Finexx closes first fund and acquires majority stake in GSE Vertrieb
Stuttgart — Stuttgart-based investment company Finexx has started investing from its first fund closed in mid-November 2018. In 2017, Finexx had already acquired minority shares in the welding specialist WIDOSas a co-partner of the Hannover Finanz Group, and now the first majority shareholding has been realized with GSE Vertrieb Biologische Nahrungsergänzung & Heilmittel GmbH from Saarbrücken. The transaction, which has already been completed, took place as part of a succession plan: The seller of the shares is founder and managing director Michael Gracher; the two other managing directors remain on board and continue to be among the shareholders. GSE has been on the market since 1994 and develops and distributes food supplements on an organic certified basis through natural food retailers.
The volume of Finexx Fund I is 35 million euros, most of which comes from institutional investors such as insurance companies and pension funds. Investments are made across all sectors in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with sales of 10 million euros or more. Further prerequisites are sustainable earning power and cash flow based on a successful business model as well as a qualified management team. Finexx commits five to 20 million euros of equity capital in each case.
Finexx Managing Director Matthias Heining: “GSE is excellently positioned in the market. Together with the accomplished management and dedicated employees, we now want to move to the next stage of development — this includes an expansion of product development, sales, internationalization and online business. We see excellent future prospects for GSE in view of increasingly health-conscious and organic-oriented consumers.”
Such a growth strategy is in line with Finexx’s investment philosophy: “In addition to long-term oriented, reliable business models, we are primarily concerned with professional further development,” explains Dr. Markus Seiler, also Managing Director of Finexx. “We see ourselves as an institutional family shareholder who speaks the language of family-run companies and who brings industry experience, user knowledge and an excellent network to the table without interfering in day-to-day operations.” Dr. Seiler, for example, has many years of experience as a managing director in family-owned and group companies in the industrial and technology sectors (including GEA Group and Brand Group); Heining was managing director of the renowned investment company BWK in Stuttgart and in various family-owned companies for several years. Together, they combine 30 years of technical and commercial expertise and can point to significant successes. “In the current environment, we still see a lot of potential and need to support exciting companies and successful entrepreneurs with drive — we expect to see more transactions,” Heining said.
About Finexx
Finexx GmbH Unternehmensbeteiligungen, based in Stuttgart, is a consulting company founded in 2013 that specializes in established medium-sized companies. Typical fields of activity are growth and acquisition financing as well as the support of changes in the shareholder structure and succession planning.
Finexx invests long-term funds (equity capital of between 5 and 50 million euros), mainly in the form of majority shareholdings, in companies from the German-speaking region, including insurance companies and pension funds. These have sales of EUR 10 million or more, a qualified management team, and can demonstrate sustainable earnings power and cash flow based on a successful business model.
The team has many years of industrial and management experience as well as profound know-how in the investment sector — both are brought to bear for the successful further development of companies and in the associated change processes. Finexx supports management by providing active commercial and technical advice without interfering with day-to-day operations, as well as a cross-industry network. www.finexx.de