Liberta Partners supports merger of Kienzle Automotive and ght

Munich / Mülheim an der Ruhr / Nurem­berg — The multi family holding company Liberta Part­ners announ­ces that it has ente­red into an agree­ment to acquire ght GmbH Elek­tro­nik im Verkehr (“ght”) through Liberta Part­ners Fund II (“Liberta”). The tran­sac­tion is expec­ted to close in the first quar­ter of 2022. ght will be inte­gra­ted into a holding struc­ture toge­ther with Kienzle Auto­mo­tive GmbH (“Kienzle”), which has alre­ady been part of Liberta’s port­fo­lio since 2020.

The service port­fo­lio of Kienzle and ght includes products and services for all aspects of digi­tal and analog tacho­graphs. The two compa­nies, with a total of 13 loca­ti­ons in Germany and 186 employees, are the largest VDO sales compa­nies and thus market leaders. At the same time, ght Mana­ging Direc­tor Herbert Wert­h­ner will become the new CEO and share­hol­der of Kienzle Betei­li­gungs GmbH (“Holding”). Corne­lius von Ples­sen, CFO of Kienzle Auto­mo­tive, will serve as CFO of the holding company in the future. Liberta Part­ners will support the Group with its opera­tio­nal and stra­te­gic know-how and, toge­ther with the manage­ment, will invest speci­fi­cally in future tech­no­lo­gies in order to realize further growth potential.

Kienzle and ght offer complex tele­ma­tics systems and services for control­ling vehicle fleets. The mutual service port­fo­lio also includes services rela­ted to the digi­tal tacho­graph, the archi­ving of tacho­graph data, the retro­fit­ting of assis­tance systems for commer­cial vehic­les, and services for cab compa­nies. In addi­tion, ght is estab­lished in the southern German market as a system house for cash regis­ter systems, parking tech­no­logy and parking space manage­ment, tank tech­no­logy and access systems.

Further inter­nal growth and acqui­si­ti­ons planned

Nils von Wietz­low, Part­ner at Liberta and respon­si­ble for succes­sion solu­ti­ons, said: “We are deligh­ted to have been able to bring toge­ther two market leaders in auto­mo­tive services, ght and Kienzle. The two compa­nies also comple­ment each other excel­lently in the tele­ma­tics and systems tech­no­logy busi­ness areas, and we see concrete expan­sion and cross-selling poten­tial in all segments. We will actively support Kienzle and ght in their inter­nal and exter­nal growth plans.”

Herbert Wert­h­ner, CEO of Kienzle Betei­li­gungs GmbH, empha­si­zed: “The inno­va­tive cultures of ght and Kienzle Auto­mo­tive are an excel­lent fit. With Liberta Part­ners, we also have an owner at our side who supports us stra­te­gi­cally and makes it easier for us to invest in future technologies.”

This is the fifth invest­ment of Liberta Part­ners Fund II, which closed in Octo­ber 2019. The fund invests in group spin-offs and succes­sion situa­tions of family busi­nesses with a strong focus on support­ing the opera­tio­nal deve­lo­p­ment of its port­fo­lio companies.

About KIENZLE Auto­mo­tive GmbH
KIENZLE Auto­mo­tive GmbH (“Kienzle”) is the leading German provi­der for sales and service of networked devices and systems in the auto­mo­tive after­mar­ket envi­ron­ment. From 6 of its own commer­cial vehicle work­shops (5 in North Rhine-West­­pha­­lia and 1 in Baden-Würt­­te­m­­berg), Kienzle, as the largest VDO system part­ner within Germany, serves around 770 contrac­tually bound service part­ners and a total of over 10,000 commer­cial custo­mers. In the area of data manage­ment and fleet tele­ma­tics, Kienzle works with estab­lished soft­ware deve­lo­pers to create custo­­mer-speci­­fic evalua­tions and readout opti­ons. This has enab­led Kienzle to estab­lish itself in the public trans­port sector, for exam­ple. For more infor­ma­tion, please visit: www.kienzle.de

About ght GmbH Elec­tro­nics in traffic
Based in Bava­ria, ght GmbH | Elek­tro­nik im Verkehr (“ght”) is a future-orien­­ted trading and service company offe­ring appli­ca­ti­ons and systems in the auto­mo­tive and systems engi­nee­ring sectors. As VDO’s specia­list dealer part­ner, around 500 certi­fied § 57b specia­list work­shops are affi­lia­ted with ght in Bava­ria. More than 10,000 custo­mers have an active busi­ness rela­ti­onship with ght. Espe­ci­ally in the field of archi­ving and tele­ma­tics solu­ti­ons for commer­cial fleets, ght is the leading provi­der in Bava­ria. In addi­tion, ght is also a system house for cash regis­ter systems, parking tech­no­logy, parking space manage­ment, tank tech­no­logy, access systems and access control systems and is an estab­lished player in the southern German market. For more infor­ma­tion, please visit: www.ght.de

About Liberta Partners
Liberta Part­ners was foun­ded in 2016 and is a multi-family holding company based in Munich. Liberta Part­ners invests in compa­nies in German-spea­king count­ries with clear opera­tio­nal and stra­te­gic deve­lo­p­ment poten­tial, espe­ci­ally in succes­sion situa­tions and corpo­rate spin-offs. These are actively deve­lo­ped as part of the long-term “100% Core & Care” concept and bene­fit from Liberta Part­ners’ inno­va­tive entre­pre­neu­rial under­stan­ding. Liberta Part­ners’ team curr­ently consists of 14 employees working in M&A, corpo­rate deve­lo­p­ment and legal, as well as an active indus­try advi­sory board. www.liberta-partners.com