Author: Tatjana Anderer

Frank­furt am Main/ Eppin­gen — With the aim of support­ing the further deve­lo­p­ment of the company, Stead­fast Capi­tal Fund IV SCS, SICAV-RAIF has inves­ted in BUK Group (BUK). The BUK Group compri­ses BUK Kunst­stoff­tech­nik GmbH and EMG GmbH, both based in Eppin­gen (Baden-Würt­tem­berg), UHB Kunst­stoff­tech­nik GmbH, based in Bohmte (Lower Saxony), and the Group’s tool­ma­king opera­ti­ons. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the terms of the investment.

BUK is a leading manu­fac­tu­rer of high-precis­ion injec­tion molded engi­nee­ring plas­tic parts for custo­mers in a variety of indus­tries. The manu­fac­tu­red parts are used, among others, in hand tools, water fittings and house­hold and elec­tri­cal appli­ances. In addi­tion to parts manu­fac­tu­ring, BUK main­ta­ins its own tool shop and offers its custo­mers compre­hen­sive assem­bly services. Toge­ther with Thors­ten Ulbrich, who conti­nues to hold a signi­fi­cant stake in BUK, Stead­fast Capi­tal will drive the further deve­lo­p­ment of the group, both in terms of person­nel and strategy.

Marco Berne­cker, Mana­ging Part­ner of Stead­fast Capi­tal GmbH: ” We are looking forward to working with an excel­lent entre­pre­neur and his manage­ment and to support the successful further deve­lo­p­ment of BUK. Given its focu­sed product offe­ring in various end markets, as well as its tech­no­lo­gi­cal exper­tise and state-of-the-art produc­tion proces­ses, we are convin­ced that the company will have excel­lent growth oppor­tu­ni­ties in the future.”

Natio­nal­bank Essen and Olden­bur­gi­sche Landes­bank are support­ing the tran­sac­tion with acqui­si­tion finan­cing and a working capi­tal loan.

About the BUK Group
Foun­ded in 1985 and taken over by Thors­ten Ulbrich in 1996, the group of compa­nies specia­li­zes in the produc­tion of sophisti­ca­ted tech­ni­cal plas­tic molded parts (indi­vi­dual parts and assem­blies) based on state-of-the-art injec­tion molding machi­nes. The product range extends from high-precis­ion plas­tic parts for small elec­tri­cal devices (e.g. grin­ding tools) to complex assem­blies for high-pres­sure pumps and venti­la­tion and cooling devices. BUK supports its custo­mers from the deve­lo­p­ment of new products, through pre-series to serial produc­tion by means of custo­mi­zed injec­tion molds and state-of-the-art produc­tion processes.

Stead­fast Capital
Stead­fast Capi­tal is an inde­pen­dent private equity invest­ment company focu­sed on medium-sized compa­nies in German-spea­king Europe and the Bene­lux count­ries. Our funds invest in medium-sized compa­nies and provide equity capi­tal for busi­ness succes­si­ons, manage­ment buy-outs and growth financing.

Stead­fast Capi­tal was foun­ded in 2001 and has since pursued a successful, value-driven stra­tegy of inves­t­ing in profi­ta­ble compa­nies across a wide range of indus­tries. Stead­fast Capi­tal Fund IV bene­fits from the finan­cial support of the Euro­pean Union under the Euro­pean Fund for Stra­te­gic Invest­ments (“EFSI”) estab­lished under the Invest­ment Plan for Europe. The purpose of the EFSI is to support the finan­cing and imple­men­ta­tion of produc­tive invest­ments in the Euro­pean Union and to ensure better access to finance.

Shear­man & Ster­ling advi­sed NATIONAL-BANK AG and Olden­bur­gi­sche Landes­bank Akti­en­ge­sell­schaft (OLB) on the finan­cing of the acqui­si­tion of BUK Group by Stead­fast Capital.

NATIONAL-BANK AG is one of the leading inde­pen­dent regio­nal banks in Germany for discer­ning private and corpo­rate custo­mers and medium-sized insti­tu­tio­nal investors.

OLB is a modern finan­cial group that, in addi­tion to its core busi­ness of retail and corpo­rate custo­mers, also offers custo­mi­zed, one-stop solu­ti­ons for complex finan­cial issues throug­hout Germany. She is a leading arran­ger in the German-spea­king LBO market.

About Shear­man & Sterling
Shear­man & Ster­ling is an inter­na­tio­nal law firm with 23 offices in 13 count­ries and appro­xi­m­ately 850 lawy­ers. In Germany, Shear­man & Ster­ling is repre­sen­ted at the Frank­furt office. The firm is one of the inter­na­tio­nal market leaders in advi­sing on complex cross-border tran­sac­tions. World­wide, Shear­man & Ster­ling prima­rily advi­ses inter­na­tio­nal corpo­ra­ti­ons and large natio­nal compa­nies, finan­cial insti­tu­ti­ons, and large mid-sized companies.

Wendingen/ Munich — The foun­ders of pro optik sell the majo­rity of their shares to the Munich-based invest­ment company PARAGON PARTNERS and to long-time employee and mana­ging direc­tor Hanni­bal Zema­riam.

Peter Hoppert (co-foun­der of pro optik): “With PARAGON PARTNERS we have found an expe­ri­en­ced and relia­ble finan­cial inves­tor and we will sell the majo­rity of our shares in the pro optik group to PARAGON PARTNERS and Hanni­bal Zema­riam.” Mr. Zema­riam, who has been employed by pro optik since 2003 and was appoin­ted as an addi­tio­nal mana­ging direc­tor in 2018, is inves­t­ing in pro optik toge­ther with PARAGON PARTNERS, conti­nuing the owner-driven culture. This step is the logi­cal conse­quence of the orderly succes­sion that has been in place for some time and with Mr. Zema­riam, pro optik is rely­ing on conti­nuity in the manage­ment of the company.

With the help of PARAGON PARTNERS, plan­ned acce­le­ra­ted growth and focus on expan­sion of the group is secu­red for the coming years. Mr. Zema­riam commen­ted, “I look forward to working with PARAGON PARTNERS and driving the group’s expan­sion both with the group-wide roll-out of hearing aids added to the product port­fo­lio in 2019, as well as through the poten­tial acqui­si­tion of smal­ler chains.”

Marco Atto­lini, Mana­ging Part­ner of PARAGON PARTNERS, said, “We look forward to actively support­ing the manage­ment and employees of pro optik as a stable prin­ci­pal owner by inves­t­ing in the growth and sustainable deve­lo­p­ment of the company.”

The foun­ders, Rainer Hilde­brandt and Peter Hoppert, will also remain finan­ci­ally asso­cia­ted with pro optik. “The trust of our part­ners is important to us. That’s why we will conti­nue to hold a finan­cial stake in pro optik, provide advi­sory support to the new prin­ci­pal owners and be available to our part­ners as a trus­ted cont­act,” says Hildebrandt.

About pro optik
pro optik is the third largest opti­cian chain in Germany with 145 bran­ches. The company gene­ra­ted EUR 125 million in exter­nal sales in 2018. Based in Wend­lin­gen, Germany, pro optik looks back on a successful deve­lo­p­ment and conti­nuous growth since its foun­da­tion by Peter Hoppert and Rainer Hilde­brandt in 1987. A signi­fi­cant mile­stone in the recent past is the expan­sion of the product range to include hearing acoustics.

London, Munich, Dussel­dorf — ARQIS has advi­sed FTSE-100 listed CRH plc. (“CRH”) on the sale of its Euro­pean distri­bu­tion busi­ness to a private equity fund mana­ged by Blackstone for an enter­prise value of €1.64 billion. Lead legal coun­sel for CRH world­wide was Slaugh­ter and May, working with Chris Roberts, CRH’s gene­ral coun­sel, and Dami­a­nos Vainas, deputy gene­ral coun­sel. ARQIS advi­sed on the German portion of the acqui­si­tion. The tran­sac­tion is subject to regu­la­tory approval.

“The tran­sac­tion demons­tra­tes the contin­ued execu­tion of CRH’s stra­tegy to create value for our share­hol­ders through active port­fo­lio manage­ment, effi­ci­ent capi­tal allo­ca­tion and the crea­tion of a simp­ler and more focu­sed group for the future. We wish our colle­agues at Europe Distri­bu­tion every success as they enter this new phase of their deve­lo­p­ment,” said Albert Mani­fold, Chief Execu­tive of CRH.

The dive­st­ment includes CRH’s entire Gene­ral Buil­ders Merchants busi­ness in Europe, inclu­ding the plum­bing heating and sani­ta­tion busi­ness. The sale follo­wed a compre­hen­sive stra­te­gic review of the busi­ness in recent months, which conside­red all opti­ons to maxi­mize value for share­hol­ders. The proceeds from the dive­st­ment will be used for gene­ral corpo­rate purpo­ses to make acqui­si­ti­ons as part of our ongo­ing share repurchase program and to provide returns of capi­tal to shareholders.

CRH is a leading global diver­si­fied buil­ding mate­ri­als group with around 85,000 employees at appro­xi­m­ately 3,600 sites in 32 count­ries. With a market capi­ta­liza­tion of appro­xi­m­ately €23 billion (April 2018), CRH is the largest buil­ding mate­ri­als company in North America and the second largest in the world. The Group holds various market-leading posi­ti­ons in Europe and stra­te­gic posi­ti­ons in the emer­ging econo­mic regi­ons of Asia and South America.

The ARQIS team around Jörn-Chris­tian Schulze has been advi­sing CRH in various tran­sac­tions in Germany for many years.

Advi­sors to CRH: ARQIS Rechts­an­wälte (Düssel­dorf, Munich)
Dr. Jörn-Chris­tian Schulze, Dr. Chris­tof Alex­an­der Schnei­der (both Lead; Corporate/M&A); Dr. Andrea Panzer-Heemeier (Labor Law), Dr. Chris­tof Alex­an­der Schnei­der, Johan­nes Landry (both Corporate/M&A), Chris­tian Wege­ner (Tax Law), Dr. Ulrich Lien­hard (Real Estate Law), Marcus Noth­hel­fer (IP/Compliance), Dr. Thomas Görge­manns (Corporate/M&A); Asso­cia­tes: Nima Hanifi-Atash­gah, Thomas Chwa­lek, Malte Grie­pen­burg (all Corporate/M&A), Jenni­fer Huschauer (Real Estate), Dr. Hendrik von Mellen­thin (Labor Law), Dr. Liliia Sagun, Carina Grahs (both Legal Support Specialists).

Stutt­gart — The Stutt­gart-based invest­ment company Finexx has supported its port­fo­lio company GSE Vertrieb with capi­tal for the stra­te­gic acqui­si­tion of the FITNE brand. The Saar­brü­cken-based specia­list for orga­nic nutri­tio­nal supple­ments takes over FITNE from LOGOCOS Natur­kos­me­tik AG, a subsi­diary of the consu­mer goods group L’Oréal, and thus expands its port­fo­lio by curr­ently 27 nutri­tio­nal supple­ments and cosme­tic products. The tran­sac­tion crea­tes FITNE Health Care GmbH, which toge­ther with GSE Vertrieb Biolo­gi­sche Nahrungs­er­gän­zungs- und Heil­mit­tel GmbH will be part of BioneXX Holding, in which Finexx holds a majo­rity stake. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the finan­cial details.

The FITNE brand was foun­ded in 1994 and since then has successfully compe­ted with orga­nic quality products for main­tai­ning health, vita­lity and joie de vivre, which are mainly sold in health food stores and orga­nic stores. FITNE was part of the LOGOCOS Group since 2014. GSE has also been on the market since 1994 and deve­lops and distri­bu­tes food supple­ments on an orga­nic certi­fied basis through natu­ral food retail­ers. Last Novem­ber, Finexx had acqui­red the GSE shares as part of a long-term succes­sion plan.

“We want to support GSE in further expan­ding its leading market posi­tion. Our stra­tegy includes a number of measu­res for further orga­nic growth, but also the expan­sion of the plat­form via suita­ble acqui­si­ti­ons when the oppor­tu­nity arises,” explains Finexx co-mana­ging direc­tor Matthias Heining. “The acqui­si­tion of the renow­ned FITNE brand will allow GSE to bene­fit even more from the contin­ued growth in demand for health main­ten­ance products.”

Expe­ri­en­ced invest­ment mana­ger streng­thens Finexx team
In addi­tion to GSE, Finexx also holds a majo­rity stake in Sicko, a provi­der of all aspects of digi­tiza­tion and auto­ma­tion of proces­ses in the wood­wor­king indus­try. Finexx also holds shares in the welding specia­list WIDOS. The focus of the invest­ment company is on estab­lished, small and medium-sized compa­nies in Germany; Finexx supports these compa­nies in their further deve­lo­p­ment as a part­ner with strong capi­tal and know-how. “Without inter­vening in day-to-day opera­ti­ons, we support manage­ment across the entire spec­trum of corpo­rate proces­ses. As with the current tran­sac­tion, the deve­lo­p­ment and imple­men­ta­tion of a buy-and-build stra­tegy can also be a key compo­nent of this,” says Co-Mana­ging Direc­tor Dr. Markus Seiler. “We are plea­sed to be able to convince more and more family busi­ness owners and manage­ment teams of the oppor­tu­ni­ties of part­ne­ring with Finexx.”

In order to manage the growing number of invest­ments even more inten­si­vely and also to iden­tify further invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties, the team around the expe­ri­en­ced mana­ging direc­tors Matthias Heining and Dr. Markus Seiler has now brought in rein­force­ments: Frank Weller (44) has come on board as Invest­ment Direc­tor as of July 1, 2019. He moves from the invest­ment company BWK in Stutt­gart, where he spent eleven years as a senior invest­ment mana­ger looking after nume­rous medium-sized compa­nies. This period also saw an inten­sive colla­bo­ra­tion with Matthias Heining, who was Mana­ging Direc­tor at BWK between 2008 and 2013. Frank Weller holds a degree in econo­mics and also has seve­ral years of profes­sio­nal expe­ri­ence in audi­ting at Price­wa­ter­hous­e­Coo­pers. Matthias Heining: “We are very plea­sed about the addi­tion to the team — Frank Weller will conti­nue to drive Finexx’s growth course with valuable know-how.”

About Finexx
Finexx GmbH Unter­neh­mens­be­tei­li­gun­gen, based in Stutt­gart, is a consul­ting company foun­ded in 2013 that specia­li­zes in estab­lished medium-sized compa­nies. Typi­cal fields of acti­vity are growth invest­ment and acqui­si­tion finan­cing as well as the support of chan­ges in the share­hol­der struc­ture and succes­sion planning.

Finexx invests long-term funds (equity capi­tal of between 5 and 50 million euros), mainly in the form of majo­rity share­hol­dings, in compa­nies from the German-spea­king region, inclu­ding insu­rance compa­nies and pension funds. These have sales of EUR 10 million or more, a quali­fied manage­ment team, and can demons­trate sustainable earnings power and cash flow based on a successful busi­ness model.

The team has many years of indus­trial and manage­ment expe­ri­ence as well as profound know-how in the invest­ment sector — both are brought to bear for the successful further deve­lo­p­ment of compa­nies and in the asso­cia­ted change proces­ses. Finexx supports manage­ment by provi­ding active commer­cial and tech­ni­cal advice without inter­fe­ring with day-to-day opera­ti­ons, as well as a cross-indus­try network. www.finexx.de

Frank­furt am Main / Stutt­gart / Lauter­bach — The Frank­furt-based invest­ment company VR Equi­typ­art­ner, toge­ther with co-inves­tor Süd Betei­li­gun­gen GmbH (SüdBG), is selling its majo­rity stake in DUO PLAST Holding GmbH, which it acqui­red around six years ago. The remai­ning shares held by the manage­ment also change hands. The new owner of the successful high-perfor­mance film manu­fac­tu­rer is the Munich-based private equity firm Para­gon Part­ners. The tran­sac­tion, which is pending regu­la­tory appr­oval, is expec­ted to close later in summer 2019; no finan­cial details are disclosed.

DUO PLAST Group, foun­ded in 1983, is a leading manu­fac­tu­rer in the pack­a­ging and stretch film market. The company is head­quar­te­red in Lauter­bach, Hesse, with addi­tio­nal produc­tion and sales bran­ches in Thurin­gia, Austria, France and Turkey. Its parti­cu­lar strengths lie in the acknow­led­ged high quality of its products and in the company’s high level of inno­va­tion and custo­mer orien­ta­tion. The product port­fo­lio consists of five busi­ness areas: stretch, stretch and wrap films for load secu­ring, films for silage appli­ca­ti­ons, barrier films for food pack­a­ging, and semi- and fully-auto­ma­tic pack­a­ging lines for indus­try. In addi­tion, the company’s range of services is roun­ded off by the globally unique tech­no­logy center for cargo and trans­port secu­rity and exten­sive service activities.

Dr. Edin Hadzic, photo, co-foun­der and mana­ging direc­tor of PARAGON PARTNERS: “We are exci­ted about DUO PLAST’s long-stan­ding tech­no­logy leader­ship, inno­va­tive strength and stable custo­mer base. We look forward to working toge­ther to further deve­lop DUO PLAST and support its next phase of growth with fresh equity.”

VR Equi­typ­art­ner and SüdBG acqui­red a majo­rity stake in DUO PLAST in 2013 as part of a succes­sion plan; the company’s foun­der and until then CEO and main share­hol­der Norbert Jäger moved to the Super­vi­sory Board at that time. During the part­ner­ship, DUO PLAST has contin­ued to grow — the company now employs about 150 people and turns over nearly 60 million euros a year. Exten­sive invest­ments in deve­lo­p­ment and produc­tion took place and the company was able to push ahead with its internationalization.

“We are plea­sed that we were able to fulfill the trust placed in us by the foun­ding gene­ra­tion. In addi­tion to important invest­ments, mile­sto­nes in the further deve­lo­p­ment of DUO PLAST were above all the reor­ga­niza­tion of the manage­ment and the profes­sio­na­liza­tion of nume­rous proces­ses. Today, DUO PLAST is conside­red an inno­va­tion leader and has a corre­spon­din­gly outstan­ding market posi­tion,” explains Chris­tian Futter­lieb, Mana­ging Direc­tor of VR Equi­typ­art­ner. Direc­tor Johan­nes Fleck adds to the successfully imple­men­ted cata­log of measu­res: “During its time as a port­fo­lio company of VR Equi­typ­art­ner and SüdBG, DUO PLAST has repo­si­tio­ned itself as a high-end supplier of extru­sion films with a strong sales focus — among other things by syste­ma­tiz­ing and pushing direct sales and key account manage­ment as well as estab­li­shing a unique sales approach.”

Erich Stei­ner, CEO of DUO PLAST, confirms the good coope­ra­tion: “I would like to thank the previous share­hol­ders for what we have achie­ved toge­ther. We have achie­ved what was inten­ded: the trans­fer of the company into trust­wor­thy hands, the conti­nua­tion of the successful growth and niche stra­tegy and the sustainable posi­tio­ning for the future of the company. We are now exci­ted about the next deve­lo­p­ment steps in which the new, entre­pre­neu­rial inves­tor intends to support us.”

About VR Equi­typ­art­ner GmbH
VR Equi­typ­art­ner is one of the leading equity finan­ciers in Germany, Austria and Switz­er­land. The company supports medium-sized family busi­nesses in a goal-orien­ted manner and with deca­des of expe­ri­ence in the stra­te­gic solu­tion of complex finan­cing issues. Invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties include growth and expan­sion finan­cing, corpo­rate succes­sion or share­hol­der chan­ges. VR Equi­typ­art­ner offers majo­rity and mino­rity invest­ments as well as mezza­nine finan­cing. VR Equitypartner’s port­fo­lio curr­ently compri­ses around 100 commit­ments with an invest­ment volume of EUR 500 million.

Consul­ting firms invol­ved in the tran­sac­tion by VR Equitypartner:

M&A: William Blair Inter­na­tio­nal, Frankfurt
Finan­cial, Tax, Commer­cial: Price­wa­ter­hous­e­Coo­pers, Munich, Stuttgart
Legal: McDer­mott Will & Emery, Frankfurt
Envi­ron­men­tal: ERM, Munich, Neu-Isenburg

Berlin, London, Frank­furt a. Main, Munich — Signa­vio recei­ved EUR 157 million (USD 177 million) in a Series B finan­cing round for further global expan­sion. The finan­cing round led by Apax Digi­tal, the growth capi­tal arm of London-based finan­cial inves­tor Apax Part­ners, also included Deut­sche Tele­kom Capi­tal Part­ners (DTCP) and Summit Part­ners. The Frank­furt and Munich offices of inter­na­tio­nal law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP advi­sed Apax Digi­tal on its invest­ment in SaaS provi­der Signavio.

Signa­vio, which was valued at EUR 350 million in the finan­cing round, is a leading provi­der of cloud-based process mode­ling and manage­ment systems. The company is head­quar­te­red in Berlin and opera­tes at a total of nine loca­ti­ons worldwide.

Advi­sor Apax Digi­tal: Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP
The Weil tran­sac­tion team was led by Frank­furt-based Corpo­rate Part­ner Dr. Kamyar Abrarin this tran­sac­tion. and was supported by Tax Part­ner Ludger Kempf (Frank­furt) and Asso­cia­tes Sebas­tian Bren­ner, Thomas Weise, Aurel Hille, Stef­fen Giolda (all Corpo­rate, Frank­furt), Mareike Pfeif­fer (Labor Law, Frank­furt), Alisa Preis­sler (Tax, Frank­furt), Dr. Konstan­tin Hoppe, Dr. Barbara Sand­fuchs (IP/IT, Munich), Dr. Sandra Kühn (Liti­ga­tion, Munich) and Para­le­gals Sandra Maurer (Corpo­rate, Munich) and Kris­tina Thiel (Labor Law, Frank­furt). Weil’s U.S. attor­neys also served: part­ners Kevin Sulli­van (Corpo­rate, Boston) and Ted Posner (Liti­ga­tion, Washing­ton, DC) and asso­ciate Anthony Cahill (Corpo­rate, Boston).

Frank­furt am Main / Koblenz — The Frank­furt-based invest­ment company VR Equi­typ­art­ner is finan­cing the further growth of HGA VertriebsGmbH(HGA Cosme­tics). To this end, VR Equi­typ­art­ner is provi­ding the Koblenz-based company, which sells hair styling, care and color products, with mezza­nine capi­tal in the lower single-digit millions.

HGA Cosme­tics was foun­ded about 20 years ago and has been in the hands of the foun­der ever since. The company distri­bu­tes a wide range of premium products for hair styling, care and color in the DACH region. To this end, HGA Cosme­tics holds the exclu­sive distri­bu­tion rights for curr­ently nine niche brands, which are secu­red by long-term frame­work agree­ments. Custo­mers include hair salons and whole­sale. HGA has grown stron­gly in recent years and most recently achie­ved sales of over 11 million euros with 25 employees.

In its successful deve­lo­p­ment in recent years, HGA Cosme­tics has also been able to bene­fit from the envi­ron­ment, as the market for hair­dres­sing services is growing steadily. The reasons for this include the trends towards natu­ral cosme­tics and sustain­ably produ­ced and envi­ron­men­tally friendly sham­poos. This is accom­pa­nied by higher consu­mer demands on products and, at the same time, a grea­ter willing­ness to spend on corre­spon­ding premium products, for which HGA’s brand range is ideally positioned.

In addi­tion to opti­mi­zing its exis­ting finan­cing struc­ture, HGA Cosme­tics plans to use the mezza­nine capi­tal to finance further growth and expand its sales organization.

About VR Equi­typ­art­ner GmbH 
VR Equi­typ­art­ner is one of the leading equity finan­ciers in Germany, Austria and Switz­er­land. The company supports medium-sized family busi­nesses in a goal-orien­ted manner and with deca­des of expe­ri­ence in the stra­te­gic solu­tion of complex finan­cing issues. Invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties include growth and expan­sion finan­cing, corpo­rate succes­sion or share­hol­der chan­ges. VR Equi­typ­art­ner offers majo­rity and mino­rity invest­ments as well as mezza­nine finan­cing. As a subsi­diary of DZ BANK, the central insti­tu­tion of the coope­ra­tive banks in Germany, VR Equi­typ­art­ner consis­t­ently puts the sustaina­bi­lity of corpo­rate deve­lo­p­ment ahead of short-term exit thin­king. VR Equitypartner’s port­fo­lio curr­ently compri­ses around 100 commit­ments with an invest­ment volume of EUR 500 million.

Consul­ting firms invol­ved in the tran­sac­tion by VR Equi­typ­art­ner:

Commer­cial: maconda
Tax, Legal, Finan­cial: Warth & Klein Grant Thorn­ton, Düsseldorf

Hamburg/Frankfurt/Stockholm/Oxford — Viva­Neo, a group of ferti­lity centers in the port­fo­lio of Water­land Private Equity (“Water­land”), and The Ferti­lity Part­ner­ship, a corpo­rate invest­ment of inves­tor Impilo, are joining forces.

Water­land had acqui­red the Kinder­wunsch­zen­trum Wies­ba­den in 2011 — the start­ing point for the deve­lo­p­ment of Viva­Neo. To date, Viva­Neo has deve­lo­ped into one of Europe’s leading groups of ferti­lity centers with 15 loca­ti­ons in Germany, Denmark, Austria and the Nether­lands. Viva­Neo curr­ently gene­ra­tes annual sales of around 50 million euros. As part of the tran­sac­tion, Water­land will sell its Viva­Neo shares to The Ferti­lity Part­ner­ship. Further finan­cial details of the tran­sac­tion were not disclosed.

Viva­Neo employs around 300 people in its Europe-wide network of clinics. The group is led by a team of experts with commer­cial and medi­cal back­grounds, as well as expe­ri­en­ced physi­ci­ans and renow­ned embryo­lo­gists. Every year, around 25,000 pati­ents make use of the Group’s broad port­fo­lio of services. VivaNeo’s services are based on labo­ra­tory diagno­stics, the use of the latest tech­no­lo­gies and perso­na­li­zed advice on all facets of repro­duc­tive medi­cine. A syste­ma­tic exch­ange of know­ledge between the indi­vi­dual clinics crea­tes the basis for the broad range of services and their conti­nuous further development.

With the acqui­si­tion of the Wies­ba­den ferti­lity center in 2011 and its rebran­ding as Viva­Neo, Water­land laun­ched its buy & build program from this plat­form. Still in 2011, Viva­Neo expan­ded with the acqui­si­tion of a branch office in Berlin. In 2012, further German subsi­dia­ries were added, as well as a sperm bank and a labo­ra­tory diagno­stics center. The inte­gra­tion of Medisch Centrum Kinder­wens in the Nether­lands also marked the first step towards inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion in 2012. Acqui­si­ti­ons in Denmark and Austria follo­wed in 2015 and 2017. They shape the current profile of Viva­Neo: 15 loca­ti­ons in Germany, the Nether­lands, Denmark and Austria. Throug­hout Waterland’s invest­ment period, Viva­Neo has successfully comple­ted a total of 12 acqui­si­ti­ons, massi­vely incre­asing its market share and selec­tively expan­ding its regio­nal presence.

“Since the start of our buy & build stra­tegy at Viva­Neo in 2011, we have accom­pa­nied nume­rous acqui­si­ti­ons at Viva­Neo. Their successful inte­gra­tion crea­ted a multi­na­tio­nal group of ferti­lity centers in the Central Euro­pean market. During Waterland’s invol­vement, Viva­Neo was able to achieve important mile­sto­nes in the deve­lo­p­ment of repro­duc­tive medi­cine and signi­fi­cantly improve stan­dards of pati­ent care in the field of infer­ti­lity treat­ment and arti­fi­cial inse­mi­na­tion,” says Dr. Cars­ten Rahlfs, Mana­ging Part­ner at Water­land Private Equity. “We are plea­sed to announce the merger of Viva­Neo and The Ferti­lity Part­ner­ship. This will create a leading Euro­pean group. The new group aims to invest even more in services and medi­cal treat­ment quality. In total, the group will have 19 IVF clinics in six Euro­pean countries.”

“Through a targe­ted growth stra­tegy, we have been able to signi­fi­cantly expand VivaNeo’s regio­nal foot­print and successfully drive the Group’s expan­sion in a focu­sed manner. We thank Water­land for its part­ner­ship support throug­hout the invest­ment period. Toge­ther with The Ferti­lity Group and Impilo, we are now looking forward to ente­ring the next growth phase,” says Sebas­tian Ahrens, CEO of VivaNeo.

“The Ferti­lity Part­ner­ship is alre­ady a market leader in the UK and Poland in the areas of IVF as well as ultra­sound exami­na­ti­ons. Thanks to VivaNeo’s strong Central Euro­pean presence, we are now the number one IVF provi­der in Nort­hern Europe. Toge­ther, we now want to build a pan-Euro­pean group to share exper­tise, expe­ri­ence and exis­ting know­ledge in the IVF field,” adds Andrew Came, CEO of The Ferti­lity Partnership.

Inde­pen­dent invest­ment firm Water­land Private Equity has exten­sive expe­ri­ence in the health­care sector. Part of the Water­land port­fo­lio in Germany are, for exam­ple, ATOS, a group of soma­tic acute-care hospi­tals specia­li­zing in cutting-edge ortho­pe­dic medi­cine, and the care service provi­der Schö­nes Leben Group, a service plat­form for outpa­ti­ent, inpa­ti­ent and open geria­tric care as well as mobile services, assis­ted living and leisure acti­vi­ties. Water­land has been active in this sector in Germany since 2011 through the estab­lish­ment of MEDIAN, the current market leader in reha­bi­li­ta­tion medicine.

Advi­sors Water­land: Quar­ton Inter­na­tio­nal AG (M&A) and Will­kie Farr & Gallag­her (Legal)

About Viva­Neo
Viva­Neo is a leading provi­der of infer­ti­lity treat­ments in Europe with loca­ti­ons in Austria, Denmark, Germany and the Nether­lands. The Group opera­tes a total of nine specia­list clinics for arti­fi­cial inse­mi­na­tion in these four count­ries, as well as a sperm bank, a labo­ra­tory for blood diagno­stics and its own dialy­sis clinic. In the count­ries where Viva­Neo is active, Viva­Neo is either the market leader or in second place in the market compa­ri­son. Viva­Neo places the utmost importance on first-class pati­ent care and medi­cal treat­ment success. https://vivaneo-ivf.com/de/kinderwunschzentren/

About The Ferti­lity Partnership
The Ferti­lity Part­ner­ship, with loca­ti­ons in the UK and Poland, is a leading Euro­pean provi­der of arti­fi­cial inse­mi­na­tion, ultra­sound exami­na­ti­ons for pregnant women and hormone treat­ments. In addi­tion to eight IVF clinics in the UK and 27 addi­tio­nal sites and two IVF clinics in Poland, TFP also opera­tes 88 ultra­sound clinics in the UK and an incre­asing number of hormone treat­ment centers. Foun­ded in 2012 through the merger of two IVF clinics, TFP has since grown through targe­ted add-on acqui­si­ti­ons, green­field deve­lo­p­ments and expan­sion into adja­cent service sectors. Today, TFP is the largest provi­der of ferti­lity services in the UK, as well as the third largest in Poland, and is the leader in ultra­sound scans in the UK. https://www.thefertilitypartnership.com/

About Water­land
Water­land is an inde­pen­dent private equity invest­ment firm that helps compa­nies realize their growth plans. With substan­tial finan­cial support and indus­try exper­tise, Water­land enables its port­fo­lio compa­nies to achieve acce­le­ra­ted growth both orga­ni­cally and through acqui­si­ti­ons. Water­land has offices in the Nether­lands (Bussum), Belgium (Antwerp), Germany (Hamburg, Munich), Poland (Warsaw), the UK (Manches­ter), Denmark (Copen­ha­gen) and Switz­er­land (Zurich). Curr­ently, six billion euros in equity funds are under management.

Water­land has consis­t­ently outper­for­med its invest­ments since its foun­ding in 1999 and has regu­larly ranked among the top three leading private equity firms world­wide in past HEC/Dow Jones Private Equity Perfor­mance Rankings.

Frank­furt am Main — Paris — Sine­qua, a specia­list in cogni­tive search and AI-based search and analy­tics, has successfully closed a $23 million Series B finan­cing led by Jolt Capi­tal and supported by exis­ting inves­tor Trois­mer BVBA. Sine­qua will invest the addi­tio­nal funds in rese­arch and further expan­sion of its AI-powered search and analy­tics plat­form to include inno­va­tive arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence capa­bi­li­ties. For its rese­arch-based inno­va­tive tech­no­logy, Sine­qua has been ranked as a leader in the field of Cogni­tive Search by inde­pen­dent consul­ting insti­tu­tes seve­ral times.

Some of the world’s largest compa­nies are alre­ady using the Sine­qua plat­form to tap into very large volu­mes of data, analyze it, and provide their employees with contex­tual infor­ma­tion deri­ved from it. As a result, they gain new insights, make better decis­i­ons and increase their produc­ti­vity. Accor­ding to IDC, orga­niza­ti­ons that are able to analyze enter­prise content and data assets to deli­ver actionable infor­ma­tion and insights will realize an addi­tio­nal $430 billion in produc­ti­vity bene­fits over less analy­ti­cally orien­ted orga­niza­ti­ons by 2020.

“After years of rese­arch and deve­lo­p­ment to build our plat­form, we are proba­bly the only soft­ware vendor to offer compa­nies the ability to acce­le­rate inno­va­tion, improve effi­ci­ency and agility on a global scale and on an unpre­ce­den­ted scale. We do this by secu­rely aggre­ga­ting all enter­prise data in all formats and languages into acces­si­ble and useful infor­ma­tion — even with very large data volu­mes,” explains Alex­andre Bilger, CEO of Sine­qua. “This latest round of funding will enable us to more quickly realize our vision of the infor­ma­tion-driven economy.”

Fabrice de Sala­berry, COO of Sine­qua: “Sine­qua has been expe­ri­en­cing strong reve­nue growth for years, reaching 91% last year. With the addi­tio­nal resour­ces, we are able to drive inno­va­tion in our products, provide even better value to our custo­mers, expand our market presence and part­ner ecosys­tem quickly and with vigor.”

“As a private equity tech inves­tor in Europe, we support inno­va­tive tech­no­logy compa­nies with outstan­ding finan­cial perfor­mance like Sine­qua,” said Jean Schmitt, Mana­ging Part­ner at Jolt Capi­tal. “Sine­qua offers a compre­hen­sive and robust AI-based search plat­form built on state-of-the-art natu­ral language proces­sing and machine lear­ning tech­no­lo­gies that enable large enter­pri­ses to extract value from data. Given this strong appeal in the market, we are exci­ted to part­ner with Sine­qua and support the next phase of its global expansion.”

Just recently, Forres­ter Rese­arch confirmed Sinequa’s ability to expand employee intel­li­gence at scale in its “Forres­ter Wave™: Cogni­tive Search, Q2 20191“1) report. He said the AI plat­form helps compa­nies become infor­ma­tion-driven by expan­ding the know­ledge of every employee. “Sine­qua achie­ves this,” Forres­ter said verba­tim, “by uneart­hing insights and connec­ting experts through its cogni­tive search tech­no­logy. Sine­qua combi­nes its proprie­tary Natu­ral Language Under­stan­ding (NLU) tech­no­logy with the latest open source machine lear­ning tech­no­logy. The vendor has exten­sive indus­try exper­tise and offers solu­ti­ons for life scien­ces, finan­cial services and manufacturing.”

1 Forres­ter Rese­arch, Inc, “The Forres­ter Wave™: Cogni­tive Search, Q2 2019,” by Mike Gual­tieri, with Sriv­i­dya Srid­ha­ran and Eliza­beth Hoberman.

About Sine­qua
Sine­qua is an inde­pen­dent soft­ware vendor that provi­des a cogni­tive search and analy­tics plat­form for Global 2000 compa­nies and govern­ment agen­cies. As a result, their employees receive actionable infor­ma­tion in their respec­tive work envi­ron­ments, gain new insights, make better decis­i­ons and increase their produc­ti­vity — the company beco­mes infor­ma­tion-driven. The Sine­qua plat­form was crea­ted through expe­ri­ence in projects for large orga­niza­ti­ons in complex envi­ron­ments with large and diverse data and content. It is fully inte­gra­ted and confi­gura­ble to meet current and future infor­ma­tion retrie­val requi­re­ments. Sine­qua deve­lops its exper­tise and busi­ness globally with a broad network of tech­no­logy and busi­ness partners.

About Jolt Capital
Jolt Capi­tal SAS is an inde­pen­dent private equity firm that invests in fast-growing, profi­ta­ble, globally focu­sed tech­no­logy compa­nies of Euro­pean origin with reve­nues between €10 and €100 million. Jolt Capi­tal has inves­ted in and cata­ly­zed seve­ral leading tech­no­logy compa­nies, inclu­ding Hepta­gon (now part of SIX:AMS), Inside Secure (EUR:INSD), Fogale Nano­tech, Alpha Mos (EUR:ALM), Black­wood Seven, NIL Tech­no­logy and 4JET. The company is autho­ri­zed and regu­la­ted by the AMF. www.jolt-capital.com

Amster­dam — The Dutch ABN AMRO Energy Tran­si­tion Fund B.V. has agreed with the share­hol­ders and the company on a growth finan­cing by way of parti­ci­pa­tion in the Ideema­tec Group. The closing of the tran­sac­tion is subject to appr­oval by the anti­trust autho­ri­ties, which is expec­ted in the near future. A Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek team led by Düssel­dorf part­ner Dr. Martin Imhof provi­ded compre­hen­sive advice to ABN AMRO Energy Tran­si­tion Fund on the invest­ment, inclu­ding corpo­rate, patent and tax law aspects.

With head­quar­ters in Bava­ria and inter­na­tio­nal subsi­dia­ries in the USA, Chile, Turkey and the UK, Ideema­tec is a leading global supplier of key compon­ents for solar track­ing systems for the instal­la­tion of photo­vol­taic modu­les in solar parks. Ideema­tec has so far supplied compon­ents for over 2 GW of instal­led photo­vol­taic systems on six conti­nents. Current light­house projects include the instal­la­tion of 350 MW in Austra­lia and 250 MW in Jordan. With the invest­ment and parti­ci­pa­tion of ABN AMRO Energy Tran­si­tion Fund, Ideema­tec conti­nues its growth and secu­res its posi­tion as a supplier of leading tech­no­lo­gies in the global PV market. The growth finan­cing will enable Ideema­tec in parti­cu­lar to streng­then its presence in the MENA region, Asia and the Ameri­cas and to further expand capacity.

ABN AMRO Private Equity is part of the global ABN AMRO banking group, head­quar­te­red in Amster­dam, the Nether­lands. In 2018, ABN AMRO Private Equity laun­ched the Energy Tran­si­tion Fund with the goal of adding growth capi­tal and buyout tran­sac­tions rela­ted to compa­nies contri­bu­ting to a low-carbon future to its port­fo­lio. Curr­ently, the Energy Tran­si­tion Fund mana­ges around €200 million and invests in compa­nies and projects in the fields of rene­wa­ble energy, clean mobi­lity, smart infra­struc­ture and energy effi­ci­ency. The fund typi­cally invests in volu­mes between 10 and 25 million euros and focu­ses on compa­nies based in northwes­tern Europe.

Advi­sors to ABN AMRO Energy Tran­si­tion Fund B.V.: Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek:
Dr. Martin Imhof (Lead Part­ner, Private Equity/M&A),
Sebas­tian Poll­meier (Corporate/M&A),
Dr. Anton Horn (Patents),
Phil­ipp Roman Schrö­ler (patents),
Dr. Chris­tian Appel­baum (Banking/Finance),
Chris­toph Nöhles, LL.M. (Real Estate Law),
Dr. Alex­an­der Bork (Labor Law),
Astrid Lued­tke (Data Protection),
Beatrice Stange, LL.M. (Anti­trust),
Michael Vetter, LL.M. (anti­trust law), all Düsseldorf
Klaus Weinand-Härer (Taxes), Frankfurt
Yvonne Hunds­dör­fer (Taxes), Stuttgart
Daniela Szczesny (Corpo­rate Law), Munich
Dr. Marco Garbers, LL.M. (Energy/Projects), Hamburg

Berlin — Odewald KMU II has acqui­red a majo­rity stake in ARTUS Gesell­schaft für Brand- und Wasser­scha­den­sa­nie­rung mbH and ARTUS Projekt GmbH with the support of Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek attorneys.

ARTUS is a regio­nally leading damage resto­ra­tion company in the field of fire, water and natu­ral hazard damage as well as conse­quen­tial damage with head­quar­ters in Langen­ha­gen near Hano­ver and a network of seven bran­ches in the region of Lower Saxony, Hamburg, Bremen, Berlin and Leip­zig. ARTUS was foun­ded in 2012 and curr­ently employs around 100 people. The company offers complete solu­ti­ons for the entire reha­bi­li­ta­tion process. The services offe­red here cover the entire resto­ra­tion process, from initial measu­res and damage logging to clea­ning, drying and complete resto­ra­tion. The clients of ARTUS are mainly insu­rance compa­nies and their customers.

To support further growth, the foun­ding share­hol­ders have ente­red into a part­ner­ship with Odewald KMU II, an invest­ment company specia­li­zing in high-growth medium-sized compa­nies. To this end, Odewald KMU II has acqui­red a majo­rity stake in ARTUS. The foun­ders conti­nue to hold a signi­fi­cant stake in the company. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the amount of the invest­ment or further details of the shareholding.

The Odewald KMU II Fund with a volume of 200 million euros has ente­red into its seventh invest­ment with ARTUS. The Odewald KMU II Fund invests in attrac­tive target markets in German-spea­king SMEs. The indus­try focus is on profi­ta­ble, fast-growing medium-sized compa­nies in the fields of “German engi­nee­ring”, intel­li­gent services and health­care. The typi­cal invest­ment occa­si­ons are succes­sion arran­ge­ments and/or growth finan­cing. These compa­nies gene­rally gene­rate sales of between EUR 20 million and EUR 100 million, have entre­pre­neu­rial manage­ment, are very successful in opera­tio­nal terms and occupy a leading posi­tion in the rele­vant market. Equity invest­ments of five to 30 million euros are made per tran­sac­tion. The Colo­gne-based private equity experts led by Dr. Pär Johans­son regu­larly advise Odewald KMU in this regard.

About ODEWALD
ODEWALD is one of the leading inde­pen­dent invest­ment compa­nies in Germany. The company invests prima­rily in high-growth medium-sized compa­nies in German-spea­king count­ries. The focus is on
specia­li­zed mecha­ni­cal engi­nee­ring, busi­ness services, IT, energy, medi­cal tech­no­logy and health­care. Inves­tors include insu­rance compa­nies, pension funds, asset manage­ment compa­nies, family offices and wealthy private investors.

Advi­sor Odewald KMU II: Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek
Dr. Pär Johans­son (Lead Partner),
Kris­tina Schnei­der, LL.M.,
Tim Remmel, LL.M.,
Laura Rilin­ger (all Private Equity, Corporate/M&A),
Dr. Sascha Sche­wiola (Labor Law),
Dr. Verena Hoene, LL.M. (IP), all Cologne

Frank­furt am Main — Deut­sche Betei­li­gungs AG (DBAG) successfully comple­tes its invest­ment in Infiana Group GmbH (Infiana). Its shares will be sold to Pamplona Capi­tal Manage­ment, a finan­cial inves­tor based in the UK. The shares of DBAG Fund VI, which was advi­sed by DBAG, and the Infiana manage­ment will also be sold. Corre­spon­ding agree­ments were signed last week; their execu­tion is still subject to the appr­oval of the anti­trust autho­ri­ties. The tran­sac­tion is expec­ted to close within the next three months. With this tran­sac­tion, DBAG reali­zes more than double the origi­nally inves­ted capi­tal. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the purchase price.

The portion of the proceeds from the sale now agreed upon attri­bu­ta­ble to DBAG exceeds the carry­ing amount of the invest­ment in the IFRS inte­rim finan­cial state­ments as at March 31, 2019. The dispo­sal will ther­e­fore result in a slightly posi­tive contri­bu­tion to conso­li­da­ted earnings in the third quar­ter of 2018/2019, which ended on June 30, 2019. The fore­cast for the 2018/2019 conso­li­da­ted earnings of Deut­sche Betei­li­gungs AG remains unch­an­ged in view of the conti­nuing impon­der­a­bles rela­ting to other factors influen­cing conso­li­da­ted earnings.

Infiana (www.infiana.com) deve­lops and produ­ces specialty films for the consu­mer goods market and indus­trial appli­ca­ti­ons. These are used for sophisti­ca­ted pack­a­ging and as a compo­nent for hygiene products, as release and surface films for appli­ca­ti­ons in the cons­truc­tion indus­try, and as release films in tech­ni­cal adhe­sive tapes and specialty labels. Among other things, the company has iden­ti­fied specialty films for phar­maceu­ti­cal appli­ca­ti­ons and for the produc­tion of compo­site mate­ri­als as attrac­tive growth areas. The variety and breadth of end-use fields provide for great diver­si­fi­ca­tion. The high flexi­bi­lity in produc­tion enables a variety of products. In doing so, the company bene­fits time and again from its inten­sive inno­va­tion acti­vi­ties, for which it has recei­ved seve­ral awards. Infiana produ­ces at two loca­ti­ons in Germany and in the USA. The nucleus of the 165-year-old company, which curr­ently employs 800 people, is its German head­quar­ters in Forch­heim. In 2018, Infiana turned over 227 million euros.

DBAG and DBAG Fund VI had inves­ted in Infiana in Decem­ber 2014 as part of a manage­ment buyout (MBO). The previous share­hol­der, a Finnish group, had sold the specialty films busi­ness because it wanted to focus on the produc­tion of food pack­a­ging. Accor­din­gly, after the seces­sion, the first task was to shape Infiana’s inde­pen­dence. Follo­wing the dive­st­ment of produc­tion in Brazil and Thai­land, the German and US sites were expan­ded and moder­ni­zed through substan­tial invest­ment in addi­tio­nal extru­sion and coating capa­ci­ties. The ESG and compli­ance guide­lines were expan­ded and adapted to meet the increased requirements.

“Infiana is better able to seize its market oppor­tu­ni­ties today than it was five years ago,” said Dr. Rolf Schef­fels, a member of DBAG’s Manage­ment Board; “the invest­ments have contri­bu­ted to this, as has the reor­ga­niza­tion of sales from a largely regio­nal approach to a global, verti­cal approach.”

Commen­ting on the change of owner­ship, Peter Wahs­ner, Chair­man of the Manage­ment Board, said: “Infiana has deve­lo­ped enorm­ously in recent years and is well posi­tio­ned to conti­nue to operate successfully in the future — with effi­ci­ent and modern produc­tion and a leading posi­tion in attrac­tive end markets.”

The sale of the invest­ment in Infiana is the fourth closing of an MBO from the DBAG Fund VI port­fo­lio. The fund had struc­tu­red eleven MBOs between 2013 and 2016.

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 1.7 billion euros.

Kürten/Wittstock (Germany), July 2, 2019 — AVS Verkehrs­si­che­rung (“AVS”), a port­fo­lio company of Triton Fund IV, has signed an agree­ment to acquire Lorenz GmbH (“Lorenz”), a renow­ned provi­der in the field of road marking and cons­truc­tion site safety based in Wittstock/Dosse. The merger is still subject to appr­oval by the anti­trust autho­ri­ties. The parties agreed not to disc­lose the purchase price. ARQIS advi­sed AVS Verkehrs­si­che­rung GmbH (AVS) on the acqui­si­tion of Lorenz GmbH (Lorenz).

Since 1992, Lorenz has many years of expe­ri­ence in the appli­ca­tion of high-quality and sustainable marking mate­ri­als, both in perma­nent and tempo­rary appli­ca­ti­ons. In addi­tion, Lorenz sees itself as a relia­ble supplier and outfit­ter of cons­truc­tion site safety equip­ment. The company is prima­rily active in the grea­ter Meck­len­burg area and Berlin, but also nati­on­wide, and works closely with both state deve­lo­pers, cities and muni­ci­pa­li­ties, and private cons­truc­tion companies.

“Lorenz employs more than 30 people, is known as a relia­ble service provi­der also nati­on­wide at 3 loca­ti­ons and ther­e­fore repres­ents an ideal addi­tion to the AVS Group’s range of services,” explains Andreas Schwin­ge­ler, COO at AVS.

AVS Verkehrs­si­che­rung is a leading specia­list provi­der of traf­fic safety services in Germany and Europe. The company is head­quar­te­red in Kürten, Germany, and offers all essen­tial services rela­ted to road safety projects. These range from initial plan­ning and obtai­ning permits to complete site cons­truc­tion and safety aspects. AVS is charac­te­ri­zed by its inter­na­tio­nal presence at 21 loca­ti­ons. In Germany, AVS is repre­sen­ted at 18 loca­ti­ons nati­on­wide. Inter­na­tio­nally, AVS has one loca­tion in Latvia and 2 loca­ti­ons in Denmark. AVS employs around 730 people.

About Triton
Since its foun­ding in 1997, Triton has laun­ched nine funds and focu­sed on compa­nies in the indus­trial, services, consu­mer goods and health­care sectors. The Triton funds invest in medium-sized compa­nies based in Europe and support their posi­tive development.Triton’s goal is to successfully deve­lop its port­fo­lio compa­nies over the long term by working in part­ner­ship. Triton and its manage­ment strive to gene­rate posi­tive change and growth through the sustainable impro­ve­ment of opera­tio­nal proces­ses and structures.Currently, Triton’s port­fo­lio includes 38 compa­nies with total sales of around 14.9, billion euros and appro­xi­m­ately 73,000 employees.

About ARQIS
This is now the fifth trans­ca­tion that ARQIS has accom­pa­nied for AVS. Most recently, Jörn-Chris­tian Schulze’s team advi­sed AVS on the acqui­si­tion of Schötz Verkehrs- und Arbeits­stel­len-Siche­rung GmbH (Schötz), a provi­der in the field of traf­fic and cons­truc­tion site safety based in Fürth.
ARQIS is an inde­pen­dent busi­ness law firm opera­ting in Germany and Japan. The firm was foun­ded in 2006 at its current offices in Düssel­dorf, Munich and Tokyo. Around 45 profes­sio­nals advise dome­stic and foreign compa­nies at the highest level on the core issues of German and Japa­nese busi­ness law. The focus is on M&A, corpo­rate law, private equity, venture capi­tal, employ­ment law, private clients, intellec­tual property, liti­ga­tion as well as real estate law and tax law. For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.arqis.com.

Frank­furt a. M. / Stutt­gart — The Frank­furt-based invest­ment company VR Equi­typ­art­ner acqui­res a majo­rity stake in SIGNON Öster­reich GmbH, a Vienna-based IT service provi­der specia­li­zing in mobi­lity, infra­struc­ture and digi­ta­liza­tion. The seller is the German TÜV SÜD Group, which is selling all its shares. Signi­fi­cantly invol­ved is the manage­ment team of SIGNON Austria. The aim of the new part­ner­ship is to further streng­then the company’s posi­tio­ning in a niche market and to tap addi­tio­nal growth poten­tial. Finan­cial details of the tran­sac­tion, which is expec­ted to close in Q3 2019 subject to regu­la­tory appr­oval, were not disclosed.

Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek advi­sed the invest­ment company VR Equi­typ­art­ner GmbH on the acqui­si­tion of a majo­rity inte­rest in SIGNON Öster­reich GmbH. The complex, cross-border tran­sac­tion was hand­led jointly with the law firm DORDA. Anti­trust clearance is still pending.

The SIGNON Austria manage­ment team will conti­nue to hold a signi­fi­cant stake in the company. The part­ner­ship aims to streng­then the company’s posi­tio­ning in a niche market and tap addi­tio­nal growth poten­tial. — SIGNON Öster­reich GmbH is a Vienna-based IT service provi­der specia­li­zing in mobi­lity, infra­struc­ture and digi­tiza­tion and was foun­ded in 2011 by Paul Klein­rath and Dr. Chris­toph Bonelli under the name Evolit — Consul­ting. Two years later, the TÜV SÜD Group acqui­red a majo­rity stake in the company, making it part of the SIGNON Group. More than 50 people are curr­ently employed at SIGNON Öster­reich GmbH.

VR Equi­typ­art­ner is one of the leading equity finan­ciers in the DACH region. The company supports medium-sized family busi­nesses in solving complex finan­cing issues. VR Equi­typ­art­ner offers majo­rity and mino­rity invest­ments as well as mezza­nine finan­cing. As a subsi­diary of DZ BANK, VR Equi­typ­art­ner consis­t­ently puts the sustaina­bi­lity of corpo­rate deve­lo­p­ment ahead of short-term exit thin­king. VR Equitypartner’s port­fo­lio curr­ently compri­ses around 100 commit­ments with an invest­ment volume of EUR 500 million.

The current acqui­si­tion is alre­ady the second invest­ment by VR Equi­typ­art­ner in an IT service provi­der this year, advi­sed by the team around Dr. Rainer Hersch­lein and Bene­dikt Raisch (see deal announce­ment ICS).

Advi­sors to VR Equi­typ­art­ner GmbH: Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek
Dr. Rainer Hersch­lein, Bene­dikt Raisch (both M&A), both Stuttgart

DORDA:
Dr. Bern­hard Rieder, Lukas Schmidt (both M&A), both Vienna