Berlin — “The German investment market has shaken off the Corona shock. 6.6 billion invested investment companies in this country in the first half of 2021,” said Frank Hüther (photo), board spokesman of the German Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (BVK) on the preliminary market figures. “After a record year in 2019 with investments of €15.7 billion and an almost equally strong 2020 with €14.8 billion, we are well on track to reach this investment level again in the current year. The market is currently showing a great willingness to invest in all segments and has left the pandemic behind.”
Capital expenditures of EUR 6.56 billion represent a slight increase compared with the prior-year half, when EUR 6.44 billion was invested. A total of around 627 companies were financed with equity capital in the first six months of the year, 376 of them with venture capital.
Venture Capital with record half-year
Venture Capital celebrated a record half-year. At €2.25 billion, investment companies have never invested so much venture capital in Germany in a single six-month period. This not only doubled the volume of the first half of the previous year (€1.06 billion), but already exceeded the investments for the full year 2020 (€1.94 billion). The main reason for this is the large number of triple-digit financing rounds for mainly unicorn start-ups such as Celonis, Trade Republic, Flix Mobility, Wefox and Scalable Capital. Here, investment companies have substantially co-invested alongside other investors. “Venture capital is currently booming and the mood is excellent. Covid-19 is no longer a burden,” says Ulrike Hinrichs, managing board member of BVK. “We need to use this momentum to create more beacons like the German Unicorns, but also to further advance venture capital across the board.”
Buy-outs with significant decline
Buy-out investments totaled €2.39 billion in the first six months of the year. This was well below the prior-year figures (H1: EUR 5.08 billion, H2: EUR 6.55 billion). “However, we expect some of the recently announced transactions to be completed by the end of the year, and investments to pick up noticeably in the second half of the year,” says Hinrichs, classifying the figures. The largest transactions announced or already completed so far this year include Birkenstock, Rodenstock, Tentamus Analytics, think-cell Software or Engel&Völkers. “Overall, we are seeing a flurry of buyout activity, which just picked up again in the middle of the year,” Hinrichs adds. As in the previous year, 65 buy-outs were counted in the first six months.
The mostly SME-oriented minority shareholdings (growth, replacement and turnaround financing) totaled EUR 1.91 billion, significantly exceeding the prior-year level (H1: EUR 0.29 billion, H2: EUR 0.97 billion). In this market segment, investments regularly fluctuate due to individual large single investments among established medium-sized companies and more mature start-ups.
The complete, preliminary statistics for the first half of 2021 can be found on the website: www.bvkap.de