Alantra advises the shareholders of Aakamp on the sale to Procemsa

Madrid/Frankfurt am Main — Alan­tra, the global invest­ment banking and asset manage­ment firm focu­sed on the mid-market segment, has advi­sed the share­hol­ders of Aakamp GmbH (“Aakamp”), a leading German manu­fac­tu­rer of vitamins, mine­rals and nutri­tio­nal supple­ments (VMS), on the sale of the company to Farm­aceu­tici Procemsa (“Procemsa”). Procemsa, a company held by Invest­in­dus­trial Growth L.P. (“Invest­in­dus­trial”), specia­li­zes in the produc­tion, pack­a­ging, and rese­arch and deve­lo­p­ment of nutri­tio­nal supple­ments. The closing of the tran­sac­tion was announ­ced today.

Foun­ded in 2009, Aakamp is the main contract manu­fac­tu­rer for German VMS brands in the direct-to-consu­­mer (D2C) segment. Since 2019, Auctus Capi­tal Part­ners, a leading German buy and build inves­tor, has been a majo­rity share­hol­der in the company along­side foun­der Alex­an­der Keibel and the manage­ment team. Aakamp offers the full range of dietary supple­ments (inclu­ding capsu­les, tablets, soft­gels, liquids and powders) and a full range of services (inclu­ding product deve­lo­p­ment, produc­tion, pack­a­ging, labe­l­ing and storage). Aakamp has a state-of-the-art and ‑flexi­ble produc­tion faci­lity in Bred­dorf and employs around 200 people. Under the leader­ship of foun­der Alex­an­der Keibel, who will conti­nue to serve as CEO, Aakamp has achie­ved excep­tio­nal and steady growth over the past decade.

With the acqui­si­tion of Aakamp by Procemsa, Invest­in­dus­trial conti­nues its stra­tegy to build a Euro­pean leader in the VMS sector. The tran­sac­tion provi­des access to the German market, which at €2.5 billion is the third largest in Europe after Italy and the United King­dom. It is charac­te­ri­zed by the fastest growing D2C segment and is ther­e­fore of parti­cu­lar stra­te­gic importance. Procemsa is one of the largest play­ers in the Euro­pean VMS market follo­wing the comple­tion of the transaction.

The tran­sac­tion unders­cores Alantra’s leading posi­tion as an inter­na­tio­nal midmar­ket M&A advi­sor to the VMS and nutri­tio­nal supple­ments sectors. Alan­tra recently advi­sed on the dive­st­ments of Bee Health (UK) to INW, Nutri­sci­ence Inno­va­tions (USA) to Tilia Capi­tal, GS Capsule (China) to Advent Inter­na­tio­nal, Patent Co (Serbia) to RWA, and the acqui­si­tion of UAS Labo­ra­to­ries (USA) by Chr. Hansen and OFI (Italy) by Procemsa.

Charles Lance­ley, Head of UK Food & Nutri­tion, and Chris­to­pher Jobst, Part­ner at Alan­tra Germany, led the tran­sac­tion with the support of a team from the UK and Germany. The team’s exten­sive indus­try know­ledge and close rela­ti­onships with stra­te­gists enab­led them to achieve a highly successful outcome for Aakamp.

Chris­to­pher Jobst said: “As a leading provi­der on the German VMS market and an indis­pensable part­ner for its custo­mers, Aakamp was a sought-after asset on the Euro­pean market. Toge­ther with foun­der Alex­an­der Keibel and the other share­hol­ders, we exami­ned nume­rous opti­ons that would meet both the share­hol­ders’ and the company’s requi­re­ments in the long term. We are plea­sed to have found a part­ner in Procemsa that is an ideal stra­te­gic and cultu­ral fit for Aakamp, and we look forward to the company’s contin­ued success.”

Charles Lance­ley added, “Consu­mer spen­ding on dietary supple­ments in Europe is at record levels, and impro­ving health and well-being is among the major trends. Leading compa­nies like Aakamp play a criti­cal role in the VMS supply chain as inno­va­tors, deve­lo­pers and manu­fac­tu­r­ers, and will ther­e­fore conti­nue to attract strong inte­rest from stra­te­gic buyers and finan­cial investors.”

Alex­an­der Keibel, CEO of Aakamp, said: “We are very proud to have gained the trust of a part­ner like Invest­in­dus­trial and to be able to work with a large group like Procemsa in the future. Our market is rapidly evol­ving due to digi­ta­liza­tion and we are convin­ced that our inter­na­tio­nal foot­print will streng­then Procemsa’s posi­tio­ning in the sector. We would like to thank Alan­tra for their support in this process. The cross-border colla­bo­ra­tion has worked seam­lessly and brought great added value.”

Andrea Bonomi, Chair­man of Investindustrial’s Indus­trial Advi­sory Board, said, “This acqui­si­tion is another exam­ple of the successful conso­li­da­tion stra­tegy that Invest­in­dus­trial has imple­men­ted since the begin­ning of its opera­ti­ons, making and successfully inte­gra­ting more than 150 add-on acqui­si­ti­ons for its port­fo­lio compa­nies. Procemsa is in an excel­lent posi­tion to successfully conti­nue its inter­na­tio­nal expan­sion through both acqui­si­ti­ons and orga­nic growth. With Aakamp, we have found a valuable addi­tion to streng­then our posi­tion in the important German market.”

About Alan­tra

Alan­tra is a global alter­na­tive asset manage­ment, invest­ment banking and credit port­fo­lio advi­sory firm focu­sed on provi­ding services to busi­nesses, fami­lies and inves­tors opera­ting in the middle market segment. The Group has more than 540 profes­sio­nals in Europe, the USA, Latin America and Asia. The Invest­ment Banking divi­sion provi­des inde­pen­dent advice on M&A, debt advi­sory, restruc­tu­ring and capi­tal markets tran­sac­tions and has advi­sed on more than 450 tran­sac­tions with a total value of over €70 billion in the last three years. Alantra’s specia­lists have both exten­sive global sector exper­tise and strong rela­ti­onships with local compa­nies, inves­tors, entre­pre­neurs and finan­cing insti­tu­ti­ons in each of their markets. www.alantra.com