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.