VR Equity: Mezzanine for the takeover of Angels/ Ladies’ pants

Frank­furt am Main / Nagold / Istan­bul — The Fran­k­­furt-based invest­ment company VR Equi­typ­art­ner has acqui­red a silent part­ner­ship in the women’s pants specia­list Angels GmbH (“Angels”). The back­ground is the take­over of Angels by Le Faxx Jeans based in Istan­bul. With the mezza­nine finan­cing, VR Equi­typ­art­ner is support­ing the growth part­ner­ship between the two textile compa­nies. Angels was foun­ded in 1980 in Nagold, Swabia, and is now one of the leading manu­fac­tu­r­ers of jeans and women’s pants in Germany. The company atta­ches parti­cu­lar importance to tail­o­red cuts, sustainable mate­ri­als and high-quality work­man­ship. The main product, denim jeans, is manu­fac­tu­red exclu­si­vely in Europe. The majo­rity of the texti­les sold throug­hout Europe are fashion-inde­­pen­­dent never-out-of-stock products. With a clear focus on moder­ni­zing the product and the brand, Angels has succee­ded in incre­asing its turno­ver from just under 30 million euros to almost 50 million euros in just a few years. By expan­ding its product range, consis­t­ently rede­sig­ning its coll­ec­tions and refres­hing its marke­ting image, Angels has estab­lished itself as a highly inno­va­tive company. With the acqui­si­tion of Angels by Le Faxx Jeans, the two compa­nies are deepe­ning their successful long-stan­­ding busi­ness rela­ti­onship. Le Faxx Jeans is an estab­lished family busi­ness in the textile indus­try with over 600 employees. The expe­ri­en­ced textile produ­cer is charac­te­ri­zed by effi­ci­ency, the highest envi­ron­men­tal and produc­tion stan­dards and strong adap­ta­bi­lity to market chan­ges. The merger of the two compa­nies ensu­res Angels’ sustainable growth and ability to deli­ver while main­tai­ning the same high quality stan­dards. The manage­ment team around Caspar Borkow­sky remains unch­an­ged and will drive the further growth of the company. Chris­tian Futter­lieb, Mana­ging Direc­tor of VR Equi­typ­art­ner (photo @ Chris­tian Futter­lieb), comm­ents on the tran­sac­tion: “With attrac­tive products and intel­li­gent sales concepts, Angels has succee­ded in clearly posi­tio­ning itself in a chal­len­ging market envi­ron­ment and retai­ning a steadily growing custo­mer base. The take­over of the company by our long-stan­­ding part­ner Le Faxx streng­thens this deve­lo­p­ment. We were ther­e­fore happy to support the tran­sac­tion with mezza­nine finan­cing.” Caspar Borkow­sky, Mana­ging Direc­tor of Angels GmbH, adds: “We are deligh­ted to have found a strong and relia­ble part­ner in VR Equi­typ­art­ner to support us in finan­cing the take­over by Le Faxx. We look forward to the chal­lenges of the future with great confi­dence and would like to thank ever­yone invol­ved for their commit­ment to the implementation.” 

The parties have agreed not to disc­lose details of the contract.

VR Equi­typ­art­ner 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 deca­des of expe­ri­ence in the stra­te­gic solu­tion of complex finan­cing issues. Invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties include growth and expan­sion finan­cing, corpo­rate 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 40 commit­ments with an invest­ment volume of EUR 400 million. Further infor­ma­tion can be found at www.vrep.de.

The tran­sac­tion team at VR Equitypartner:

Thiemo Bisch­off, Astrid Binder, Zhao­hua Liao-Weißert, Oliver Landau, Dr. Clau­dia Willershausen