DBAG acquires majority stake in R+S Group AG

Frank­furt am Main — Deut­sche Betei­li­gungs AG (DBAG) invests in R+S Group AG (R+S), a provi­der of tech­ni­cal buil­ding equip­ment. DBAG acqui­res the shares of the previous majo­rity share­hol­der, conzima Cons­truc­tion GmbH, invests 15 million euros and enters into a long-term invest­ment. Haspa Betei­li­gungs­ge­sell­schaft für den Mittel­stand mbH, which has alre­ady been a share­hol­der of R+S since 2010, will conti­nue to hold an inte­rest as a mino­rity share­hol­der. The Board of Manage­ment of R+S will also acquire shares. The tran­sac­tion is subject to a finan­cing contin­gency and regu­la­tory appr­oval; closing is expec­ted in April.

Expan­ded offe­ring through long-term investments

DBAG has expan­ded its offe­ring to mid-market compa­nies to include equity invest­ments that it can hold in the port­fo­lio for longer than the matu­rity limits of conven­tio­nal private equity funds allow. DBAG ther­e­fore does not enter into such invest­ments as a co-inves­­tor along­side the DBAG funds it initia­tes, but finan­ces them exclu­si­vely with funds from its own balance sheet. In this context, DBAG supports fast-growing compa­nies as a mino­rity share­hol­der and acqui­res majo­rity stakes in compa­nies with opera­tio­nal chal­lenges. In both cases, sustainable corpo­rate deve­lo­p­ment requi­res a longer holding period than in the buyout busi­ness. A first long-term parti­ci­pa­tion was agreed in Septem­ber 2020:
Haus­held AG deve­lops intel­li­gent meter solu­ti­ons for elec­tri­city networks — DBAG has since accom­pa­nied the company’s growth as a mino­rity shareholder.

R+S Group AG: Three inde­pen­dent busi­ness units

R+S is one of the leading compa­nies in tech­ni­cal buil­ding equip­ment. R+S imple­ments, controls and main­ta­ins projects for muni­ci­pa­li­ties, health care, indus­try and ship­buil­ding in parti­cu­lar. R+S is a full-service provi­der; its range of services includes elec­tri­cal system cons­truc­tion, energy and control tech­no­logy, and heating/air condi­tio­ning and venti­la­tion tech­no­logy. Among the better-known current projects are the cons­truc­tion of the new Termi­nal 3 at Frank­furt Airport and an exten­sion for Frank­furt Univer­sity Hospi­tal. Tech­ni­cal buil­ding equip­ment accounts for just over 50 percent of sales. The company’s offe­ring is supple­men­ted by two orga­niza­tio­nally inde­pen­dent busi­ness units — person­nel services and a high-perfor­­mance elec­tri­cal trade. In 2020, R+S gene­ra­ted around 360 million euros in sales. The company employs 3,000 people at 30 loca­ti­ons in Germany, inclu­ding around 500 at its head­quar­ters in Fulda (Hesse).

In recent years, R+S had grown mainly through corpo­rate acqui­si­ti­ons. Howe­ver, plan­ned syner­gies could not be achie­ved because the inte­gra­tion of the acqui­red compa­nies was not driven forward quickly enough. This had a nega­tive impact on earnings, as did a number of major projects that were not suffi­ci­ently profi­ta­ble. In addi­tion, promi­sing new cons­truc­tion projects were post­po­ned due to the pande­mic — this has affec­ted current capa­city utiliza­tion. R+S has an attrac­tive custo­mer base and a high order back­log. The market envi­ron­ment is good: The trend towards so-called smart buil­dings and energy-effi­ci­ent buil­dings ensu­res contin­ued growth and expands the market espe­ci­ally for elec­tri­cal buil­ding equip­ment, which R+S mainly offers. The reor­ga­niza­tion of the company, which is alre­ady well advan­ced, is to be comple­ted in the coming years to enable further profi­ta­ble sales growth. Corpo­rate acqui­si­ti­ons should then also contri­bute to this again. DBAG streng­thens the equity and thus acce­le­ra­tes the successful reor­ga­niza­tion of the company.

“We are inves­t­ing in a company in the core indus­trial services sector and with an attrac­tive market posi­tion that has crea­ted good condi­ti­ons for successful further deve­lo­p­ment over the past two years,” said Jannick Hune­cke, photo, member of the DBAG Manage­ment Board on the occa­sion of the signing of the contract on Friday. “DBAG has been very successful in inves­t­ing in compa­nies with simi­lar busi­ness models in the past and will use its expe­ri­ence to further advance R+S as a long-term partner.”

Ralph Burk­hardt, Chair­man of the Board of Manage­ment of R+S Group AG, empha­si­zes not only the finan­cial contri­bu­tion but above all the substan­tive contri­bu­tion of DBAG: “With our new share­hol­ders, we are well posi­tio­ned to expand our range of services to include further trades and to turn more stron­gly to custo­mers in parti­cu­larly promi­sing industries.”

About DBAG

Deut­sche Betei­li­gungs AG, a listed company, initia­tes closed-end private equity funds and invests — predo­mi­nantly along­side DBAG funds — in well-posi­­tio­­ned medium-sized compa­nies with poten­tial. One focus for many years has been indus­try. An incre­asing propor­tion of equity invest­ments are in compa­nies in the growth sectors of broad­band tele­com­mu­ni­ca­ti­ons, IT services/software and health­care. The long-term, value-enhan­cing entre­pre­neu­rial invest­ment approach makes DBAG a sought-after invest­ment part­ner in the German-spea­king region. Assets mana­ged and advi­sed by the DBAG Group amount to 2.5 billion euros.