Fank­furt a. Main — IK Invest­ment Part­ners (“IK”) has announ­ced that the IK VIII Fund has signed an agree­ment to sell its invest­ment in SCHOCK GmbH (“SCHOCK” or “the Company”) to Triton Fund V, advi­sed by Triton (“Triton”). The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the finan­cial details of the transaction.

SCHOCK has a leading global market posi­tion in the design and produc­tion of high-quality quartz compo­site kitchen sinks with a diverse base of more than 2,000 custo­mers in over 70 count­ries. The company stands for inno­va­tive, high-quality products and has a strong focus on sustaina­bi­lity. This is under­li­ned, among other things, by the recently laun­ched Green Line product line, whose sinks are made from over 99 percent natu­ral, rene­wa­ble or raw mate­ri­als. In addi­tion to the compre­hen­sive range of kitchen sinks with over 200 models in 40 diffe­rent colors, SCHOCK also offers faucets, shower trays and rela­ted access­ories. The company, based in Regen, Bava­ria, employs more than 500 people and produ­ces exclu­si­vely in Germany.

Since IK’s invest­ment in 2016, SCHOCK has pursued a successful stra­tegy based on the three main elements of gaining new custo­mers, inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion and conti­nuous product inno­va­tion. As a result, the company achie­ved signi­fi­cant orga­nic growth and more than doubled its opera­ting profit. At the same time, substan­tial funds were inves­ted in the expan­sion of produc­tion capa­ci­ties, opera­tio­nal effi­ci­ency and product development.

As part of the tran­sac­tion now agreed, IK is selling its shares to the invest­ment company Triton, which will further deve­lop the company as an entre­pre­neu­rial part­ner toge­ther with the exis­ting manage­ment team headed by Ralf Boberg.

Ralf Boberg, CEO of SCHOCK, stated, “We are very grateful to the IK team for their guidance and support over the past four years. During this time, we have inves­ted in our inno­va­tive and sustainable product range and streng­the­ned our brand and repu­ta­tion in the market for high-quality, dura­ble and contem­po­rary sinks. We look forward to working with Triton to build on this foun­da­tion and conti­nue our growth trajectory.”

Mirko Jablon­sky, Part­ner at IK and advi­sor to the IK VIII Fund, said: “It has been a privi­lege for us to work with SCHOCK as a market leader in an attrac­tive segment of the kitchen indus­try. The uncom­pro­mi­sing focus on quality and the undis­pu­ted ability to inno­vate while setting new tech­no­lo­gi­cal stan­dards will enable SCHOCK to win new custo­mers and expand its product range and market presence. We wish Ralf Boberg and the team every success with their new shareholder.”

Ruth Linz, Co-Head Consu­mer at Triton, commen­ted: “We are plea­sed to accom­pany the next phase of the company’s deve­lo­p­ment at SCHOCK with our invest­ment. The oppor­tu­nity to work with such a strong brand, which also has excep­tio­nal growth poten­tial, does not come around often — we see oppor­tu­ni­ties here parti­cu­larly in the US and through targe­ted M&A acti­vi­ties. We look forward to part­ne­ring with SCHOCK and taking the company to the next level of growth.”

Parties invol­ved:

IK Invest­ment Part­ners: Detlef Dinsel, Mirko Jablon­sky, Daniel-Vito Günther
Seller M&A advi­sor: William Blair (Phil­ipp Mohr, Dirk Felsmann)
Seller legal advi­sor: Latham & Watkins (Henning Schnei­der, Nils Röver)
Seller commer­cial advi­sor: EY Parthe­non (Björn Reineke)
Seller finan­cial advi­sor: EY (Hinrich Grun­waldt, Sandra Krusch)
Seller ESG advi­sor: EY (Robert Seiter)

About IK Invest­ment Partners

IK Invest­ment Part­ners is a Euro­pean private equity firm with an invest­ment focus on the Nordic count­ries, the DACH region, France, Bene­lux as well as the UK. Since 1989, IK has laun­ched funds with a cumu­la­tive equity volume of more than 13 billion euros and inves­ted in more than 145 Euro­pean compa­nies. The IK Funds support compa­nies with signi­fi­cant growth poten­tial and their manage­ment teams in deve­lo­ping busi­ness models for the future, streng­thening the compa­nies’ market posi­tion and thus crea­ting outstan­ding long-term deve­lo­p­ment poten­tial. www.ikinvest.com

About Triton

Triton was foun­ded in 1997 with the goal of working with boards, mana­gers and employees to build better compa­nies. We are entre­pre­neurs who invest capi­tal where we see an oppor­tu­nity to create long-term value. We are aware that the decis­i­ons we make affect people’s lives. The 46 compa­nies curr­ently in our port­fo­lio play an important role in their respec­tive loca­ti­ons in Nort­hern Europe. They employ around 101,000 people and gene­rate combi­ned annual sales of around €18.2 billion. In 2018, we raised €5.2 billion for our latest private equity fund, Triton V. For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.triton-partners.com

About SCHOCK

SCHOCK is the inven­tor of the granite sink and has been the global tech­no­logy and quality leader in this field for more than 40 years. The paten­ted combi­na­tion of quartz with high-quality acrylic crea­tes a premium product that is three times harder than natu­ral granite and is also supe­rior in many product proper­ties to sinks made of other mate­ri­als. The SCHOCK range includes sinks for every kitchen style and taste type. Custo­mers in over 70 count­ries rely on SCHOCK products, which are produ­ced exclu­si­vely at the company head­quar­ters in Regen in the Bava­rian Forest. For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.schock.de