Putting companies on track for growth with minority interests

Financing through private equity can significantly advance the growth of medium-sized companies in certain situations. For the concept to work for both sides, the financial investor and the entrepreneur must be able to make decisions in partnership and work well together. This places high demands on both parties, as they naturally have very different goals and expectations of this cooperation.

The equity investor must be primarily concerned with bringing about an increase in the value of the company. Only then will his investment be profitable and his own business model successful. Since it is generally much easier for a private equity company as a majority shareholder to assert its interests and shape the company according to its own ideas, the vast majority of financial investors still concentrate on investing only in majority shareholdings.

Medium-sized family entrepreneurs, on the other hand, prefer to keep the wheel in their own hands; after all, the company is their life's work. They need the close, trusting cooperation of investor and management in the company and relevant co-determination rights. You want a flexible investment term. They also attach importance to additional services with which the investor contributes to the successful implementation of the value enhancement agreed in advance as a partnership.

As a member of the Volksbanken Raiffeisenbanken cooperative financial group and a joint subsidiary of DZ BANK and WGZ BANK, VR Equitypartner GmbH is positioned to meet these needs. Backed by the capital of its two financially strong parent companies, it offers SMEs financing solutions tailored to their individual needs. In doing so, the company focused in particular on minority shareholdings.

VR Equitypartner, which emerged from the merger of WGZ Initiativkapital and DZ Equity Partner completed in summer 2012, supports medium-sized companies in the strategic solution of complex financing issues in a goal-oriented manner and with more than 40 years of experience. In addition to minority shareholdings, the repertoire also includes majority shareholdings and mezzanine financing.

The current portfolio comprises around 100 commitments with an investment volume of 570 million euros. Openness, partnership, trust, competence and responsibility have been among VR Equitypartner's core values for many years.