Frank­furt am Main / Hamburg — The Frank­furt-based invest­ment company VR Equi­typ­art­ner is selling its shares in the Remscheid-based measu­re­ment and control tech­no­logy specia­list GHM Group. The shares of VR Equi­typ­art­ner and Bayern LB Private Equity GmbH i.L., which was previously also invol­ved, will be taken over by the Hamburg-based invest­ment company GENUI. The tran­sac­tion is still subject to anti­trust and foreign trade clearance. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the purchase price.

As a specia­list in the field of measu­re­ment and control tech­no­logy, the GHM Group opera­tes in the busi­ness areas of indus­trial sensors and elec­tro­nics, envi­ron­men­tal measu­re­ment tech­no­logy, and mobile measu­re­ment equip­ment. The company has loca­ti­ons in Germany and Italy and is also present world­wide with sales repre­sen­ta­ti­ves. Custo­mers are mainly from the mecha­ni­cal and plant engi­nee­ring, trans­port tech­no­logy, envi­ron­men­tal tech­no­logy, meteo­ro­logy, water treat­ment and labo­ra­tory equip­ment sectors.

VR Equi­typ­art­ner inves­ted in the GHM Group in 2013. Since then, a successful buy-and-build stra­tegy has been imple­men­ted with two add-on tran­sac­tions (Delta Ohm and Val.Co) in Italy and the company has been further deve­lo­ped with a focus on profi­ta­ble growth.

“We have achie­ved a lot at GHM over the past years. I am plea­sed that we have thus been able to lay a stable foun­da­tion for profi­ta­ble growth at GHM under the new share­hol­der struc­ture,” explains Chris­tian Futter­lieb, Mana­ging Direc­tor at VR Equi­typ­art­ner, adding, “I am convin­ced that we have found the ideal new part­ner for the company in GENUI, because the company under­stands SMEs and brings a broad range of exper­tise to the table.”

VR Equi­typ­art­ner GmbH at a glance

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 60 commit­ments with an invest­ment volume of EUR 400 million. www.vrep.de.

The tran­sac­tion team at VR Equitypartner:
Jan Markus Drees, Maxi­mi­lian Fink­bei­ner, Marga­rita Decker, Jens Schöf­fel, Simone Weck

Consul­ting firms invol­ved in the tran­sac­tion by VR Equitypartner:

M&A: Stephens Europe Ltd (Stephens), Gerhard Gleich and Robin Brandenbusch

Finan­cial / Tax: Warth & Klein Grant Thorn­ton AG, Harald Weiß (Finan­cial) and Dr. Stefan Hahn (Tax)

Legal: Noerr Part­ner­schafts­ge­sell­schaft mbB (NOERR), Dr. Martin Neuhaus and Gerrit Henze