process. “Our task is to safe­guard life’s work,” is how we see oursel­ves. In doing so, custo­mers bene­fit from a unique approach that has won multi­ple awards from the busi­ness press, and which protects the iden­tity of their compa­nies to a special degree. Thanks to their excel­lent access to medium-sized compa­nies, Nach­fol­ge­kon­tor and sonn­tag corpo­rate finance have also estab­lished them­sel­ves as a strong part­ner at the side of renow­ned natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal major compa­nies and inves­tors in acqui­si­ti­ons. — www.nachfolgekontor.de / www.sonntagcf.com

ELIQUO WATER GROUP
As a subsi­diary of SKion Water GmbH, ELIQUO bund­les all acti­vi­ties of muni­ci­pal water, waste­wa­ter and sludge treat­ment in Europe. With more than 500 employees and over 30 years of expe­ri­ence in the market, the company focu­ses on plant engi­nee­ring. ELIQUO’s products and services include ther­mal pres­sure hydro­ly­sis (THD), vacuum degas­sing of digested sludge, sludge drying, the 3. and 4th treat­ment stage, energy effi­ci­ency projects and nutri­ent reco­very solu­ti­ons. ELIQUO’s mission is to reduce the carbon foot­print of water­works and waste­wa­ter treat­ment plants and to sustain­ably protect our most precious resource: Water. — www.eliquowater.com

SKion Water
SKion Water GmbH is a tech­no­logy and solu­ti­ons provi­der foun­ded by entre­pre­neur Susanne Klat­ten, as well as a plant manu­fac­tu­rer in muni­ci­pal and indus­trial water and waste­wa­ter tech­no­logy. In addi­tion, SKion Water invests in inno­va­tive water tech­no­logy compa­nies, provi­ded that the respec­tive tech­no­logy fits into the port­fo­lio. In addi­tion to ELIQUO, Ovivo, Envi­ro­wa­ter Group, Paques, Ecopre­neur, ADASA, inCTRL and Matten are other opera­ting subsi­dia­ries of SKion Water. — www.skionwater.com