News-Kategorie: Private Equity

Hamburg/Frankfurt/Stockholm/Oxford — Viva­Neo, a group of ferti­lity centers in the port­fo­lio of Water­land Private Equity (“Water­land”), and The Ferti­lity Part­ner­ship, a corpo­rate invest­ment of inves­tor Impilo, are joining forces.

Water­land had acqui­red the Kinder­wunsch­zen­trum Wies­ba­den in 2011 — the start­ing point for the deve­lo­p­ment of Viva­Neo. To date, Viva­Neo has deve­lo­ped into one of Europe’s leading groups of ferti­lity centers with 15 loca­ti­ons in Germany, Denmark, Austria and the Nether­lands. Viva­Neo curr­ently gene­ra­tes annual sales of around 50 million euros. As part of the tran­sac­tion, Water­land will sell its Viva­Neo shares to The Ferti­lity Part­ner­ship. Further finan­cial details of the tran­sac­tion were not disclosed.

Viva­Neo employs around 300 people in its Europe-wide network of clinics. The group is led by a team of experts with commer­cial and medi­cal back­grounds, as well as expe­ri­en­ced physi­ci­ans and renow­ned embryo­lo­gists. Every year, around 25,000 pati­ents make use of the Group’s broad port­fo­lio of services. VivaNeo’s services are based on labo­ra­tory diagno­stics, the use of the latest tech­no­lo­gies and perso­na­li­zed advice on all facets of repro­duc­tive medi­cine. A syste­ma­tic exch­ange of know­ledge between the indi­vi­dual clinics crea­tes the basis for the broad range of services and their conti­nuous further development.

With the acqui­si­tion of the Wies­ba­den ferti­lity center in 2011 and its rebran­ding as Viva­Neo, Water­land laun­ched its buy & build program from this plat­form. Still in 2011, Viva­Neo expan­ded with the acqui­si­tion of a branch office in Berlin. In 2012, further German subsi­dia­ries were added, as well as a sperm bank and a labo­ra­tory diagno­stics center. The inte­gra­tion of Medisch Centrum Kinder­wens in the Nether­lands also marked the first step towards inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion in 2012. Acqui­si­ti­ons in Denmark and Austria follo­wed in 2015 and 2017. They shape the current profile of Viva­Neo: 15 loca­ti­ons in Germany, the Nether­lands, Denmark and Austria. Throug­hout Waterland’s invest­ment period, Viva­Neo has successfully comple­ted a total of 12 acqui­si­ti­ons, massi­vely incre­asing its market share and selec­tively expan­ding its regio­nal presence.

“Since the start of our buy & build stra­tegy at Viva­Neo in 2011, we have accom­pa­nied nume­rous acqui­si­ti­ons at Viva­Neo. Their successful inte­gra­tion crea­ted a multi­na­tio­nal group of ferti­lity centers in the Central Euro­pean market. During Waterland’s invol­vement, Viva­Neo was able to achieve important mile­sto­nes in the deve­lo­p­ment of repro­duc­tive medi­cine and signi­fi­cantly improve stan­dards of pati­ent care in the field of infer­ti­lity treat­ment and arti­fi­cial inse­mi­na­tion,” says Dr. Cars­ten Rahlfs, Mana­ging Part­ner at Water­land Private Equity. “We are plea­sed to announce the merger of Viva­Neo and The Ferti­lity Part­ner­ship. This will create a leading Euro­pean group. The new group aims to invest even more in services and medi­cal treat­ment quality. In total, the group will have 19 IVF clinics in six Euro­pean countries.”

“Through a targe­ted growth stra­tegy, we have been able to signi­fi­cantly expand VivaNeo’s regio­nal foot­print and successfully drive the Group’s expan­sion in a focu­sed manner. We thank Water­land for its part­ner­ship support throug­hout the invest­ment period. Toge­ther with The Ferti­lity Group and Impilo, we are now looking forward to ente­ring the next growth phase,” says Sebas­tian Ahrens, CEO of VivaNeo.

“The Ferti­lity Part­ner­ship is alre­ady a market leader in the UK and Poland in the areas of IVF as well as ultra­sound exami­na­ti­ons. Thanks to VivaNeo’s strong Central Euro­pean presence, we are now the number one IVF provi­der in Nort­hern Europe. Toge­ther, we now want to build a pan-Euro­pean group to share exper­tise, expe­ri­ence and exis­ting know­ledge in the IVF field,” adds Andrew Came, CEO of The Ferti­lity Partnership.

Inde­pen­dent invest­ment firm Water­land Private Equity has exten­sive expe­ri­ence in the health­care sector. Part of the Water­land port­fo­lio in Germany are, for exam­ple, ATOS, a group of soma­tic acute-care hospi­tals 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 has been active in this sector in Germany since 2011 through the estab­lish­ment of MEDIAN, the current market leader in reha­bi­li­ta­tion medicine.

Advi­sors Water­land: Quar­ton Inter­na­tio­nal AG (M&A) and Will­kie Farr & Gallag­her (Legal)

About Viva­Neo
Viva­Neo is a leading provi­der of infer­ti­lity treat­ments in Europe with loca­ti­ons in Austria, Denmark, Germany and the Nether­lands. The Group opera­tes a total of nine specia­list clinics for arti­fi­cial inse­mi­na­tion in these four count­ries, as well as a sperm bank, a labo­ra­tory for blood diagno­stics and its own dialy­sis clinic. In the count­ries where Viva­Neo is active, Viva­Neo is either the market leader or in second place in the market compa­ri­son. Viva­Neo places the utmost importance on first-class pati­ent care and medi­cal treat­ment success. https://vivaneo-ivf.com/de/kinderwunschzentren/

About The Ferti­lity Partnership
The Ferti­lity Part­ner­ship, with loca­ti­ons in the UK and Poland, is a leading Euro­pean provi­der of arti­fi­cial inse­mi­na­tion, ultra­sound exami­na­ti­ons for pregnant women and hormone treat­ments. In addi­tion to eight IVF clinics in the UK and 27 addi­tio­nal sites and two IVF clinics in Poland, TFP also opera­tes 88 ultra­sound clinics in the UK and an incre­asing number of hormone treat­ment centers. Foun­ded in 2012 through the merger of two IVF clinics, TFP has since grown through targe­ted add-on acqui­si­ti­ons, green­field deve­lo­p­ments and expan­sion into adja­cent service sectors. Today, TFP is the largest provi­der of ferti­lity services in the UK, as well as the third largest in Poland, and is the leader in ultra­sound scans in the UK. https://www.thefertilitypartnership.com/

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.

Water­land has consis­t­ently outper­for­med its invest­ments since its foun­ding in 1999 and has regu­larly ranked among the top three leading private equity firms world­wide in past HEC/Dow Jones Private Equity Perfor­mance Rankings.

Frank­furt am Main — Paris — Sine­qua, a specia­list in cogni­tive search and AI-based search and analy­tics, has successfully closed a $23 million Series B finan­cing led by Jolt Capi­tal and supported by exis­ting inves­tor Trois­mer BVBA. Sine­qua will invest the addi­tio­nal funds in rese­arch and further expan­sion of its AI-powered search and analy­tics plat­form to include inno­va­tive arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence capa­bi­li­ties. For its rese­arch-based inno­va­tive tech­no­logy, Sine­qua has been ranked as a leader in the field of Cogni­tive Search by inde­pen­dent consul­ting insti­tu­tes seve­ral times.

Some of the world’s largest compa­nies are alre­ady using the Sine­qua plat­form to tap into very large volu­mes of data, analyze it, and provide their employees with contex­tual infor­ma­tion deri­ved from it. As a result, they gain new insights, make better decis­i­ons and increase their produc­ti­vity. Accor­ding to IDC, orga­niza­ti­ons that are able to analyze enter­prise content and data assets to deli­ver actionable infor­ma­tion and insights will realize an addi­tio­nal $430 billion in produc­ti­vity bene­fits over less analy­ti­cally orien­ted orga­niza­ti­ons by 2020.

“After years of rese­arch and deve­lo­p­ment to build our plat­form, we are proba­bly the only soft­ware vendor to offer compa­nies the ability to acce­le­rate inno­va­tion, improve effi­ci­ency and agility on a global scale and on an unpre­ce­den­ted scale. We do this by secu­rely aggre­ga­ting all enter­prise data in all formats and languages into acces­si­ble and useful infor­ma­tion — even with very large data volu­mes,” explains Alex­andre Bilger, CEO of Sine­qua. “This latest round of funding will enable us to more quickly realize our vision of the infor­ma­tion-driven economy.”

Fabrice de Sala­berry, COO of Sine­qua: “Sine­qua has been expe­ri­en­cing strong reve­nue growth for years, reaching 91% last year. With the addi­tio­nal resour­ces, we are able to drive inno­va­tion in our products, provide even better value to our custo­mers, expand our market presence and part­ner ecosys­tem quickly and with vigor.”

“As a private equity tech inves­tor in Europe, we support inno­va­tive tech­no­logy compa­nies with outstan­ding finan­cial perfor­mance like Sine­qua,” said Jean Schmitt, Mana­ging Part­ner at Jolt Capi­tal. “Sine­qua offers a compre­hen­sive and robust AI-based search plat­form built on state-of-the-art natu­ral language proces­sing and machine lear­ning tech­no­lo­gies that enable large enter­pri­ses to extract value from data. Given this strong appeal in the market, we are exci­ted to part­ner with Sine­qua and support the next phase of its global expansion.”

Just recently, Forres­ter Rese­arch confirmed Sinequa’s ability to expand employee intel­li­gence at scale in its “Forres­ter Wave™: Cogni­tive Search, Q2 20191“1) report. He said the AI plat­form helps compa­nies become infor­ma­tion-driven by expan­ding the know­ledge of every employee. “Sine­qua achie­ves this,” Forres­ter said verba­tim, “by uneart­hing insights and connec­ting experts through its cogni­tive search tech­no­logy. Sine­qua combi­nes its proprie­tary Natu­ral Language Under­stan­ding (NLU) tech­no­logy with the latest open source machine lear­ning tech­no­logy. The vendor has exten­sive indus­try exper­tise and offers solu­ti­ons for life scien­ces, finan­cial services and manufacturing.”

1 Forres­ter Rese­arch, Inc, “The Forres­ter Wave™: Cogni­tive Search, Q2 2019,” by Mike Gual­tieri, with Sriv­i­dya Srid­ha­ran and Eliza­beth Hoberman.

About Sine­qua
Sine­qua is an inde­pen­dent soft­ware vendor that provi­des a cogni­tive search and analy­tics plat­form for Global 2000 compa­nies and govern­ment agen­cies. As a result, their employees receive actionable infor­ma­tion in their respec­tive work envi­ron­ments, gain new insights, make better decis­i­ons and increase their produc­ti­vity — the company beco­mes infor­ma­tion-driven. The Sine­qua plat­form was crea­ted through expe­ri­ence in projects for large orga­niza­ti­ons in complex envi­ron­ments with large and diverse data and content. It is fully inte­gra­ted and confi­gura­ble to meet current and future infor­ma­tion retrie­val requi­re­ments. Sine­qua deve­lops its exper­tise and busi­ness globally with a broad network of tech­no­logy and busi­ness partners.

About Jolt Capital
Jolt Capi­tal SAS is an inde­pen­dent private equity firm that invests in fast-growing, profi­ta­ble, globally focu­sed tech­no­logy compa­nies of Euro­pean origin with reve­nues between €10 and €100 million. Jolt Capi­tal has inves­ted in and cata­ly­zed seve­ral leading tech­no­logy compa­nies, inclu­ding Hepta­gon (now part of SIX:AMS), Inside Secure (EUR:INSD), Fogale Nano­tech, Alpha Mos (EUR:ALM), Black­wood Seven, NIL Tech­no­logy and 4JET. The company is autho­ri­zed and regu­la­ted by the AMF. www.jolt-capital.com

Amster­dam — The Dutch ABN AMRO Energy Tran­si­tion Fund B.V. has agreed with the share­hol­ders and the company on a growth finan­cing by way of parti­ci­pa­tion in the Ideema­tec Group. The closing of the tran­sac­tion is subject to appr­oval by the anti­trust autho­ri­ties, which is expec­ted in the near future. A Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek team led by Düssel­dorf part­ner Dr. Martin Imhof provi­ded compre­hen­sive advice to ABN AMRO Energy Tran­si­tion Fund on the invest­ment, inclu­ding corpo­rate, patent and tax law aspects.

With head­quar­ters in Bava­ria and inter­na­tio­nal subsi­dia­ries in the USA, Chile, Turkey and the UK, Ideema­tec is a leading global supplier of key compon­ents for solar track­ing systems for the instal­la­tion of photo­vol­taic modu­les in solar parks. Ideema­tec has so far supplied compon­ents for over 2 GW of instal­led photo­vol­taic systems on six conti­nents. Current light­house projects include the instal­la­tion of 350 MW in Austra­lia and 250 MW in Jordan. With the invest­ment and parti­ci­pa­tion of ABN AMRO Energy Tran­si­tion Fund, Ideema­tec conti­nues its growth and secu­res its posi­tion as a supplier of leading tech­no­lo­gies in the global PV market. The growth finan­cing will enable Ideema­tec in parti­cu­lar to streng­then its presence in the MENA region, Asia and the Ameri­cas and to further expand capacity.

ABN AMRO Private Equity is part of the global ABN AMRO banking group, head­quar­te­red in Amster­dam, the Nether­lands. In 2018, ABN AMRO Private Equity laun­ched the Energy Tran­si­tion Fund with the goal of adding growth capi­tal and buyout tran­sac­tions rela­ted to compa­nies contri­bu­ting to a low-carbon future to its port­fo­lio. Curr­ently, the Energy Tran­si­tion Fund mana­ges around €200 million and invests in compa­nies and projects in the fields of rene­wa­ble energy, clean mobi­lity, smart infra­struc­ture and energy effi­ci­ency. The fund typi­cally invests in volu­mes between 10 and 25 million euros and focu­ses on compa­nies based in northwes­tern Europe.

Advi­sors to ABN AMRO Energy Tran­si­tion Fund B.V.: Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek:
Dr. Martin Imhof (Lead Part­ner, Private Equity/M&A),
Sebas­tian Poll­meier (Corporate/M&A),
Dr. Anton Horn (Patents),
Phil­ipp Roman Schrö­ler (patents),
Dr. Chris­tian Appel­baum (Banking/Finance),
Chris­toph Nöhles, LL.M. (Real Estate Law),
Dr. Alex­an­der Bork (Labor Law),
Astrid Lued­tke (Data Protection),
Beatrice Stange, LL.M. (Anti­trust),
Michael Vetter, LL.M. (anti­trust law), all Düsseldorf
Klaus Weinand-Härer (Taxes), Frankfurt
Yvonne Hunds­dör­fer (Taxes), Stuttgart
Daniela Szczesny (Corpo­rate Law), Munich
Dr. Marco Garbers, LL.M. (Energy/Projects), Hamburg

Berlin — Odewald KMU II has acqui­red a majo­rity stake in ARTUS Gesell­schaft für Brand- und Wasser­scha­den­sa­nie­rung mbH and ARTUS Projekt GmbH with the support of Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek attorneys.

ARTUS is a regio­nally leading damage resto­ra­tion company in the field of fire, water and natu­ral hazard damage as well as conse­quen­tial damage with head­quar­ters in Langen­ha­gen near Hano­ver and a network of seven bran­ches in the region of Lower Saxony, Hamburg, Bremen, Berlin and Leip­zig. ARTUS was foun­ded in 2012 and curr­ently employs around 100 people. The company offers complete solu­ti­ons for the entire reha­bi­li­ta­tion process. The services offe­red here cover the entire resto­ra­tion process, from initial measu­res and damage logging to clea­ning, drying and complete resto­ra­tion. The clients of ARTUS are mainly insu­rance compa­nies and their customers.

To support further growth, the foun­ding share­hol­ders have ente­red into a part­ner­ship with Odewald KMU II, an invest­ment company specia­li­zing in high-growth medium-sized compa­nies. To this end, Odewald KMU II has acqui­red a majo­rity stake in ARTUS. The foun­ders conti­nue to hold a signi­fi­cant stake in the company. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the amount of the invest­ment or further details of the shareholding.

The Odewald KMU II Fund with a volume of 200 million euros has ente­red into its seventh invest­ment with ARTUS. The Odewald KMU II Fund invests in attrac­tive target markets in German-spea­king SMEs. The indus­try focus is on profi­ta­ble, fast-growing medium-sized compa­nies in the fields of “German engi­nee­ring”, intel­li­gent services and health­care. The typi­cal invest­ment occa­si­ons are succes­sion arran­ge­ments and/or growth finan­cing. These compa­nies gene­rally gene­rate sales of between EUR 20 million and EUR 100 million, have entre­pre­neu­rial manage­ment, are very successful in opera­tio­nal terms and occupy a leading posi­tion in the rele­vant market. Equity invest­ments of five to 30 million euros are made per tran­sac­tion. The Colo­gne-based private equity experts led by Dr. Pär Johans­son regu­larly advise Odewald KMU in this regard.

About ODEWALD
ODEWALD is one of the leading inde­pen­dent invest­ment compa­nies in Germany. The company invests prima­rily in high-growth medium-sized compa­nies in German-spea­king count­ries. The focus is on
specia­li­zed mecha­ni­cal engi­nee­ring, busi­ness services, IT, energy, medi­cal tech­no­logy and health­care. Inves­tors include insu­rance compa­nies, pension funds, asset manage­ment compa­nies, family offices and wealthy private investors.

Advi­sor Odewald KMU II: Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek
Dr. Pär Johans­son (Lead Partner),
Kris­tina Schnei­der, LL.M.,
Tim Remmel, LL.M.,
Laura Rilin­ger (all Private Equity, Corporate/M&A),
Dr. Sascha Sche­wiola (Labor Law),
Dr. Verena Hoene, LL.M. (IP), all Cologne

 

Frank­furt am Main — Deut­sche Betei­li­gungs AG (DBAG) successfully comple­tes its invest­ment in Infiana Group GmbH (Infiana). Its shares will be sold to Pamplona Capi­tal Manage­ment, a finan­cial inves­tor based in the UK. The shares of DBAG Fund VI, which was advi­sed by DBAG, and the Infiana manage­ment will also be sold. Corre­spon­ding agree­ments were signed last week; their execu­tion is still subject to the appr­oval of the anti­trust autho­ri­ties. The tran­sac­tion is expec­ted to close within the next three months. With this tran­sac­tion, DBAG reali­zes more than double the origi­nally inves­ted capi­tal. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the purchase price.

The portion of the proceeds from the sale now agreed upon attri­bu­ta­ble to DBAG exceeds the carry­ing amount of the invest­ment in the IFRS inte­rim finan­cial state­ments as at March 31, 2019. The dispo­sal will ther­e­fore result in a slightly posi­tive contri­bu­tion to conso­li­da­ted earnings in the third quar­ter of 2018/2019, which ended on June 30, 2019. The fore­cast for the 2018/2019 conso­li­da­ted earnings of Deut­sche Betei­li­gungs AG remains unch­an­ged in view of the conti­nuing impon­der­a­bles rela­ting to other factors influen­cing conso­li­da­ted earnings.

Infiana (www.infiana.com) deve­lops and produ­ces specialty films for the consu­mer goods market and indus­trial appli­ca­ti­ons. These are used for sophisti­ca­ted pack­a­ging and as a compo­nent for hygiene products, as release and surface films for appli­ca­ti­ons in the cons­truc­tion indus­try, and as release films in tech­ni­cal adhe­sive tapes and specialty labels. Among other things, the company has iden­ti­fied specialty films for phar­maceu­ti­cal appli­ca­ti­ons and for the produc­tion of compo­site mate­ri­als as attrac­tive growth areas. The variety and breadth of end-use fields provide for great diver­si­fi­ca­tion. The high flexi­bi­lity in produc­tion enables a variety of products. In doing so, the company bene­fits time and again from its inten­sive inno­va­tion acti­vi­ties, for which it has recei­ved seve­ral awards. Infiana produ­ces at two loca­ti­ons in Germany and in the USA. The nucleus of the 165-year-old company, which curr­ently employs 800 people, is its German head­quar­ters in Forch­heim. In 2018, Infiana turned over 227 million euros.

DBAG and DBAG Fund VI had inves­ted in Infiana in Decem­ber 2014 as part of a manage­ment buyout (MBO). The previous share­hol­der, a Finnish group, had sold the specialty films busi­ness because it wanted to focus on the produc­tion of food pack­a­ging. Accor­din­gly, after the seces­sion, the first task was to shape Infiana’s inde­pen­dence. Follo­wing the dive­st­ment of produc­tion in Brazil and Thai­land, the German and US sites were expan­ded and moder­ni­zed through substan­tial invest­ment in addi­tio­nal extru­sion and coating capa­ci­ties. The ESG and compli­ance guide­lines were expan­ded and adapted to meet the increased requirements.

“Infiana is better able to seize its market oppor­tu­ni­ties today than it was five years ago,” said Dr. Rolf Schef­fels, a member of DBAG’s Manage­ment Board; “the invest­ments have contri­bu­ted to this, as has the reor­ga­niza­tion of sales from a largely regio­nal approach to a global, verti­cal approach.”

Commen­ting on the change of owner­ship, Peter Wahs­ner, Chair­man of the Manage­ment Board, said: “Infiana has deve­lo­ped enorm­ously in recent years and is well posi­tio­ned to conti­nue to operate successfully in the future — with effi­ci­ent and modern produc­tion and a leading posi­tion in attrac­tive end markets.”

The sale of the invest­ment in Infiana is the fourth closing of an MBO from the DBAG Fund VI port­fo­lio. The fund had struc­tu­red eleven MBOs between 2013 and 2016.

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.

Kürten/Wittstock (Germany), July 2, 2019 — AVS Verkehrs­si­che­rung (“AVS”), a port­fo­lio company of Triton Fund IV, has signed an agree­ment to acquire Lorenz GmbH (“Lorenz”), a renow­ned provi­der in the field of road marking and cons­truc­tion site safety based in Wittstock/Dosse. The merger is still subject to appr­oval by the anti­trust autho­ri­ties. The parties agreed not to disc­lose the purchase price. ARQIS advi­sed AVS Verkehrs­si­che­rung GmbH (AVS) on the acqui­si­tion of Lorenz GmbH (Lorenz).

Since 1992, Lorenz has many years of expe­ri­ence in the appli­ca­tion of high-quality and sustainable marking mate­ri­als, both in perma­nent and tempo­rary appli­ca­ti­ons. In addi­tion, Lorenz sees itself as a relia­ble supplier and outfit­ter of cons­truc­tion site safety equip­ment. The company is prima­rily active in the grea­ter Meck­len­burg area and Berlin, but also nati­on­wide, and works closely with both state deve­lo­pers, cities and muni­ci­pa­li­ties, and private cons­truc­tion companies.

“Lorenz employs more than 30 people, is known as a relia­ble service provi­der also nati­on­wide at 3 loca­ti­ons and ther­e­fore repres­ents an ideal addi­tion to the AVS Group’s range of services,” explains Andreas Schwin­ge­ler, COO at AVS.

AVS Verkehrs­si­che­rung is a leading specia­list provi­der of traf­fic safety services in Germany and Europe. 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 is charac­te­ri­zed by its inter­na­tio­nal presence at 21 loca­ti­ons. In Germany, AVS is repre­sen­ted at 18 loca­ti­ons nati­on­wide. Inter­na­tio­nally, AVS has one loca­tion in Latvia and 2 loca­ti­ons in Denmark. AVS employs around 730 people.

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 14.9, billion euros and appro­xi­m­ately 73,000 employees.

About ARQIS
This is now the fifth trans­ca­tion that ARQIS has accom­pa­nied for AVS. Most recently, Jörn-Chris­tian Schulze’s team advi­sed AVS on the acqui­si­tion of Schötz Verkehrs- und Arbeits­stel­len-Siche­rung GmbH (Schötz), a provi­der in the field of traf­fic and cons­truc­tion site safety based in Fürth.
ARQIS is an inde­pen­dent busi­ness law firm opera­ting in Germany and Japan. The firm was foun­ded in 2006 at its current offices in Düssel­dorf, Munich and Tokyo. Around 45 profes­sio­nals advise dome­stic and foreign compa­nies at the highest level on the core issues of German and Japa­nese busi­ness law. The focus is on M&A, corpo­rate law, private equity, venture capi­tal, employ­ment law, private clients, intellec­tual property, liti­ga­tion as well as real estate law and tax law. For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.arqis.com.

Frank­furt a. M. / Stutt­gart — The Frank­furt-based invest­ment company VR Equi­typ­art­ner acqui­res a majo­rity stake in SIGNON Öster­reich GmbH, a Vienna-based IT service provi­der specia­li­zing in mobi­lity, infra­struc­ture and digi­ta­liza­tion. The seller is the German TÜV SÜD Group, which is selling all its shares. Signi­fi­cantly invol­ved is the manage­ment team of SIGNON Austria. The aim of the new part­ner­ship is to further streng­then the company’s posi­tio­ning in a niche market and to tap addi­tio­nal growth poten­tial. Finan­cial details of the tran­sac­tion, which is expec­ted to close in Q3 2019 subject to regu­la­tory appr­oval, were not disclosed.

Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek advi­sed the invest­ment company VR Equi­typ­art­ner GmbH on the acqui­si­tion of a majo­rity inte­rest in SIGNON Öster­reich GmbH. The complex, cross-border tran­sac­tion was hand­led jointly with the law firm DORDA. Anti­trust clearance is still pending.

The SIGNON Austria manage­ment team will conti­nue to hold a signi­fi­cant stake in the company. The part­ner­ship aims to streng­then the company’s posi­tio­ning in a niche market and tap addi­tio­nal growth poten­tial. — SIGNON Öster­reich GmbH is a Vienna-based IT service provi­der specia­li­zing in mobi­lity, infra­struc­ture and digi­tiza­tion and was foun­ded in 2011 by Paul Klein­rath and Dr. Chris­toph Bonelli under the name Evolit — Consul­ting. Two years later, the TÜV SÜD Group acqui­red a majo­rity stake in the company, making it part of the SIGNON Group. More than 50 people are curr­ently employed at SIGNON Öster­reich GmbH.

VR Equi­typ­art­ner is one of the leading equity finan­ciers in the DACH region. The company supports medium-sized family busi­nesses in solving complex finan­cing issues. VR Equi­typ­art­ner offers majo­rity and mino­rity invest­ments as well as mezza­nine finan­cing. As a subsi­diary of DZ BANK, 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.

The current acqui­si­tion is alre­ady the second invest­ment by VR Equi­typ­art­ner in an IT service provi­der this year, advi­sed by the team around Dr. Rainer Hersch­lein and Bene­dikt Raisch (see deal announce­ment ICS).

Advi­sors to VR Equi­typ­art­ner GmbH: Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek
Dr. Rainer Hersch­lein, Bene­dikt Raisch (both M&A), both Stuttgart

DORDA:
Dr. Bern­hard Rieder, Lukas Schmidt (both M&A), both Vienna

Luxembourg/ Colo­gne / Frank­furt a. Main — Lenbach Equity Oppor­tu­ni­ties I SCSp (LEO I), a Luxem­bourg-based PE fund has sold the MMC Group in Colo­gne to NOVUM CAPITAL, Frank­furt a. M.. Lenbach Equity was advi­sed on the tran­sac­tion by Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek.

The sale of the MMC Group took place within the frame­work of a struc­tu­red process. In the bidding process, the invest­ment company NOVUM CAPITAL, Frank­furt am Main, prevailed.

The core company of the MMC Group is MMC Studios Köln GmbH, which offers services for natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal TV, film and media produc­tions at its Colo­gne loca­tion. In Colo­gne-Ossen­dorf, MMC Studios Köln GmbH opera­tes a large number of studios for film, TV and live events and offers not only the neces­sary state-of-the-art space but also other services requi­red for produc­tions and live events. The sister company MMC Movies is active in the field of film co-produc­tions and provi­des special services for well-known natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal film productions.

Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek had alre­ady advi­sed LEO I on the acqui­si­tion of MMC Group in 2017 and acted for all legal issues in connec­tion with the sale process, the due dili­gence of the various inte­res­ted parties and the actual sale.

About NOVUM CAPITAL
Novum Capi­tal is an inde­pen­dent and owner-mana­ged invest­ment firm with offices in London and Frank­furt. Our part­ners have many years of private equity and mezza­nine expe­ri­ence, and have come toge­ther after care­ers in renow­ned invest­ment banks to invest in upper middle market compa­nies in Europe.

Advi­sor Lenbach Equity Oppor­tu­ni­ties I SCSp (LEO I): Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek
Dr. Andreas Lenz, (Lead Part­ner, M&A),
Dr. Vera Randel (Corpo­rate Law, M&A), both Cologne
Dr. Katha­rina Pras­uhn (M&A), Hamburg,
Bastian Rieck (Corporate/M&A), Cologne
Kers­tin Deiters, LL.M. (Labor Law), Cologne

Karlsruhe/ Munich — Maxburg Betei­li­gun­gen III (“Maxburg”), an invest­ment company advi­sed by Maxburg Capi­tal Part­ners, has acqui­red an inte­rest in STARFACE GmbH (“STARFACE”). P+P Pöllath + Part­ners provi­ded compre­hen­sive tax advice to Maxburg in connec­tion with the transaction.

STARFACE is a tech­no­logy company based in Karls­ruhe, Germany. The focus of the product port­fo­lio is on the Linux-based tele­phone systems, which are optio­nally available as a cloud service, hard­ware appli­ance and virtual VM edition. STARFACE soft­ware solu­ti­ons combine tele­phony with services such as e‑mail, file trans­fer, chat, video commu­ni­ca­tion and presence manage­ment in a user-friendly unified commu­ni­ca­ti­ons environment.

Maxburg is an invest­ment company focu­sed on the German-spea­king region that invests in priva­tely held as well as listed compa­nies. The Maxburg invest­ment compa­nies have capi­tal commit­ments tota­ling around EUR 600 million at their dispo­sal. STARFACE is the twelfth invest­ment of Maxburg Betei­li­gungs­ge­sell­schaf­ten and the fifth soft­ware or tech­no­logy invest­ment besi­des Tenado, Paterva, Secu­r­e­point and KGS.

About Maxburg Capi­tal Partners
Maxburg Capi­tal Part­ners is an invest­ment manage­ment company focu­sed on the German-spea­king region. Foun­ded by three part­ners with many years of expe­ri­ence as entre­pre­neurs and inves­tors in public and private equity, Maxburg focu­ses on long-term corpo­rate invest­ments with the aim of achie­ving lasting and sustainable value growth.

Based on seve­ral funds and a total fund volume of € 600 million, Maxburg has an excep­tio­nally flexi­ble invest­ment mandate: we actively invest across the entire range of capi­tal struc­tures — from equity to near-equity finan­cing opti­ons such as mezza­nine and mezza­nine-like forms of invest­ment. We hold both majo­rity and mino­rity inte­rests in compa­nies. In addi­tion, Maxburg has the option of taking an active share­hol­der role in listed compa­nies. Our finan­cings range from €10 million to €100 million per transaction.
Our most important goal is always the successful deve­lo­p­ment of resi­li­ent, entre­pre­neu­rial value deve­lo­p­ment poten­tial on the part of the port­fo­lio company. Our ambi­tion is to achieve sustainable and posi­tive long-term returns over and above short-term market trends.

P+P Pöllath + Part­ners provi­ded compre­hen­sive tax advice toMaxburg with the follo­wing Munich team:

Dr. Michael Best, Photo (Part­ner, Lead, Tax Law), Gerald Herr­mann (Coun­sel, Tax Law), Tobias Deschen­halm (Asso­ciate, Tax Law)

Antwerp/ Munich — Gimv acqui­res a majo­rity stake in the fast-growing Alro Group, a specia­list in indus­trial coating of car and truck parts. The tran­sac­tion is part of the succes­sion plan for the family busi­ness — Gimv is taking over the shares from the foun­ding family Thijs. The current manage­ment remains on board and supports the company’s further growth ambi­ti­ons with its reinvestment.

Alro Group (Dilsen-Stok­kem, Belgium, www.alro-group.com) was foun­ded in 1976 by the Thijs family. The company has grown from a small coating company to a renow­ned group with seve­ral bran­ches in Western and Central Europe. The group specia­li­zes in coating and pain­ting plas­tic or metal vehicle parts.

Alro is charac­te­ri­zed by strong custo­mer orien­ta­tion and diverse coating tech­no­lo­gies, enab­ling it to respond flexi­bly and quickly to the growing demand for custo­mi­zed solu­ti­ons. With about 1,000 employees and around 20 coating lines, the company has signi­fi­cant capa­ci­ties. These process over 100,000 products per day on modern produc­tion lines using data-control­led proces­ses. Today, the custo­mer base consists of a large number of well-known names in the car and truck industry.

As a Tier 1 supplier, the Alro Group relies on strong custo­mer rela­ti­onships: OEM truck manu­fac­tu­r­ers appre­ciate the relia­ble supply (just-in-time / just-in-sequence), the high flexi­bi­lity in pain­ting in over 1,000 colors and the assem­bly of nume­rous diffe­rent parts. Recently, Alro Group also deve­lo­ped an inno­va­tive solu­tion for coating battery housings for elec­tric vehic­les. The company is thus ideally posi­tio­ned to bene­fit from the expec­ted strong growth of the elec­tric vehicle market. In addi­tion, the Alro Group is respon­ding to the incre­asing demand for contras­ting colors, which enable auto­ma­kers to further perso­na­lize the appearance of their vehicles.

Since the start of the new manage­ment team, the company has under­gone a posi­tive trans­for­ma­tion, focu­sing on incre­asing value crea­tion and flexibility.

Increase deli­vered value-add and focus on grea­ter flexi­bi­lity. The invest­ment by Gimv is inten­ded to help imple­ment the growth plans and support the profes­sio­na­liza­tion course of the company’s management.

Chris­to­phe Van Quicken­borne, Part­ner in Gimv’s Smart Indus­tries team, descri­bes it as follows: “Alro Group comple­ments a whole range of Smart Indus­tries invest­ments in advan­ced manu­fac­tu­ring compa­nies at Gimv. Through our expe­ri­ence with other successful invest­ments in the auto­mo­tive sector, we under­stand the importance of far-reaching flexi­bi­lity and product diffe­ren­tia­tion — making compa­nies prefer­red part­ners to their OEM custo­mers. Toge­ther with Alro’s manage­ment, we intend to further leverage the group’s strengths and gene­rate addi­tio­nal growth. Alre­ady, compre­hen­sive data control, strong engi­nee­ring capa­bi­li­ties, and high flexi­bi­lity and custo­mer focus are key differentiators.”

Jan Crae­nen, CEO of Alro Group, adds: “We are convin­ced that with Gimv we have gained a very relia­ble local part­ner with exten­sive know-how in the auto­mo­tive indus­try. The tran­sac­tion is an important step in the further deve­lo­p­ment of Alro. The helm will remain in the hands of the current manage­ment team, which toge­ther with Gimv will focus on further growth and inno­va­tive solu­ti­ons for custo­mers. On behalf of the entire manage­ment team, we would like to thank the Thijs family for their trust. Our thanks also go to Kumu­lus Part­ners for their expert support in this tran­sac­tion. And last but not least, our thanks go to all the employees of Alro Group, without whom we would not be where we are today.”

The tran­sac­tion is subject to custo­mary condi­ti­ons, inclu­ding appr­oval by the compe­ti­tion autho­ri­ties. Further finan­cial details will not be disclosed.

Munich, London, Paris — Pan-Euro­pean private equity firm Silver­fleet Capi­tal has signed an agree­ment to sell Phase One to funds mana­ged by Axcel. Phase One is a leading tech­no­logy company in the field of high-end digi­tal camera systems and for image proces­sing soft­ware. The tran­sac­tion is still subject to regu­la­tory approval.

Phase One opera­tes two busi­ness units: Soft­ware Imaging Systems (“SIS”) offers market-leading image proces­sing soft­ware for raw (RAW) images under the Capture One brand; it targets both profes­sio­nal and amateur photo­graph­ers as well as busi­nesses. Image Capture Solu­ti­ons (“ICS”) has ultra-high-end medium format camera systems in its port­fo­lio that are suita­ble for aerial photo­gra­phy, for exam­ple, and are used by profes­sio­nal and amateur photo­graph­ers as well as cultu­ral heri­tage insti­tu­ti­ons. The company is head­quar­te­red in Copen­ha­gen, with addi­tio­nal offices in Germany, Hong Kong, Israel, Japan and the USA.

Silver­fleet Capi­tal had acqui­red a majo­rity stake in Phase One in 2014. The decisive factor was the clear growth poten­tial due to the incre­asing demand for high-reso­lu­tion medium-format photo­gra­phy, for exam­ple in the field of 3D mapping with aerial images or in home­land secu­rity. Since then, Silver­fleet Capi­tal has supported the company in its trans­for­ma­tion from a stron­gly hard­ware-orien­ted to a soft­ware-driven busi­ness model. From 2014 to 2018, the SIS unit increased sales by 38 percent. During this period, two acqui­si­ti­ons were also made — inclu­ding the main Japa­nese supplier — and substan­tial invest­ments were made in rese­arch and deve­lo­p­ment. This allo­wed Phase One to push its inno­va­tion course in medium format photo­gra­phy. The latest product inno­va­tions include the successfully laun­ched IQ4 and IXM systems for photo­graph­ers and indus­trial applications.

“We were deligh­ted to work with the manage­ment team during this exci­ting trans­for­ma­tion phase and to help Phase One become the market leader in imaging soft­ware,” said Rob Knight, Prin­ci­pal at Silver­fleet and Advi­sory Board Member. “We wish Henrik Håkon­sson and his team every success for the next stage of growth.”

Henrik Håkon­sson, CEO of Phase One, adds: “Thanks to Silver­fleet Capital’s stra­te­gic and finan­cial support over the past five years, we have been able to further realize our poten­tial. We have over­come tech­no­lo­gi­cal boun­da­ries and found the right answers to the new needs of our custo­mers in the two busi­ness units SIS and ICS.”

Gareth Whiley, Mana­ging Part­ner of Silver­fleet Capi­tal, said, “We could not be more plea­sed with the outcome from the sale of Phase One. This exit again repres­ents a very successful invest­ment by our company in Scan­di­na­via. There, we conti­nue to actively look for inte­res­t­ing compa­nies — such as Phase One with a diffe­ren­tia­ted busi­ness model and high inter­na­tio­nal growth potential.”

Since 2004, Silver­fleet Capi­tal has inves­ted 19 percent of its assets in compa­nies based in Scan­di­na­via. In 2016, the company sold Cimbria, a manu­fac­tu­rer of bulk hand­ling equip­ment and seed and grain proces­sing equip­ment based in Denmark, to AGCO Corpo­ra­tion for appro­xi­m­ately €310 million. Silver­fleet Capi­tal is curr­ently inves­ted in Danish women’s fashion manu­fac­tu­rer Masai.

In the current tran­sac­tion, Silver­fleet Capi­tal was advi­sed by Moor­eland Part­ners (Corpo­rate Finance), Travers Smith and Bech-Bruun (Legal), Deloitte (Finan­cial & Tax Due Dili­gence), McKin­sey (Commer­cial Due Dili­gence) and Bearing­Point (Tech­ni­cal Due Diligence).

About Silver­fleet Capital
Silver­fleet Capi­tal has been active as a private equity inves­tor in the Euro­pean mid-market for more than 30 years. The 30-strong invest­ment team works from Munich, London, Paris, Stock­holm and Amsterdam.

Nine invest­ments have alre­ady been made from the second inde­pen­dent fund closed in 2015 with a volume of 870 million euros: The Masai Clot­hing Company, a women’s fashion whole­sa­ler and retailer head­quar­te­red in Denmark; Coven­tya, a French deve­lo­per of specialty chemi­cals; Sigma Compon­ents, a UK-based manu­fac­tu­rer of precis­ion compon­ents for civil avia­tion; Life­time Trai­ning, a UK-based provi­der of trai­ning programs; Pumpen­fa­brik Wangen, a manu­fac­tu­rer of specialty pumps based in Germany; Riviera Travel, an opera­tor of escor­ted group tours and crui­ses based in the United King­dom; 7days, a German supplier of medi­cal work­wear; Prefere Resins, a leading phen­o­lic and amino resin manu­fac­tu­rer in Europe; and CARE Ferti­lity, a leading opera­tor of ferti­lity clinics in the United Kingdom.

Silver­fleet Capi­tal also main­ta­ins an invest­ment team focu­sed on smal­ler middle-market compa­nies, which has alre­ady made two successful invest­ments: STAXS Conta­mi­na­tion Control Experts, a leading supplier of clean­room supplies in the Bene­lux (closed in Janu­ary 2019), and Micro­gen Finan­cial Systems, a leading provi­der of trust and fund admi­nis­tra­tion soft­ware to the trust and corpo­rate services indus­try (pending share­hol­der appr­oval of seller Apti­tude Soft­ware Group plc).

Silver­fleet achie­ves value growth by inves­t­ing in compa­nies in its core sectors that bene­fit from speci­fic, long-term trends. Silver­fleet supports these compa­nies in their future growth stra­te­gies. As part of these stra­te­gies, invest­ments are made in orga­nic growth drivers, inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion, stra­te­gic acqui­si­ti­ons or opera­tio­nal impro­ve­ment proces­ses. Since 2004, Silver­fleet Capi­tal has inves­ted €2 billion in 30 companies.

Silver­fleet specia­li­zes in four key indus­tries: Busi­ness and Finan­cial Services, Health­care, Manu­fac­tu­ring, and Retail and Consu­mer Goods. Since 2004, the private equity inves­tor has inves­ted 31% of its assets in compa­nies head­quar­te­red in the DACH region, 33% in the UK and Ireland, 19% in Scan­di­na­via, and 17% in France and the Bene­lux (includes an invest­ment sourced in Belgium and head­quar­te­red in the US).

Silver­fleet Capi­tal has a solid invest­ment track record. Most recently, Silver­fleet sold Ipes, a leading provi­der of outsour­cing services to Euro­pean private equity firms (invest­ment multi­ple 3.7x); CCC, one of the leading BPO services provi­ders in Europe; and Cimbria, a Danish manu­fac­tu­rer of agri­cul­tu­ral equip­ment (invest­ment multi­ple cannot be disc­lo­sed for legal reasons); Kalle, a German manu­fac­tu­rer of arti­fi­cial sausage sticks (invest­ment multi­ple 3.5x); OFFICE, a UK-based foot­wear retailer (invest­ment multi­ple 3.4x); and Aesica, a leading phar­maceu­ti­cal CDMO company (invest­ment multi­ple 3.3x).
www.silverfleetcapital.com

BOSTON and LONDON — Advent Inter­na­tio­nal (“Advent”), one of the world’s largest and most expe­ri­en­ced private equity firms, today announ­ced that fund­rai­sing for the Advent Inter­na­tio­nal GPE IX Limi­ted Part­ner­ship Fund (“GPE IX” or the “Fund”) has closed. The fund reached its maxi­mum volume of $17.5 billion (15.6 billion euros) and had alre­ady excee­ded its target of $16 billion (14.3 billion euros) after six months. Advent’s previous fund, GPE VIII, closed in 2016 with a volume of $13 billion (€12 billion).

The same stra­tegy will be pursued for GPE (Global Private Equity) IX as for its eight prede­ces­sor funds; funds will be inves­ted prima­rily in Europe and North America, but also selec­tively in Asia and Latin America, in buy-outs, carve-outs, public-to-private tran­sac­tions and growth financing.
Sector specia­liza­tion has been at the core of Advent’s invest­ment approach since its incep­tion, and the GPE IX fund will also focus on the five core indus­tries in which the firm has exten­sive expe­ri­ence and know­ledge: (1) finan­cial services and busi­ness services; (2) health­care; (3) indus­tri­als and chemi­cals; (4) retail, consu­mer goods and leisure indus­tries; and (5) media and tele­com­mu­ni­ca­ti­ons. Advent recently announ­ced plans to streng­then its commit­ment to the tech­no­logy sector by expan­ding its tech­no­logy invest­ment team and opening a new office in the San Fran­cisco Bay Area.

“The successful fund­rai­sing for GPE IX is an important mile­stone for Advent and increa­ses the capi­tal base available to us for invest­ments in Germany,” said Ranjan Sen (photo), Mana­ging Part­ner at Advent Inter­na­tio­nal in Frank­furt. “The funds raised will allow us to conti­nue our proven stra­tegy of part­ne­ring with manage­ment teams to drive sustainable busi­ness growth.”

Ronald Ayles, Mana­ging Part­ner at Advent Inter­na­tio­nal in Frank­furt, added: “Advent has been inves­t­ing in Germany for almost 30 years and has actively supported the value growth of 30 compa­nies with more than 3.1 billion euros. Germany offers a wide range of oppor­tu­ni­ties for an invest­ment company like Advent, which has a strong commit­ment to the markets in which it operates.”

“We are very plea­sed with the strong inte­rest in GPE IX from exis­ting and new inves­tors,” said David Mussa­fer, Mana­ging Part­ner at Advent Inter­na­tio­nal in Boston. “The corner­sto­nes of our success are our proven sector focus, our global presence, our private part­ner­ship model, and the exten­sive opera­tio­nal resour­ces we bring to our investments.”
“Our global team is a key advan­tage in finding and execu­ting attrac­tive invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties around the world,” said James Brock­lebank, Mana­ging Part­ner at Advent in London. “We have exten­sive expe­ri­ence in execu­ting complex tran­sac­tions such as corpo­rate spin-offs. This is where we can bring our resour­ces and exper­tise to create value in these dyna­mic businesses.”

Exten­sive resour­ces to support manage­ment teams
Advent has more than 195 invest­ment and port­fo­lio support specia­lists world­wide. GPX IX is inves­ted by a team of 157 experts in Europe, North America and Asia. They can draw on the exper­tise of 40 specia­lists from Advent’s Latin Ameri­can Private Equity Fund program, as well as a global network of world-class opera­tio­nal resour­ces. This also includes more than 115 exter­nal Opera­ting Part­ners and Opera­ti­ons Advi­sors, former execu­ti­ves with in-depth indus­try and tech­ni­cal expertise.

Through this plat­form, Advent provi­des manage­ment teams with resour­ces and exper­tise to help them grow reve­nue and execute value crea­tion stra­te­gies. Since 2005, port­fo­lio compa­nies in which Advent has held an inte­rest for at least one year have achie­ved average annual reve­nue and EBITDA growth of 14 and 15 percent, respectively.

GPE IX saw high demand from exis­ting inves­tors. More than 90 percent of the commit­ted capi­tal came from the limi­ted part­ners of previous Advent funds.

Strong track record over three decades
Advent’s GPE program has a long track record of acqui­si­ti­ons and dispo­sals over seve­ral fund gene­ra­ti­ons and various econo­mic or private equity cycles. Since 1990, 258 invest­ments have been made in 31 count­ries, of which about 213 have been fully or largely realized.
Across all its funds, Advent has inves­ted $44 billion (€36 billion) in more than 345 private equity tran­sac­tions in 41 count­ries. The company’s current port­fo­lio compa­nies gene­ra­ted annual sales of $50 billion (44 billion euros) and employed more than 290,000 people at year-end.

Recent IPOs and company sales in the GPE program include Ammer­aal Beltech, Bojan­gles’, Coti­viti, Genoa Health­care, KMD, lulu­le­mon athle­tica (partial exit), Mondo Mine­rals, MORSCO and Nexi (IPO, partial exit).

Recent invest­ments in the GPE program include Aimbridge Hospi­ta­lity, BioDuro, Deut­sche Fach­pflege Group, INNIO (form­erly GE Distri­bu­ted Power), Laird, Manjushree Tech­no­pack, Prisma Medios de Pago, Walm­art Brazil and Zentiva.

In addi­tion to the GPE program, Advent is curr­ently inves­t­ing a sixth private equity fund focu­sed on buy-outs and growth finan­cing in Latin America. The 2015 vintage fund, LAPEF VI, has $2.1 billion in assets.
This press release is neither an offer nor a soli­ci­ta­tion of an offer nor an invi­ta­tion or soli­ci­ta­tion to invest in any fund of Advent Inter­na­tio­nal. Invest­ments in Advent Inter­na­tio­nal funds are available solely on the basis of and subject to the terms of the rele­vant fund docu­ments and appli­ca­ble laws.

About Advent Interantional
Foun­ded in 1984, Advent Inter­na­tio­nal (“Advent”) is one of the world’s largest and most expe­ri­en­ced invest­ment compa­nies. The company mana­ges appro­xi­m­ately $36 billion (€31 billion) in assets, exclu­ding $17.5 billion (€15.6 billion) raised under GPE IX (as of Septem­ber 31, Decem­ber 2018).

About Advent Inter­na­tio­nal Germany
Advent Inter­na­tio­nal GmbH was foun­ded in Germany in 1991 and advi­ses Advent with its Frank­furt-based team of consul­tants. Advent is also one of the leading private equity compa­nies in Germany and has been inves­t­ing in Euro­pean compa­nies since 1990. To date, Advent Inter­na­tio­nal GmbH has advi­sed on invest­ments of appro­xi­m­ately EUR 3.1 billion in 30 port­fo­lio compa­nies. Advent Inter­na­tio­nal GmbH’s consul­ting focus is on the follo­wing core sectors: Finan­cial Services and Busi­ness Services; Health­care; Chemi­cals; Retail, Consu­mer Goods and Leisure Indus­tries; and Media and Telecommunications.

Over the past decade, Advent’s invest­ments have included Innio, a global leader in recipro­ca­ting gas engi­nes for power gene­ra­tion and gas compres­sion; Deut­sche Fach­pflege Gruppe (DFG), the largest provi­der of out-of-hospi­tal inten­sive care in Germany; Concar­dis Payment Group, a leading provi­der of digi­tal payment solu­ti­ons and part of the Nets Group; allnex, the leading global manu­fac­tu­rer of resin coatings for the paint and coatings indus­try; Douglas Holding, Europe’s leading cosme­tics retailer; GFKL, a leading provi­der of receiv­a­bles manage­ment in Germany; and Median Klini­ken, a leading provi­der of inde­pen­dent reha­bi­li­ta­tion clinics.
After more than 35 years of inter­na­tio­nal invest­ment acti­vity, Advent remains true to its invest­ment approach of gene­ra­ting sustainable reve­nue and profit growth for its port­fo­lio compa­nies by working in part­ner­ship with manage­ment teams. www.adventinternational.com

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.

Frank­furt a. M. — Funds advi­sed by Triton (“Triton”) and Luxinva, a wholly owned subsi­diary of the Abu Dhabi Invest­ment Autho­rity (“ADIA”), have successfully comple­ted the acqui­si­tion of 100% of IFCO from Austra­lian Secu­ri­ties Exch­ange listed Brambles Limi­ted. Triton and ADIA have equal stakes in the investment.

IFCO is the world’s leading provi­der of reusable pack­a­ging solu­ti­ons for fresh food, serving custo­mers in more than 50 count­ries. IFCO has a global pool of more than 290 million reusable plas­tic contai­ners (RPCs) used for more than 1.3 billion ship­ments of fresh fruits and vege­ta­bles, meat, poul­try, seafood, eggs, bread and other items each year. (Photo: © Triton).

About ADIA
Foun­ded in 1976, ADIA is a globally diver­si­fied invest­ment insti­tu­tion that invests on behalf of the Govern­ment of Abu Dhabi as part of a stra­tegy focu­sed on long-term value crea­tion. ADIA has been inves­t­ing in private equity since 1989 and has built a signi­fi­cant in-house team of specia­lists with expe­ri­ence in asset products, geogra­phies and sectors. Through its exten­sive rela­ti­onships across the indus­try, Private Equi­ties invests in private equity and credit products globally, often along­side exter­nal part­ners, and in extern­ally mana­ged primary and secon­dary funds.

The company’s philo­so­phy is to build long-term, colla­bo­ra­tive rela­ti­onships with its part­ners and manage­ment teams to maxi­mize value and support the imple­men­ta­tion of agreed strategies.

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 in the long term by working toge­ther as part­ners. 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.

Gelsenkirchen/Krefeld — Water­land Private Equity conti­nues its buy&build stra­tegy at its port­fo­lio company Reha­con: fysio­con­cept is alre­ady the fourth acqui­si­tion for Reha­con within a few weeks. With a wide range of physio­the­rapy services, fysio­con­cept is one of the largest provi­ders in the Krefeld area. With this part­ner­ship, the Reha­con Group is streng­thening its regio­nal presence in the Lower Rhine region. At the same time, the Group intends to work with fysio­con­cept to further conso­li­date the prac­tice network, broa­den its service port­fo­lio and enter into addi­tio­nal colla­bo­ra­ti­ons with clinics.

The seller of fysio­con­cept is foun­der and CEO Jos Beulen. He will remain asso­cia­ted with the Group in a leading posi­tion and will conti­nue to accom­pany its further deve­lo­p­ment in the future. Water­land had acqui­red Reha­con in Janu­ary 2019 and assis­ted in the acqui­si­tion of Hamburg-based therapy center Anita Brüche in April. The tran­sac­tion, the details of which have been agreed not to be disc­lo­sed, is expec­ted to be comple­ted in early July.

fysio­con­cept main­ta­ins four loca­ti­ons in Krefeld, inclu­ding a physi­cal therapy prac­tice for the local Malte­ser Hospi­tal, its own private pati­ent loca­tion, and an Olym­pic base in the Krefeld area. The total of more than 80 employees treat over 12,000 pati­ents per year, both as outpa­ti­ents and inpa­ti­ents. Fysio­con­cept services include Exten­ded Outpa­ti­ent Physi­cal Therapy (EAP), jaw treat­ment, physio­the­rapy, lympha­tic drai­nage, medi­cal trai­ning, occu­pa­tio­nal therapy, osteo­pa­thy, and manual, neuro­lo­gi­cal and physi­cal therapy. With the latest acqui­si­tion, the treat­ment spec­trum of the entire Reha­con Group will be expan­ded to include offe­rings for compe­ti­tive athle­tes, for exam­ple. For fysio­con­cept employees, addi­tio­nal exten­sive trai­ning and further educa­tion oppor­tu­ni­ties open up. Inte­gra­tion into the Reha­con Group means even more flexi­bi­lity for thera­pists in their acti­vi­ties and choice of location.

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. The group gene­ra­tes annual sales of around 36 million euros at last count.

Jos Beulen, foun­der and mana­ging direc­tor of fysio­con­cept, welco­mes the part­ner­ship: “Also as part of the Reha­con Group, we stand for high-quality and indi­vi­dual physio­the­ra­peu­tic treat­ment. At the same time, pati­ents and employees bene­fit from Rehacon’s nati­on­wide presence and the asso­cia­ted new opportunities.”

Michael Reeder, foun­der and mana­ging direc­tor of Reha­con, empha­si­zes: “Reha­con is now even more present in the Lower Rhine region thanks to the part­ner­ship with fysio­con­cept. The inte­gra­tion into our group shows: We are consis­t­ently pursuing our course and want to grow further by inte­gra­ting addi­tio­nal complex and successful therapy centers in the highly frag­men­ted market for physiotherapy.”

Dr. Cars­ten Rahlfs (photo copy­right Water­land), Part­ner at Water­land: “Buy & build stra­te­gies are a key success factor for Water­land. We part­ner with well-posi­tio­ned entre­pre­neurs opera­ting in frag­men­ted markets with conso­li­da­tion poten­tial to help them expand rapidly. The clear objec­tive is to turn these compa­nies into successful market leaders by making acqui­si­ti­ons to expand their offe­rings. With fysio­con­cept, Reha­con can further expand its part­ner­ships with clinics in the region. Follo­wing the acqui­si­tion of the Anita Brüche Therapy Center in Hamburg a few weeks ago, the inte­gra­tion of fysio­con­cept into Reha­con is another key step towards achie­ving our stra­te­gic goal.”

As the majo­rity share­hol­der in Reha­con, the inde­pen­dent invest­ment company Water­land has exten­sive expe­ri­ence in the health­care market. In addi­tion to MEDIAN, the leading private provi­der in Germany with more than 120 reha­bi­li­ta­tion clinics, the company port­fo­lio also includes the ATOS clinic group, which specia­li­zes in ortho­pe­dics, and the care service provi­der Schö­nes Leben. Finally, Water­land also has a signi­fi­cant stake in Hanse­fit, a leading network asso­cia­tion for company sports and health services with more than 1,400 affi­lia­ted fitness studios.

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.

Water­land has consis­t­ently outper­for­med its invest­ments since its foun­ding in 1999 and has regu­larly ranked among the top three leading private equity firms world­wide in past HEC/Dow Jones Private Equity Perfor­mance Rankings.

Kleinostheim/ Munich — The invest­ment company Gimv has acqui­red a majo­rity stake in Smart Battery Solu­ti­ons GmbH(SBS). Accor­ding to Gimv, this is inten­ded to conti­nue SBS’s strong growth course in the dyna­mic battery market, streng­then its staff and expand its produc­tion capa­ci­ties. P+P Pöllath + Part­ners provi­ded compre­hen­sive legal and tax advice to the buyer Gimv. Photo: Sven Oleow­nik Part­ner — Head Gimv Germany.

Smart Battery Solu­ti­ons GmbH, based in Klein­ost­heim in Lower Fran­co­nia, was foun­ded in 2010 and today employs around 50 people. The company deve­lops, produ­ces and sells lithium-ion battery systems in the low-voltage range of up to 60 volts. The product range extends from the custo­mi­zed assem­bly of cells produ­ced by third parties to the deve­lo­p­ment and produc­tion of intel­li­gent energy storage systems and char­ging tech­no­lo­gies. In addi­tion, SBS has deve­lo­ped seve­ral proprie­tary battery manage­ment systems that control the opera­tion of batte­ries and ensure their safe use.

SBS products are used in nume­rous eMobi­lity appli­ca­ti­ons, such as e‑bikes, e‑scooters, water­craft or drones.

Advi­sor Gimv: P+P Pöllath + Partners
P+P Pöllath + Part­ners provi­ded compre­hen­sive legal and tax advice to the purcha­ser Gimv with the follo­wing multi­di­sci­pli­nary and multi­site team:
Dr. Tim Kauf­hold (Part­ner, M&A/Private Equity, Munich)
Dr. Nico Fischer (Part­ner, Tax Law, Munich)
Daniel Wied­mann, LL.M. (Asso­cia­ted Part­ner, Anti­trust Law, Frankfurt)
Dr. Verena Sten­zel (Senior Asso­ciate, M&A/Private Equity, Munich)
Chris­tine Funk, LL.M. (Senior Asso­ciate, M&A/Private Equity, Frankfurt)
Matthias Ober­bauer (Asso­ciate, M&A/Private Equity, Munich)

Munich — DLA Piper has advi­sed the French invest­ment fund “The Invest­ment and Support Fund for Busi­nesses in Africa” (FISEA) in the case of an invest­ment in the Zambian bank AB Bank Zambia Ltd.(ABZ) with a total volume of 25 million Zambian Kwacha (approx. EUR 1.6 million). Further share­hol­ders of ABZ are Access­Hol­ding Micro­fi­nance Ltd, Inter­na­tio­nal Finance Corpo­ra­tion (IFC) and the Kredit­an­stalt für Wieder­auf­bau (KfW). Upon comple­tion of the tran­sac­tion, FISEA will hold a total equity inte­rest of 22.5% in ABZ.

FISEA belongs to the Agence Fran­çaise de Déve­lo­pe­ment (AFD) and is mana­ged by its subsi­diary Prop­arco. This specia­li­zes in private sector deve­lo­p­ment and invests in compa­nies, banks, micro­fi­nance insti­tu­ti­ons and invest­ment funds opera­ting in sub-Saha­ran Africa. With an invest­ment target of EUR 250 million, FISEA is one of the key compon­ents of the French initia­tive to promote growth and employ­ment in Africa.

ABZ is the only bank that finan­ces SMEs and micro-entre­pre­neurs in Zambia. At the end of 2017, total assets amoun­ted to EUR 24 million. ABZ opera­tes through a network of seven bran­ches, employs 419 people and has 14,754 borrowers.

The DLA Piper team led by part­ner Simon Vogel also included senior asso­ciate Michael Rebholz (both Corporate/Private Equity, Munich).

Munich — ARQIS advi­sed Liberta Part­ners, a Munich-based multi-family holding company, on its new invest­ment struc­ture as well as on the first closing of its second fund. Behind the capi­tal commit­ments tota­ling more than EUR 50 million are prima­rily entre­pre­neurs and wealthy private individuals.

Dr. Peter Franke, foun­ding part­ner of Liberta Part­ners: “We are proud of the strong recep­tion from exis­ting and new inves­tors who support our stra­tegy. Our core compe­tence remains the active, entre­pre­neu­rial and inno­va­tive deve­lo­p­ment of our port­fo­lio compa­nies, espe­ci­ally with the diverse digi­tal oppor­tu­ni­ties our world offers today.”

Liberta Part­ners was foun­ded in 2016 and invests in compa­nies in German-spea­king count­ries with clear opera­tio­nal deve­lo­p­ment poten­tial, espe­ci­ally in group spin-offs and succes­sion situa­tions. These are actively deve­lo­ped and bene­fit from the inno­va­tive entre­pre­neu­rial under­stan­ding of Liberta Part­ners. The Liberta Part­ners team curr­ently consists of nine profes­sio­nals from the areas of M&A, opera­ti­ons and legal

Advi­sors to Liberta Part­ners: ARQIS Rechts­an­wälte (Munich)
Mauritz von Einem, Photo (Lead; Corporate/Tax), Prof. Dr. Chris­toph von Einem, Dr. Chris­tof Schnei­der, Elisa­beth Falte­rer (all Corporate)

Flick Gocke Schaum­burg (Munich): Chris­tian Schatz (Regu­la­tion)

Frank­furt a. M. — Funds mana­ged by Ardian have acqui­red shares of UniCre­dit Bank AG and the management’s invest­ment company in Swan­Cap Part­ners GmbH. Ardian had prevai­led in the bidding process. Management’s affi­liate reta­ins a mino­rity inte­rest and a control­ling inte­rest with respect to Swan­Cap. P+P Pöllath + Part­ners advi­sed the Swan­Cap manage­ment on both tran­sac­tional and fund law issues. Curr­ently, Swan­Cap mana­ges appro­xi­m­ately EUR 3 billion in private equity investments.

UniCre­dit Bank AG had sold part of its private equity port­fo­lio in 2013 to funds advi­sed by Swan­Cap with its own back-invest­ment in Swan­Cap and with the parti­ci­pa­tion of the then senior manage­ment of UniCredit’s private equity divi­sion. P+P was also active in this sale as well as in the launch of the Swan­Cap funds.

Swan­Cap is an inde­pen­dent invest­ment manage­ment and advi­sory plat­form with offices in Munich, Luxem­bourg, Milan and New York. Swan­Cap specia­li­zes in private equity buyouts and has predo­mi­nantly insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors. Curr­ently, Swan­Cap mana­ges appro­xi­m­ately EUR 3 billion in private equity investments.

Ardian is a private invest­ment house with appro­xi­m­ately USD 90 billion in assets under manage­ment or advi­sory across Europe, the Ameri­cas and Asia. Ardian intends to further expand SwanCap’s market posi­tion with its proven Swan­Cap Management.

Advi­sors to Swan­Cap Part­ners: P+P Pöllath + Partners 
Dr. Eva Nase (Part­ner, Lead Part­ner, Corporate/M&A, Munich)
Jens Hörmann (Part­ner, M&A/Private Equity, Munich)
Dr. Peter Bujot­zek, LL.M. (Part­ner, Private Funds, Frank­furt am Main)
Jasmin Wagner (Senior Asso­ciate, Corporate/M&A, Munich)
Thies Jacob, LL.M. (Auck­land) (Asso­ciate, M&A/Private Equity, Munich)
André Blischke (Asso­ciate, Private Funds, Frank­furt am Main)

Munich — SCHEMA, a port­fo­lio company of IK Invest­ment Part­ners has acqui­red 73% of the shares in TID Infor­ma­tik GmbH. The SCHEMA Group thus expands its previous 27% share in TID Infor­ma­tik to 100%.

As a new wholly owned subsi­diary of the SCHEMA Group, TID Infor­ma­tik will conti­nue to operate on the market as an inde­pen­dent company along­side SCHEMA Consul­ting and SCHEMA Systems. The current mana­ging direc­tors Robert Schä­fer and Rafi Boud­jakdjian will conti­nue to lead TID Infor­ma­tik GmbH as mana­ging directors.

TID Infor­ma­tik GmbH was foun­ded in 1992 by Robert Schä­fer as a service provi­der in the field of tech­ni­cal docu­men­ta­tion. Today, TID Infor­ma­tik is a successful and fast-growing soft­ware company offe­ring CATA­LOG­crea­tor®, the market-leading soft­ware plat­form for elec­tro­nic spare parts busi­ness, service infor­ma­tion systems and portals. The head­quar­ters of TID Infor­ma­tik GmbH is in Inning am Ammer­see, further­more the company has a branch office in Amberg. TID Infor­ma­tik employs 50 people at both loca­ti­ons and plans to grow further in the coming years.
SCHEMA and TID, as well as the respec­tive manage­ment, are convin­ced that an even more inten­sive stra­te­gic coope­ra­tion can addi­tio­nally streng­then the alre­ady curr­ently impres­sive growth of both companies.

IK Invest­ment Part­ners is a Euro­pean private equity firm with an invest­ment focus on the Nordic count­ries, the DACH region and France/Benelux. Since 1989, IK has laun­ched funds with a cumu­la­tive equity volume of almost €10 billion and inves­ted in more than 125 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.

Advi­sor TID: Concen­tro Manage­ment AG 
Michael Raab (Part­ner), Sebas­tian Mink (Prin­ci­pal), Julia Albert (Consul­tant), Julian Schie­ner (Consul­tant)

Advi­sors to IK Invest­ment Part­ners: Shear­man & Sterling
Shear­man & Ster­ling previously advi­sed on the finan­cing of the 2018 acqui­si­tion of SCHEMA Group. The Shear­man & Ster­ling team included Part­ner Winfried M. Carli and Asso­ciate Andreas Breu (both Germany-Finance).

About Concen­tro AG
Concen­tro Manage­ment AG is a medium-sized consul­ting company with a focus on M&A consul­ting, mainly in tran­si­tion situa­tions, restruc­tu­ring consul­ting and corpo­rate manage­ment. With 35 employees at four loca­ti­ons in Germany, Concen­tro works in an imple­men­ta­tion and success-orien­ted manner. The aim is to gene­rate added value for the custo­mer through an indi­vi­dual consul­ting service.

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. For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.shearman.com.

Munich — DPE Deut­sche Private Equity (DPE) has sold its mino­rity stake in Webtrekk GmbH to US-based Mapp Digi­tal US, LLC, San Diego. Mapp is one of the world’s largest provi­ders of marke­ting tech­no­logy. With now more than 140 employees, Webtrekk has estab­lished itself as one of the market-leading premium custo­mer analy­tics plat­forms in Europe since DPE parti­ci­pa­ted with growth finan­cing in 2014. Webtrekk supports its custo­mers in under­stan­ding and analy­zing the beha­vior of their website and app users across devices and apply­ing it speci­fi­cally to marke­ting measu­res. Webtrekk’s custo­mers include, for exam­ple, ProSiebenSat1 Media AG, Flix­Bus, Porsche and ING. The tran­sac­tion is still subject to the usual reser­va­tions — inclu­ding appr­oval by the compe­ti­tion authorities.

Mapp provi­des digi­tal marke­ting solu­ti­ons that combine custo­mer acqui­si­tion and reten­tion on a simple plat­form with inte­gra­ted cross-chan­nel capa­bi­li­ties. Head­quar­te­red in San Diego with global offices in eight count­ries, Mapp is a port­fo­lio company of Marlin Equity Part­ners, a global invest­ment firm with over $6.7 billion in assets under management.

Advi­sors to Mapp Digi­tal US/ Marlin Equity Part­ners: Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek
A team led by Dr. Marc Scheu­ne­mann advi­sed U.S. marke­ting tech­no­logy company Mapp Digi­tal US, LLC on its acqui­si­tion of Webtrekk, the German market leader for marke­ting analy­tics and custo­mer intel­li­gence. The seller is DPE Deut­sche Private Equity and other co-inves­tors. The tran­sac­tion is expec­ted to close in the second quar­ter of 2019. The closing of the tran­sac­tion is still subject to appr­oval by the rele­vant anti­trust authorities.

 

Infra­struc­ture inves­tor 3i buys rail vehicle leasing company Disa Assets from Dutch state rail opera­tor Neder­lands Spoor­we­gen. Disa owns 54 diesel trains, which it leases to Abel­lio on a long-term basis. Follo­wing the purchase of the company, 3i has refi­nan­ced the Disa busi­ness with money from insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors. Nothing is known about the value of the transaction.

The acqui­si­tion of Disa in the bidding process was closely tied to the successful refi­nan­cing of the leasing company. The new inves­tors include Meag Munich Ergo Asset Manage­ment, the joint asset mana­ger of Munich Re and the Ergo Group, and Sumitomo Mitui Banking Corpo­ra­tion (SMBC). The latter contri­bu­tes to the finan­cing mix with a tradi­tio­nal bank loan, while Meag invests in bonds issued by Disa. The refi­nan­cing replaces a Kfw-Ipex loan finan­cing at an early stage.

The asset mana­ger is looking for alter­na­tive long-term invest­ments in view of the low inte­rest rates that can be reali­zed on the capi­tal market. This is the second time that the subsi­diary of the two insu­r­ers has inves­ted in rail vehic­les. The risk-rela­ted higher inte­rest rates on these assets result from the fact that the vehic­les can run for 24 years, but the public trans­port contracts that guaran­tee their use only run for 12 years. So the inves­tors are specu­la­ting that the vehic­les will be used again afterwards.

Abel­lio was awarded the conces­sion to operate the network in Central Germany in 2015 and has been opera­ting it since the end of 2018. With nine million train kilo­me­ters, the contract is one of the largest in German local rail passen­ger trans­port (SPNV). Abel­lio is also a subsi­diary of the Dutch state railroads.

Advi­ses 3i Euro­pean Opera­tio­nal Projects Funds: Ashurst (Frank­furt)
Dr. Bene­dikt von Schor­le­mer (Corporate/M&A), Derk Opitz (Finan­cing; both lead), Dr. Maxi­mi­lian Uibe­lei­sen (Infrastructure/M&A), Holger Mlynek (Infrastructure/Public Commer­cial Law), Dr. Philip Cavail­lès; Asso­cia­tes: Jan van Kisfeld, Jan Ischreyt (all Corporate/M&A)

Advi­sor Neder­landse Spoorwegen/NS Finan­cial Services
Clif­ford Chance (Munich): Markus Muhs (Lead; Corporate/Private Equity), Dr. Chris­tof Häfner (Banking), Thors­ten Sauer­he­ring, Dr. Domi­nik Engl (both Tax; the latter three Frank­furt); Asso­cia­tes: Dr. Wenzel Rich­ter, Konstan­tin Heil­mann (both Corporate/Private Equity)

Inhouse Law (Utrecht): Bart van Hors­sen, Michel Hoogen­dorn, Ronald Klein Wassink, Osman Aksoycan

Munich — AFINUM Fünfte Betei­li­gungs­ge­sell­schaft mbH & Co KG, advi­sed by AFINUM Manage­ment GmbH, has sold its stake in Sinnex Group to the French Groupe Méri­guet, a leading provi­der of reno­va­tion services for high-end real estate and luxury properties.

Sinnex (www.sinnex.com) is a company specia­li­zing in the highest quality inte­rior finis­hes for luxury yachts, private resi­den­ces as well as private aircraft. The main focus of the busi­ness is luxury yachts for private owners, espe­ci­ally super luxury yachts with a length of more than 40 meters. AFINUM took over the majo­rity of the shares from the foun­ders in April 2010 and arran­ged their entre­pre­neu­rial succes­sion in the period there­af­ter. During the holding period, the company’s perfor­mance more than doubled and today Sinnex is one of the top suppli­ers in this segment.

Within the Méri­guet Group, Sinnex is also expec­ted to contri­bute his profes­sio­nal skills to projects outside his tradi­tio­nal areas, parti­cu­larly in the resi­den­tial sector. Sinnex opera­tes a plant in Griffen/Austria for produc­tion purpo­ses and has an effi­ci­ent network of supplier opera­ti­ons, espe­ci­ally in Southe­as­tern Europe.

AFINUM is an inde­pen­dent manage­ment-owned invest­ment company with offices in Munich, Zurich and Hong Kong, specia­li­zing in invest­ments in successful medium-sized compa­nies in German-spea­king Europe. Photo: Dr. Thomas Bühler, Part­ner and Dr. Gernot Eisin­ger, Part­ner (left)

Frank­furt a. M. — VR Equi­typ­art­ner GmbH has acqui­red a mino­rity stake in Infor­ma­tik Consul­ting Systems AG (ICS). The acqui­si­tion is part of a succes­sion plan and is aimed at conti­nuing the successful growth of ICS. VR Equi­typ­art­ner GmbH was advi­sed by Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek with a team led by Dr. Rainer Hersch­lein and Bene­dikt Raisch.

The manage­ment of the company is in the hands of the previous board member and share­hol­der Cid Kiefer, who will in future hold a majo­rity stake in the company toge­ther with two other share­hol­ders. The previous passive family share­hol­ders, the Winkel and Hämer fami­lies, are leaving the company. Toge­ther, the share­hol­ders intend to expand the range of services as well as explore the opening of new loca­ti­ons and the acqui­si­tion of compa­nies. In this context, addi­tio­nal specia­lists are to be recrui­ted and the orga­niza­tio­nal struc­ture adapted to the incre­asing size of the company.

Stutt­gart-based ICS AG is a family-run IT consul­ting and engi­nee­ring company that has been deve­lo­ping solu­ti­ons for complex IT envi­ron­ments for more than 50 years. The company employs around 120 people at four loca­ti­ons in Germany and a subsi­diary in Switz­er­land. ICS is active in the fields of “Trans­por­ta­tion” (control and safety tech­no­logy for rail infra­struc­ture), “Indus­trial Engi­nee­ring” (main­ten­ance of IT systems in logi­stics and produc­tion) and “Infor­ma­tion Secu­rity” (deve­lo­p­ment, certi­fi­ca­tion and opera­tion of infor­ma­tion secu­rity systems).

VR Equi­typ­art­ner GmbH
VR Equi­typ­art­ner GmbH is one of the leading equity finan­ciers in the DACH region. VR Equi­typ­art­ner supports medium-sized family busi­nesses in a goal-orien­ted manner and with deca­des of expe­ri­ence in the stra­te­gic solu­tion of complex finan­cing issues. In doing so, VR Equi­typ­art­ner consis­t­ently puts the sustaina­bi­lity of company deve­lo­p­ments before short-term exit thin­king. VR Equitypartner’s port­fo­lio curr­ently compri­ses around 100 commit­ments with an invest­ment volume of EUR 500 million.

Advi­sors to VR Equi­typ­art­ner GmbH: Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek
Dr. Rainer Hersch­lein, LL.M. (lead manage­ment, M&A),
Bene­dikt Raisch (Lead Part­ner, M&A),
Corne­lia Schwiz­ler (Corpo­rate / M&A),
Dr. Markus Klin­ger (IT/IP),
Dr. Felix Drefs (IT/IP),
Dr. Anne de Boer LL.M. (Funding),
Andreas Lutz (Real Estate Law),
Dr. Anto­nia Stein (Labor Law),
Dr. Nicole Armin­geon (Public Law), all Stuttgart
Fabian G. Gaffron (Tax Law), Hamburg
Dr. Ruth Schnei­der (Commer­cial), Munich

Hano­ver — NORD Holding Unter­neh­mens­be­tei­li­gungs­ge­sell­schaft mbH, Hano­ver, has sold its mino­rity share­hol­ding in AVISTA OIL AG, one of the leading compa­nies in used oil proces­sing in Europe and the USA, to Bitbur­ger Holding GmbH and SKion GmbH.

The mino­rity invest­ment by NORD Holding was made as part of a growth finan­cing to imple­ment AVISTA OIL’s long-term stra­tegy of further inter­na­tio­na­li­zing its busi­ness and expan­ding its product port­fo­lio. “We are plea­sed to have been able to guide AVISTA OIL’s outstan­ding manage­ment team through key stra­te­gic decis­i­ons in recent years, inclu­ding their move into the U.S. The new share­hol­der struc­ture now allows AVISTA OIL to take the next step in its growth,” says Andreas Bösen­berg, Mana­ging Direc­tor of NORD Holding. “We have more than achie­ved our common goals in the coope­ra­tion with NORD Holding. The perso­nal and very trus­ting rela­ti­onship will certainly conti­nue beyond his reti­re­ment as a share­hol­der of AVISTA OIL,” adds Marc Verfürth, member of the board of AVISTA OIL AG.

About AVISTA OIL AG
AVISTA OIL AG is one of the leading compa­nies in used oil rege­ne­ra­tion in Europe and the USA with an annual rege­ne­ra­tion capa­city of almost 500,000 tons today. In the oil upcy­cling segment, AVISTA OIL has a current capa­city of more than 300,000 tons, with another 100,000 tons under cons­truc­tion, and is one of the tech­no­logy leaders in the produc­tion of high-quality base oils and lubri­cants from used oils. A number of subsi­dia­ries and asso­cia­ted compa­nies are bund­led under the umbrella of AVISTA OIL AG, which performs all func­tions from coll­ec­tion & logi­stics, re-refi­ning and lubri­cant produc­tion to inter­na­tio­nal distri­bu­tion. AVISTA OIL employs around 700 people at seve­ral refi­nery sites in Europe and the USA.

About NORD Holding
With its 50-year history and assets under manage­ment of € 2 billion, NORD Holding is one of the leading private equity asset manage­ment compa­nies in Germany. The focus is on the busi­ness areas of direct invest­ments and fund of funds invest­ments. The focus of the direct busi­ness is on the struc­tu­ring and finan­cing of corpo­rate succes­sion models, the acqui­si­tion of group parts/subsidiaries and the expan­sion finan­cing of medium-sized compa­nies. In contrast to most other finan­cial inves­tors, who only manage time-limi­ted funds, NORD Holding acts as a so-called “ever­green fund” with no time limit and invests from its own balance sheet. The company is curr­ently invol­ved with more than 15 compa­nies in Germany and other German-spea­king count­ries. The Fund Invest­ments busi­ness unit targets the small- and mid-cap segment of the Euro­pean private equity market and focu­ses on primary, secon­dary and co-invest­ments. NORD Holding focu­ses stron­gly on buyout mana­gers newly estab­lished on the market, opera­tio­nal invest­ment stra­te­gies and also regu­larly acts as an anchor inves­tor. The fund of funds divi­sion curr­ently mana­ges € 1.3 billion and is one of the most successful fund of funds compa­nies in Europe.