Exit: Süd Beteiligungen and VR Equitypartner sell their shares in Piller

Süd Betei­li­gun­gen and VR Equi­typ­art­ner sell their shares in Piller Entgrattechnik
Stuttgart/Frankfurt am Main/Ditzingen — Süd Betei­li­gun­genGmbH (SüdBG) and VR Equi­typ­art­ner GmbH (VR Equi­typ­art­ner) are jointly selling their shares in Piller Entgratt­ech­nik GmbH (Piller). The buyer is the private invest­ment group Rifle­bird Capi­tal from Belgium.

Piller is an inno­va­tive machine buil­der specia­li­zing in debur­ring and clea­ning of metal­lic compon­ents using high pres­sure water. With around 100 employees and sites in Ditzin­gen and Kecs­ke­mét (Hungary), Piller prima­rily serves the auto­mo­tive indus­try, gene­ra­ting annual sales of around 30 million euros.

Follo­wing the acqui­si­tion of Piller in 2014, SüdBG and VR Equi­typ­art­ner have stra­te­gi­cally deve­lo­ped the company further and pushed ahead with the inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion course, espe­ci­ally to Asia and North America. “With SüdBG and VR Equi­typ­art­ner we had an entre­pre­neu­rial equity part­ner at our side, who always accom­pa­nied the imple­men­ta­tion of our invest­ment projects and the entry into new markets in a spirit of part­ner­ship. With our new share­hol­der, we want to conti­nue this successful course,” said Mana­ging Direc­tors Thomas Piller, Jörg Nubert and Tobias Schwarz, who will remain asso­cia­ted with the company as mana­ging partners.

Rifle­bird is a closed group of private inves­tors with exten­sive expe­ri­ence in the invest­ment busi­ness and takes a long-term invest­ment approach. “We are impres­sed by the tech­ni­cal know-how of the company and the entire team. Based on an inno­va­tive product range and a deep under­stan­ding of its custo­mers’ needs, Piller has achie­ved a strong market posi­tion. We look forward to part­ne­ring with the company in the future as it conti­nues its inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion stra­tegy,” explains Sylvia Gilis, Mana­ging Part­ner of Rifle­bird. “I am plea­sed that with Rifle­bird we have found a part­ner for the company that is orien­ted towards medium-sized compa­nies and the long term. Piller has achie­ved extra­or­di­nary growth in recent years and, based on its leading tech­no­logy and deve­lo­p­ment exper­tise, will conti­nue to actively support its custo­mers in the future with the chal­lenges that arise in debur­ring and clea­ning tech­no­logy,” says Gunter Max, Mana­ging Direc­tor of SüdBG.

Chris­tian Futter­lieb, Mana­ging Direc­tor of VR Equi­typ­art­ner, adds: “Toge­ther with the manage­ment, we have successfully deve­lo­ped the company in recent years. This also included new sales coope­ra­ti­ons. Piller is thus excel­lently posi­tio­ned today.” With a view to the company’s promi­sing pros­pects, Futter­lieb empha­si­zes: “With the comple­tion of the new produc­tion hall and office buil­ding in 2017, the capa­ci­tive prere­qui­si­tes for further dyna­mic growth have been laid”. All parties have agreed not to disc­lose details of the purchase agreement.

Süd Betei­li­gun­gen GmbH at a glance
SüdBG is a wholly owned subsi­diary of Landes­bank Baden-Würt­­te­m­­berg (LBBW) and has been support­ing medium-sized compa­nies for more than 40 years with custo­mi­zed equity and equity-rela­­ted solu­ti­ons in the context of succes­sion plan­ning, growth finan­cing and share­hol­der chan­ges. As one of the leading invest­ment compa­nies in the German-spea­king region and a long-term inves­tor, SüdBG has supported over 70 compa­nies in the past 10 years with around 600 million euros and a broad network in sustainable corpo­rate deve­lo­p­ment. www.suedbg.de.

VR Equi­typ­art­ner GmbH at a glance
VR Equi­typ­art­ner is one of the leading equity finan­ciers in Germany, Austria and Switz­er­land. The company supports medium-sized family busi­nesses in a goal-orien­­ted manner and with almost 50 years of expe­ri­ence in the stra­te­gic solu­tion of complex finan­cing issues. Invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties include growth and expan­sion finan­cing, entre­pre­neu­rial succes­sion or share­hol­der chan­ges. VR Equi­typ­art­ner offers majo­rity and mino­rity invest­ments as well as mezza­nine finan­cing. As a subsi­diary of DZ BANK, the central insti­tu­tion of the coope­ra­tive banks in Germany, 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. www.vrep.de.