Munich, London, Paris — Euro­pean private equity firm Silver­fleet Capi­tal has acqui­red a majo­rity stake in STAXS Conta­mi­na­tion Control Experts (Staxs NV). The company is one of the leading suppli­ers of clean­room access­ories in the Bene­lux count­ries. The Euro­pean Invest­ment Fund (EIF) has provi­ded addi­tio­nal capi­tal for the tran­sac­tion, the purchase price of which has not been disc­lo­sed. It was imple­men­ted by the invest­ment team at Silver­fleet Capi­tal, which specia­li­zes in smal­ler mid-market companies.

Foun­ded in 1995, STAXS is head­quar­te­red in Heeren­veen, the Nether­lands, and also has two loca­ti­ons in Belgium, Niel and Aart­s­el­aar; the company employs a total of around 80 people. As a value-added distri­bu­tor, STAXS sells high-quality disin­fec­tants and clea­ning agents, corre­spon­ding wipes and tools, as well as gloves and disposable clot­hing used for hygiene in clean­rooms in the life scien­ces and other sectors. STAXS also deve­lops and markets its own products under the DOTCH brand. A laun­dry service for clean­room clot­hing is also offe­red. The company has built up an excel­lent repu­ta­tion as an expert in conta­mi­na­tion protec­tion on the basis of high quality and relia­bi­lity and serves a loyal, also inter­na­tio­nally incre­asing regu­lar clientele.

Toge­ther with Silver­fleet Capi­tal, STAXS now intends to conti­nue its strong growth — the focus will be on expan­ding the product port­fo­lio and custo­mer base, further streng­thening the orga­niza­tion and expan­ding geogra­phi­cally. This includes a capa­city expan­sion at the Heeren­veen site due to the increased demand for DOTCH products. To the part­ner­ship, Silver­fleet Capi­tal brings exten­sive expe­ri­ence in deve­lo­ping compa­nies in the health­care market, gained during the team’s successful invest­ments in a phar­maceu­ti­cal contract manu­fac­tu­rer and a steri­liza­tion specia­list, among others.

“STAXS is a super­bly posi­tio­ned company whose jour­ney we’ve been follo­wing for a long time,” said Alex Breb­bia (pictu­red), a part­ner at Silver­fleet Capi­tal and co-head of its small middle market invest­ment team. “We look forward to now working closely with CEO Johan-Detlef Dubbel­boer, the manage­ment team and employees to unlock further growth potential.”

Erik Fuchs, co-head of invest­ment acti­vi­ties in the Bene­lux, added: “The invest­ment in STAXS demons­tra­tes Silver­fleet Capital’s contin­ued commit­ment to the region. We want to actively support another local market leader in its internationalization.”

Johan-Detlef Dubbel­boer, CEO of STAXS since 2007, states, “I am looking forward to the part­ner­ship with Silver­fleet Capi­tal and the next phase of growth. The company has an impres­sive track record in further deve­lo­ping and inter­na­tio­na­li­zing Euro­pean mid-sized compa­nies and exten­sive expe­ri­ence in the health­care market.”

The Silver­fleet Capi­tal team hand­ling the tran­sac­tion includes invest­ment experts Alex Breb­bia, Erik Fuchs and Peter Kise­nyi. Silver­fleet Capi­tal was advi­sed by Deloitte (Finan­cial & Tax), CIL (Commer­cial), Stek (Legal, Corpo­rate & Banking) and AJ Gallag­her (Insu­rance).

About Silver­fleet Capital
Silver­fleet Capi­tal has been active as a private equity inves­tor in the Euro­pean mid-market for more than 30 years and curr­ently mana­ges around €1.2 billion with its 30-strong invest­ment team in Munich, London, Paris, Stock­holm and Amsterdam.

Eight invest­ments have alre­ady been made from the second inde­pen­dent fund closed in 2015 with a volume of 870 million euros: The Masai Clot­hing Company, a women’s fashion whole­sa­ler and retailer head­quar­te­red in Denmark; Coven­tya, a French deve­lo­per of specialty chemi­cals; Sigma Compon­ents, a U.K. manu­fac­tu­rer of precis­ion compon­ents for civil avia­tion; Life­time Trai­ning, a U.K. provi­der of trai­ning programs; Pumpen­fa­brik Wangen, a manu­fac­tu­rer of specialty pumps based in Germany; Riviera Travel, a British opera­tor of escor­ted group tours and crui­ses; 7days, a West­pha­lian supplier of medi­cal work­wear; and Prefere Resins, a leading phen­o­lic and amino resin manu­fac­tu­rer in Europe.

Silver­fleet achie­ves value growth through its “buy to build” invest­ment stra­tegy. As part of this stra­tegy, Silver­fleet is acce­le­ra­ting the growth of its subsi­dia­ries by inves­t­ing in new products, produc­tion capa­city and employees, instal­ling successful retail formats or making follow-up acqui­si­ti­ons. Since 2004, Silver­fleet Capi­tal has inves­ted €1.9 billion in 28 companies.

Silver­fleet specia­li­zes in four key indus­tries: Busi­ness and Finan­cial Services, Health­care, Manu­fac­tu­ring, and Retail and Consu­mer Goods. Since 2004, the private equity inves­tor has inves­ted 33 percent of its assets in compa­nies head­quar­te­red in the DACH region, 31 percent in the UK and Ireland, 19 percent in Scan­di­na­via and 17 percent mainly in France and the Bene­lux count­ries (1).

Silver­fleet Capi­tal has a solid invest­ment track record. Most recently, Silver­fleet sold Ipes, a leading provi­der of outsour­cing services to Euro­pean private equity firms (invest­ment multi­ple 3.8x); CCC, one of the leading BPO services provi­ders in Europe, as well as Cimbria, a Danish manu­fac­tu­rer of agri­cul­tu­ral equip­ment (2); Kalle, a German manu­fac­tu­rer of arti­fi­cial sausage pellets (invest­ment multi­ple 3.5x); OFFICE, a UK foot­wear retailer (invest­ment multi­ple 3.4x); and Aesica, a leading phar­maceu­ti­cal CDMO company (invest­ment multi­ple 3.3x).

(1) Includes an invest­ment head­quar­te­red in the USA and sourcing in Belgium. (2) Mention of invest­ment multi­ple not possi­ble for legal reasons