The helping hand of the investor

The answer is initi­ally quite simple: We provide the neces­sary funds to enable the compa­nies to grow through acqui­si­ti­ons and invest­ments. It is quite important to plan enough room for growth when finan­cing company acqui­si­ti­ons. At the chemi­cals distri­bu­tor Brenn­tag, for exam­ple, we have inves­ted around 500 million euros in acqui­si­ti­ons within five years. In the case of trans­for­mer manu­fac­tu­rer SGB-SMIT, it was around 80 million euros within three years for the expan­sion of produc­tion capa­ci­ties. Added to this is our stra­te­gic expe­ri­ence in many diffe­rent indus­tries. We advise manage­ment and serve as spar­ring partners.

Acqui­si­ti­ons usually offer the grea­test poten­tial for value enhance­ment. Growth through acqui­si­ti­ons is our core busi­ness, which we master very well and which distin­gu­is­hes us from most of our compe­ti­tors. We know from deca­des of expe­ri­ence how to struc­ture and finance acqui­si­ti­ons. One exam­ple is the labo­ra­tory service provider synlab which we have thus deve­lo­ped from a medium-sized German company into Europe’s leading labo­ra­tory group. Howe­ver, it is not just about current growth, but above all about future pros­pects. A poten­tial buyer never invests in history, but buys the future. In this respect, in ever­y­thing we do, we not only have the success of the company in mind, but also always a successful exit.

It happens, and it’s almost never due to the numbers… The value of a company, its market poten­tial and the indus­try situa­tion can be asses­sed objec­tively. We are very expe­ri­en­ced in this… What you can never check one hundred percent in advance is the human factor.

Is the entire manage­ment team commit­ted to the company’s success? Does every mana­ger bring the neces­sary profes­sio­nal and perso­nal quality, commit­ment, entre­pre­neu­rial thin­king and dedi­ca­tion? If we find that there are weak­ne­s­ses here among indi­vi­du­als in the manage­ment team, we some­ti­mes cannot avoid a manage­ment change. In our expe­ri­ence, things often improve very quickly because the others in the manage­ment team flou­rish and make the most of their newfound freedom.