Ardian invests in SERMA Group together with management

Paris/ Frank­furt a. M. — Ardian, one of the world’s leading inde­pen­dent invest­ment compa­nies, has acqui­red a stake in SERMA Group, Europe’s leading inde­pen­dent provi­der of consul­ting and services in the fields of elec­tro­nic tech­no­lo­gies, inte­gra­ted systems and infor­ma­tion systems. The closing of the tran­sac­tion is still subject to appr­oval by the rele­vant anti­trust authorities.

The Ardian Expan­sion team had alre­ady inves­ted in SERMA Group in 2015 and has supported the company’s growth since then, in parti­cu­lar through acqui­si­ti­ons and the foun­ding of the “SERMA Safety & Secu­rity” busi­ness unit.

The rene­wed parti­ci­pa­tion of Ardian Expan­sion along­side the manage­ment and employees of SERMA Group, who conti­nue to hold the majo­rity of the company, is another important step in the company’s deve­lo­p­ment. In addi­tion to the main share­hol­der Ardian, Chequers Capi­tal and Bpifrance remain as further mino­rity share­hol­ders.

SERMA Group is excel­lently posi­tio­ned in nume­rous niche solu­ti­ons of elec­tro­nic compon­ents and systems with high value added depth in various high-growth sectors. The company controls the entire value chain, from deve­lo­p­ment, test­ing, produc­tion and main­ten­ance to trai­ning. The Group has unique tech­no­lo­gi­cal exper­tise in elec­tro­nics, energy, cyber­se­cu­rity and tele­com­mu­ni­ca­ti­ons for sectors such as aero­space, trans­por­ta­tion, energy, medi­cal and telecommunications.

Ardian will support SERMA Group in its further growth stra­tegy. In recent years, the Group has successfully deve­lo­ped beyond its estab­lished range of products and services and ente­red new markets, which include, for exam­ple, the energy market and the nuclear indus­try. The estab­lish­ment of SERMA Energy, a compe­tence and test plat­form for batte­ries, power elec­tro­nics and elec­tric drive trains with a wide range of appli­ca­ti­ons, will further acce­le­rate the company’s growth in the energy sector.

In the last ten years, the company’s sales have almost tripled to almost 150 million euros and the number of employees curr­ently exceeds 1,300.

“We have known SERMA Group for twelve years and have built a very trus­ting rela­ti­onship with the company and its manage­ment team over the course of our long-term invol­vement. We are looking forward to working with the highly expe­ri­en­ced team again and in parti­cu­lar to further acce­le­rate the Group’s growth. The company is ideally posi­tio­ned to bene­fit from key mega­trends, parti­cu­larly in the context of the digi­ta­liza­tion of the economy. Our goal is to conti­nue to drive exter­nal growth and increase inter­na­tio­nal market share based on the Group’s inno­va­tion capa­bi­li­ties.” So Arnaud Dufer (photo, © Ardian), Mana­ging Direc­tor and head of France of the ARDIAN EXPAN­­SION-teamS.

“We are very plea­sed that Ardian has once again inves­ted in SERMA Group. In recent years, despite an envi­ron­ment marked by the effects of the pande­mic, we have gradu­ally deve­lo­ped into one of the leading compa­nies in Europe, thanks to the support of Chequers Capi­tal. We have now reached a criti­cal size that allows us to enter a new phase of our deve­lo­p­ment. We see parti­cu­lar poten­tial in the growing importance of decar­bo­niza­tion of the economy and in the area of cyber­se­cu­rity. We are proud that, in addi­tion to the manage­ment team, nearly 500 employees have a stake in SERMA Group — proof that they believe in the success of the company,” explains Phil­ippe Berlié , Presi­dent of SERMA GROUP.

“Chequers Capi­tal has successfully supported SERMA’s deve­lo­p­ment along­side its manage­ment team over the last twelve years. The key to the company’s success lies in the quality of its teams, the constant pursuit of excel­lence and opera­tio­nal effi­ci­ency, and a strong tech­ni­cal compe­tence that charac­te­ri­zes the company in all its busi­ness areas. We are proud of the progress and deve­lo­p­ments achie­ved in the fields of elec­tro­nics, elec­tric drives and safety, which meet the growing, essen­tial and long-term needs of our society. Chequers supports SERMA Group with Phil­ippe Berlié and his team in this new phase, which will be charac­te­ri­zed by acce­le­ra­ted orga­nic growth as well as inter­na­tio­nal expan­sion. Chequers, Ardian and BPI will bring all their expe­ri­ence to the successful conti­nua­tion of this project,” says Aure­lien Klein, Mana­ging Direc­tor at chequers capi­tal.

Compa­nies invol­ved in the transaction:

Ardian Expan­sion
Arnaud Dufer, Maxime Séquier, Romain Gautron, Pierre Peslerbe
Legal Advi­sors: McDer­mott Will & Emery (Grégo­ire Andrieux, Fabrice Piol­let, Côme de Saint-Vincent, Boris Wolkoff)

Chequers Capi­tal
Auré­lien Klein, Emeric Boo d’Arc, Jérôme Kinas
Legal Advi­sors: Hogan Lovells (Stéphane Huten, Arnaud Deparday)

Advi­sors of Ardian Expan­sion and Chequers Capital
Legal, tax and social due dili­gence: McDer­mott Will & Emery (Grégo­ire Andrieux, Fabrice Piol­let, Côme de Saint-Vincent, Boris Wolkoff)
Commer­cial Due Dili­gence: The Boston Consul­ting Group (Benja­min Sarfati, Julien Vialade)
Finan­cial Due Dili­gence: Ernst & Young (Emma­nuel Picard, Elsa Abou Mrad, Alban Molle)
ESG Due Dili­gence: PwC (Sylvain Lambert, Chloé Szpirglas)
Insu­rance Due Dili­gence: Finaxy (Débo­rah Hauchemaille)
IT Due Dili­gence: Netsys­tem (Olivier Cazzulo, Lionel Gros)

SERMA Group
Phil­ippe Berlié, Xavier Morin, Mirentxu Boutet, Olivier Duch­mann, Bernard Ollivier
Legal Advi­sors: Apollo (Florence Savouré, Laura Smyr­lia­dis, Iyad El Borini, Delphine Dille­man), Chepeau Lumeau & Asso­ciés (Frédé­ri­que Lumeau)

About SERMA Group
SERMA Group is an inde­pen­dent French company with exper­tise in elec­tro­nics, energy, cyber­se­cu­rity and tele­com­mu­ni­ca­ti­ons. The tradi­tio­nal medium-sized company recently achie­ved sales of €150 million with 1,300 employees. The Group has deve­lo­ped signi­fi­cantly in recent years through nume­rous invest­ments in resour­ces as well as exter­nal growth. These rela­ted in parti­cu­lar to the areas of design, test­ing, know-how and technology.

The Group’s various busi­ness units accom­pany their custo­mers throug­hout the entire life cycle, which includes the control of their products, their relia­bi­lity, safety and func­tion. The Group’s exper­tise is based on its elec­tro­nics tech­ni­cal labo­ra­to­ries, its mate­ri­als labo­ra­tory, its various test plat­forms (compon­ents, boards, devices, power elec­tro­nics, elec­tric motors, batte­ries, safety), its deve­lo­p­ment offices and experts who act as a point of cont­act for its customers.

The SERMA Group is foun­ded on five stra­te­gic pillars:
— Elec­tro­nic tech­no­lo­gies and materials
— System secu­rity and cybersecurity
— Embedded systems development
— Microelec­tro­nic design and assembly
— Exper­tise and energy test­ing (batte­ries, drive chains)

The group has 20 sites in France, Germany, Belgium, Spain and Tuni­sia, each close to its custo­mers, who come from diffe­rent indus­tries. serma.com

About ARDIAN

Ardian is a leading global inde­pen­dent invest­ment firm. The company mana­ges or advi­ses on appro­xi­m­ately US$130 billion in assets for more than 1,300 inves­tors world­wide. Thanks to its exten­sive exper­tise in private equity, real assets and credit, Ardian offers a wide range of invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties as well as custo­mi­zed invest­ment solu­ti­ons — tail­o­red to inves­tors’ needs: Ardian Custo­mi­zed Solu­ti­ons enables insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors to access best-in-class mana­gers across all asset clas­ses through a custo­mi­zed port­fo­lio. Ardian Private Wealth Solu­ti­ons also offers a range of services speci­fi­cally geared to high net worth indi­vi­du­als. Ardian is majo­rity owned by its employees and places great empha­sis on their deve­lo­p­ment, as well as a culture of colla­bo­ra­tion based on an active exch­ange of know­ledge and expe­ri­ence. The more than 900 employees at 15 office loca­ti­ons in Europe, North and South America and Asia, follow the prin­ci­ples of respon­si­ble inves­t­ing. Ardian’s mission is to make a posi­tive contri­bu­tion to society through its invest­ments and to create value that lasts. Ardian aims to deli­ver excel­lent returns in line with high ethi­cal stan­dards and social respon­si­bi­lity. At Ardian, ever­yone is dedi­ca­ted to buil­ding successful compa­nies for the long term. ardian.com

About Cher­quers Capital

Chequers is one of the oldest private equity invest­ment compa­nies in conti­nen­tal Europe and was foun­ded in Paris almost 50 years ago. Chequers is curr­ently inves­t­ing in its 17th invest­ment vehicle, which can take majo­rity or mino­rity stakes in growth compa­nies in France, Germany, Switz­er­land, Italy, Bene­lux and Iberia. The team of 23 expe­ri­en­ced profes­sio­nals from six nati­ons contri­bu­tes its expe­ri­ence and exper­tise to the deve­lo­p­ment of curr­ently around 20 invest­ments. chequerscapital.com