Exit for LEA Partners: Sale of wood CAD/CAM market leader SEMA to Bregal

Karlsruhe/ Munich — German tech­no­logy inves­tor LEA Part­ners and Danish IT inves­tor VIA equity announ­ced today that they are selling a majo­rity stake in SEMA, the leading Euro­pean CAD/CAM soft­ware solu­tion in the field of timber cons­truc­tion and prefa­bri­ca­ted buil­dings, to Bregal Unter­neh­mer­ka­pi­tal. Details of the tran­sac­tion were not disclosed.

SEMA, foun­ded in 1984, provi­des join­ery and prefa­bri­ca­ted cons­truc­tion compa­nies with solu­ti­ons cove­ring all acti­vi­ties rela­ted to wood and stair cons­truc­tion. On a uniform, easy-to-use program inter­face, the soft­ware offers appli­ca­ti­ons such as 2D/3D CAD plan­ning and design, photo-reali­­stic visua­liza­tion, quota­tion calcu­la­tion and crea­tion, as well as produc­tion plans and working drawings. In Germany, Austria, France, Italy and Switz­er­land, SEMA has a signi­fi­cant market share and a remar­kable active custo­mer base of more than 10,500 join­ery and prefa­bri­ca­ted cons­truc­tion companies.

VIA equity and LEA Part­ners had acqui­red the majo­rity stake in SEMA in 2019 and have since supported the company in its mission to expand market leader­ship and achieve opera­tio­nal excel­lence. Under the new owners and thanks to its proven product and excel­lent custo­mer rela­ti­onships, SEMA had achie­ved signi­fi­cant sales and profit growth. As part of its invest­ment stra­tegy, SEMA broa­dened its leader­ship team, inves­ted in its tech­no­logy plat­form, acqui­red an ERP/CRM soft­ware company, and imple­men­ted seve­ral pricing and product bundle initiatives.

Alex­an­der Neuss, CEO of SEMA: “Our colla­bo­ra­tion with VIA and LEA over the past three years has really helped us to realize our full poten­tial. Our inves­tors’ exten­sive expe­ri­ence in the soft­ware market combi­ned with deep busi­ness exper­tise has been a perfect stra­te­gic fit, enab­ling us to acce­le­rate our growth and conti­nue to deli­ver indus­­try-leading services and inno­va­tion to our custo­mers. I am extre­mely grateful for the colla­bo­ra­tion and now look forward to conti­nuing on our growth path and expan­ding into addi­tio­nal markets internationally.”

Chris­tian Roth (photo, © LEA Part­ners), Mana­ging Part­ner at LEA Part­ners: “We are very proud to have played a role in SEMA’s growth story over the last few years. During our colla­bo­ra­tion, the SEMA team did an outstan­ding job and made the company a true soft­ware cham­pion in its indus­try. Our team has thoroughly enjoyed helping Alex­an­der and manage­ment drive stra­tegy and growth, and we are confi­dent that their dedi­ca­tion and drive will enable them to achieve many succes­ses in the future.”

VIA equity and LEA Part­ners were advi­sed by Houli­han Lokey, Noerr and Milbank on this transaction.

About LEA Partners

With curr­ently EUR 460 million in commit­ments, LEA Part­ners, as an entre­pre­neu­rial equity part­ner, supports foun­ders and manage­ment teams at diffe­rent stages of deve­lo­p­ment in their growth and achie­ve­ment of a leading market posi­tion. Based in Karls­ruhe, one of the largest tech­no­logy clus­ters in Europe, LEA has mana­ged invest­ments in nume­rous tech­no­logy compa­nies since 2002. www.leapartners.de.