Frank­furt a. Main — Ardian, one of the world’s leading inde­pen­dent invest­ment firms, has sold its majo­rity stake in Cubes Holding GmbH (“d&b”) to Provi­dence. Since 2016, Ardian has guided the company, which focu­ses on profes­sio­nal loud­spea­k­ers and audio systems for the event sector, and its manage­ment team led by CEO Amnon Harman on a dyna­mic path of strong orga­nic growth and geogra­phic expan­sion. The manage­ment will again parti­ci­pate in the tran­sac­tion and conti­nue the successful deve­lo­p­ment of the company.

Foun­ded in 1981 and head­quar­te­red in Back­nang, Germany, d&b is one of the world’s leading provi­ders of profes­sio­nal audio tech­no­logy and AVLM solu­ti­ons for unique multi­sen­sory expe­ri­en­ces. d&b audio­tech­nik, the manu­fac­tu­ring divi­sion of the company, is inter­na­tio­nally reco­gni­zed as a leader in sound rein­force­ment systems in fixed and mobile appli­ca­ti­ons, and is also known for its design quality, service stan­dards, system inte­gra­tion prin­ci­ples, and pionee­ring tech­no­lo­gi­cal deve­lo­p­ments. d&b solu­ti­ons, the service-orien­ted busi­ness unit, offers compre­hen­sive and flexi­ble audio, video, light­ing and xR exper­tise in the areas of system plan­ning, instal­la­tion and main­ten­ance as well as mana­ged services.

With Ardian’s support, d&b has excel­led, achie­ving a double-digit compound annual growth rate (CAGR) since 2016, despite the tempo­rary market down­turn in the events sector caused by the COVID 19 pande­mic. The number of employees has tripled from around 350 to more than 1,000 since Ardian joined the company. Key to this successful momen­tum were inno­va­tions, the expan­sion of the product and solu­ti­ons port­fo­lio, and the deve­lo­p­ment of exis­ting and new markets, parti­cu­larly in the Ameri­cas and Asia-Paci­fic regi­ons. The stra­te­gic deve­lo­p­ment of the company was driven by both orga­nic growth and targe­ted acquisitions.

“The global growth trend for events, concerts and large-scale events has contin­ued unch­an­ged after a forced pause due to the COVID 19 pande­mic. This is accom­pa­nied by the incre­asing profes­sio­na­liza­tion and digi­tiza­tion of these events and thus a growing demand for profes­sio­nal event tech­no­lo­gies. As one of the world’s leading system provi­ders for audio tech­no­logy and inte­gra­ted audio, video, light­ing and media solu­ti­ons (AVLM) with a compre­hen­sive port­fo­lio of hard­ware and soft­ware tech­no­lo­gies, we are excel­lently posi­tio­ned to gain further market share. Ardian has proven to be a relia­ble entre­pre­neu­rial part­ner over the past years. Thanks to its unst­in­ting support, parti­cu­larly during the pande­mic, we were able to exploit this market crisis for inno­va­tion and emerge from it stron­ger than before. We look forward to conti­nuing our successful course with Provi­dence and further expan­ding our global posi­tion as a leader in profes­sio­nal audio tech­no­logy and inte­gra­ted AVLM solu­ti­ons,” said Amnon Harman, CEO of D&B GROUP.

“We would like to thank Amnon Harman and his team for their outstan­ding work, unwa­ve­ring commit­ment and, above all, the trust they have placed in us over the past years. d&b has an outstan­ding corpo­rate culture that is embo­died by each and every employee. All of this has been essen­tial to the growth, but even more so to the stra­te­gic trans­for­ma­tion and inter­na­tio­nal posi­tio­ning of the Group. We are proud to have accom­pa­nied this jour­ney toge­ther with the d&b team,” explain Dr. Alex­an­der Fried­rich, Mana­ging Direc­tor at Ardian Buyout and Stefan Kappis, Direc­tor at Ardian Buyout.

“Our invest­ment is a testa­ment to the high quality and exper­tise of the d&b team, as well as the unique company culture that has allo­wed d&b to set indus­try stan­dards and regu­larly exceed custo­mer expec­ta­ti­ons for over 40 years. d&b is the gold stan­dard in the indus­try for crea­ting memo­rable expe­ri­en­ces for audi­en­ces because of its inno­va­tion, global presence, custo­mer rela­ti­onships and long history of success,” said Robert Sudo, Mana­ging Direc­tor, Providence.

The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the finan­cial details of the tran­sac­tion, which is still subject to appr­oval by the rele­vant anti­trust authorities.

Consul­tant ARDIAN:

Ardian: Dr. Alex­an­der Fried­rich, Stefan Kappis, Chris­tian Koch, Stefa­nie Arndt

M&A: Macqua­rie Capi­tal (Florian Geiger / Sung-Duk Kim / Anthony Yous­safi) & Gold­man Sachs (Tobias Köster / Tibor Kossa / Fred­rik Weege)

Legal: Milbank (Dr. Norbert Rieger / Dr. Matthias Schell / Dr. Thomas Ingenhoven)

Finan­cial: PwC (Peter Grönin­ger / Daniel Haas)

Commer­cial: McKin­sey & Co. (Dr. Isabel Huber / Salva­dor Martinez)

ESG: Indefi Dr. Alex­an­der Fried­rich, Mana­ging Direc­tor at Ardian Buyout(Emmanuel Parmentier)

Consul­tant PROVIDENCE:

Provi­dence: Andrew Tisdale, Robert Sudo, Daniel Zwicky

M&A: Alan­tra (Wolf­ram Schmerl), UniCre­dit (Michal Leho­cky, Marcel Kus)

Legal: White & Case (Dr. Stefan Koch), Allen & Overy Dr. Alex­an­der Fried­rich, Mana­ging Direc­tor at Ardian Buyout (Vanessa Xu)

Tax: EY

About D&B

The d&b Group is a provi­der of profes­sio­nal audio tech­no­logy and AVLM solu­ti­ons for unfor­gettable multi­sen­sory expe­ri­en­ces. d&b audio­tech­nik, the manu­fac­tu­ring divi­sion of the company, is inter­na­tio­nally reco­gni­zed as a leader in sound rein­force­ment systems in fixed and mobile appli­ca­ti­ons, and is also known for its design quality, service stan­dards, system inte­gra­tion prin­ci­ples, and ground­brea­king tech­no­lo­gi­cal deve­lo­p­ments. d&b solu­ti­ons, the service-orien­ted busi­ness unit, offers compre­hen­sive and flexi­ble audio, video, light­ing and xR exper­tise in the areas of system plan­ning, instal­la­tion and main­ten­ance as well as mana­ged services.
Since the company was foun­ded in 1981, d&b’s head­quar­ters have been loca­ted in Back­nang, near Stutt­gart. With loca­ti­ons in major cities around the world, the global d&b team numbers more than 1000 employees.
www.dbgroup.de
www.dbaudio.com
www.dbsolutions.com

About ARDIAN

Ardian is a leading global inde­pen­dent invest­ment firm. The company mana­ges or advi­ses on appro­xi­m­ately US$150 billion in assets for more than 1,400 inves­tors world­wide. Thanks to its exten­sive exper­tise in private equity, real assets and credit, Ardian offers a wide range of invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties as well as custo­mi­zed invest­ment solu­ti­ons — tail­o­red to inves­tors’ needs: Ardian Custo­mi­zed Solu­ti­ons enables insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors to access best-in-class mana­gers across all asset clas­ses through a custo­mi­zed port­fo­lio. Ardian Private Wealth Solu­ti­ons also offers a range of services speci­fi­cally geared to high net worth indi­vi­du­als. Ardian is parti­ally owned by its employees and places great empha­sis on their deve­lo­p­ment, as well as a culture of colla­bo­ra­tion based on an active exch­ange of know­ledge and expe­ri­ence. The more than 1,050 employees at 16 office loca­ti­ons in Europe, North and South America, Asia and the Middle East, follow the prin­ci­ples of respon­si­ble inves­t­ing. Ardian’s mission is to make a posi­tive contri­bu­tion to society through its invest­ments and to create value that lasts. Ardian aims to deli­ver excel­lent returns in line with high ethi­cal stan­dards and social respon­si­bi­lity. At Ardian, ever­yone is dedi­ca­ted to buil­ding successful compa­nies for the long term.

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