Wend­lin­gen — Crédit Mutuel Equity, the inter­na­tio­nal direct invest­ment company of Crédit Mutuel Alli­ance Fédé­rale, is inves­t­ing addi­tio­nal capi­tal in CF Group, incre­asing its mino­rity stake in the company. The CF Group is loca­ted in Wend­lin­gen am Neckar and is one of the two largest compa­nies in Europe for the produc­tion and equip­ment of swim­ming pools. Crédit Mutuel Equity has held a stake in the company since the end of 2019. Finan­cial details of the tran­sac­tion were not disclosed.

Sébas­tien Neiss (photo), Mana­ging Direc­tor of Crédit Mutuel Equity in Germany, said: “We only invest equity from the Crédit Mutuel Alli­ance Fédé­rale balance sheet, so we have a free hand in how we use the proceeds from dispo­sals of port­fo­lio compa­nies. Each year, we reinvest around one-third of these proceeds in the exis­ting port­fo­lio of more than 330 compa­nies around the world in which we have a stake. We use the remai­ning two-thirds for new invest­ments. The advan­tage of our ‘pati­ent capi­tal’ is its great flexi­bi­lity: We are able to accom­pany compa­nies over time hori­zons that are tail­o­red to their respec­tive projects and thus enable us to create value for all stake­hol­ders — manage­ment, share­hol­ders and employees. Ther­e­fore, it is wort­hwhile for us to increase our invest­ments both in chal­len­ging phases and when growth pros­pects are parti­cu­larly posi­tive, e.g. through exter­nal growth projects. CF Group has deve­lo­ped extra­or­di­na­rily successfully since our invest­ment and the further pros­pects are also very good. With addi­tio­nal capi­tal, we want to do our part to leverage the company’s long-term deve­lo­p­ment potential.”

CF Group was formed from the 2019 merger of Germany’s Chemo­form AG and France’s FIJA Group. The tran­sac­tion took place with the support of Crédit Mutuel Equity, which also acqui­red a stake in the newly crea­ted company. Since then, CF Group has acqui­red three more compa­nies, inclu­ding the acqui­si­tion of a majo­rity stake in Dr. Nüsken Chemie GmbH, in which it alre­ady held a mino­rity stake.

Cedrik Mayer-Klenk, CEO of Chemo­form AG, added: “For many years now, we have been pursuing a growth stra­tegy in which we open up new markets or addi­tio­nal distri­bu­tion chan­nels by acqui­ring comple­men­tary compa­nies or long-stan­ding coope­ra­tion part­ners. Having the finan­cial strength and M&A exper­tise of an active mino­rity share­hol­der expe­ri­en­ced in such proces­ses in the back­ground helps us a lot. We have become faster in decis­ion-making and more profes­sio­nal in the execu­tion of acqui­si­ti­ons and can main­tain a very solid equity ratio even with ambi­tious growth.”

Advi­sor to the tran­sac­tion: Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek
Dr. Rainer Hersch­lein, Bene­dikt Raisch

About CF Group

CF Group is a leading Euro­pean company for swim­ming pool tech­no­logy, main­ten­ance and water treat­ment. The company was formed by the merger of Chemo­form AG, foun­ded in Wend­lin­gen (Germany) in 1962, and the FIJA Group, foun­ded in Brécé (France) in 1975. With its multi-brand port­fo­lio, CF Group covers the entire spec­trum from cons­truc­tion, equip­ment and main­ten­ance to clean­li­ness, hygiene and care of private and public pools. The group employs more than 1,000 people, opera­tes in more than 40 count­ries world­wide and gene­ra­tes sales of more than 300 million euros annu­ally. www.chemoform.com

About Crédit Mutuel Equity

Crédit Mutuel Equity bund­les the inter­na­tio­nal direct invest­ment busi­ness of the French banking group Crédit Mutuel Alli­ance Fédé­rale. The subsi­diary offers medium-sized compa­nies solu­ti­ons in all areas of equity financing.

At Crédit Mutuel Equity, the focus is on the rela­ti­onship and close coope­ra­tion between the expe­ri­en­ced invest­ment team and the execu­ti­ves in the port­fo­lio compa­nies. With the long-term perspec­tive of a fund-inde­pen­dent “ever­green” approach, the company has alre­ady been successful for 40 years.

Crédit Mutuel Equity curr­ently has around 3.5 billion euros of equity inves­ted, and its port­fo­lio consists of more than 330 compa­nies. Since 2016, the company has expan­ded its acti­vi­ties to Canada (Mont­real and Toronto), USA (New York and Boston), Germany (Frank­furt) and Switz­er­land (Geneva and Zurich). www.creditmutuel-equity.eu

About Crédit Mutuel Alli­ance Fédérale

Crédit Mutuel Alli­ance Fédé­rale is one of France’s leading banks, with more than 75,000 employees1 serving over 29 million customers1. With a network of around 4,500 branches1, Crédit Mutuel Alli­ance Fédé­rale offers a compre­hen­sive range of services for private custo­mers, the self-employed and compa­nies of all sizes. With equity of EUR 51.8 billion2 and a CET1 ratio of 18.3%2 , the Group is one of the best-capi­ta­li­zed banks in Europe.

The Crédit Mutuel Alli­ance Fédé­rale is compo­sed of the Crédit Mutuel sub-asso­cia­ti­ons Centre Est Europe (Stras­bourg), Sud-Est (Lyon), Ile-de-France (Paris), Savoie-Mont Blanc (Annecy), Midi-Atlan­tique (Toulouse), Loire-Atlan­tique and Centre Ouest (Nantes), Centre (Orlé­ans), Normandy (Caen), Dauphiné-Viva­rais (Valence), Médi­ter­ra­néen (Marseille), Anjou (Angers), Massif Central (Cler­mont-Ferrand), Antil­les-Guyane (Fort-de-France) and Nord Europe (Lille).

Crédit Mutuel Alli­ance Fédé­rale also includes Caisse Fédé­rale de Crédit Mutuel, Banque Fédé­ra­tive du Crédit Mutuel (BFCM) and all its subsi­dia­ries, inclu­ding CIC, Euro-Infor­ma­tion, Assu­ran­ces du Crédit Mutuel (ACM), Targ­obank, Cofi­dis, Banque Euro­pé­enne du Crédit Mutuel (BECM), Banque de Luxem­bourg, Banque Trans­at­lan­tique and Homiris.