News-Kategorie: Private Equity

Frank­furt am Main / Bonn — With alre­ady eight restau­rants in the Rhine and Ruhr regi­ons and soon a flag­ship loca­tion in Frank­furt am Main, the young gastro­nomy brand “The ASH” is on course for expan­sion. The Frank­furt-based invest­ment company VR Equi­typ­art­ner is support­ing the fine-casual dining concept with capi­tal in the single-digit million range as part of a mezza­nine finan­cing to enable it to imple­ment its growth plans in an even more targe­ted manner.

The ASH is a brand laun­ched in 2015 by KSH 2 System­gas­tro­no­mie GmbH, which in turn is part of the Apei­ron Group. Apei­ron also opera­tes the Bullitt and Ginyuu brands and fran­chi­ses seve­ral L’Os­te­ria stores. Foun­der and co-CEO is Kent Hahne, an indus­try great who has been invol­ved in the deve­lo­p­ment of fran­chise systems such as Segaf­redo Germany and Vapiano, among others.

The ASH restau­rants take the idea of Ameri­can Supper Clubs from the 1920s. In a mix of restau­rant and bar, they combine steaks, burgers, fish and salads with hip drinks in a spacious atmo­sphere. The ambi­ance features an open kitchen with a centrally loca­ted lava grill, a long cock­tail bar and high-top tables, and a DJ booth. The ASH alre­ady employs more than 460 people and recently increased sales by 80 percent to around EUR 14 million; reve­nues of more than EUR 20 million are targe­ted for 2019.

Chris­tian Futter­lieb, Co-Mana­ging Direc­tor of VR Equi­typ­art­ner, says: “Kent Hahne is a very successful and expe­ri­en­ced system cate­rer whose enthu­si­asm for his concept is simply infec­tious. The first The ASH restau­rants have estab­lished them­sel­ves very successfully within a very short time. We are deligh­ted to be part of this growth story and to be able to expe­ri­ence the deve­lo­p­ment of the latest offshoot up close here in Frankfurt’s new Mari­en­fo­rum.” Kent Hahne adds: “We are very plea­sed about the part­ner­ship with VR Equi­typ­art­ner. We have always percei­ved the decis­ion-making process as very profes­sio­nal and fair. We will conti­nue on the chosen path toge­ther in the coming years.”

About VR Equi­typ­art­ner GmbH
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 100 commit­ments with an invest­ment volume of EUR 500 million. www.vrep.de.

Consul­ting firms invol­ved in the tran­sac­tion by VR Equitypartner:
Commer­cial: Clau­dia Driver, Hamburg (former GF Jim Block and Block Bräu)Finan­cial: WKGT, Düssel­dorf, with Klaus Schaldt and Dr. Anne Schül­lerTax, Legal: WKGT, Düssel­dorf, with Tors­ten Reschke and Heike Welling

Hamburg — Allen & Overy LLP has advi­sed Hambur­ger Gesell­schaft für Vermö­gens- und Betei­li­gungs­ma­nage­ment (HGV), the invest­ment holding company of the Free and Hansea­tic City of Hamburg (FHH), on the acqui­si­tion of the remai­ning shares in Wärme Hamburg GmbH from Vatten­fall. Based on the agreed mini­mum purchase price of 950 million euros, HGV paid a purchase price of 625 million euros for the remai­ning 74.9 percent of the shares.

The company opera­tes the Hamburg district heating network as well as local gene­ra­tion faci­li­ties, e.g. the Wedel and Tief­stack combi­ned heat and power plants. At the same time, the Wedel combi­ned heat and power plant had to be spun off from another company in a paral­lel project and trans­fer­red to the target company. Until now, the FHH owned 25.1 percent of the district heating company. Although the acqui­si­tion was made by exer­cis­ing a purchase option nego­tia­ted in imple­men­ta­tion of the “Our Hamburg — Our Network” refe­ren­dum, the tran­sac­tion ulti­m­ately took more than a year to complete.

The Allen & Overy team had alre­ady advi­sed HGV in 2011 on the acqui­si­tion of stra­te­gic stakes in the compa­nies that operate the supply networks in Hamburg for elec­tri­city, gas and district heating. In addi­tion, Allen & Overy assis­ted HGV in the step-by-step imple­men­ta­tion of the full buyback of Hamburg’s energy networks follo­wing the adop­tion of the refe­ren­dum. The current tran­sac­tion thus marks the conclu­sion of a series of acqui­si­ti­ons in which FHH has alre­ady taken over Strom­netz Hamburg GmbH and the corre­spon­ding service areas, inclu­ding meter­ing and support for trans­port faci­li­ties, from Vatten­fall and Gasnetz Hamburg GmbH from E.ON.

By buying back the energy infra­struc­ture, the Hamburg Senate is laying the foun­da­tion for a successful energy turn­around in Hamburg. The Hansea­tic City aims to signi­fi­cantly reduce green­house gas emis­si­ons. The tran­sac­tion is regarded as the final mile­stone in the complete remu­ni­ci­pa­liza­tion of Hamburg’s energy supply.

The Allen & Overy team included Part­ner Dr. Helge Schä­fer and Coun­sel Dr. Rüdi­ger Klüber (joint lead), Asso­cia­tes Dr. Moritz Merke­nich and Dr. Moritz Meis­ter (all Corporate/M&A, Hamburg), Part­ner Dr. Heike Weber and Senior Asso­ciate Tim Spran­ger (both Tax, Frank­furt), Part­ner Dr. Ellen Braun (Anti­trust, Hamburg) as well as Part­ner Jan-Erik Wind­thorst (Frank­furt), Coun­sel Dr. Alice Broich­mann (Munich) and Senior Asso­ciate Dr. Nico­las Gillen (all Dispute Reso­lu­tion, Frankfurt).

About Allen & Overy
Allen & Overy is an inter­na­tio­nal law firm with appro­xi­m­ately 5,500 employees, inclu­ding appro­xi­m­ately 550 part­ners, in 44 offices worldwide.

Allen & Overy is repre­sen­ted in Germany at its offices in Düssel­dorf, Frank­furt am Main, Hamburg and Munich with appro­xi­m­ately 220 lawy­ers, inclu­ding 47 part­ners. The lawy­ers advise leading natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal compa­nies prima­rily in the areas of banking, finance and capi­tal markets law, corpo­rate law and M&A, tax law as well as other areas of busi­ness law.

Frank­furt am Main -Deut­sche Betei­li­gungs AG (DBAG) is inves­t­ing in Carton­plast Group GmbH (Carton­plast), Europe’s leading opera­tor of a pool system for reusable plas­tic layer pads used in parti­cu­lar for trans­port­ing glass contai­ners in the beverage and food indus­tries. As part of a manage­ment buy-out (MBO), DBAG Fund VII, which is advi­sed by DBAG, will acquire the majo­rity of shares in Carton­plast from the finan­cial inves­tor Stir­ling Square Capi­tal Part­ners, based in London.

DBAG will investaround 26 million euros along­side the fund; in future, it will hold around 17 percent of the shares in Carton­plast. In addi­tion, the company’s manage­ment will also remain invol­ved. The closing of the purchase agree­ment is subject to the appr­oval of the anti­trust autho­ri­ties and is not expec­ted before Octo­ber 2019. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the purchase price.

DBAG Fund VII has been inves­t­ing in medium-sized compa­nies, prima­rily in German-spea­king count­ries, since Decem­ber 2016. Carton­plast is DBAG Fund VII’s eighth invest­ment in total and the third for which its top-up fund is also used. With the Carton­plast tran­sac­tion, appro­xi­m­ately 71 percent of the invest­ment commit­ments of the main fund and appro­xi­m­ately 59 percent of the capi­tal commit­ments of the top-up fund of DBAG Fund VII will be invested.

Carton­plast (www.cartonplast.com) was foun­ded in 1985. The company prima­rily rents reusable and recy­clable plas­tic liners for trans­port­ing glass bott­les, cans and other glass or PET contai­ners for food to the manu­fac­tu­r­ers of these contai­ners. Carton­plast has estab­lished a closed logi­stics loop within the value chain of its custo­mers, which includes not only rental but also coll­ec­tion, sort­ing and clea­ning of the layer pads. Compared to card­board layer pads, plas­tic layer pads are more hygie­nic, safer for trans­port and — due to their reusa­bi­lity — more cost-efficient.

In addi­tion to its head­quar­ters in Diet­zen­bach, Carton­plast has 16 other sites — abroad, espe­ci­ally in Western and Central Europe, Turkey, Russia, Brazil and South Africa. In 2018, the company gene­ra­ted sales of around 80 million euros; around three quar­ters of this was attri­bu­ta­ble to the plas­tic layer pad rental business.

With its close custo­mer rela­ti­onships, Carton­plast has estab­lished a leading posi­tion throug­hout Europe in a market with solid growth rates. The company is bene­fiting from an incre­asing outsour­cing trend as well as from sustaina­bi­lity efforts and the growing importance of the circu­lar economy. In the coming years, Carton­plast is to conti­nue to grow dyna­mi­cally through inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion. In addi­tion, the offer is to be expan­ded, for exam­ple, through the addi­tio­nal rental of pallets and plas­tic cover caps.

“Stable market condi­ti­ons and a strong market posi­tion make Carton­plast an attrac­tive invest­ment oppor­tu­nity for DBAG,” commen­ted Tors­ten Grede, Spokes­man of DBAG’s Manage­ment Board, on the occa­sion of the signing of the contract. “We were also convin­ced by the entre­pre­neu­rial vision of the manage­ment. We see very good condi­ti­ons for further profi­ta­ble growth.”

“In the coming years, we will conti­nue our inter­na­tio­nal expan­sion,” said Serkan Koray, CEO of Carton­plast. “With DBAG, we have a strong and expe­ri­en­ced part­ner at our side who will accom­pany us in this important deve­lo­p­ment step.”

About DBAG
Deut­sche Betei­li­gungs AG, a listed company, initia­tes closed-end private equity funds and invests along­side DBAG funds in well-posi­tio­ned medium-sized compa­nies with deve­lo­p­ment poten­tial. DBAG focu­ses on indus­trial sectors in which German SMEs are parti­cu­larly strong by inter­na­tio­nal stan­dards. With this expe­ri­ence, know-how and equity, it streng­thens the port­fo­lio compa­nies in imple­men­ting a long-term, value-enhan­cing corpo­rate stra­tegy. The entre­pre­neu­rial invest­ment approach makes DBAG a sought-after invest­ment part­ner in the German-spea­king region. The capi­tal mana­ged and advi­sed by the DBAG Group amounts to appro­xi­m­ately 1.7 billion euros.

Munich, Germany — Equis­tone Part­ners Europe (“Equis­tone”), one of Europe’s most active equity inves­tors, has acqui­red a majo­rity stake in Omni­care, a Germany-wide phar­maceu­ti­cal whole­sa­ler focu­sed on the distri­bu­tion of finis­hed dosage forms for the pati­ent-speci­fic produc­tion of cancer drugs. The seller of the shares is the current consor­tium of share­hol­ders, which reta­ins a signi­fi­cant stake. — The manage­ment team around Mana­ging Direc­tor Oliver Tamimi will conti­nue to be respon­si­ble for the company and will make a signi­fi­cant invest­ment in the course of the tran­sac­tion. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose details of the tran­sac­tion. The acqui­si­tion is still subject to appr­oval by the rele­vant anti­trust autho­ri­ties. The tran­sac­tion is expec­ted to close in the fourth quar­ter of 2019.

Omni­care was foun­ded in 2002 as a phar­maceu­ti­cal specialty whole­sa­ler for outpa­ti­ent onco­logy care in Germany. To date, the company has become the market leader for the distri­bu­tion of finis­hed onco­logy drugs requi­red by phar­macies for pati­ent-speci­fic infu­si­ons. In addi­tion to the supply of finis­hed phar­maceu­ti­cals, Omni­care has been deve­lo­ping important services for highly specia­li­zed phar­macies and medi­cal prac­ti­ces since 2012 for quality assu­rance, clean­room hygiene moni­to­ring, and the trai­ning and conti­nuing educa­tion of specia­list staff. In early 2019, these services were expan­ded to become the Omni­care Quality Initia­tive, with the goal of provi­ding safe, high-quality care to onco­logy patients.

In 2018, Omni­care also estab­lished the “German Onco­logy Network” of leading onco­logy prac­ti­ces and has been conti­nuously expan­ding it ever since. The goal of this network is the struc­tu­ral streng­thening and further deve­lo­p­ment of onco­logy prac­ti­ces for the bene­fit of pati­ents. Omni­care has syste­ma­ti­cally deve­lo­ped into a leading plat­form for outpa­ti­ent onco­logy care in Germany. In this way, the company is making a signi­fi­cant contri­bu­tion to provi­ding the best possi­ble care for cancer pati­ents close to home in Germany. Omni­care gene­ra­tes annual sales of appro­xi­m­ately 670 million euros and employs 193 people in Unter­föh­ring, Colo­gne and Calw. In 2019, Omni­care is expec­ted to achieve sales growth of around 5 percent.

Dirk Sche­kerka (photo), Senior Part­ner and Coun­try Head DACH at Equis­tone, says: “Omnicare’s busi­ness model aims to contri­bute to the secu­rity of care and the highest quality of therapy for cancer pati­ents close to home. We are plea­sed to part­ner with the company in this endea­vor.” Alexis Milko­vic, Part­ner at Equis­tone, adds: “Omni­care has a strong market posi­tion, an expe­ri­en­ced manage­ment team and excel­lent employees. These are excel­lent prere­qui­si­tes for the further deve­lo­p­ment of the company. As a new share­hol­der, we want to support Omni­care in further streng­thening and sustain­ably expan­ding its position.”

Oliver Tamimi, Mana­ging Direc­tor at Omni­care, says: “With Equis­tone, we have found a relia­ble and well-funded new part­ner for the further deve­lo­p­ment of our company. With Equistone’s support, we want to conti­nuously improve the care of cancer pati­ents in Germany close to their homes and on an outpa­ti­ent basis.”

On the Equis­tone side, Dirk Sche­kerka, Alexis Milko­vic and Julia Bruns­wi­cker are respon­si­ble for the transaction.

Advi­sor Equistone: 
P+P (Legal & Tax), Alva­rez & Marsal (Commer­cial), Deloitte (Finan­cial), Houli­han Lokey (Finan­cing), Dechert (Anti­trust), Shear­man & Ster­ling (Legal Finan­cing) and ETS (Insu­rance).

On Omnicare’s side, Henge­ler Müller (Legal and Anti­trust), BCG (Commer­cial), KPMG (Finan­cial), EY (Tax), Lincoln Inter­na­tio­nal (M&A) and Honert & Part­ner (MEP) advi­sed the manage­ment team on the transaction.

About Omni­care
Omni­care was foun­ded in 2002 as a phar­maceu­ti­cal whole­sa­ler supp­ly­ing specia­li­zed phar­macies throug­hout Germany. Since 2012, it has been working as a coope­ra­tive of cyto­sta­tics manu­fac­tu­ring phar­macies to preserve and secure the future of outpa­ti­ent onco­logy in Germany. The Omni­care Quality Initia­tive enables phar­macies to safely and effi­ci­ently provide onco­logy prac­ti­ces and their pati­ents with essen­tial medi­ca­ti­ons for survi­val. With the German Onco­logy Network, Omni­care has laun­ched a plat­form of leading onco­logy prac­ti­ces to streng­then outpa­ti­ent pati­ent care. In addi­tion, the company offers prac­tice-rele­vant trai­ning for prac­ti­ces and phar­macies and provi­des soft­ware solu­ti­ons that enable effi­ci­ent and safe chemo­the­rapy plan­ning and ordering.

About Equis­tone Part­ners Europe
Equis­tone Part­ners Europe is one of Europe’s leading equity inves­tors with a team of more than 40 invest­ment specia­lists in six offices in Germany, Switz­er­land, the Nether­lands, France and the UK. Equis­tone prima­rily invests in estab­lished medium-sized compa­nies with a good market posi­tion, above-average growth poten­tial and an enter­prise value of between EUR 50 and 500 million. Since its foun­ding, equity has been inves­ted in more than 140 tran­sac­tions, mainly mid-market buy-outs. The port­fo­lio curr­ently compri­ses over 40 compa­nies across Europe, inclu­ding around 20 active holdings in Germany, Switz­er­land and the Nether­lands. Equis­tone is curr­ently inves­t­ing from its sixth fund, which closed in March 2018 with €2.8 billion at the hard cap.

Frank­furt am Main — Deut­sche Betei­li­gungs AG (DBAG) closes the first nine months of finan­cial year 2018/2019 with conso­li­da­ted earnings of 12.6 million euros. The reason for the signi­fi­cant decline compared to the corre­spon­ding period of the previous year, when conso­li­da­ted net income amoun­ted to 27.7 million euros, is the lower result from the invest­ment busi­ness: A lower valua­tion result could not be fully compen­sa­ted by posi­tive earnings contri­bu­ti­ons from disposals.

In its 2018/2019 half-year report, DBAG had repor­ted that most port­fo­lio compa­nies had budgeted for higher reve­nues and earnings in 2019 and conside­red them­sel­ves to be on a good track. This has not chan­ged in prin­ci­ple. In the mean­time, howe­ver, there have been incre­asing signs of a slow­down in econo­mic momen­tum — partly due to the simme­ring global trade conflicts. This leads to lower than expec­ted earnings at some port­fo­lio compa­nies and thus has a nega­tive impact on the valua­tion of the port­fo­lio compa­nies and earnings from the invest­ment busi­ness. In the third quar­ter of the current fiscal year in parti­cu­lar, there was also a nega­tive earnings contri­bu­tion from the change in the debt of the port­fo­lio compa­nies. In the case of one port­fo­lio company, for exam­ple, the finan­cing of an acqui­si­tion had impac­ted its leverage ratio and subse­quently its valuation.

Howe­ver, the fact that DBAG’s port­fo­lio is diver­si­fied is paying off. “The econo­mic slow­down in various sectors contrasts with posi­tive deve­lo­p­ments at port­fo­lio compa­nies in other sectors. For exam­ple, invest­ments in the tele­com­mu­ni­ca­ti­ons sector with a focus on fast inter­net have recently deve­lo­ped very posi­tively,” states DBAG’s quar­terly state­ment published today. On balance, the opera­ting perfor­mance of the port­fo­lio compa­nies, i.e. the change in earnings and debt, contri­bu­ted 6.2 million euros to earnings in the first nine months, compared with 13.3 million euros in the corre­spon­ding prior-year period.

The dispo­sals of the share­hol­dings in Infiana and Novo­press, which were agreed after the report­ing date, made a posi­tive contri­bu­tion of 13.7 million euros to the conso­li­da­ted result. In both cases, the proceeds from the sale excee­ded the carry­ing amount of the invest­ments as of March 31, 2019. The corre­spon­ding value contri­bu­ti­ons were included in the valua­tion of the two invest­ments as of June 30, 2019. “The recently announ­ced dispo­sals once again under­line the success of our invest­ment acti­vi­ties,” commen­ted Susanne Zeid­ler, CFO of DBAG, in connec­tion with the publi­ca­tion of the quar­terly finan­cial state­ments. And he conti­nues: “In both cases, we have multi­plied the capi­tal inves­ted. Our success is ther­e­fore not reflec­ted in the valua­tion result of a single quar­ter, but is only deter­mi­ned after seve­ral years, when we sell an invest­ment again.”

At the begin­ning of the current finan­cial year, the partly massive decline in the earnings multi­ples of listed peer compa­nies, which DBAG uses to value its port­fo­lio compa­nies, had a strong impact on conso­li­da­ted earnings. Follo­wing a signi­fi­cant reco­very in valua­tion multi­ples in the second and third quar­ters, this capi­tal market effect was again almost neutral as of June 30, 2019.

Earnings before taxes in the Private Equity Invest­ments segment reached 11.0 million euros after the first nine months of the finan­cial year, down 12.5 million euros on the segment result for the same period of the previous year. This was due to signi­fi­cantly lower earnings from the invest­ment busi­ness. The fund consul­ting segment perfor­med worse than plan­ned, with earnings before taxes of 1.6 million euros, compared with 4.2 million euros in the corre­spon­ding prior-year period. As expec­ted, income from manage­ment and advi­sory services for DBAG Fund VI, DBAG Fund V and DBAG ECF decli­ned. Howe­ver, there were also unplan­ned expen­ses, higher expen­ses for uncom­ple­ted tran­sac­tions and higher person­nel expen­ses due to varia­ble compen­sa­tion for DBAG employees follo­wing successful dispo­sals and new invest­ments. Conso­li­da­ted net income of 12.6 million euros resul­ted in a return on equity of 3.1 percent in the first nine months.

In view of incre­asing macroe­co­no­mic uncer­tain­ties, DBAG redu­ced its fore­cast for the current fiscal year on July 10, 2019. Assum­ing stable valua­tion condi­ti­ons on the capi­tal market, it expects conso­li­da­ted earnings for the 2018/2019 finan­cial year to be at least positive.

DBAG contin­ued to invest along­side DBAG Fund VII in the third quar­ter of 2018/2019. The MBO of IT services company Cloudf­light was the fund’s seventh invest­ment. With the fulfill­ment of the legal requi­re­ments, the invest­ment in the radio­logy group blikk was also comple­ted in the third quar­ter. This means that around 65 percent of the invest­ment commit­ments of DBAG Fund VII, which has been inves­t­ing in medium-sized compa­nies since Decem­ber 2016, are commit­ted. “That is why we remain confi­dent about the future,” affirmed CFO Susanne Zeid­ler. “With these invest­ments, we have laid the foun­da­tion for future success.”

About DBAG
Deut­sche Betei­li­gungs AG, a listed company, initia­tes closed-end private equity funds and invests along­side DBAG funds in well-posi­tio­ned medium-sized compa­nies with deve­lo­p­ment poten­tial. DBAG focu­ses on indus­trial sectors in which German SMEs are parti­cu­larly strong by inter­na­tio­nal stan­dards. With this expe­ri­ence, know-how and equity, it streng­thens the port­fo­lio compa­nies in imple­men­ting a long-term, value-enhan­cing corpo­rate stra­tegy. The entre­pre­neu­rial invest­ment approach makes DBAG a sought-after invest­ment part­ner in the German-spea­king region. The capi­tal mana­ged and advi­sed by the DBAG Group amounts to appro­xi­m­ately 1.7 billion euros.

Frank­furt a. Main — The IK Invest­ment Part­ners advi­sed fund comple­tes acqui­si­tion of LAP GmbH Laser Appli­ca­ti­ons from thePri­vate Equity company Capi­ton AG. LAP, based in Lüne­burg, Germany, is a leading supplier of laser posi­tio­ning systems as well as soft­ware and hard­ware for quality assu­rance in radia­tion therapy. — Inter­na­tio­nal law firm Clif­ford Chance has advi­sed a consor­tium of banks on the finan­cing of the acqui­si­tion of LAP GmbH Laser Appli­ca­ti­ons by funds advi­sed by IK Invest­ment Partners.

The banking syndi­cate finan­cing the acqui­si­tion includes Commerz­bank AG, Deut­sche Apothe­ker- und Ärzte­bank eG, Hermes Direct Lending, Idin­vest Part­ners S.A., Raiff­ei­sen Bank Inter­na­tio­nal AG, Siemens Bank GmbH as well as SEB AB Frank­furt Branch and COMMERZBANK Finance & Covered Bond S.A. as agent and secu­rity agent.

About IK Invest­ment Partners
IK Invest­ment Part­ners is a Euro­pean private equity advi­sory group with Nordic roots, opera­ting across Nort­hern Conti­nen­tal Europe. Focu­sed on inves­t­ing in compa­nies with strong under­ly­ing poten­tial, we are proud to support the IK Funds as they part­ner with manage­ment teams and inves­tors to grow busi­nesses, improve perfor­mance and create sustainable value for all our stakeholders.

Deeply commit­ted to foste­ring growth, we apply an active approach to our invest­ments and aim to create robust, well posi­tio­ned compa­nies with excel­lent long-term pros­pects. Foun­ded in 1989, we have helped over 125 compa­nies expand and deve­lop sustain­ably. We strive constantly to make a diffe­rence to our port­fo­lio compa­nies, our inves­tors and to society.

About Clif­ford Chance
The inter­na­tio­nal Clif­ford Chance team was led by part­ner Stef­fen Schell­schmidt (Banking & Capi­tal Markets, Frankfurt).
Clif­ford Chance, one of the world’s leading law firms, is present for its clients with around 3,400 legal advi­sors in all major busi­ness centers around the world. In Germany, Clif­ford Chance is repre­sen­ted by around 300 lawy­ers, audi­tors, tax advi­sors and soli­ci­tors in Düssel­dorf, Frank­furt am Main and Munich.

Munich/ Frank­furt a. Main — The Munich and Frank­furt offices of the inter­na­tio­nal law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP have advi­sed KKR on the acqui­si­tion of a majo­rity stake for more than €600 million in the German FinTech company heidel­pay (Heidel­ber­ger Payment GmbH) from AnaCap Finan­cial Part­ners. The closing of the tran­sac­tion is subject to the appr­oval of BaFin and other regu­la­tory autho­ri­ties as well as custo­mary closing condi­ti­ons. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the purchase price.

Foun­ded in 2003 and based in Heidel­berg, the heidel­pay Group is one of the fastest growing full-service provi­ders of elec­tro­nic payment services in Europe.

The Weil team was led in this tran­sac­tion by Frank­furt-based Corpo­rate Part­ner Prof. Dr. Gerhard Schmidt (photo). and compri­sed the part­ners Tobias Geer­ling (Tax, Munich), Dr. Barbara Jagers­ber­ger (Corpo­rate, Munich) and Dr. Uwe Hart­mann (Regu­la­tory, Frank­furt) as well as the asso­cia­tes Manuel-Peter Fringer, Alex­an­der Pfef­fer­ler, Andreas Fogel (all Corpo­rate, Munich), Dr. Ansgar Wimber, Florian Wessel (both Corpo­rate, Frank­furt), Benja­min Rapp (Tax, Munich), Mareike Pfeif­fer (Labor Law, Frank­furt), Svenja Wach­tel (Liti­ga­tion, Munich), Dr. Konstan­tin Hoppe, Dr. Barbara Sand­fuchs (both IT/IP, Munich) and Para­le­gal Madleen Düdder (Corpo­rate, Munich).

About Weil, Gotshal & Manges 
Weil, Gotshal & Manges is an inter­na­tio­nal law firm with more than 1,100 lawy­ers, inclu­ding appro­xi­m­ately 300 part­ners. Weil is head­quar­te­red in New York and has offices in Boston, Dallas, Frank­furt, Hong Kong, Hous­ton, London, Miami, Munich, Paris, Beijing, Prince­ton, Shang­hai, Sili­con Valley, Warsaw and Washing­ton, D.C. www.weil.com

Frank­furt / Wies­ba­den (Germany), Tokyo (Japan) — From Triton (“Triton”) advi­sed funds have comple­ted the sale of COBEX, a leading manu­fac­tu­rer and supplier of carbon and graphite products for alumi­num, primary iron and iron and other smel­ting indus­tries, to TokaiCarbon Co, Ltd (“Tokai Carbon”), a pioneer in the Japa­nese carbon products indus­try, for an enter­prise value of EUR 825 million.

Triton acqui­red COBEX, SGL Group’s former catho­des, furnace linings and carbon elec­tro­des busi­ness, in 2017. About Cobex­COBEX is a leading global manu­fac­tu­rer of carbon and graphite products for the primary alumi­num and iron indus­tries and other metall­ur­gi­cal smel­ting proces­ses. COBEX’s core compe­ten­cies lie in the produc­tion of premium quality catho­des, furnace linings and carbon elec­tro­des with maxi­mum consis­tency. COBEX main­ta­ins long-stan­ding, trus­ting part­ner­ships with nume­rous custo­mers around the world.

With inno­va­tive solu­ti­ons COBEX helps its custo­mers to create added value and opti­mize total cost of owner­ship. A highly quali­fied team with many years of expe­ri­ence in product deve­lo­p­ment and appli­ca­tion supports custo­mers with tech­ni­cal know­ledge and skills. COBEX is based in Wies­ba­den, Germany. The company also has two plants in Poland and sales and tech­ni­cal services in China. https://cobexgroup.com

About Tokai Carbon
Tokai Carbon was foun­ded in 1918 and has been a market leader for over 100 years in manu­fac­tu­ring and distri­bu­ting a wide range of high-quality carbon and graphite products to nume­rous global custo­mers in a wide range of indus­tries, inclu­ding steel, auto­mo­bi­les, semi­con­duc­tors and elec­tro­nic compon­ents. Tokai Carbon has deve­lo­ped and deli­vered cutting-edge carbon product exper­tise to meet custo­mer needs. Tokai Carbon main­ta­ins a global network of 42 sites in 10 count­ries in Asia, Europe and North America. The company had conso­li­da­ted sales of JPY231 billion and total assets of JPY317 billion for the year ended Decem­ber 31, 2018. Tokai Carbon is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.For more infor­ma­tion: www.tokaicarbon.co.jp/en/

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. At present, Triton’s port­fo­lio includes 37 compa­nies with total sales of around EUR 14.6 billion and around 72,400 employees.

Munich/Stuttgart — Toge­ther with all other share­hol­ders, Gimv is selling its shares in the Stutt­gart-based soft­ware company thinkstep AG (www.thinkstep.com). The buyer is the US soft­ware service provi­der Sphera Solu­ti­ons. Thanks to the sustained support of all share­hol­ders, thinkstep has recor­ded a very posi­tive deve­lo­p­ment and was able to successfully convert the busi­ness model to a soft­ware-as-a-service (SaaS) solution.

The globally active company, head­quar­te­red in Lein­fel­den-Echter­din­gen near Stutt­gart, was foun­ded in 1991 and offers soft­ware and consul­ting services that help compa­nies manage sustaina­bi­lity and reduce their envi­ron­men­tal foot­print. Over the last few years, thinkstep has been able to steadily expand its impres­sive custo­mer base and today serves over 2,000 custo­mers from 20 indus­tries, inclu­ding in parti­cu­lar a large number of leading “Fortune 500” compa­nies from Germany and around the world.

thinkstep AG opera­tes in three busi­ness units: In the Corpo­rate Sustaina­bi­lity divi­sion, sustaina­bi­lity proces­ses are intro­du­ced and imple­men­ted. These include, for exam­ple, Group-wide energy manage­ment, corpo­rate social respon­si­bi­lity manage­ment and active resource opti­miza­tion. In the area of product sustaina­bi­lity, envi­ron­men­tal aspects are alre­ady taken into account in the deve­lo­p­ment phase and thus inte­gra­ted into subse­quent product manage­ment and manu­fac­tu­ring proces­ses. With the help of thinkstep’s product compli­ance solu­tion, compli­ance and repu­ta­tion risks can be iden­ti­fied and redu­ced at an early stage.

Gimv joined thinkstep in 2010 with a mino­rity stake toge­ther with Next47 with the aim of support­ing the company with capi­tal, know-how and network in its global expan­sion, opera­tio­nal streng­thening and simul­ta­neous trans­for­ma­tion from a licen­sing to a SaaS model. In the course of this, Gimv and Next47 gradu­ally increased their joint commit­ment, while at the same time some of the foun­ders remained on board with mino­rity stakes. In this way, thinkstep has grown into a leading global soft­ware provi­der in the field of Enter­prise Sustaina­bi­lity and Compli­ance Solu­ti­ons. With the sale and the plan­ned subse­quent inte­gra­tion into Sphera, the next step in the successful deve­lo­p­ment of the company is now being taken.

Dr. Sven Oleow­nik (photo), Part­ner and Head of Germany at Gimv, says: “thinkstep has under­gone a remar­kable trans­for­ma­tion in recent years and funda­men­tally reshaped its busi­ness model. Buil­ding on a very loyal custo­mer base, it has simul­ta­neously been able to further advance its global opera­ti­ons and tech­no­lo­gi­cal base. With inves­tors and consu­mers placing incre­asing importance on compa­nies opera­ting ethi­cally and envi­ron­men­tally consciously, the market for sustaina­bi­lity solu­ti­ons is highly attrac­tive and growing stron­gly. thinkstep is ideally posi­tio­ned for the future to further expand its market leader­ship now under a new flag.”

Lisa Henge­rer, Asso­ciate at Gimv in Munich and respon­si­ble for the Smart Indus­tries plat­form, adds: “thinkstep is another success story within our Smart Indus­tries soft­ware divi­sion. The sale to Sphera Solu­ti­ons is once again an excel­lent exam­ple of our ambi­tion to accom­pany our port­fo­lio compa­nies in their stra­te­gic deve­lo­p­ment and growth to become attrac­tive for an inter­na­tio­nally renow­ned indus­trial company like Sphera.”

The tran­sac­tion has no mate­rial impact on the net asset value of Gimv as of March 31, 2019. The tran­sac­tion is subject to custo­mary condi­ti­ons, inclu­ding appr­oval by the compe­ti­tion autho­ri­ties. Further finan­cial details will not be disclosed.

About Gimv
Gimv is a Euro­pean invest­ment company with almost 40 years of expe­ri­ence in private equity. The company is listed on Euron­ext Brussels, curr­ently mana­ges around EUR 1.1 billion and curr­ently invests in 55 port­fo­lio compa­nies, which toge­ther realize a turno­ver of more than EUR 2.75 billion and employ 14,000 people.

Gimv iden­ti­fies inno­va­tive, leading compa­nies with high growth poten­tial and supports them on their way to market leader­ship. Each of the four invest­ment plat­forms Connec­ted Consu­mer, Health & Care, Smart Indus­tries and Sustainable Cities is mana­ged by a dedi­ca­ted and compe­tent team, each based in Gimv’s home markets — Bene­lux, France and DACH — and supported by an exten­sive inter­na­tio­nal network of experts.

Milan/Düsseldorf/London — Ambi­enta SGR SpA, one of the largest sustaina­bi­lity-focu­sed private equity inves­tors in Europe, announ­ces that its port­fo­lio company Aroma­ta­Group SRL (“Aromata”) has comple­ted the 100% acqui­si­tion of Indus­trie Prodotti Alimen­tari Manenti (“IPAM”), a market leader in the produc­tion and distri­bu­tion of ingre­di­ents for the food industry.

The flavor and colo­rants market is worth over €12 billion and is expec­ted to grow at an annual rate of 3–4% over the next five years, under­pin­ned by long-term sustainable growth drivers. Ambi­enta reco­gni­zed the growth poten­tial of natu­ral food ingre­di­ents. Natu­ral raw mate­ri­als repre­sent the stron­gest growth driver in the food indus­try, with global growth of 7% versus zero growth for synthe­tic products. Substi­tu­tion of synthe­tic chemi­cals (from oil or inor­ga­nic chemi­cals) in flavor or colo­rant recipes with natu­ral ingre­di­ents that are orga­nic and pose no health risks is incre­asingly prefer­red by food manu­fac­tu­r­ers and consumers.

As a leading manu­fac­tu­rer of natu­ral flavors and colors for the food indus­try, Aromata is well posi­tio­ned to support the shift to natu­ral, healt­hier foods. Aromata has three produc­tion faci­li­ties in nort­hern Italy and serves over 1,200 custo­mers in 50 count­ries. In 2018, the Group gene­ra­ted appro­xi­m­ately 30 million euros in sales, 5 million euros in EBITDA and contri­bu­ted to avoi­ding 83 tons of pollut­ants. After a successful 2018, Aromata conti­nues to invest to expand its product and appli­ca­tion port­fo­lio: the acqui­si­tion of IPAM marks Aromata’s expan­sion into the adja­cent savory ingre­di­ents market.

IPAM is the Italian leader in the produc­tion and distri­bu­tion of high quality and func­tional ingre­di­ents for the food indus­try, such as bread­crumbs and dough mixes, mari­na­des and flavors. IPAM is based in Zibello Pole­sine, in the heart of the Italian “Food Valley”, and supplies over 300 custo­mers from two produc­tion sites.

The acqui­si­tion of IPAM will enable Aromata to gain a foot­hold in the large and attrac­tive ’savory’ ingre­di­ent market, offer new custo­mers a more exten­sive range of natu­ral flavors and colors, and jointly deve­lop both compa­nies’ natu­ral ingre­di­ent offe­rings. The tran­sac­tion provi­des Aromata with further expan­sion in the ingre­di­ents market to meet incre­asing custo­mer demand.

Hans Udo Wenzel, Presi­dent of Aroma­ta­Group, says: “The acqui­si­tion of IPAM is the first step in Aromata’s stra­te­gic expan­sion plan, enab­ling Aromata to broa­den its product range and streng­then its main compe­ti­tive advan­tage, which is to offer a full range of products to its customers.”

Euge­nio Manenti, foun­der and CEO of IPAM, added, “We are very plea­sed to join Aromata’s buy-and-build project and further expand the group’s leader­ship in natu­ral ingredients.”

Mauro Roversi (photo), Part­ner & Chief Invest­ment Offi­cer at Ambi­enta, commen­ted, “Stra­te­gic acqui­si­ti­ons are key to the growth of our port­fo­lio compa­nies. We welcome the IPAM team to Aromata and look forward to further growing our joint business.”

About Ambi­enta
Ambi­enta is a leading Euro­pean private equity fund based in Milan, Düssel­dorf and London. The focus is on growth invest­ments in indus­trial compa­nies that focus on sustaina­bi­lity trends. With over €1 billion in funds under manage­ment, the world’s largest pool of capi­tal for this stra­tegy, Ambi­enta has made 32 resource effi­ci­ency and envi­ron­men­tal invest­ments across Europe to date. Ambi­enta actively parti­ci­pa­tes in the deve­lo­p­ment of its port­fo­lio compa­nies, provi­ding indus­try and manage­ment exper­tise and global connec­ti­vity. www.ambientasgr.com.

Munich — PARAGON PARTNERS, one of the leading invest­ment compa­nies in the German-spea­king region, recently closed its PARAGON FUND III (“P3”) with capi­tal commit­ments of EUR 783 million. Due to strong demand, P3 signi­fi­cantly excee­ded both the origi­nal target size and the size of the prede­ces­sor fund, which closed at EUR 412 million.

The new fund was over­sub­scri­bed and gene­ra­ted strong demand mainly from exis­ting inves­tors, but also from some new ones. This helps PARAGON PARTNERS to broa­den its inves­tor base and further deve­lop its rela­ti­onships in Europe and North America. Euro­pean inves­tors, and espe­ci­ally inves­tors from German-spea­king count­ries, conti­nue to be well repre­sen­ted. The inves­tor base includes renow­ned insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors such as funds of funds, public and company pension funds, insu­rance compa­nies, foun­da­ti­ons and family holding companies.

With the new fund, PARAGON PARTNERS can further expand its posi­tion as one of the leading invest­ment compa­nies in the German-spea­king region with a focus on sustainable value-orien­ted invest­ments in the range of EUR 30 million to EUR 250 million.

PARAGON PARTNERS is also plea­sed to announce the first invest­ment of the new fund: pro optik, the third largest opti­cian chain in Germany. The chain curr­ently compri­ses a network of 145 stores based on a successful part­ner­ship model, offe­ring its part­ners the oppor­tu­nity to act as either joint venture or fran­chise part­ners. pro optik sells around 400,000 pairs of glas­ses a year and the product range extends from high-quality frames from both well-known top brands and less expen­sive own brands to high-quality lenses and glas­ses. The company has also recently expan­ded its offe­ring to include hearing aids. In 2018, pro optik gene­ra­ted sales of EUR 125 million.

PARAGON PARTNERS conti­nues its proven invest­ment stra­tegy of inves­t­ing in estab­lished medium-sized compa­nies with opera­tio­nal growth and value enhance­ment poten­tial in Germany, Austria and Switz­er­land, as well as selec­tively in neigh­bor­ing count­ries. The invest­ment company is commit­ted to a sustainable invest­ment approach and inte­gra­tes envi­ron­men­tal, social and honest corpo­rate gover­nance conside­ra­ti­ons into its invest­ment decis­i­ons and also trans­fers these sustaina­bi­lity stan­dards into the corpo­rate gover­nance of its port­fo­lio companies.

The Munich-based fund is advi­sed by a moti­va­ted team of invest­ment mana­gers with many years of invest­ment and exten­sive opera­tio­nal expe­ri­ence, charac­te­ri­zed by strong cohe­sion and stabi­lity for more than 15 years.

About PARAGON PARTNERS
PARAGON PARTNERS is a private equity company foun­ded in 2004 with more than EUR 1.2 billion in equity under manage­ment. PARAGON PARTNERS works with its port­fo­lio compa­nies to achieve sustainable growth, opera­tio­nal excel­lence and market leader­ship. PARAGON PARTNERS unlocks new value in funda­men­tally attrac­tive busi­nesses and has the ability to address comple­xity from both a tran­sac­tional and opera­tio­nal perspec­tive and to repo­si­tion busi­nesses through custo­mi­zed value crea­tion programs.

Antwerp (BE) / Munich — Gimv, Sofin­nova and Gilde Health­care sell their shares in the biophar­maceu­ti­cal company Breath Thera­peu­tics. The company, which specia­li­zes in the deve­lo­p­ment of first-in-class inha­la­tion solu­ti­ons for severe lung dise­a­ses, raised appro­xi­m­ately €43.5 million in 2017 in one of the largest Euro­pean Series A rounds to date. With the support of the inves­tors, two global Phase III studies on inha­la­tion therapy solu­ti­ons for the rare lung dise­ase Bron­chio­li­tis Obli­terans Syndrome (BOS) have now been initia­ted. There is curr­ently no appro­ved therapy for BOS and the dise­ase is fatal in many cases. The buyer of Breath Thera­peu­tics is the Italian family-owned phar­maceu­ti­cal and chemi­cal company Zambon.

Gimv joined Sofin­nova Part­ners (France) as lead inves­tor in Breath Thera­peu­tics in March 2017. Other inves­tors were Gilde Health­care (Nether­lands) and PARI Pharma as licen­sor for the inha­la­tion devices. In addi­tion to the finan­cial support, Gimv’s exper­tise was also crucial to the success of the spin-out process, to the syndi­ca­tion of the finan­cing struc­ture, to the imple­men­ta­tion of the stra­tegy, and to the imple­men­ta­tion of lean, inter­nal proces­ses. Thanks to this exter­nal know-how, Breath Thera­peu­tics has been able to further deve­lop its own inno­va­tion capa­bi­li­ties into a mature therapy solu­tion, as well as to build up a top-class team of experts in Europe and the USA.

Dr. Karl Nägler, Part­ner and respon­si­ble for the Health & Care plat­form at Gimv Germany, says: “We are even more plea­sed with the successful deve­lo­p­ment of the company over the past two years, as Gimv was signi­fi­cantly invol­ved in the stra­te­gic direc­tion and setting up of the plat­form for growth from the very begin­ning. The poten­tial of Breath Thera­peu­tics and the compound was clear to us at an early stage, as lung dise­a­ses are unfort­u­na­tely on the rise — espe­ci­ally due to envi­ron­men­tal factors and chan­ging life­styles. Against this back­ground, with Zambon’s support, Breath Thera­peu­tics is in an excel­lent posi­tion to successfully commer­cia­lize the product in the future and to deve­lop new fields of application.”

Dr. Jens Stege­mann, Chief Execu­tive Offi­cer at Breath Thera­peu­tics, adds: “With this compound, Breath Thera­peu­tics has deve­lo­ped a product that can signi­fi­cantly improve the lives of many people. We have found a part­ner that shares our vision in Zambon, an inno­va­tive company with high ethi­cal stan­dards and a clear focus on pati­ent well-being. Alre­ady, we have advan­ced the deve­lo­p­ment of a poten­tial first-in-class therapy for BOS, initia­ted two global Phase III trials, and are thus excel­lently posi­tio­ned in the market. Thanks to Zambon’s infra­struc­ture, exper­tise and clear focus on rese­arch and deve­lo­p­ment, we can acce­le­rate these proces­ses even further and make the treat­ment available to as many people as possi­ble as quickly as possi­ble. We would like to thank our former part­ners Gimv, Sofin­nova and Gilde Health­care for their support, which was crucial to the successful deve­lo­p­ment of our company, espe­ci­ally in the early years.”

This tran­sac­tion increa­ses Gimv’s NAV by EUR 20 million (as of March 31, 2019). With this invest­ment, Gimv achie­ved an ROI above its stated long-term target of 15%.

About Gimv
Gimv is a Euro­pean invest­ment company with almost 40 years of expe­ri­ence in private equity. The company is listed on Euron­ext Brussels, curr­ently mana­ges around EUR 1.1 billion and curr­ently invests in 55 port­fo­lio compa­nies, which toge­ther realize a turno­ver of more than EUR 2.75 billion and employ 14,000 people.

Gimv iden­ti­fies inno­va­tive, leading compa­nies with high growth poten­tial and supports them on their way to market leader­ship. Each of the four invest­ment plat­forms Connec­ted Consu­mer, Health & Care, Smart Indus­tries and Sustainable Cities is mana­ged by a dedi­ca­ted and compe­tent team, each based in Gimv’s home markets — Bene­lux, France and DACH — and supported by an exten­sive inter­na­tio­nal network of experts.

Munich/Amsterdam/Oirschot — Equis­tone Part­ners Europe (“Equis­tone”), one of Europe’s leading equity inves­tors, is acqui­ring Heras (“Heras”). The seller is the British buil­ding mate­ri­als manu­fac­tu­rer CRH Plc. Heras is a leading provi­der of property protec­tion solu­ti­ons head­quar­te­red in Oirschot, the Nether­lands. The Heras manage­ment team has a mino­rity stake. Gilles Rabot, with Heras since 2015, will conti­nue to lead the company. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose details of the tran­sac­tion. The sale is still subject to appr­oval by the rele­vant anti­trust authorities.

Heras was foun­ded in 1952 and offers a wide port­fo­lio of mobile and perma­nent property protec­tion systems and products. It includes fencing systems, manu­ally opera­ted and auto­ma­tic gates, vehicle barriers and elec­tro­nic surveil­lance systems. The company has a strong presence in Europe, with sales offices in the Nether­lands, the United King­dom, Sweden, Norway, Germany and France. Produc­tion faci­li­ties are loca­ted in the Nether­lands, Belgium, France, Sweden and the United King­dom. Heras employs over 1,100 people and has annual sales of over 220 million euros.

Heras’ perma­nent medium and high-secu­rity property protec­tion solu­ti­ons are used in a wide variety of fields, such as border control and the protec­tion of mili­tary instal­la­ti­ons or criti­cal infra­struc­ture, as well as schools and children’s play­grounds. All Heras solu­ti­ons can be tail­o­red to speci­fic custo­mer needs. The company also offers a range of addi­tio­nal services, such as instal­la­tion, system inte­gra­tion, commis­sio­ning, and main­ten­ance and repair. Heras mobile property protec­tion solu­ti­ons are mainly used for secu­ring cons­truc­tion sites and large events. Custo­mers in this area include cons­truc­tion compa­nies, govern­ment agen­cies, event orga­ni­zers, rental compa­nies, distri­bu­tors, whole­sa­lers and instal­la­tion companies.

Follo­wing the carve-out from CRH Plc, Heras intends to drive conso­li­da­tion in a highly frag­men­ted market through targe­ted acqui­si­ti­ons with its new part­ner Equis­tone. Addi­tio­nal orga­nic growth is to be achie­ved by deve­lo­ping new products and services, estab­li­shing further custo­mer rela­ti­onships and expan­ding exis­ting networks.

Hubert van Wolfs­win­kel (photo), Direc­tor at Equis­tone, says: “Heras has impres­sed us very much. The company owes its leading market posi­tion, among other things, to a strong network of produc­tion sites in Europe, long-stan­ding custo­mer rela­ti­onships and expe­ri­en­ced manage­ment.” Dirk Sche­kerka, Senior Part­ner at Equis­tone, added: “Heras has an excel­lent team of employees and mana­gers. We now look forward to working with the company as it conti­nues to grow and expand into new markets.”

Gilles Rabot, Mana­ging Direc­tor at Heras, says: “With Equis­tone, we have gained a relia­ble and finan­ci­ally strong new part­ner. With Equistone’s support, we intend to main­tain our growth trajec­tory and further expand our market posi­tion. We will conti­nue to deve­lop and offer a world-class and inno­va­tive range of mobile and perma­nent property protec­tion solu­ti­ons to meet the conti­nuously incre­asing secu­rity needs of the market.”

On the Equis­tone side, Dirk Sche­kerka, Hubert van Wolfs­win­kel and Moritz Treude are respon­si­ble for the tran­sac­tion. The inves­tor was advi­sed by Munich Stra­tegy (Commer­cial), EY (Finan­cial, IT, Opera­ti­ons & Tax), Clif­ford Chance (Legal), ERM (Envi­ron­men­tal, Health & Safety) and Houli­han Lokey (M&A, Financing).

About Equis­tone Part­ners Europe
Equis­tone Part­ners Europe is one of Europe’s leading equity inves­tors with a team of more than 40 invest­ment specia­lists in six offices in Germany, Switz­er­land, the Nether­lands, France and the UK. Equis­tone prima­rily invests in estab­lished medium-sized compa­nies with a good market posi­tion, above-average growth poten­tial and an enter­prise value of between EUR 50 and 500 million. Since its foun­ding, equity has been inves­ted in more than 140 tran­sac­tions, mainly mid-market buy-outs. The port­fo­lio curr­ently compri­ses over 40 compa­nies across Europe, inclu­ding around 20 active holdings in Germany, Switz­er­land and the Nether­lands. Equis­tone is curr­ently inves­t­ing from its sixth fund, which closed in March 2018 with €2.8 billion at the hard cap.

About Heras
Since 1952 and with its roots in the Nether­lands, Heras has evol­ved from a fencing specia­list to a full-service peri­me­ter protec­tion solu­ti­ons provi­der opera­ting in six count­ries. The Group curr­ently employs more than 1,100 highly quali­fied specialists.
Toge­ther, we design, manu­fac­ture, install and main­tain peri­me­ter protec­tion solu­ti­ons for busi­ness, commu­nity and industry.

 

Guernsey/ Munich/ Amsterdam/ Rijs­wijk — The invest­ment fund Perusa Part­ners Fund 2, L.P. (“Perusa”), advi­sed by the inde­pen­dent Perusa GmbH, has sold Xindao Inter­na­tio­nal GmbH and its subsi­dia­ries (“Xindao”) to Gilde Buy-Out Fund V (“Gilde”). The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the purchase price or the details of the transaction.

Perusa acqui­red Xindao Holding BV from its foun­ders in August 2017. Foun­ded in 1986, Xindao is a leading supplier of high-quality func­tional promo­tio­nal products to more than 4,500 B2B and B2C retail­ers throug­hout Europe and the world. The company has an excel­lent repu­ta­tion as a premium supplier that gene­ra­tes a large part of its sales with self-desi­gned bran­ded products. In addi­tion to its head­quar­ters in Rijs­wijk, the Nether­lands, Xindao opera­tes its own prin­ting and logi­stics center in Roma­nia and a design studio and procu­re­ment center in Shang­hai. The company sells its products through a network of its own sales compa­nies in Germany, France, the Nether­lands, Spain, Sweden, the UK, China and the USA, as well as through exclu­sive repre­sen­ta­ti­ves in Russia and Italy.

Successful trans­for­ma­tion to a manage­ment-led company
Xindao has a history of double-digit annual growth. As a result, the company has more than tripled its sales in the last ten years. Under Perusa’s owner­ship, Xindao comple­ted its trans­for­ma­tion into a company led by inde­pen­dent manage­ment, expan­ded its inter­na­tio­nal reach through the acqui­si­ti­ons of Xindao UK and Xindao Spain, and estab­lished XD Design as an emer­ging luggage and back­pack brand in global retail.

“Under Perusa, we have succee­ded in further streng­thening our posi­tion as one of the largest suppli­ers in the promo­tio­nal products indus­try in Europe. We have worked extre­mely successfully with Perusa. This is a good exam­ple of how a private equity firm and a form­erly owner-mana­ged company can work toge­ther to drive the growth of a busi­ness,” said Albert van der Veen, CEO of Xindao Group.

“The company has succee­ded in conti­nuing to follow an excel­lent econo­mic path during the tran­si­tion from an owner-mana­ged to a manage­ment-mana­ged company , ” sums up Dr. Hanno Schmidt-Gothan, Mana­ging Direc­tor of the consul­ting Perusa GmbH. “Xindao demons­tra­tes the importance of a strong manage­ment team for the company’s deve­lo­p­ment, which has estab­lished highly effi­ci­ent struc­tures and proces­ses as well as an excel­lent working envi­ron­ment,” adds Raphael Weller, Invest­ment Direc­tor of the advi­sing Perusa GmbH.

About Perusa
Perusa is an inde­pen­dent equity invest­ment company that curr­ently invests 350 million euros of equity in medium-sized compa­nies and group busi­nesses from German-spea­king or Scan­di­na­vian count­ries via two funds. Perusa takes a highly opera­tio­nal approach to streng­thening perfor­mance and thus lever­aging the long-term value crea­tion poten­tial of its port­fo­lio compa­nies. Further­more, stra­te­gic acqui­si­ti­ons (buy-and-build stra­tegy) are targe­ted to streng­then the growth of the port­fo­lio compa­nies. The funds are advi­sed by Perusa GmbH.

Frank­furt a. M./ Munich/ Boston — Inter­na­tio­nal law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP have advi­sed Sili­con Valley-based finan­cial inves­tor TCV on the acqui­si­tion of shares in Flix­Mo­bi­lity GmbH. The Series F finan­cing round was led by TCV toge­ther with finan­cial inves­tor Perm­ira. Exis­ting inves­tor HV Holtz­brinck Ventures was also invol­ved in the current sixth round, which repres­ents the largest capi­tal injec­tion in an invest­ment round for a German start-up to date.

Munich-based Flix­Mo­bi­lity GmbH, argu­ably the best-known unicorn among German start-ups, is the parent company of the global mobi­lity plat­forms Flix­Bus and Flix­Train. The new capi­tal will be used for global expan­sion, parti­cu­larly in the USA, South America and Asia.

The Weil team was led by Frank­furt-based Corpo­rate Part­ner Dr. Chris­tian Tapp­ei­nerin this tran­sac­tion. and compri­sed the part­ners Dr. Hendrik Röhricht (Corpo­rate, Frank­furt), Tobias Geer­ling (Tax, Munich), Kevin Sulli­van (Corpo­rate, Boston) and the asso­cia­tes Konrad v. Buch­waldt, Julian Schwa­ne­beck, Sebas­tian Bren­ner, Simon Stei­ner, Sara Afschar-Hamdi (all Corpo­rate, Frank­furt), Andreas Fogel, Marcel Ander­sen, Caro­lin Ober­maier (all Corpo­rate Munich), Mareike Pfeif­fer (Labor Law, Frank­furt), Aurel Hille (Anti­trust, Frank­furt), Marcus Kaiser (IP, Frank­furt), Nico­las Bech­told (Liti­ga­tion, Frank­furt) as well as Para­le­gal Kris­tina Thiel (Labor Law, Frankfurt).

Berlin/Eschenburg/Düsseldorf — MEDIAN, a port­fo­lio company of the invest­ment firm Water­land Private Equity and the largest private opera­tor of reha­bi­li­ta­tion clinics in Germany, signed two take­over agree­ments on July 18, thus conti­nuing its buy & build acti­vi­ties. With the Eschen­burg Clinic and the Düssel­dorf Rhein-Reha, MEDIAN is further expan­ding its leading posi­tion in the reha­bi­li­ta­tion market. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the purchase price or further finan­cial details of both transactions.

In the Lahn-Dill district of central Hesse, MEDIAN takes over the Eschen­burg Clinic. It comple­ments the range of services in the core area of addic­tion and depen­dency disor­ders. It offers 87 treat­ment beds and a wide range of treat­ment for drug and alco­hol addic­tion. A special compe­tence of the Eschen­burg Clinic is the treat­ment of addic­tion problems of elderly people. The clinic also includes three outpa­ti­ent faci­li­ties in Dillen­burg, Wetz­lar and Gies­sen. Through this acqui­si­tion, MEDIAN is not only expan­ding its status as the largest private reha­bi­li­ta­tion company in Germany. With a total of 30 specia­list clinics and adapt­a­tion houses nati­on­wide, MEDIAN is now also the market leader in the field of reha­bi­li­ta­tion for addic­tion and depen­dency disor­ders. MEDIAN is also conti­nuing its growth course in nort­hern Rhine­land-Pala­ti­nate and Hesse. In Janu­ary 2019, the health­care company had alre­ady acqui­red Klini­ken Wied GmbH & Co. KG in the Wester­wald region, 65 kilo­me­ters away. Both faci­li­ties have a simi­lar perfor­mance profile and are to coope­rate closely in the future.

In Düssel­dorf, MEDIAN will take over the Outpa­ti­ent Cardio­logy Rehab Center Rhein-Reha, the take­over will be comple­ted at the turn of the year 2019/20. Rhein-Reha will be inte­gra­ted with its entire clinic opera­ti­ons and also by name under the umbrella of MEDIAN’s alre­ady exis­ting Outpa­ti­ent Health Center Düssel­dorf. The tran­si­tion will be desi­gned for all pati­ents and employees without inter­rupt­ing ongo­ing treatments.

Dr. Cars­ten Rahlfs (photo), Mana­ging Part­ner of Water­land, says: “The demand for rehab services for the treat­ment of addic­tion and depen­dency disor­ders is growing steadily. MEDIAN, as the new number one in this specia­list area, will bene­fit from the exper­tise of Klinik Eschen­burg. This is because the faci­lity enjoys an excel­lent repu­ta­tion and ideally comple­ments MEDIAN’s presence in the region. In addi­tion, we are plea­sed about the expan­sion of the range of services in cardio­logy through the acqui­si­tion of the Düssel­dorf Rhein-Reha. The center’s clout will be fully deve­lo­ped after the inte­gra­tion has been comple­ted at the begin­ning of next year.”

Since Waterland’s entry as a share­hol­der, MEDIAN has now taken over 21 indi­vi­dual clinics and clinic groups and inte­gra­ted them into the group of compa­nies. In doing so, MEDIAN is aiming for quality leader­ship in medi­cal reha­bi­li­ta­tion and is inves­t­ing heavily in the expan­sion of therapy offe­rings, in addi­tio­nal staff, in the digi­ta­liza­tion of proces­ses and in the moder­niza­tion of clinic buil­dings. Toge­ther with the new faci­lity, the Group compri­ses around 120 clinics and faci­li­ties with 18,500 beds, trea­ting more than 230,000 pati­ents annu­ally. The health­care company, which employs around 15,000 people, includes reha­bi­li­ta­tion clinics as well as acute psych­ia­tric hospi­tals, therapy centers, outpa­ti­ent clinics and reinte­gra­tion faci­li­ties in 13 German states. The company thus offers nati­on­wide coverage of so-called after­care and parti­ci­pa­tion services in all specia­list areas.

With Waterland’s support, MEDIAN plans to further conso­li­date the German reha­bi­li­ta­tion market — both in terms of expan­ding its regio­nal presence and in addi­tio­nal medi­cal special­ties. In addi­tion, MEDIAN aims to further inte­grate pati­ent pathways and to imple­ment evidence-based medi­cine even more stron­gly in its therapy offerings.

As a share­hol­der in MEDIAN, the inde­pen­dent invest­ment company Water­land Private Equity has exten­sive expe­ri­ence in the health­care sector. In addi­tion to MEDIAN, the port­fo­lio in Germany includes, for exam­ple, ATOS, a group of soma­tic acute-care clinics specia­li­zing in cutting-edge ortho­pe­dic medi­cine, and the care service provi­der Schö­nes Leben Group, a service plat­form for outpa­ti­ent, inpa­ti­ent, and open geria­tric care as well as mobile services, assis­ted living, and leisure acti­vi­ties. Water­land also holds a signi­fi­cant stake in Hanse­fit, a leading network asso­cia­tion for company sports and health services with more than 1,400 affi­lia­ted fitness studios. Waterland’s port­fo­lio of compa­nies in the health­care sector was joined at the begin­ning of the year by Reha­con, where the inves­tor has alre­ady supported four acqui­si­ti­ons. Today, Reha­con is one of the leading provi­ders of physio­the­rapy services and therapy offe­rings in Europe. Nati­on­wide, the company opera­tes more than 120 therapy centers and employs over 800 people.

About Water­land
Water­land is an inde­pen­dent private equity invest­ment firm that helps compa­nies realize their growth plans. With substan­tial finan­cial support and indus­try exper­tise, Water­land enables its port­fo­lio compa­nies to achieve acce­le­ra­ted growth both orga­ni­cally and through acqui­si­ti­ons. Water­land has offices in the Nether­lands (Bussum), Belgium (Antwerp), Germany (Hamburg, Munich), Poland (Warsaw), the UK (Manches­ter), Denmark (Copen­ha­gen) and Switz­er­land (Zurich). Curr­ently, six billion euros in equity funds are under management.

 

Frank­furt am Main/ Eppin­gen — With the aim of support­ing the further deve­lo­p­ment of the company, Stead­fast Capi­tal Fund IV SCS, SICAV-RAIF has inves­ted in BUK Group (BUK). The BUK Group compri­ses BUK Kunst­stoff­tech­nik GmbH and EMG GmbH, both based in Eppin­gen (Baden-Würt­tem­berg), UHB Kunst­stoff­tech­nik GmbH, based in Bohmte (Lower Saxony), and the Group’s tool­ma­king opera­ti­ons. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the terms of the investment.

BUK is a leading manu­fac­tu­rer of high-precis­ion injec­tion molded engi­nee­ring plas­tic parts for custo­mers in a variety of indus­tries. The manu­fac­tu­red parts are used, among others, in hand tools, water fittings and house­hold and elec­tri­cal appli­ances. In addi­tion to parts manu­fac­tu­ring, BUK main­ta­ins its own tool shop and offers its custo­mers compre­hen­sive assem­bly services. Toge­ther with Thors­ten Ulbrich, who conti­nues to hold a signi­fi­cant stake in BUK, Stead­fast Capi­tal will drive the further deve­lo­p­ment of the group, both in terms of person­nel and strategy.

Marco Berne­cker, Mana­ging Part­ner of Stead­fast Capi­tal GmbH: ” We are looking forward to working with an excel­lent entre­pre­neur and his manage­ment and to support the successful further deve­lo­p­ment of BUK. Given its focu­sed product offe­ring in various end markets, as well as its tech­no­lo­gi­cal exper­tise and state-of-the-art produc­tion proces­ses, we are convin­ced that the company will have excel­lent growth oppor­tu­ni­ties in the future.”

Natio­nal­bank Essen and Olden­bur­gi­sche Landes­bank are support­ing the tran­sac­tion with acqui­si­tion finan­cing and a working capi­tal loan.

About the BUK Group
Foun­ded in 1985 and taken over by Thors­ten Ulbrich in 1996, the group of compa­nies specia­li­zes in the produc­tion of sophisti­ca­ted tech­ni­cal plas­tic molded parts (indi­vi­dual parts and assem­blies) based on state-of-the-art injec­tion molding machi­nes. The product range extends from high-precis­ion plas­tic parts for small elec­tri­cal devices (e.g. grin­ding tools) to complex assem­blies for high-pres­sure pumps and venti­la­tion and cooling devices. BUK supports its custo­mers from the deve­lo­p­ment of new products, through pre-series to serial produc­tion by means of custo­mi­zed injec­tion molds and state-of-the-art produc­tion processes.

Stead­fast Capital
Stead­fast Capi­tal is an inde­pen­dent private equity invest­ment company focu­sed on medium-sized compa­nies in German-spea­king Europe and the Bene­lux count­ries. Our funds invest in medium-sized compa­nies and provide equity capi­tal for busi­ness succes­si­ons, manage­ment buy-outs and growth financing.

Stead­fast Capi­tal was foun­ded in 2001 and has since pursued a successful, value-driven stra­tegy of inves­t­ing in profi­ta­ble compa­nies across a wide range of indus­tries. Stead­fast Capi­tal Fund IV bene­fits from the finan­cial support of the Euro­pean Union under the Euro­pean Fund for Stra­te­gic Invest­ments (“EFSI”) estab­lished under the Invest­ment Plan for Europe. The purpose of the EFSI is to support the finan­cing and imple­men­ta­tion of produc­tive invest­ments in the Euro­pean Union and to ensure better access to finance.

Shear­man & Ster­ling advi­sed NATIONAL-BANK AG and Olden­bur­gi­sche Landes­bank Akti­en­ge­sell­schaft (OLB) on the finan­cing of the acqui­si­tion of BUK Group by Stead­fast Capital.

NATIONAL-BANK AG is one of the leading inde­pen­dent regio­nal banks in Germany for discer­ning private and corpo­rate custo­mers and medium-sized insti­tu­tio­nal investors.

OLB is a modern finan­cial group that, in addi­tion to its core busi­ness of retail and corpo­rate custo­mers, also offers custo­mi­zed, one-stop solu­ti­ons for complex finan­cial issues throug­hout Germany. She is a leading arran­ger in the German-spea­king LBO market.

About Shear­man & Sterling
Shear­man & Ster­ling is an inter­na­tio­nal law firm with 23 offices in 13 count­ries and appro­xi­m­ately 850 lawy­ers. In Germany, Shear­man & Ster­ling is repre­sen­ted at the Frank­furt office. The firm is one of the inter­na­tio­nal market leaders in advi­sing on complex cross-border tran­sac­tions. World­wide, Shear­man & Ster­ling prima­rily advi­ses inter­na­tio­nal corpo­ra­ti­ons and large natio­nal compa­nies, finan­cial insti­tu­ti­ons, and large mid-sized companies.

Wendingen/ Munich — The foun­ders of pro optik sell the majo­rity of their shares to the Munich-based invest­ment company PARAGON PARTNERS and to long-time employee and mana­ging direc­tor Hanni­bal Zema­riam.

Peter Hoppert (co-foun­der of pro optik): “With PARAGON PARTNERS we have found an expe­ri­en­ced and relia­ble finan­cial inves­tor and we will sell the majo­rity of our shares in the pro optik group to PARAGON PARTNERS and Hanni­bal Zema­riam.” Mr. Zema­riam, who has been employed by pro optik since 2003 and was appoin­ted as an addi­tio­nal mana­ging direc­tor in 2018, is inves­t­ing in pro optik toge­ther with PARAGON PARTNERS, conti­nuing the owner-driven culture. This step is the logi­cal conse­quence of the orderly succes­sion that has been in place for some time and with Mr. Zema­riam, pro optik is rely­ing on conti­nuity in the manage­ment of the company.

With the help of PARAGON PARTNERS, plan­ned acce­le­ra­ted growth and focus on expan­sion of the group is secu­red for the coming years. Mr. Zema­riam commen­ted, “I look forward to working with PARAGON PARTNERS and driving the group’s expan­sion both with the group-wide roll-out of hearing aids added to the product port­fo­lio in 2019, as well as through the poten­tial acqui­si­tion of smal­ler chains.”

Marco Atto­lini, Mana­ging Part­ner of PARAGON PARTNERS, said, “We look forward to actively support­ing the manage­ment and employees of pro optik as a stable prin­ci­pal owner by inves­t­ing in the growth and sustainable deve­lo­p­ment of the company.”

The foun­ders, Rainer Hilde­brandt and Peter Hoppert, will also remain finan­ci­ally asso­cia­ted with pro optik. “The trust of our part­ners is important to us. That’s why we will conti­nue to hold a finan­cial stake in pro optik, provide advi­sory support to the new prin­ci­pal owners and be available to our part­ners as a trus­ted cont­act,” says Hildebrandt.

About pro optik
pro optik is the third largest opti­cian chain in Germany with 145 bran­ches. The company gene­ra­ted EUR 125 million in exter­nal sales in 2018. Based in Wend­lin­gen, Germany, pro optik looks back on a successful deve­lo­p­ment and conti­nuous growth since its foun­da­tion by Peter Hoppert and Rainer Hilde­brandt in 1987. A signi­fi­cant mile­stone in the recent past is the expan­sion of the product range to include hearing acoustics.

London, Munich, Dussel­dorf — ARQIS has advi­sed FTSE-100 listed CRH plc. (“CRH”) on the sale of its Euro­pean distri­bu­tion busi­ness to a private equity fund mana­ged by Blackstone for an enter­prise value of €1.64 billion. Lead legal coun­sel for CRH world­wide was Slaugh­ter and May, working with Chris Roberts, CRH’s gene­ral coun­sel, and Dami­a­nos Vainas, deputy gene­ral coun­sel. ARQIS advi­sed on the German portion of the acqui­si­tion. The tran­sac­tion is subject to regu­la­tory approval.

“The tran­sac­tion demons­tra­tes the contin­ued execu­tion of CRH’s stra­tegy to create value for our share­hol­ders through active port­fo­lio manage­ment, effi­ci­ent capi­tal allo­ca­tion and the crea­tion of a simp­ler and more focu­sed group for the future. We wish our colle­agues at Europe Distri­bu­tion every success as they enter this new phase of their deve­lo­p­ment,” said Albert Mani­fold, Chief Execu­tive of CRH.

The dive­st­ment includes CRH’s entire Gene­ral Buil­ders Merchants busi­ness in Europe, inclu­ding the plum­bing heating and sani­ta­tion busi­ness. The sale follo­wed a compre­hen­sive stra­te­gic review of the busi­ness in recent months, which conside­red all opti­ons to maxi­mize value for share­hol­ders. The proceeds from the dive­st­ment will be used for gene­ral corpo­rate purpo­ses to make acqui­si­ti­ons as part of our ongo­ing share repurchase program and to provide returns of capi­tal to shareholders.

CRH is a leading global diver­si­fied buil­ding mate­ri­als group with around 85,000 employees at appro­xi­m­ately 3,600 sites in 32 count­ries. With a market capi­ta­liza­tion of appro­xi­m­ately €23 billion (April 2018), CRH is the largest buil­ding mate­ri­als company in North America and the second largest in the world. The Group holds various market-leading posi­ti­ons in Europe and stra­te­gic posi­ti­ons in the emer­ging econo­mic regi­ons of Asia and South America.

The ARQIS team around Jörn-Chris­tian Schulze has been advi­sing CRH in various tran­sac­tions in Germany for many years.

Advi­sors to CRH: ARQIS Rechts­an­wälte (Düssel­dorf, Munich)
Dr. Jörn-Chris­tian Schulze, Dr. Chris­tof Alex­an­der Schnei­der (both Lead; Corporate/M&A); Dr. Andrea Panzer-Heemeier (Labor Law), Dr. Chris­tof Alex­an­der Schnei­der, Johan­nes Landry (both Corporate/M&A), Chris­tian Wege­ner (Tax Law), Dr. Ulrich Lien­hard (Real Estate Law), Marcus Noth­hel­fer (IP/Compliance), Dr. Thomas Görge­manns (Corporate/M&A); Asso­cia­tes: Nima Hanifi-Atash­gah, Thomas Chwa­lek, Malte Grie­pen­burg (all Corporate/M&A), Jenni­fer Huschauer (Real Estate), Dr. Hendrik von Mellen­thin (Labor Law), Dr. Liliia Sagun, Carina Grahs (both Legal Support Specialists).

Stutt­gart — The Stutt­gart-based invest­ment company Finexx has supported its port­fo­lio company GSE Vertrieb with capi­tal for the stra­te­gic acqui­si­tion of the FITNE brand. The Saar­brü­cken-based specia­list for orga­nic nutri­tio­nal supple­ments takes over FITNE from LOGOCOS Natur­kos­me­tik AG, a subsi­diary of the consu­mer goods group L’Oréal, and thus expands its port­fo­lio by curr­ently 27 nutri­tio­nal supple­ments and cosme­tic products. The tran­sac­tion crea­tes FITNE Health Care GmbH, which toge­ther with GSE Vertrieb Biolo­gi­sche Nahrungs­er­gän­zungs- und Heil­mit­tel GmbH will be part of BioneXX Holding, in which Finexx holds a majo­rity stake. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the finan­cial details.

The FITNE brand was foun­ded in 1994 and since then has successfully compe­ted with orga­nic quality products for main­tai­ning health, vita­lity and joie de vivre, which are mainly sold in health food stores and orga­nic stores. FITNE was part of the LOGOCOS Group since 2014. GSE has also been on the market since 1994 and deve­lops and distri­bu­tes food supple­ments on an orga­nic certi­fied basis through natu­ral food retail­ers. Last Novem­ber, Finexx had acqui­red the GSE shares as part of a long-term succes­sion plan.

“We want to support GSE in further expan­ding its leading market posi­tion. Our stra­tegy includes a number of measu­res for further orga­nic growth, but also the expan­sion of the plat­form via suita­ble acqui­si­ti­ons when the oppor­tu­nity arises,” explains Finexx co-mana­ging direc­tor Matthias Heining. “The acqui­si­tion of the renow­ned FITNE brand will allow GSE to bene­fit even more from the contin­ued growth in demand for health main­ten­ance products.”

Expe­ri­en­ced invest­ment mana­ger streng­thens Finexx team
In addi­tion to GSE, Finexx also holds a majo­rity stake in Sicko, a provi­der of all aspects of digi­tiza­tion and auto­ma­tion of proces­ses in the wood­wor­king indus­try. Finexx also holds shares in the welding specia­list WIDOS. The focus of the invest­ment company is on estab­lished, small and medium-sized compa­nies in Germany; Finexx supports these compa­nies in their further deve­lo­p­ment as a part­ner with strong capi­tal and know-how. “Without inter­vening in day-to-day opera­ti­ons, we support manage­ment across the entire spec­trum of corpo­rate proces­ses. As with the current tran­sac­tion, the deve­lo­p­ment and imple­men­ta­tion of a buy-and-build stra­tegy can also be a key compo­nent of this,” says Co-Mana­ging Direc­tor Dr. Markus Seiler. “We are plea­sed to be able to convince more and more family busi­ness owners and manage­ment teams of the oppor­tu­ni­ties of part­ne­ring with Finexx.”

In order to manage the growing number of invest­ments even more inten­si­vely and also to iden­tify further invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties, the team around the expe­ri­en­ced mana­ging direc­tors Matthias Heining and Dr. Markus Seiler has now brought in rein­force­ments: Frank Weller (44) has come on board as Invest­ment Direc­tor as of July 1, 2019. He moves from the invest­ment company BWK in Stutt­gart, where he spent eleven years as a senior invest­ment mana­ger looking after nume­rous medium-sized compa­nies. This period also saw an inten­sive colla­bo­ra­tion with Matthias Heining, who was Mana­ging Direc­tor at BWK between 2008 and 2013. Frank Weller holds a degree in econo­mics and also has seve­ral years of profes­sio­nal expe­ri­ence in audi­ting at Price­wa­ter­hous­e­Coo­pers. Matthias Heining: “We are very plea­sed about the addi­tion to the team — Frank Weller will conti­nue to drive Finexx’s growth course with valuable know-how.”

About Finexx
Finexx GmbH Unter­neh­mens­be­tei­li­gun­gen, based in Stutt­gart, is a consul­ting company foun­ded in 2013 that specia­li­zes in estab­lished medium-sized compa­nies. Typi­cal fields of acti­vity are growth invest­ment and acqui­si­tion finan­cing as well as the support of chan­ges in the share­hol­der struc­ture and succes­sion planning.

Finexx invests long-term funds (equity capi­tal of between 5 and 50 million euros), mainly in the form of majo­rity share­hol­dings, in compa­nies from the German-spea­king region, inclu­ding insu­rance compa­nies and pension funds. These have sales of EUR 10 million or more, a quali­fied manage­ment team, and can demons­trate sustainable earnings power and cash flow based on a successful busi­ness model.

The team has many years of indus­trial and manage­ment expe­ri­ence as well as profound know-how in the invest­ment sector — both are brought to bear for the successful further deve­lo­p­ment of compa­nies and in the asso­cia­ted change proces­ses. Finexx supports manage­ment by provi­ding active commer­cial and tech­ni­cal advice without inter­fe­ring with day-to-day opera­ti­ons, as well as a cross-indus­try network. www.finexx.de

Frank­furt am Main / Stutt­gart / Lauter­bach — The Frank­furt-based invest­ment company VR Equi­typ­art­ner, toge­ther with co-inves­tor Süd Betei­li­gun­gen GmbH (SüdBG), is selling its majo­rity stake in DUO PLAST Holding GmbH, which it acqui­red around six years ago. The remai­ning shares held by the manage­ment also change hands. The new owner of the successful high-perfor­mance film manu­fac­tu­rer is the Munich-based private equity firm Para­gon Part­ners. The tran­sac­tion, which is pending regu­la­tory appr­oval, is expec­ted to close later in summer 2019; no finan­cial details are disclosed.

DUO PLAST Group, foun­ded in 1983, is a leading manu­fac­tu­rer in the pack­a­ging and stretch film market. The company is head­quar­te­red in Lauter­bach, Hesse, with addi­tio­nal produc­tion and sales bran­ches in Thurin­gia, Austria, France and Turkey. Its parti­cu­lar strengths lie in the acknow­led­ged high quality of its products and in the company’s high level of inno­va­tion and custo­mer orien­ta­tion. The product port­fo­lio consists of five busi­ness areas: stretch, stretch and wrap films for load secu­ring, films for silage appli­ca­ti­ons, barrier films for food pack­a­ging, and semi- and fully-auto­ma­tic pack­a­ging lines for indus­try. In addi­tion, the company’s range of services is roun­ded off by the globally unique tech­no­logy center for cargo and trans­port secu­rity and exten­sive service activities.

Dr. Edin Hadzic, photo, co-foun­der and mana­ging direc­tor of PARAGON PARTNERS: “We are exci­ted about DUO PLAST’s long-stan­ding tech­no­logy leader­ship, inno­va­tive strength and stable custo­mer base. We look forward to working toge­ther to further deve­lop DUO PLAST and support its next phase of growth with fresh equity.”

VR Equi­typ­art­ner and SüdBG acqui­red a majo­rity stake in DUO PLAST in 2013 as part of a succes­sion plan; the company’s foun­der and until then CEO and main share­hol­der Norbert Jäger moved to the Super­vi­sory Board at that time. During the part­ner­ship, DUO PLAST has contin­ued to grow — the company now employs about 150 people and turns over nearly 60 million euros a year. Exten­sive invest­ments in deve­lo­p­ment and produc­tion took place and the company was able to push ahead with its internationalization.

“We are plea­sed that we were able to fulfill the trust placed in us by the foun­ding gene­ra­tion. In addi­tion to important invest­ments, mile­sto­nes in the further deve­lo­p­ment of DUO PLAST were above all the reor­ga­niza­tion of the manage­ment and the profes­sio­na­liza­tion of nume­rous proces­ses. Today, DUO PLAST is conside­red an inno­va­tion leader and has a corre­spon­din­gly outstan­ding market posi­tion,” explains Chris­tian Futter­lieb, Mana­ging Direc­tor of VR Equi­typ­art­ner. Direc­tor Johan­nes Fleck adds to the successfully imple­men­ted cata­log of measu­res: “During its time as a port­fo­lio company of VR Equi­typ­art­ner and SüdBG, DUO PLAST has repo­si­tio­ned itself as a high-end supplier of extru­sion films with a strong sales focus — among other things by syste­ma­tiz­ing and pushing direct sales and key account manage­ment as well as estab­li­shing a unique sales approach.”

Erich Stei­ner, CEO of DUO PLAST, confirms the good coope­ra­tion: “I would like to thank the previous share­hol­ders for what we have achie­ved toge­ther. We have achie­ved what was inten­ded: the trans­fer of the company into trust­wor­thy hands, the conti­nua­tion of the successful growth and niche stra­tegy and the sustainable posi­tio­ning for the future of the company. We are now exci­ted about the next deve­lo­p­ment steps in which the new, entre­pre­neu­rial inves­tor intends to support us.”

About VR Equi­typ­art­ner GmbH
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. VR Equitypartner’s port­fo­lio curr­ently compri­ses around 100 commit­ments with an invest­ment volume of EUR 500 million.

Consul­ting firms invol­ved in the tran­sac­tion by VR Equitypartner:

M&A: William Blair Inter­na­tio­nal, Frankfurt
Finan­cial, Tax, Commer­cial: Price­wa­ter­hous­e­Coo­pers, Munich, Stuttgart
Legal: McDer­mott Will & Emery, Frankfurt
Envi­ron­men­tal: ERM, Munich, Neu-Isenburg

Berlin, London, Frank­furt a. Main, Munich — Signa­vio recei­ved EUR 157 million (USD 177 million) in a Series B finan­cing round for further global expan­sion. The finan­cing round led by Apax Digi­tal, the growth capi­tal arm of London-based finan­cial inves­tor Apax Part­ners, also included Deut­sche Tele­kom Capi­tal Part­ners (DTCP) and Summit Part­ners. The Frank­furt and Munich offices of inter­na­tio­nal law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP advi­sed Apax Digi­tal on its invest­ment in SaaS provi­der Signavio.

Signa­vio, which was valued at EUR 350 million in the finan­cing round, is a leading provi­der of cloud-based process mode­ling and manage­ment systems. The company is head­quar­te­red in Berlin and opera­tes at a total of nine loca­ti­ons worldwide.

Advi­sor Apax Digi­tal: Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP
The Weil tran­sac­tion team was led by Frank­furt-based Corpo­rate Part­ner Dr. Kamyar Abrarin this tran­sac­tion. and was supported by Tax Part­ner Ludger Kempf (Frank­furt) and Asso­cia­tes Sebas­tian Bren­ner, Thomas Weise, Aurel Hille, Stef­fen Giolda (all Corpo­rate, Frank­furt), Mareike Pfeif­fer (Labor Law, Frank­furt), Alisa Preis­sler (Tax, Frank­furt), Dr. Konstan­tin Hoppe, Dr. Barbara Sand­fuchs (IP/IT, Munich), Dr. Sandra Kühn (Liti­ga­tion, Munich) and Para­le­gals Sandra Maurer (Corpo­rate, Munich) and Kris­tina Thiel (Labor Law, Frank­furt). Weil’s U.S. attor­neys also served: part­ners Kevin Sulli­van (Corpo­rate, Boston) and Ted Posner (Liti­ga­tion, Washing­ton, DC) and asso­ciate Anthony Cahill (Corpo­rate, Boston).

Frank­furt am Main / Koblenz — The Frank­furt-based invest­ment company VR Equi­typ­art­ner is finan­cing the further growth of HGA VertriebsGmbH(HGA Cosme­tics). To this end, VR Equi­typ­art­ner is provi­ding the Koblenz-based company, which sells hair styling, care and color products, with mezza­nine capi­tal in the lower single-digit millions.

HGA Cosme­tics was foun­ded about 20 years ago and has been in the hands of the foun­der ever since. The company distri­bu­tes a wide range of premium products for hair styling, care and color in the DACH region. To this end, HGA Cosme­tics holds the exclu­sive distri­bu­tion rights for curr­ently nine niche brands, which are secu­red by long-term frame­work agree­ments. Custo­mers include hair salons and whole­sale. HGA has grown stron­gly in recent years and most recently achie­ved sales of over 11 million euros with 25 employees.

In its successful deve­lo­p­ment in recent years, HGA Cosme­tics has also been able to bene­fit from the envi­ron­ment, as the market for hair­dres­sing services is growing steadily. The reasons for this include the trends towards natu­ral cosme­tics and sustain­ably produ­ced and envi­ron­men­tally friendly sham­poos. This is accom­pa­nied by higher consu­mer demands on products and, at the same time, a grea­ter willing­ness to spend on corre­spon­ding premium products, for which HGA’s brand range is ideally positioned.

In addi­tion to opti­mi­zing its exis­ting finan­cing struc­ture, HGA Cosme­tics plans to use the mezza­nine capi­tal to finance further growth and expand its sales organization.

About VR Equi­typ­art­ner GmbH 
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 100 commit­ments with an invest­ment volume of EUR 500 million.

Consul­ting firms invol­ved in the tran­sac­tion by VR Equi­typ­art­ner:

Commer­cial: maconda
Tax, Legal, Finan­cial: Warth & Klein Grant Thorn­ton, Düsseldorf