Author: Tatjana Anderer

Luxembourg/ Colo­gne / Frank­furt a. Main — Lenbach Equity Oppor­tu­ni­ties I SCSp (LEO I), a Luxem­bourg-based PE fund has sold the MMC Group in Colo­gne to NOVUM CAPITAL, Frank­furt a. M.. Lenbach Equity was advi­sed on the tran­sac­tion by Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek.

The sale of the MMC Group took place within the frame­work of a struc­tu­red process. In the bidding process, the invest­ment company NOVUM CAPITAL, Frank­furt am Main, prevailed.

The core company of the MMC Group is MMC Studios Köln GmbH, which offers services for natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal TV, film and media produc­tions at its Colo­gne loca­tion. In Colo­gne-Ossen­dorf, MMC Studios Köln GmbH opera­tes a large number of studios for film, TV and live events and offers not only the neces­sary state-of-the-art space but also other services requi­red for produc­tions and live events. The sister company MMC Movies is active in the field of film co-produc­tions and provi­des special services for well-known natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal film productions.

Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek had alre­ady advi­sed LEO I on the acqui­si­tion of MMC Group in 2017 and acted for all legal issues in connec­tion with the sale process, the due dili­gence of the various inte­res­ted parties and the actual sale.

About NOVUM CAPITAL
Novum Capi­tal is an inde­pen­dent and owner-mana­ged invest­ment firm with offices in London and Frank­furt. Our part­ners have many years of private equity and mezza­nine expe­ri­ence, and have come toge­ther after care­ers in renow­ned invest­ment banks to invest in upper middle market compa­nies in Europe.

Advi­sor Lenbach Equity Oppor­tu­ni­ties I SCSp (LEO I): Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek
Dr. Andreas Lenz, (Lead Part­ner, M&A),
Dr. Vera Randel (Corpo­rate Law, M&A), both Cologne
Dr. Katha­rina Pras­uhn (M&A), Hamburg,
Bastian Rieck (Corporate/M&A), Cologne
Kers­tin Deiters, LL.M. (Labor Law), Cologne

Karlsruhe/ Munich — Maxburg Betei­li­gun­gen III (“Maxburg”), an invest­ment company advi­sed by Maxburg Capi­tal Part­ners, has acqui­red an inte­rest in STARFACE GmbH (“STARFACE”). P+P Pöllath + Part­ners provi­ded compre­hen­sive tax advice to Maxburg in connec­tion with the transaction.

STARFACE is a tech­no­logy company based in Karls­ruhe, Germany. The focus of the product port­fo­lio is on the Linux-based tele­phone systems, which are optio­nally available as a cloud service, hard­ware appli­ance and virtual VM edition. STARFACE soft­ware solu­ti­ons combine tele­phony with services such as e‑mail, file trans­fer, chat, video commu­ni­ca­tion and presence manage­ment in a user-friendly unified commu­ni­ca­ti­ons environment.

Maxburg is an invest­ment company focu­sed on the German-spea­king region that invests in priva­tely held as well as listed compa­nies. The Maxburg invest­ment compa­nies have capi­tal commit­ments tota­ling around EUR 600 million at their dispo­sal. STARFACE is the twelfth invest­ment of Maxburg Betei­li­gungs­ge­sell­schaf­ten and the fifth soft­ware or tech­no­logy invest­ment besi­des Tenado, Paterva, Secu­r­e­point and KGS.

About Maxburg Capi­tal Partners
Maxburg Capi­tal Part­ners is an invest­ment manage­ment company focu­sed on the German-spea­king region. Foun­ded by three part­ners with many years of expe­ri­ence as entre­pre­neurs and inves­tors in public and private equity, Maxburg focu­ses on long-term corpo­rate invest­ments with the aim of achie­ving lasting and sustainable value growth.

Based on seve­ral funds and a total fund volume of € 600 million, Maxburg has an excep­tio­nally flexi­ble invest­ment mandate: we actively invest across the entire range of capi­tal struc­tures — from equity to near-equity finan­cing opti­ons such as mezza­nine and mezza­nine-like forms of invest­ment. We hold both majo­rity and mino­rity inte­rests in compa­nies. In addi­tion, Maxburg has the option of taking an active share­hol­der role in listed compa­nies. Our finan­cings range from €10 million to €100 million per transaction.
Our most important goal is always the successful deve­lo­p­ment of resi­li­ent, entre­pre­neu­rial value deve­lo­p­ment poten­tial on the part of the port­fo­lio company. Our ambi­tion is to achieve sustainable and posi­tive long-term returns over and above short-term market trends.

P+P Pöllath + Part­ners provi­ded compre­hen­sive tax advice toMaxburg with the follo­wing Munich team:

Dr. Michael Best, Photo (Part­ner, Lead, Tax Law), Gerald Herr­mann (Coun­sel, Tax Law), Tobias Deschen­halm (Asso­ciate, Tax Law)

Antwerp/ Munich — Gimv acqui­res a majo­rity stake in the fast-growing Alro Group, a specia­list in indus­trial coating of car and truck parts. The tran­sac­tion is part of the succes­sion plan for the family busi­ness — Gimv is taking over the shares from the foun­ding family Thijs. The current manage­ment remains on board and supports the company’s further growth ambi­ti­ons with its reinvestment.

Alro Group (Dilsen-Stok­kem, Belgium, www.alro-group.com) was foun­ded in 1976 by the Thijs family. The company has grown from a small coating company to a renow­ned group with seve­ral bran­ches in Western and Central Europe. The group specia­li­zes in coating and pain­ting plas­tic or metal vehicle parts.

Alro is charac­te­ri­zed by strong custo­mer orien­ta­tion and diverse coating tech­no­lo­gies, enab­ling it to respond flexi­bly and quickly to the growing demand for custo­mi­zed solu­ti­ons. With about 1,000 employees and around 20 coating lines, the company has signi­fi­cant capa­ci­ties. These process over 100,000 products per day on modern produc­tion lines using data-control­led proces­ses. Today, the custo­mer base consists of a large number of well-known names in the car and truck industry.

As a Tier 1 supplier, the Alro Group relies on strong custo­mer rela­ti­onships: OEM truck manu­fac­tu­r­ers appre­ciate the relia­ble supply (just-in-time / just-in-sequence), the high flexi­bi­lity in pain­ting in over 1,000 colors and the assem­bly of nume­rous diffe­rent parts. Recently, Alro Group also deve­lo­ped an inno­va­tive solu­tion for coating battery housings for elec­tric vehic­les. The company is thus ideally posi­tio­ned to bene­fit from the expec­ted strong growth of the elec­tric vehicle market. In addi­tion, the Alro Group is respon­ding to the incre­asing demand for contras­ting colors, which enable auto­ma­kers to further perso­na­lize the appearance of their vehicles.

Since the start of the new manage­ment team, the company has under­gone a posi­tive trans­for­ma­tion, focu­sing on incre­asing value crea­tion and flexibility.

Increase deli­vered value-add and focus on grea­ter flexi­bi­lity. The invest­ment by Gimv is inten­ded to help imple­ment the growth plans and support the profes­sio­na­liza­tion course of the company’s management.

Chris­to­phe Van Quicken­borne, Part­ner in Gimv’s Smart Indus­tries team, descri­bes it as follows: “Alro Group comple­ments a whole range of Smart Indus­tries invest­ments in advan­ced manu­fac­tu­ring compa­nies at Gimv. Through our expe­ri­ence with other successful invest­ments in the auto­mo­tive sector, we under­stand the importance of far-reaching flexi­bi­lity and product diffe­ren­tia­tion — making compa­nies prefer­red part­ners to their OEM custo­mers. Toge­ther with Alro’s manage­ment, we intend to further leverage the group’s strengths and gene­rate addi­tio­nal growth. Alre­ady, compre­hen­sive data control, strong engi­nee­ring capa­bi­li­ties, and high flexi­bi­lity and custo­mer focus are key differentiators.”

Jan Crae­nen, CEO of Alro Group, adds: “We are convin­ced that with Gimv we have gained a very relia­ble local part­ner with exten­sive know-how in the auto­mo­tive indus­try. The tran­sac­tion is an important step in the further deve­lo­p­ment of Alro. The helm will remain in the hands of the current manage­ment team, which toge­ther with Gimv will focus on further growth and inno­va­tive solu­ti­ons for custo­mers. On behalf of the entire manage­ment team, we would like to thank the Thijs family for their trust. Our thanks also go to Kumu­lus Part­ners for their expert support in this tran­sac­tion. And last but not least, our thanks go to all the employees of Alro Group, without whom we would not be where we are today.”

The tran­sac­tion is subject to custo­mary condi­ti­ons, inclu­ding appr­oval by the compe­ti­tion autho­ri­ties. Further finan­cial details will not be disclosed.

Munich, London, Paris — Pan-Euro­pean private equity firm Silver­fleet Capi­tal has signed an agree­ment to sell Phase One to funds mana­ged by Axcel. Phase One is a leading tech­no­logy company in the field of high-end digi­tal camera systems and for image proces­sing soft­ware. The tran­sac­tion is still subject to regu­la­tory approval.

Phase One opera­tes two busi­ness units: Soft­ware Imaging Systems (“SIS”) offers market-leading image proces­sing soft­ware for raw (RAW) images under the Capture One brand; it targets both profes­sio­nal and amateur photo­graph­ers as well as busi­nesses. Image Capture Solu­ti­ons (“ICS”) has ultra-high-end medium format camera systems in its port­fo­lio that are suita­ble for aerial photo­gra­phy, for exam­ple, and are used by profes­sio­nal and amateur photo­graph­ers as well as cultu­ral heri­tage insti­tu­ti­ons. The company is head­quar­te­red in Copen­ha­gen, with addi­tio­nal offices in Germany, Hong Kong, Israel, Japan and the USA.

Silver­fleet Capi­tal had acqui­red a majo­rity stake in Phase One in 2014. The decisive factor was the clear growth poten­tial due to the incre­asing demand for high-reso­lu­tion medium-format photo­gra­phy, for exam­ple in the field of 3D mapping with aerial images or in home­land secu­rity. Since then, Silver­fleet Capi­tal has supported the company in its trans­for­ma­tion from a stron­gly hard­ware-orien­ted to a soft­ware-driven busi­ness model. From 2014 to 2018, the SIS unit increased sales by 38 percent. During this period, two acqui­si­ti­ons were also made — inclu­ding the main Japa­nese supplier — and substan­tial invest­ments were made in rese­arch and deve­lo­p­ment. This allo­wed Phase One to push its inno­va­tion course in medium format photo­gra­phy. The latest product inno­va­tions include the successfully laun­ched IQ4 and IXM systems for photo­graph­ers and indus­trial applications.

“We were deligh­ted to work with the manage­ment team during this exci­ting trans­for­ma­tion phase and to help Phase One become the market leader in imaging soft­ware,” said Rob Knight, Prin­ci­pal at Silver­fleet and Advi­sory Board Member. “We wish Henrik Håkon­sson and his team every success for the next stage of growth.”

Henrik Håkon­sson, CEO of Phase One, adds: “Thanks to Silver­fleet Capital’s stra­te­gic and finan­cial support over the past five years, we have been able to further realize our poten­tial. We have over­come tech­no­lo­gi­cal boun­da­ries and found the right answers to the new needs of our custo­mers in the two busi­ness units SIS and ICS.”

Gareth Whiley, Mana­ging Part­ner of Silver­fleet Capi­tal, said, “We could not be more plea­sed with the outcome from the sale of Phase One. This exit again repres­ents a very successful invest­ment by our company in Scan­di­na­via. There, we conti­nue to actively look for inte­res­t­ing compa­nies — such as Phase One with a diffe­ren­tia­ted busi­ness model and high inter­na­tio­nal growth potential.”

Since 2004, Silver­fleet Capi­tal has inves­ted 19 percent of its assets in compa­nies based in Scan­di­na­via. In 2016, the company sold Cimbria, a manu­fac­tu­rer of bulk hand­ling equip­ment and seed and grain proces­sing equip­ment based in Denmark, to AGCO Corpo­ra­tion for appro­xi­m­ately €310 million. Silver­fleet Capi­tal is curr­ently inves­ted in Danish women’s fashion manu­fac­tu­rer Masai.

In the current tran­sac­tion, Silver­fleet Capi­tal was advi­sed by Moor­eland Part­ners (Corpo­rate Finance), Travers Smith and Bech-Bruun (Legal), Deloitte (Finan­cial & Tax Due Dili­gence), McKin­sey (Commer­cial Due Dili­gence) and Bearing­Point (Tech­ni­cal Due Diligence).

About Silver­fleet Capital
Silver­fleet Capi­tal has been active as a private equity inves­tor in the Euro­pean mid-market for more than 30 years. The 30-strong invest­ment team works from Munich, London, Paris, Stock­holm and Amsterdam.

Nine 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 UK-based manu­fac­tu­rer of precis­ion compon­ents for civil avia­tion; Life­time Trai­ning, a UK-based provi­der of trai­ning programs; Pumpen­fa­brik Wangen, a manu­fac­tu­rer of specialty pumps based in Germany; Riviera Travel, an opera­tor of escor­ted group tours and crui­ses based in the United King­dom; 7days, a German supplier of medi­cal work­wear; Prefere Resins, a leading phen­o­lic and amino resin manu­fac­tu­rer in Europe; and CARE Ferti­lity, a leading opera­tor of ferti­lity clinics in the United Kingdom.

Silver­fleet Capi­tal also main­ta­ins an invest­ment team focu­sed on smal­ler middle-market compa­nies, which has alre­ady made two successful invest­ments: STAXS Conta­mi­na­tion Control Experts, a leading supplier of clean­room supplies in the Bene­lux (closed in Janu­ary 2019), and Micro­gen Finan­cial Systems, a leading provi­der of trust and fund admi­nis­tra­tion soft­ware to the trust and corpo­rate services indus­try (pending share­hol­der appr­oval of seller Apti­tude Soft­ware Group plc).

Silver­fleet achie­ves value growth by inves­t­ing in compa­nies in its core sectors that bene­fit from speci­fic, long-term trends. Silver­fleet supports these compa­nies in their future growth stra­te­gies. As part of these stra­te­gies, invest­ments are made in orga­nic growth drivers, inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion, stra­te­gic acqui­si­ti­ons or opera­tio­nal impro­ve­ment proces­ses. Since 2004, Silver­fleet Capi­tal has inves­ted €2 billion in 30 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 31% of its assets in compa­nies head­quar­te­red in the DACH region, 33% in the UK and Ireland, 19% in Scan­di­na­via, and 17% in France and the Bene­lux (includes an invest­ment sourced in Belgium and head­quar­te­red in the US).

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 3.7x); CCC, one of the leading BPO services provi­ders in Europe; and Cimbria, a Danish manu­fac­tu­rer of agri­cul­tu­ral equip­ment (invest­ment multi­ple cannot be disc­lo­sed for legal reasons); Kalle, a German manu­fac­tu­rer of arti­fi­cial sausage sticks (invest­ment multi­ple 3.5x); OFFICE, a UK-based foot­wear retailer (invest­ment multi­ple 3.4x); and Aesica, a leading phar­maceu­ti­cal CDMO company (invest­ment multi­ple 3.3x).
www.silverfleetcapital.com

BOSTON and LONDON — Advent Inter­na­tio­nal (“Advent”), one of the world’s largest and most expe­ri­en­ced private equity firms, today announ­ced that fund­rai­sing for the Advent Inter­na­tio­nal GPE IX Limi­ted Part­ner­ship Fund (“GPE IX” or the “Fund”) has closed. The fund reached its maxi­mum volume of $17.5 billion (15.6 billion euros) and had alre­ady excee­ded its target of $16 billion (14.3 billion euros) after six months. Advent’s previous fund, GPE VIII, closed in 2016 with a volume of $13 billion (€12 billion).

The same stra­tegy will be pursued for GPE (Global Private Equity) IX as for its eight prede­ces­sor funds; funds will be inves­ted prima­rily in Europe and North America, but also selec­tively in Asia and Latin America, in buy-outs, carve-outs, public-to-private tran­sac­tions and growth financing.
Sector specia­liza­tion has been at the core of Advent’s invest­ment approach since its incep­tion, and the GPE IX fund will also focus on the five core indus­tries in which the firm has exten­sive expe­ri­ence and know­ledge: (1) finan­cial services and busi­ness services; (2) health­care; (3) indus­tri­als and chemi­cals; (4) retail, consu­mer goods and leisure indus­tries; and (5) media and tele­com­mu­ni­ca­ti­ons. Advent recently announ­ced plans to streng­then its commit­ment to the tech­no­logy sector by expan­ding its tech­no­logy invest­ment team and opening a new office in the San Fran­cisco Bay Area.

“The successful fund­rai­sing for GPE IX is an important mile­stone for Advent and increa­ses the capi­tal base available to us for invest­ments in Germany,” said Ranjan Sen (photo), Mana­ging Part­ner at Advent Inter­na­tio­nal in Frank­furt. “The funds raised will allow us to conti­nue our proven stra­tegy of part­ne­ring with manage­ment teams to drive sustainable busi­ness growth.”

Ronald Ayles, Mana­ging Part­ner at Advent Inter­na­tio­nal in Frank­furt, added: “Advent has been inves­t­ing in Germany for almost 30 years and has actively supported the value growth of 30 compa­nies with more than 3.1 billion euros. Germany offers a wide range of oppor­tu­ni­ties for an invest­ment company like Advent, which has a strong commit­ment to the markets in which it operates.”

“We are very plea­sed with the strong inte­rest in GPE IX from exis­ting and new inves­tors,” said David Mussa­fer, Mana­ging Part­ner at Advent Inter­na­tio­nal in Boston. “The corner­sto­nes of our success are our proven sector focus, our global presence, our private part­ner­ship model, and the exten­sive opera­tio­nal resour­ces we bring to our investments.”
“Our global team is a key advan­tage in finding and execu­ting attrac­tive invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties around the world,” said James Brock­lebank, Mana­ging Part­ner at Advent in London. “We have exten­sive expe­ri­ence in execu­ting complex tran­sac­tions such as corpo­rate spin-offs. This is where we can bring our resour­ces and exper­tise to create value in these dyna­mic businesses.”

Exten­sive resour­ces to support manage­ment teams
Advent has more than 195 invest­ment and port­fo­lio support specia­lists world­wide. GPX IX is inves­ted by a team of 157 experts in Europe, North America and Asia. They can draw on the exper­tise of 40 specia­lists from Advent’s Latin Ameri­can Private Equity Fund program, as well as a global network of world-class opera­tio­nal resour­ces. This also includes more than 115 exter­nal Opera­ting Part­ners and Opera­ti­ons Advi­sors, former execu­ti­ves with in-depth indus­try and tech­ni­cal expertise.

Through this plat­form, Advent provi­des manage­ment teams with resour­ces and exper­tise to help them grow reve­nue and execute value crea­tion stra­te­gies. Since 2005, port­fo­lio compa­nies in which Advent has held an inte­rest for at least one year have achie­ved average annual reve­nue and EBITDA growth of 14 and 15 percent, respectively.

GPE IX saw high demand from exis­ting inves­tors. More than 90 percent of the commit­ted capi­tal came from the limi­ted part­ners of previous Advent funds.

Strong track record over three decades
Advent’s GPE program has a long track record of acqui­si­ti­ons and dispo­sals over seve­ral fund gene­ra­ti­ons and various econo­mic or private equity cycles. Since 1990, 258 invest­ments have been made in 31 count­ries, of which about 213 have been fully or largely realized.
Across all its funds, Advent has inves­ted $44 billion (€36 billion) in more than 345 private equity tran­sac­tions in 41 count­ries. The company’s current port­fo­lio compa­nies gene­ra­ted annual sales of $50 billion (44 billion euros) and employed more than 290,000 people at year-end.

Recent IPOs and company sales in the GPE program include Ammer­aal Beltech, Bojan­gles’, Coti­viti, Genoa Health­care, KMD, lulu­le­mon athle­tica (partial exit), Mondo Mine­rals, MORSCO and Nexi (IPO, partial exit).

Recent invest­ments in the GPE program include Aimbridge Hospi­ta­lity, BioDuro, Deut­sche Fach­pflege Group, INNIO (form­erly GE Distri­bu­ted Power), Laird, Manjushree Tech­no­pack, Prisma Medios de Pago, Walm­art Brazil and Zentiva.

In addi­tion to the GPE program, Advent is curr­ently inves­t­ing a sixth private equity fund focu­sed on buy-outs and growth finan­cing in Latin America. The 2015 vintage fund, LAPEF VI, has $2.1 billion in assets.
This press release is neither an offer nor a soli­ci­ta­tion of an offer nor an invi­ta­tion or soli­ci­ta­tion to invest in any fund of Advent Inter­na­tio­nal. Invest­ments in Advent Inter­na­tio­nal funds are available solely on the basis of and subject to the terms of the rele­vant fund docu­ments and appli­ca­ble laws.

About Advent Interantional
Foun­ded in 1984, Advent Inter­na­tio­nal (“Advent”) is one of the world’s largest and most expe­ri­en­ced invest­ment compa­nies. The company mana­ges appro­xi­m­ately $36 billion (€31 billion) in assets, exclu­ding $17.5 billion (€15.6 billion) raised under GPE IX (as of Septem­ber 31, Decem­ber 2018).

About Advent Inter­na­tio­nal Germany
Advent Inter­na­tio­nal GmbH was foun­ded in Germany in 1991 and advi­ses Advent with its Frank­furt-based team of consul­tants. Advent is also one of the leading private equity compa­nies in Germany and has been inves­t­ing in Euro­pean compa­nies since 1990. To date, Advent Inter­na­tio­nal GmbH has advi­sed on invest­ments of appro­xi­m­ately EUR 3.1 billion in 30 port­fo­lio compa­nies. Advent Inter­na­tio­nal GmbH’s consul­ting focus is on the follo­wing core sectors: Finan­cial Services and Busi­ness Services; Health­care; Chemi­cals; Retail, Consu­mer Goods and Leisure Indus­tries; and Media and Telecommunications.

Over the past decade, Advent’s invest­ments have included Innio, a global leader in recipro­ca­ting gas engi­nes for power gene­ra­tion and gas compres­sion; Deut­sche Fach­pflege Gruppe (DFG), the largest provi­der of out-of-hospi­tal inten­sive care in Germany; Concar­dis Payment Group, a leading provi­der of digi­tal payment solu­ti­ons and part of the Nets Group; allnex, the leading global manu­fac­tu­rer of resin coatings for the paint and coatings indus­try; Douglas Holding, Europe’s leading cosme­tics retailer; GFKL, a leading provi­der of receiv­a­bles manage­ment in Germany; and Median Klini­ken, a leading provi­der of inde­pen­dent reha­bi­li­ta­tion clinics.
After more than 35 years of inter­na­tio­nal invest­ment acti­vity, Advent remains true to its invest­ment approach of gene­ra­ting sustainable reve­nue and profit growth for its port­fo­lio compa­nies by working in part­ner­ship with manage­ment teams. www.adventinternational.com

Kürten (Germany) / Wille­br­oek (Belgium) — AVS Verkehrs­si­che­rung (“AVS”), a port­fo­lio company of Triton Fund IV, has signed an agree­ment to acquire a majo­rity stake in Fero Group (“Fero”), a leading provi­der in Belgium of tempo­rary traf­fic manage­ment, from the foun­ding Haerens family. The Fero Group consists of Fero Signa­li­sa­tie and its sister compa­nies Admibo, Sign­a­route, Signco and Safe­ty­bloc. The tran­sac­tion is subject to appr­oval by the anti­trust autho­ri­ties. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the purchase price.

Fero was foun­ded in 2001. The family-owned and opera­ted company provi­des services in tempo­rary traf­fic manage­ment, pave­ment marking, traf­fic signs, traf­fic manage­ment systems and main­ten­ance of public plan­ters and baskets. Custo­mers mainly include cons­truc­tion, utility and tele­com­mu­ni­ca­ti­ons compa­nies as well as the Belgian govern­ment. Fero employs more than 300 people at seven sites in Fland­ers and one in Wallonia.

Triton has exten­sive exper­tise in road safety services and has inves­ted in compa­nies in this sector across Europe, for exam­ple in Ramud­den in the Nordic count­ries and Chevron TM in the UK, and now with Fero in Belgium. “This tran­sac­tion was very stron­gly supported by Triton and under­lines our commit­ment to invest in the future growth and profi­ta­ble deve­lo­p­ment of Fero. It is another important step in expan­ding our inter­na­tio­nal presence in the occu­pa­tio­nal health and safety services sector,” said Nadia Meier-Kirner, Invest­ment Advi­sory Profes­sio­nal at Triton.

Luc Hendriks, Opera­ting Part­ner at Triton, added, “We look forward to support­ing manage­ment and staff as respon­si­ble owners with our exten­sive indus­try exper­tise and experience.”

“This tran­sac­tion is another important step in our inter­na­tio­nal expan­sion. Fero enjoys a good repu­ta­tion among custo­mers for fast service and highly profes­sio­nal services. This makes Fero a great part­ner that fits ideally with our Euro­pean stra­tegy “, says Dirk Schö­nauer, COO Inter­na­tio­nal of AVS.

“We are exci­ted to part­ner with AVS. Our compa­nies share the same way of thin­king and doing busi­ness. Toge­ther we can offer even better services tail­o­red to the demand of our custo­mers in Belgium “, add Freek & Friso Haerens, Co-CEO of Fero Group. The exis­ting share­hol­ders of Fero will remain share­hol­ders of the Group and direc­tors of Fero.

About AVS
Traf­fic safe­tyAVS Verkehrs­si­che­rung is a leading specia­list provi­der of traf­fic safety services in Germany. 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 has a nati­on­wide presence with 17 loca­ti­ons across Germany and employs around 650 people.Further infor­ma­tion: www.avs-verkehrssicherung.de

About Fero
The Fero Group was foun­ded in 2001 and has become a house­hold name in the world of tempo­rary traf­fic manage­ment. The family-owned company is a full-service provi­der for its custo­mers, from tende­ring, plan­ning, place­ment and main­ten­ance to comple­tion and billing. Fero provi­des services to various clients in the govern­ment and cons­truc­tion outsour­cing sectors. As one of the leading provi­ders of tempo­rary traf­fic manage­ment, Fero has a repu­ta­tion for always helping custo­mers quickly and profes­sio­nally. Infor­ma­tion: https://www.feronv.be/; https://www.signco.be/; http://www.admibo.be/; http://www.signaroute.be/nl

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 EUR 14.9 billion and appro­xi­m­ately 72,000 employees.For further infor­ma­tion, please visit: www.triton-partners.de.

Frank­furt a. M. — Funds advi­sed by Triton (“Triton”) and Luxinva, a wholly owned subsi­diary of the Abu Dhabi Invest­ment Autho­rity (“ADIA”), have successfully comple­ted the acqui­si­tion of 100% of IFCO from Austra­lian Secu­ri­ties Exch­ange listed Brambles Limi­ted. Triton and ADIA have equal stakes in the investment.

IFCO is the world’s leading provi­der of reusable pack­a­ging solu­ti­ons for fresh food, serving custo­mers in more than 50 count­ries. IFCO has a global pool of more than 290 million reusable plas­tic contai­ners (RPCs) used for more than 1.3 billion ship­ments of fresh fruits and vege­ta­bles, meat, poul­try, seafood, eggs, bread and other items each year. (Photo: © Triton).

About ADIA
Foun­ded in 1976, ADIA is a globally diver­si­fied invest­ment insti­tu­tion that invests on behalf of the Govern­ment of Abu Dhabi as part of a stra­tegy focu­sed on long-term value crea­tion. ADIA has been inves­t­ing in private equity since 1989 and has built a signi­fi­cant in-house team of specia­lists with expe­ri­ence in asset products, geogra­phies and sectors. Through its exten­sive rela­ti­onships across the indus­try, Private Equi­ties invests in private equity and credit products globally, often along­side exter­nal part­ners, and in extern­ally mana­ged primary and secon­dary funds.

The company’s philo­so­phy is to build long-term, colla­bo­ra­tive rela­ti­onships with its part­ners and manage­ment teams to maxi­mize value and support the imple­men­ta­tion of agreed strategies.

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 in the long term by working toge­ther as part­ners. 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 EUR 14.9 billion and appro­xi­m­ately 72,000 employees.For further infor­ma­tion, please visit: www.triton-partners.de.

Gelsenkirchen/Krefeld — Water­land Private Equity conti­nues its buy&build stra­tegy at its port­fo­lio company Reha­con: fysio­con­cept is alre­ady the fourth acqui­si­tion for Reha­con within a few weeks. With a wide range of physio­the­rapy services, fysio­con­cept is one of the largest provi­ders in the Krefeld area. With this part­ner­ship, the Reha­con Group is streng­thening its regio­nal presence in the Lower Rhine region. At the same time, the Group intends to work with fysio­con­cept to further conso­li­date the prac­tice network, broa­den its service port­fo­lio and enter into addi­tio­nal colla­bo­ra­ti­ons with clinics.

The seller of fysio­con­cept is foun­der and CEO Jos Beulen. He will remain asso­cia­ted with the Group in a leading posi­tion and will conti­nue to accom­pany its further deve­lo­p­ment in the future. Water­land had acqui­red Reha­con in Janu­ary 2019 and assis­ted in the acqui­si­tion of Hamburg-based therapy center Anita Brüche in April. The tran­sac­tion, the details of which have been agreed not to be disc­lo­sed, is expec­ted to be comple­ted in early July.

fysio­con­cept main­ta­ins four loca­ti­ons in Krefeld, inclu­ding a physi­cal therapy prac­tice for the local Malte­ser Hospi­tal, its own private pati­ent loca­tion, and an Olym­pic base in the Krefeld area. The total of more than 80 employees treat over 12,000 pati­ents per year, both as outpa­ti­ents and inpa­ti­ents. Fysio­con­cept services include Exten­ded Outpa­ti­ent Physi­cal Therapy (EAP), jaw treat­ment, physio­the­rapy, lympha­tic drai­nage, medi­cal trai­ning, occu­pa­tio­nal therapy, osteo­pa­thy, and manual, neuro­lo­gi­cal and physi­cal therapy. With the latest acqui­si­tion, the treat­ment spec­trum of the entire Reha­con Group will be expan­ded to include offe­rings for compe­ti­tive athle­tes, for exam­ple. For fysio­con­cept employees, addi­tio­nal exten­sive trai­ning and further educa­tion oppor­tu­ni­ties open up. Inte­gra­tion into the Reha­con Group means even more flexi­bi­lity for thera­pists in their acti­vi­ties and choice of location.

Today, Reha­con is one of the leading provi­ders of physio­the­rapy services and therapy offe­rings in Europe. Nati­on­wide, the company opera­tes more than 120 therapy centers and employs over 800 people. The group gene­ra­tes annual sales of around 36 million euros at last count.

Jos Beulen, foun­der and mana­ging direc­tor of fysio­con­cept, welco­mes the part­ner­ship: “Also as part of the Reha­con Group, we stand for high-quality and indi­vi­dual physio­the­ra­peu­tic treat­ment. At the same time, pati­ents and employees bene­fit from Rehacon’s nati­on­wide presence and the asso­cia­ted new opportunities.”

Michael Reeder, foun­der and mana­ging direc­tor of Reha­con, empha­si­zes: “Reha­con is now even more present in the Lower Rhine region thanks to the part­ner­ship with fysio­con­cept. The inte­gra­tion into our group shows: We are consis­t­ently pursuing our course and want to grow further by inte­gra­ting addi­tio­nal complex and successful therapy centers in the highly frag­men­ted market for physiotherapy.”

Dr. Cars­ten Rahlfs (photo copy­right Water­land), Part­ner at Water­land: “Buy & build stra­te­gies are a key success factor for Water­land. We part­ner with well-posi­tio­ned entre­pre­neurs opera­ting in frag­men­ted markets with conso­li­da­tion poten­tial to help them expand rapidly. The clear objec­tive is to turn these compa­nies into successful market leaders by making acqui­si­ti­ons to expand their offe­rings. With fysio­con­cept, Reha­con can further expand its part­ner­ships with clinics in the region. Follo­wing the acqui­si­tion of the Anita Brüche Therapy Center in Hamburg a few weeks ago, the inte­gra­tion of fysio­con­cept into Reha­con is another key step towards achie­ving our stra­te­gic goal.”

As the majo­rity share­hol­der in Reha­con, the inde­pen­dent invest­ment company Water­land has exten­sive expe­ri­ence in the health­care market. In addi­tion to MEDIAN, the leading private provi­der in Germany with more than 120 reha­bi­li­ta­tion clinics, the company port­fo­lio also includes the ATOS clinic group, which specia­li­zes in ortho­pe­dics, and the care service provi­der Schö­nes Leben. Finally, Water­land also has a signi­fi­cant stake in Hanse­fit, a leading network asso­cia­tion for company sports and health services with more than 1,400 affi­lia­ted fitness studios.

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.

Kleinostheim/ Munich — The invest­ment company Gimv has acqui­red a majo­rity stake in Smart Battery Solu­ti­ons GmbH(SBS). Accor­ding to Gimv, this is inten­ded to conti­nue SBS’s strong growth course in the dyna­mic battery market, streng­then its staff and expand its produc­tion capa­ci­ties. P+P Pöllath + Part­ners provi­ded compre­hen­sive legal and tax advice to the buyer Gimv. Photo: Sven Oleow­nik Part­ner — Head Gimv Germany.

Smart Battery Solu­ti­ons GmbH, based in Klein­ost­heim in Lower Fran­co­nia, was foun­ded in 2010 and today employs around 50 people. The company deve­lops, produ­ces and sells lithium-ion battery systems in the low-voltage range of up to 60 volts. The product range extends from the custo­mi­zed assem­bly of cells produ­ced by third parties to the deve­lo­p­ment and produc­tion of intel­li­gent energy storage systems and char­ging tech­no­lo­gies. In addi­tion, SBS has deve­lo­ped seve­ral proprie­tary battery manage­ment systems that control the opera­tion of batte­ries and ensure their safe use.

SBS products are used in nume­rous eMobi­lity appli­ca­ti­ons, such as e‑bikes, e‑scooters, water­craft or drones.

Advi­sor Gimv: P+P Pöllath + Partners
P+P Pöllath + Part­ners provi­ded compre­hen­sive legal and tax advice to the purcha­ser Gimv with the follo­wing multi­di­sci­pli­nary and multi­site team:
Dr. Tim Kauf­hold (Part­ner, M&A/Private Equity, Munich)
Dr. Nico Fischer (Part­ner, Tax Law, Munich)
Daniel Wied­mann, LL.M. (Asso­cia­ted Part­ner, Anti­trust Law, Frankfurt)
Dr. Verena Sten­zel (Senior Asso­ciate, M&A/Private Equity, Munich)
Chris­tine Funk, LL.M. (Senior Asso­ciate, M&A/Private Equity, Frankfurt)
Matthias Ober­bauer (Asso­ciate, M&A/Private Equity, Munich)

Munich — DLA Piper has advi­sed the French invest­ment fund “The Invest­ment and Support Fund for Busi­nesses in Africa” (FISEA) in the case of an invest­ment in the Zambian bank AB Bank Zambia Ltd.(ABZ) with a total volume of 25 million Zambian Kwacha (approx. EUR 1.6 million). Further share­hol­ders of ABZ are Access­Hol­ding Micro­fi­nance Ltd, Inter­na­tio­nal Finance Corpo­ra­tion (IFC) and the Kredit­an­stalt für Wieder­auf­bau (KfW). Upon comple­tion of the tran­sac­tion, FISEA will hold a total equity inte­rest of 22.5% in ABZ.

FISEA belongs to the Agence Fran­çaise de Déve­lo­pe­ment (AFD) and is mana­ged by its subsi­diary Prop­arco. This specia­li­zes in private sector deve­lo­p­ment and invests in compa­nies, banks, micro­fi­nance insti­tu­ti­ons and invest­ment funds opera­ting in sub-Saha­ran Africa. With an invest­ment target of EUR 250 million, FISEA is one of the key compon­ents of the French initia­tive to promote growth and employ­ment in Africa.

ABZ is the only bank that finan­ces SMEs and micro-entre­pre­neurs in Zambia. At the end of 2017, total assets amoun­ted to EUR 24 million. ABZ opera­tes through a network of seven bran­ches, employs 419 people and has 14,754 borrowers.

The DLA Piper team led by part­ner Simon Vogel also included senior asso­ciate Michael Rebholz (both Corporate/Private Equity, Munich).