Frank­furt am Main — Deut­sche Betei­li­gungs AG (DBAG) is acqui­ring a stake in the opera­ting busi­ness of BTV braun tele­Com AG (BTV), a well-known equip­ment and service provi­der in broad­band commu­ni­ca­ti­ons. As part of a manage­ment buy-out (MBO), the DBAG ECF fund advi­sed by Deut­sche Betei­li­gungs AG will acquire the majo­rity of shares in four opera­ting compa­nies of the BTV group. These will be sold as part of a succes­sion plan by the company foun­der and share­hol­der of BTV Thomas Braun, who will conti­nue to be respon­si­ble for the manage­ment of the compa­nies. DBAG is co-inves­t­ing up to 4.8 million euros; in future, it will account for around 38 percent of the shares in the compa­nies. Further shares in addi­tion to the DBAG ECF (a total of 93 percent) will be held by the compa­nies’ manage­ment. The closing of the purchase agree­ment is sche­du­led for July 2018. The rele­vant anti­trust autho­ri­ties still have to approve the tran­sac­tion. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the purchase price.

The BTV group is DBAG ECF’s fifth majo­rity invest­ment since it expan­ded its invest­ment spec­trum to include MBOs with equity invest­ments of ten to 30 million euros. At the same time, BTV marks the begin­ning of the second new invest­ment period of the DBAG ECF, or DBAG ECF II. The first invest­ment period of the fund (DBAG ECF I) was thus termi­na­ted prema­tu­rely after only twelve months. To date, 80 percent of the funds commit­ted to DBAG ECF I have been commit­ted. Further follow-on invest­ments are expec­ted to support the further deve­lo­p­ment of the exis­ting port­fo­lio companies.

BTV (www.brauntelecom.de) is a group of trading and service compa­nies that deve­lop, produce and distri­bute compon­ents for the cons­truc­tion of cable and fiber optic networks. It is one of the few full-service provi­ders on the market: BTV offers ever­y­thing needed to build, upgrade and operate such infra­struc­tures. This includes, for exam­ple, antenna sockets that are indi­vi­du­ally deve­lo­ped and produ­ced. The Group stocks a wide range of such and other compon­ents used by network opera­tors and service compa­nies. A growing service busi­ness comple­ments and supports the product busi­ness: Certain compon­ents in cable networks are beco­ming incre­asingly complex and require tech­ni­cal support in plan­ning, sales, confi­gu­ra­tion and installation.

BTV was foun­ded in Hano­ver in 1986. Around 40 people are employed there, inclu­ding in a rese­arch and deve­lo­p­ment depart­ment: the company deve­lops and tests products in close coope­ra­tion with its custo­mers. There are further service and sales loca­ti­ons in Hamburg and in Wismar (35 employees), and subsi­dia­ries are also main­tai­ned in the Nether­lands and in Taiwan. BTV has grown stron­gly; in the last three years, reve­nue almost doubled to around 30 million euros (2017).

BTV is the fifth company in broad­band commu­ni­ca­ti­ons in which DBAG has inves­ted since 2013. In addi­tion, there were seven corpo­rate acqui­si­ti­ons of these share­hol­dings. “The market for these compa­nies is driven by incre­asing end-custo­mer demand for faster Inter­net connec­tions, which require exis­ting networks to be upgraded or newly built,” says Tors­ten Grede, spokes­man for DBAG’s Manage­ment Board, describ­ing the attrac­tive market envi­ron­ment for this invest­ment. This also includes the trend toward high-perfor­mance fiber-optic connec­tions right into the home. “Comple­xity is incre­asing — this will conti­nue to drive demand for BTV products and for rela­ted services.” BTV’s further deve­lo­p­ment steps are to include not only orga­nic growth but also the broa­de­ning of the product and service range through further company acquisitions.

“DBAG has a good repu­ta­tion and is a very expe­ri­en­ced inves­tor in our indus­try — making it the ideal part­ner to accom­pany our company in its further deve­lo­p­ment,” said Thomas Braun, a member of the company’s Manage­ment Board and share­hol­der, explai­ning the sale to DBAG ECF.

About DBAG
Deut­sche Betei­li­gungs AG, a listed company, initia­tes closed-end private equity funds and invests along­side DBAG funds in well-posi­tio­ned medium-sized compa­nies with deve­lo­p­ment poten­tial. DBAG focu­ses on indus­trial sectors in which German SMEs are parti­cu­larly strong by inter­na­tio­nal stan­dards. With this expe­ri­ence, know-how and equity, it streng­thens the port­fo­lio compa­nies in imple­men­ting a long-term, value-enhan­cing corpo­rate stra­tegy. The entre­pre­neu­rial invest­ment approach makes DBAG a sought-after invest­ment part­ner in the German-spea­king region. The capi­tal mana­ged and advi­sed by the DBAG Group amounts to appro­xi­m­ately 1.8 billion euros.