Author: Tatjana Anderer

Milan/Düsseldorf/London — Ambi­enta SGR SpA, one of the largest sustaina­bi­lity-focu­sed private equity inves­tors in Europe, announ­ces that its port­fo­lio company Aroma­ta­Group SRL (“Aromata”) has comple­ted the 100% acqui­si­tion of Indus­trie Prodotti Alimen­tari Manenti (“IPAM”), a market leader in the produc­tion and distri­bu­tion of ingre­di­ents for the food industry.

The flavor and colo­rants market is worth over €12 billion and is expec­ted to grow at an annual rate of 3–4% over the next five years, under­pin­ned by long-term sustainable growth drivers. Ambi­enta reco­gni­zed the growth poten­tial of natu­ral food ingre­di­ents. Natu­ral raw mate­ri­als repre­sent the stron­gest growth driver in the food indus­try, with global growth of 7% versus zero growth for synthe­tic products. Substi­tu­tion of synthe­tic chemi­cals (from oil or inor­ga­nic chemi­cals) in flavor or colo­rant recipes with natu­ral ingre­di­ents that are orga­nic and pose no health risks is incre­asingly prefer­red by food manu­fac­tu­r­ers and consumers.

As a leading manu­fac­tu­rer of natu­ral flavors and colors for the food indus­try, Aromata is well posi­tio­ned to support the shift to natu­ral, healt­hier foods. Aromata has three produc­tion faci­li­ties in nort­hern Italy and serves over 1,200 custo­mers in 50 count­ries. In 2018, the Group gene­ra­ted appro­xi­m­ately 30 million euros in sales, 5 million euros in EBITDA and contri­bu­ted to avoi­ding 83 tons of pollut­ants. After a successful 2018, Aromata conti­nues to invest to expand its product and appli­ca­tion port­fo­lio: the acqui­si­tion of IPAM marks Aromata’s expan­sion into the adja­cent savory ingre­di­ents market.

IPAM is the Italian leader in the produc­tion and distri­bu­tion of high quality and func­tional ingre­di­ents for the food indus­try, such as bread­crumbs and dough mixes, mari­na­des and flavors. IPAM is based in Zibello Pole­sine, in the heart of the Italian “Food Valley”, and supplies over 300 custo­mers from two produc­tion sites.

The acqui­si­tion of IPAM will enable Aromata to gain a foot­hold in the large and attrac­tive ’savory’ ingre­di­ent market, offer new custo­mers a more exten­sive range of natu­ral flavors and colors, and jointly deve­lop both compa­nies’ natu­ral ingre­di­ent offe­rings. The tran­sac­tion provi­des Aromata with further expan­sion in the ingre­di­ents market to meet incre­asing custo­mer demand.

Hans Udo Wenzel, Presi­dent of Aroma­ta­Group, says: “The acqui­si­tion of IPAM is the first step in Aromata’s stra­te­gic expan­sion plan, enab­ling Aromata to broa­den its product range and streng­then its main compe­ti­tive advan­tage, which is to offer a full range of products to its customers.”

Euge­nio Manenti, foun­der and CEO of IPAM, added, “We are very plea­sed to join Aromata’s buy-and-build project and further expand the group’s leader­ship in natu­ral ingredients.”

Mauro Roversi (photo), Part­ner & Chief Invest­ment Offi­cer at Ambi­enta, commen­ted, “Stra­te­gic acqui­si­ti­ons are key to the growth of our port­fo­lio compa­nies. We welcome the IPAM team to Aromata and look forward to further growing our joint business.”

About Ambi­enta
Ambi­enta is a leading Euro­pean private equity fund based in Milan, Düssel­dorf and London. The focus is on growth invest­ments in indus­trial compa­nies that focus on sustaina­bi­lity trends. With over €1 billion in funds under manage­ment, the world’s largest pool of capi­tal for this stra­tegy, Ambi­enta has made 32 resource effi­ci­ency and envi­ron­men­tal invest­ments across Europe to date. Ambi­enta actively parti­ci­pa­tes in the deve­lo­p­ment of its port­fo­lio compa­nies, provi­ding indus­try and manage­ment exper­tise and global connec­ti­vity. www.ambientasgr.com.

Munich — PARAGON PARTNERS, one of the leading invest­ment compa­nies in the German-spea­king region, recently closed its PARAGON FUND III (“P3”) with capi­tal commit­ments of EUR 783 million. Due to strong demand, P3 signi­fi­cantly excee­ded both the origi­nal target size and the size of the prede­ces­sor fund, which closed at EUR 412 million.

The new fund was over­sub­scri­bed and gene­ra­ted strong demand mainly from exis­ting inves­tors, but also from some new ones. This helps PARAGON PARTNERS to broa­den its inves­tor base and further deve­lop its rela­ti­onships in Europe and North America. Euro­pean inves­tors, and espe­ci­ally inves­tors from German-spea­king count­ries, conti­nue to be well repre­sen­ted. The inves­tor base includes renow­ned insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors such as funds of funds, public and company pension funds, insu­rance compa­nies, foun­da­ti­ons and family holding companies.

With the new fund, PARAGON PARTNERS can further expand its posi­tion as one of the leading invest­ment compa­nies in the German-spea­king region with a focus on sustainable value-orien­ted invest­ments in the range of EUR 30 million to EUR 250 million.

PARAGON PARTNERS is also plea­sed to announce the first invest­ment of the new fund: pro optik, the third largest opti­cian chain in Germany. The chain curr­ently compri­ses a network of 145 stores based on a successful part­ner­ship model, offe­ring its part­ners the oppor­tu­nity to act as either joint venture or fran­chise part­ners. pro optik sells around 400,000 pairs of glas­ses a year and the product range extends from high-quality frames from both well-known top brands and less expen­sive own brands to high-quality lenses and glas­ses. The company has also recently expan­ded its offe­ring to include hearing aids. In 2018, pro optik gene­ra­ted sales of EUR 125 million.

PARAGON PARTNERS conti­nues its proven invest­ment stra­tegy of inves­t­ing in estab­lished medium-sized compa­nies with opera­tio­nal growth and value enhance­ment poten­tial in Germany, Austria and Switz­er­land, as well as selec­tively in neigh­bor­ing count­ries. The invest­ment company is commit­ted to a sustainable invest­ment approach and inte­gra­tes envi­ron­men­tal, social and honest corpo­rate gover­nance conside­ra­ti­ons into its invest­ment decis­i­ons and also trans­fers these sustaina­bi­lity stan­dards into the corpo­rate gover­nance of its port­fo­lio companies.

The Munich-based fund is advi­sed by a moti­va­ted team of invest­ment mana­gers with many years of invest­ment and exten­sive opera­tio­nal expe­ri­ence, charac­te­ri­zed by strong cohe­sion and stabi­lity for more than 15 years.

About PARAGON PARTNERS
PARAGON PARTNERS is a private equity company foun­ded in 2004 with more than EUR 1.2 billion in equity under manage­ment. PARAGON PARTNERS works with its port­fo­lio compa­nies to achieve sustainable growth, opera­tio­nal excel­lence and market leader­ship. PARAGON PARTNERS unlocks new value in funda­men­tally attrac­tive busi­nesses and has the ability to address comple­xity from both a tran­sac­tional and opera­tio­nal perspec­tive and to repo­si­tion busi­nesses through custo­mi­zed value crea­tion programs.

Antwerp (BE) / Munich — Gimv, Sofin­nova and Gilde Health­care sell their shares in the biophar­maceu­ti­cal company Breath Thera­peu­tics. The company, which specia­li­zes in the deve­lo­p­ment of first-in-class inha­la­tion solu­ti­ons for severe lung dise­a­ses, raised appro­xi­m­ately €43.5 million in 2017 in one of the largest Euro­pean Series A rounds to date. With the support of the inves­tors, two global Phase III studies on inha­la­tion therapy solu­ti­ons for the rare lung dise­ase Bron­chio­li­tis Obli­terans Syndrome (BOS) have now been initia­ted. There is curr­ently no appro­ved therapy for BOS and the dise­ase is fatal in many cases. The buyer of Breath Thera­peu­tics is the Italian family-owned phar­maceu­ti­cal and chemi­cal company Zambon.

Gimv joined Sofin­nova Part­ners (France) as lead inves­tor in Breath Thera­peu­tics in March 2017. Other inves­tors were Gilde Health­care (Nether­lands) and PARI Pharma as licen­sor for the inha­la­tion devices. In addi­tion to the finan­cial support, Gimv’s exper­tise was also crucial to the success of the spin-out process, to the syndi­ca­tion of the finan­cing struc­ture, to the imple­men­ta­tion of the stra­tegy, and to the imple­men­ta­tion of lean, inter­nal proces­ses. Thanks to this exter­nal know-how, Breath Thera­peu­tics has been able to further deve­lop its own inno­va­tion capa­bi­li­ties into a mature therapy solu­tion, as well as to build up a top-class team of experts in Europe and the USA.

Dr. Karl Nägler, Part­ner and respon­si­ble for the Health & Care plat­form at Gimv Germany, says: “We are even more plea­sed with the successful deve­lo­p­ment of the company over the past two years, as Gimv was signi­fi­cantly invol­ved in the stra­te­gic direc­tion and setting up of the plat­form for growth from the very begin­ning. The poten­tial of Breath Thera­peu­tics and the compound was clear to us at an early stage, as lung dise­a­ses are unfort­u­na­tely on the rise — espe­ci­ally due to envi­ron­men­tal factors and chan­ging life­styles. Against this back­ground, with Zambon’s support, Breath Thera­peu­tics is in an excel­lent posi­tion to successfully commer­cia­lize the product in the future and to deve­lop new fields of application.”

Dr. Jens Stege­mann, Chief Execu­tive Offi­cer at Breath Thera­peu­tics, adds: “With this compound, Breath Thera­peu­tics has deve­lo­ped a product that can signi­fi­cantly improve the lives of many people. We have found a part­ner that shares our vision in Zambon, an inno­va­tive company with high ethi­cal stan­dards and a clear focus on pati­ent well-being. Alre­ady, we have advan­ced the deve­lo­p­ment of a poten­tial first-in-class therapy for BOS, initia­ted two global Phase III trials, and are thus excel­lently posi­tio­ned in the market. Thanks to Zambon’s infra­struc­ture, exper­tise and clear focus on rese­arch and deve­lo­p­ment, we can acce­le­rate these proces­ses even further and make the treat­ment available to as many people as possi­ble as quickly as possi­ble. We would like to thank our former part­ners Gimv, Sofin­nova and Gilde Health­care for their support, which was crucial to the successful deve­lo­p­ment of our company, espe­ci­ally in the early years.”

This tran­sac­tion increa­ses Gimv’s NAV by EUR 20 million (as of March 31, 2019). With this invest­ment, Gimv achie­ved an ROI above its stated long-term target of 15%.

About Gimv
Gimv is a Euro­pean invest­ment company with almost 40 years of expe­ri­ence in private equity. The company is listed on Euron­ext Brussels, curr­ently mana­ges around EUR 1.1 billion and curr­ently invests in 55 port­fo­lio compa­nies, which toge­ther realize a turno­ver of more than EUR 2.75 billion and employ 14,000 people.

Gimv iden­ti­fies inno­va­tive, leading compa­nies with high growth poten­tial and supports them on their way to market leader­ship. Each of the four invest­ment plat­forms Connec­ted Consu­mer, Health & Care, Smart Indus­tries and Sustainable Cities is mana­ged by a dedi­ca­ted and compe­tent team, each based in Gimv’s home markets — Bene­lux, France and DACH — and supported by an exten­sive inter­na­tio­nal network of experts.

Munich/Amsterdam/Oirschot — Equis­tone Part­ners Europe (“Equis­tone”), one of Europe’s leading equity inves­tors, is acqui­ring Heras (“Heras”). The seller is the British buil­ding mate­ri­als manu­fac­tu­rer CRH Plc. Heras is a leading provi­der of property protec­tion solu­ti­ons head­quar­te­red in Oirschot, the Nether­lands. The Heras manage­ment team has a mino­rity stake. Gilles Rabot, with Heras since 2015, will conti­nue to lead the company. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose details of the tran­sac­tion. The sale is still subject to appr­oval by the rele­vant anti­trust authorities.

Heras was foun­ded in 1952 and offers a wide port­fo­lio of mobile and perma­nent property protec­tion systems and products. It includes fencing systems, manu­ally opera­ted and auto­ma­tic gates, vehicle barriers and elec­tro­nic surveil­lance systems. The company has a strong presence in Europe, with sales offices in the Nether­lands, the United King­dom, Sweden, Norway, Germany and France. Produc­tion faci­li­ties are loca­ted in the Nether­lands, Belgium, France, Sweden and the United King­dom. Heras employs over 1,100 people and has annual sales of over 220 million euros.

Heras’ perma­nent medium and high-secu­rity property protec­tion solu­ti­ons are used in a wide variety of fields, such as border control and the protec­tion of mili­tary instal­la­ti­ons or criti­cal infra­struc­ture, as well as schools and children’s play­grounds. All Heras solu­ti­ons can be tail­o­red to speci­fic custo­mer needs. The company also offers a range of addi­tio­nal services, such as instal­la­tion, system inte­gra­tion, commis­sio­ning, and main­ten­ance and repair. Heras mobile property protec­tion solu­ti­ons are mainly used for secu­ring cons­truc­tion sites and large events. Custo­mers in this area include cons­truc­tion compa­nies, govern­ment agen­cies, event orga­ni­zers, rental compa­nies, distri­bu­tors, whole­sa­lers and instal­la­tion companies.

Follo­wing the carve-out from CRH Plc, Heras intends to drive conso­li­da­tion in a highly frag­men­ted market through targe­ted acqui­si­ti­ons with its new part­ner Equis­tone. Addi­tio­nal orga­nic growth is to be achie­ved by deve­lo­ping new products and services, estab­li­shing further custo­mer rela­ti­onships and expan­ding exis­ting networks.

Hubert van Wolfs­win­kel (photo), Direc­tor at Equis­tone, says: “Heras has impres­sed us very much. The company owes its leading market posi­tion, among other things, to a strong network of produc­tion sites in Europe, long-stan­ding custo­mer rela­ti­onships and expe­ri­en­ced manage­ment.” Dirk Sche­kerka, Senior Part­ner at Equis­tone, added: “Heras has an excel­lent team of employees and mana­gers. We now look forward to working with the company as it conti­nues to grow and expand into new markets.”

Gilles Rabot, Mana­ging Direc­tor at Heras, says: “With Equis­tone, we have gained a relia­ble and finan­ci­ally strong new part­ner. With Equistone’s support, we intend to main­tain our growth trajec­tory and further expand our market posi­tion. We will conti­nue to deve­lop and offer a world-class and inno­va­tive range of mobile and perma­nent property protec­tion solu­ti­ons to meet the conti­nuously incre­asing secu­rity needs of the market.”

On the Equis­tone side, Dirk Sche­kerka, Hubert van Wolfs­win­kel and Moritz Treude are respon­si­ble for the tran­sac­tion. The inves­tor was advi­sed by Munich Stra­tegy (Commer­cial), EY (Finan­cial, IT, Opera­ti­ons & Tax), Clif­ford Chance (Legal), ERM (Envi­ron­men­tal, Health & Safety) and Houli­han Lokey (M&A, Financing).

About Equis­tone Part­ners Europe
Equis­tone Part­ners Europe is one of Europe’s leading equity inves­tors with a team of more than 40 invest­ment specia­lists in six offices in Germany, Switz­er­land, the Nether­lands, France and the UK. Equis­tone prima­rily invests in estab­lished medium-sized compa­nies with a good market posi­tion, above-average growth poten­tial and an enter­prise value of between EUR 50 and 500 million. Since its foun­ding, equity has been inves­ted in more than 140 tran­sac­tions, mainly mid-market buy-outs. The port­fo­lio curr­ently compri­ses over 40 compa­nies across Europe, inclu­ding around 20 active holdings in Germany, Switz­er­land and the Nether­lands. Equis­tone is curr­ently inves­t­ing from its sixth fund, which closed in March 2018 with €2.8 billion at the hard cap.

About Heras
Since 1952 and with its roots in the Nether­lands, Heras has evol­ved from a fencing specia­list to a full-service peri­me­ter protec­tion solu­ti­ons provi­der opera­ting in six count­ries. The Group curr­ently employs more than 1,100 highly quali­fied specialists.
Toge­ther, we design, manu­fac­ture, install and main­tain peri­me­ter protec­tion solu­ti­ons for busi­ness, commu­nity and industry.

Guernsey/ Munich/ Amsterdam/ Rijs­wijk — The invest­ment fund Perusa Part­ners Fund 2, L.P. (“Perusa”), advi­sed by the inde­pen­dent Perusa GmbH, has sold Xindao Inter­na­tio­nal GmbH and its subsi­dia­ries (“Xindao”) to Gilde Buy-Out Fund V (“Gilde”). The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the purchase price or the details of the transaction.

Perusa acqui­red Xindao Holding BV from its foun­ders in August 2017. Foun­ded in 1986, Xindao is a leading supplier of high-quality func­tional promo­tio­nal products to more than 4,500 B2B and B2C retail­ers throug­hout Europe and the world. The company has an excel­lent repu­ta­tion as a premium supplier that gene­ra­tes a large part of its sales with self-desi­gned bran­ded products. In addi­tion to its head­quar­ters in Rijs­wijk, the Nether­lands, Xindao opera­tes its own prin­ting and logi­stics center in Roma­nia and a design studio and procu­re­ment center in Shang­hai. The company sells its products through a network of its own sales compa­nies in Germany, France, the Nether­lands, Spain, Sweden, the UK, China and the USA, as well as through exclu­sive repre­sen­ta­ti­ves in Russia and Italy.

Successful trans­for­ma­tion to a manage­ment-led company
Xindao has a history of double-digit annual growth. As a result, the company has more than tripled its sales in the last ten years. Under Perusa’s owner­ship, Xindao comple­ted its trans­for­ma­tion into a company led by inde­pen­dent manage­ment, expan­ded its inter­na­tio­nal reach through the acqui­si­ti­ons of Xindao UK and Xindao Spain, and estab­lished XD Design as an emer­ging luggage and back­pack brand in global retail.

“Under Perusa, we have succee­ded in further streng­thening our posi­tion as one of the largest suppli­ers in the promo­tio­nal products indus­try in Europe. We have worked extre­mely successfully with Perusa. This is a good exam­ple of how a private equity firm and a form­erly owner-mana­ged company can work toge­ther to drive the growth of a busi­ness,” said Albert van der Veen, CEO of Xindao Group.

“The company has succee­ded in conti­nuing to follow an excel­lent econo­mic path during the tran­si­tion from an owner-mana­ged to a manage­ment-mana­ged company , ” sums up Dr. Hanno Schmidt-Gothan, Mana­ging Direc­tor of the consul­ting Perusa GmbH. “Xindao demons­tra­tes the importance of a strong manage­ment team for the company’s deve­lo­p­ment, which has estab­lished highly effi­ci­ent struc­tures and proces­ses as well as an excel­lent working envi­ron­ment,” adds Raphael Weller, Invest­ment Direc­tor of the advi­sing Perusa GmbH.

About Perusa
Perusa is an inde­pen­dent equity invest­ment company that curr­ently invests 350 million euros of equity in medium-sized compa­nies and group busi­nesses from German-spea­king or Scan­di­na­vian count­ries via two funds. Perusa takes a highly opera­tio­nal approach to streng­thening perfor­mance and thus lever­aging the long-term value crea­tion poten­tial of its port­fo­lio compa­nies. Further­more, stra­te­gic acqui­si­ti­ons (buy-and-build stra­tegy) are targe­ted to streng­then the growth of the port­fo­lio compa­nies. The funds are advi­sed by Perusa GmbH.

Frank­furt a. M./ Munich/ Boston — Inter­na­tio­nal law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP have advi­sed Sili­con Valley-based finan­cial inves­tor TCV on the acqui­si­tion of shares in Flix­Mo­bi­lity GmbH. The Series F finan­cing round was led by TCV toge­ther with finan­cial inves­tor Perm­ira. Exis­ting inves­tor HV Holtz­brinck Ventures was also invol­ved in the current sixth round, which repres­ents the largest capi­tal injec­tion in an invest­ment round for a German start-up to date.

Munich-based Flix­Mo­bi­lity GmbH, argu­ably the best-known unicorn among German start-ups, is the parent company of the global mobi­lity plat­forms Flix­Bus and Flix­Train. The new capi­tal will be used for global expan­sion, parti­cu­larly in the USA, South America and Asia.

The Weil team was led by Frank­furt-based Corpo­rate Part­ner Dr. Chris­tian Tapp­ei­nerin this tran­sac­tion. and compri­sed the part­ners Dr. Hendrik Röhricht (Corpo­rate, Frank­furt), Tobias Geer­ling (Tax, Munich), Kevin Sulli­van (Corpo­rate, Boston) and the asso­cia­tes Konrad v. Buch­waldt, Julian Schwa­ne­beck, Sebas­tian Bren­ner, Simon Stei­ner, Sara Afschar-Hamdi (all Corpo­rate, Frank­furt), Andreas Fogel, Marcel Ander­sen, Caro­lin Ober­maier (all Corpo­rate Munich), Mareike Pfeif­fer (Labor Law, Frank­furt), Aurel Hille (Anti­trust, Frank­furt), Marcus Kaiser (IP, Frank­furt), Nico­las Bech­told (Liti­ga­tion, Frank­furt) as well as Para­le­gal Kris­tina Thiel (Labor Law, Frankfurt).

Berlin/Eschenburg/Düsseldorf — MEDIAN, a port­fo­lio company of the invest­ment firm Water­land Private Equity and the largest private opera­tor of reha­bi­li­ta­tion clinics in Germany, signed two take­over agree­ments on July 18, thus conti­nuing its buy & build acti­vi­ties. With the Eschen­burg Clinic and the Düssel­dorf Rhein-Reha, MEDIAN is further expan­ding its leading posi­tion in the reha­bi­li­ta­tion market. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the purchase price or further finan­cial details of both transactions.

In the Lahn-Dill district of central Hesse, MEDIAN takes over the Eschen­burg Clinic. It comple­ments the range of services in the core area of addic­tion and depen­dency disor­ders. It offers 87 treat­ment beds and a wide range of treat­ment for drug and alco­hol addic­tion. A special compe­tence of the Eschen­burg Clinic is the treat­ment of addic­tion problems of elderly people. The clinic also includes three outpa­ti­ent faci­li­ties in Dillen­burg, Wetz­lar and Gies­sen. Through this acqui­si­tion, MEDIAN is not only expan­ding its status as the largest private reha­bi­li­ta­tion company in Germany. With a total of 30 specia­list clinics and adapt­a­tion houses nati­on­wide, MEDIAN is now also the market leader in the field of reha­bi­li­ta­tion for addic­tion and depen­dency disor­ders. MEDIAN is also conti­nuing its growth course in nort­hern Rhine­land-Pala­ti­nate and Hesse. In Janu­ary 2019, the health­care company had alre­ady acqui­red Klini­ken Wied GmbH & Co. KG in the Wester­wald region, 65 kilo­me­ters away. Both faci­li­ties have a simi­lar perfor­mance profile and are to coope­rate closely in the future.

In Düssel­dorf, MEDIAN will take over the Outpa­ti­ent Cardio­logy Rehab Center Rhein-Reha, the take­over will be comple­ted at the turn of the year 2019/20. Rhein-Reha will be inte­gra­ted with its entire clinic opera­ti­ons and also by name under the umbrella of MEDIAN’s alre­ady exis­ting Outpa­ti­ent Health Center Düssel­dorf. The tran­si­tion will be desi­gned for all pati­ents and employees without inter­rupt­ing ongo­ing treatments.

Dr. Cars­ten Rahlfs (photo), Mana­ging Part­ner of Water­land, says: “The demand for rehab services for the treat­ment of addic­tion and depen­dency disor­ders is growing steadily. MEDIAN, as the new number one in this specia­list area, will bene­fit from the exper­tise of Klinik Eschen­burg. This is because the faci­lity enjoys an excel­lent repu­ta­tion and ideally comple­ments MEDIAN’s presence in the region. In addi­tion, we are plea­sed about the expan­sion of the range of services in cardio­logy through the acqui­si­tion of the Düssel­dorf Rhein-Reha. The center’s clout will be fully deve­lo­ped after the inte­gra­tion has been comple­ted at the begin­ning of next year.”

Since Waterland’s entry as a share­hol­der, MEDIAN has now taken over 21 indi­vi­dual clinics and clinic groups and inte­gra­ted them into the group of compa­nies. In doing so, MEDIAN is aiming for quality leader­ship in medi­cal reha­bi­li­ta­tion and is inves­t­ing heavily in the expan­sion of therapy offe­rings, in addi­tio­nal staff, in the digi­ta­liza­tion of proces­ses and in the moder­niza­tion of clinic buil­dings. Toge­ther with the new faci­lity, the Group compri­ses around 120 clinics and faci­li­ties with 18,500 beds, trea­ting more than 230,000 pati­ents annu­ally. The health­care company, which employs around 15,000 people, includes reha­bi­li­ta­tion clinics as well as acute psych­ia­tric hospi­tals, therapy centers, outpa­ti­ent clinics and reinte­gra­tion faci­li­ties in 13 German states. The company thus offers nati­on­wide coverage of so-called after­care and parti­ci­pa­tion services in all specia­list areas.

With Waterland’s support, MEDIAN plans to further conso­li­date the German reha­bi­li­ta­tion market — both in terms of expan­ding its regio­nal presence and in addi­tio­nal medi­cal special­ties. In addi­tion, MEDIAN aims to further inte­grate pati­ent pathways and to imple­ment evidence-based medi­cine even more stron­gly in its therapy offerings.

As a share­hol­der in MEDIAN, the inde­pen­dent invest­ment company Water­land Private Equity has exten­sive expe­ri­ence in the health­care sector. In addi­tion to MEDIAN, the port­fo­lio in Germany includes, for exam­ple, ATOS, a group of soma­tic acute-care clinics specia­li­zing in cutting-edge ortho­pe­dic medi­cine, and the care service provi­der Schö­nes Leben Group, a service plat­form for outpa­ti­ent, inpa­ti­ent, and open geria­tric care as well as mobile services, assis­ted living, and leisure acti­vi­ties. Water­land also holds a signi­fi­cant stake in Hanse­fit, a leading network asso­cia­tion for company sports and health services with more than 1,400 affi­lia­ted fitness studios. Waterland’s port­fo­lio of compa­nies in the health­care sector was joined at the begin­ning of the year by Reha­con, where the inves­tor has alre­ady supported four acqui­si­ti­ons. Today, Reha­con is one of the leading provi­ders of physio­the­rapy services and therapy offe­rings in Europe. Nati­on­wide, the company opera­tes more than 120 therapy centers and employs over 800 people.

About Water­land
Water­land is an inde­pen­dent private equity invest­ment firm that helps compa­nies realize their growth plans. With substan­tial finan­cial support and indus­try exper­tise, Water­land enables its port­fo­lio compa­nies to achieve acce­le­ra­ted growth both orga­ni­cally and through acqui­si­ti­ons. Water­land has offices in the Nether­lands (Bussum), Belgium (Antwerp), Germany (Hamburg, Munich), Poland (Warsaw), the UK (Manches­ter), Denmark (Copen­ha­gen) and Switz­er­land (Zurich). Curr­ently, six billion euros in equity funds are under management.

Frank­furt am Main/ Eppin­gen — With the aim of support­ing the further deve­lo­p­ment of the company, Stead­fast Capi­tal Fund IV SCS, SICAV-RAIF has inves­ted in BUK Group (BUK). The BUK Group compri­ses BUK Kunst­stoff­tech­nik GmbH and EMG GmbH, both based in Eppin­gen (Baden-Würt­tem­berg), UHB Kunst­stoff­tech­nik GmbH, based in Bohmte (Lower Saxony), and the Group’s tool­ma­king opera­ti­ons. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the terms of the investment.

BUK is a leading manu­fac­tu­rer of high-precis­ion injec­tion molded engi­nee­ring plas­tic parts for custo­mers in a variety of indus­tries. The manu­fac­tu­red parts are used, among others, in hand tools, water fittings and house­hold and elec­tri­cal appli­ances. In addi­tion to parts manu­fac­tu­ring, BUK main­ta­ins its own tool shop and offers its custo­mers compre­hen­sive assem­bly services. Toge­ther with Thors­ten Ulbrich, who conti­nues to hold a signi­fi­cant stake in BUK, Stead­fast Capi­tal will drive the further deve­lo­p­ment of the group, both in terms of person­nel and strategy.

Marco Berne­cker, Mana­ging Part­ner of Stead­fast Capi­tal GmbH: ” We are looking forward to working with an excel­lent entre­pre­neur and his manage­ment and to support the successful further deve­lo­p­ment of BUK. Given its focu­sed product offe­ring in various end markets, as well as its tech­no­lo­gi­cal exper­tise and state-of-the-art produc­tion proces­ses, we are convin­ced that the company will have excel­lent growth oppor­tu­ni­ties in the future.”

Natio­nal­bank Essen and Olden­bur­gi­sche Landes­bank are support­ing the tran­sac­tion with acqui­si­tion finan­cing and a working capi­tal loan.

About the BUK Group
Foun­ded in 1985 and taken over by Thors­ten Ulbrich in 1996, the group of compa­nies specia­li­zes in the produc­tion of sophisti­ca­ted tech­ni­cal plas­tic molded parts (indi­vi­dual parts and assem­blies) based on state-of-the-art injec­tion molding machi­nes. The product range extends from high-precis­ion plas­tic parts for small elec­tri­cal devices (e.g. grin­ding tools) to complex assem­blies for high-pres­sure pumps and venti­la­tion and cooling devices. BUK supports its custo­mers from the deve­lo­p­ment of new products, through pre-series to serial produc­tion by means of custo­mi­zed injec­tion molds and state-of-the-art produc­tion processes.

Stead­fast Capital
Stead­fast Capi­tal is an inde­pen­dent private equity invest­ment company focu­sed on medium-sized compa­nies in German-spea­king Europe and the Bene­lux count­ries. Our funds invest in medium-sized compa­nies and provide equity capi­tal for busi­ness succes­si­ons, manage­ment buy-outs and growth financing.

Stead­fast Capi­tal was foun­ded in 2001 and has since pursued a successful, value-driven stra­tegy of inves­t­ing in profi­ta­ble compa­nies across a wide range of indus­tries. Stead­fast Capi­tal Fund IV bene­fits from the finan­cial support of the Euro­pean Union under the Euro­pean Fund for Stra­te­gic Invest­ments (“EFSI”) estab­lished under the Invest­ment Plan for Europe. The purpose of the EFSI is to support the finan­cing and imple­men­ta­tion of produc­tive invest­ments in the Euro­pean Union and to ensure better access to finance.

Shear­man & Ster­ling advi­sed NATIONAL-BANK AG and Olden­bur­gi­sche Landes­bank Akti­en­ge­sell­schaft (OLB) on the finan­cing of the acqui­si­tion of BUK Group by Stead­fast Capital.

NATIONAL-BANK AG is one of the leading inde­pen­dent regio­nal banks in Germany for discer­ning private and corpo­rate custo­mers and medium-sized insti­tu­tio­nal investors.

OLB is a modern finan­cial group that, in addi­tion to its core busi­ness of retail and corpo­rate custo­mers, also offers custo­mi­zed, one-stop solu­ti­ons for complex finan­cial issues throug­hout Germany. She is a leading arran­ger in the German-spea­king LBO market.

About Shear­man & Sterling
Shear­man & Ster­ling is an inter­na­tio­nal law firm with 23 offices in 13 count­ries and appro­xi­m­ately 850 lawy­ers. In Germany, Shear­man & Ster­ling is repre­sen­ted at the Frank­furt office. The firm is one of the inter­na­tio­nal market leaders in advi­sing on complex cross-border tran­sac­tions. World­wide, Shear­man & Ster­ling prima­rily advi­ses inter­na­tio­nal corpo­ra­ti­ons and large natio­nal compa­nies, finan­cial insti­tu­ti­ons, and large mid-sized companies.

Wendingen/ Munich — The foun­ders of pro optik sell the majo­rity of their shares to the Munich-based invest­ment company PARAGON PARTNERS and to long-time employee and mana­ging direc­tor Hanni­bal Zema­riam.

Peter Hoppert (co-foun­der of pro optik): “With PARAGON PARTNERS we have found an expe­ri­en­ced and relia­ble finan­cial inves­tor and we will sell the majo­rity of our shares in the pro optik group to PARAGON PARTNERS and Hanni­bal Zema­riam.” Mr. Zema­riam, who has been employed by pro optik since 2003 and was appoin­ted as an addi­tio­nal mana­ging direc­tor in 2018, is inves­t­ing in pro optik toge­ther with PARAGON PARTNERS, conti­nuing the owner-driven culture. This step is the logi­cal conse­quence of the orderly succes­sion that has been in place for some time and with Mr. Zema­riam, pro optik is rely­ing on conti­nuity in the manage­ment of the company.

With the help of PARAGON PARTNERS, plan­ned acce­le­ra­ted growth and focus on expan­sion of the group is secu­red for the coming years. Mr. Zema­riam commen­ted, “I look forward to working with PARAGON PARTNERS and driving the group’s expan­sion both with the group-wide roll-out of hearing aids added to the product port­fo­lio in 2019, as well as through the poten­tial acqui­si­tion of smal­ler chains.”

Marco Atto­lini, Mana­ging Part­ner of PARAGON PARTNERS, said, “We look forward to actively support­ing the manage­ment and employees of pro optik as a stable prin­ci­pal owner by inves­t­ing in the growth and sustainable deve­lo­p­ment of the company.”

The foun­ders, Rainer Hilde­brandt and Peter Hoppert, will also remain finan­ci­ally asso­cia­ted with pro optik. “The trust of our part­ners is important to us. That’s why we will conti­nue to hold a finan­cial stake in pro optik, provide advi­sory support to the new prin­ci­pal owners and be available to our part­ners as a trus­ted cont­act,” says Hildebrandt.

About pro optik
pro optik is the third largest opti­cian chain in Germany with 145 bran­ches. The company gene­ra­ted EUR 125 million in exter­nal sales in 2018. Based in Wend­lin­gen, Germany, pro optik looks back on a successful deve­lo­p­ment and conti­nuous growth since its foun­da­tion by Peter Hoppert and Rainer Hilde­brandt in 1987. A signi­fi­cant mile­stone in the recent past is the expan­sion of the product range to include hearing acoustics.

London, Munich, Dussel­dorf — ARQIS has advi­sed FTSE-100 listed CRH plc. (“CRH”) on the sale of its Euro­pean distri­bu­tion busi­ness to a private equity fund mana­ged by Blackstone for an enter­prise value of €1.64 billion. Lead legal coun­sel for CRH world­wide was Slaugh­ter and May, working with Chris Roberts, CRH’s gene­ral coun­sel, and Dami­a­nos Vainas, deputy gene­ral coun­sel. ARQIS advi­sed on the German portion of the acqui­si­tion. The tran­sac­tion is subject to regu­la­tory approval.

“The tran­sac­tion demons­tra­tes the contin­ued execu­tion of CRH’s stra­tegy to create value for our share­hol­ders through active port­fo­lio manage­ment, effi­ci­ent capi­tal allo­ca­tion and the crea­tion of a simp­ler and more focu­sed group for the future. We wish our colle­agues at Europe Distri­bu­tion every success as they enter this new phase of their deve­lo­p­ment,” said Albert Mani­fold, Chief Execu­tive of CRH.

The dive­st­ment includes CRH’s entire Gene­ral Buil­ders Merchants busi­ness in Europe, inclu­ding the plum­bing heating and sani­ta­tion busi­ness. The sale follo­wed a compre­hen­sive stra­te­gic review of the busi­ness in recent months, which conside­red all opti­ons to maxi­mize value for share­hol­ders. The proceeds from the dive­st­ment will be used for gene­ral corpo­rate purpo­ses to make acqui­si­ti­ons as part of our ongo­ing share repurchase program and to provide returns of capi­tal to shareholders.

CRH is a leading global diver­si­fied buil­ding mate­ri­als group with around 85,000 employees at appro­xi­m­ately 3,600 sites in 32 count­ries. With a market capi­ta­liza­tion of appro­xi­m­ately €23 billion (April 2018), CRH is the largest buil­ding mate­ri­als company in North America and the second largest in the world. The Group holds various market-leading posi­ti­ons in Europe and stra­te­gic posi­ti­ons in the emer­ging econo­mic regi­ons of Asia and South America.

The ARQIS team around Jörn-Chris­tian Schulze has been advi­sing CRH in various tran­sac­tions in Germany for many years.

Advi­sors to CRH: ARQIS Rechts­an­wälte (Düssel­dorf, Munich)
Dr. Jörn-Chris­tian Schulze, Dr. Chris­tof Alex­an­der Schnei­der (both Lead; Corporate/M&A); Dr. Andrea Panzer-Heemeier (Labor Law), Dr. Chris­tof Alex­an­der Schnei­der, Johan­nes Landry (both Corporate/M&A), Chris­tian Wege­ner (Tax Law), Dr. Ulrich Lien­hard (Real Estate Law), Marcus Noth­hel­fer (IP/Compliance), Dr. Thomas Görge­manns (Corporate/M&A); Asso­cia­tes: Nima Hanifi-Atash­gah, Thomas Chwa­lek, Malte Grie­pen­burg (all Corporate/M&A), Jenni­fer Huschauer (Real Estate), Dr. Hendrik von Mellen­thin (Labor Law), Dr. Liliia Sagun, Carina Grahs (both Legal Support Specialists).

Stutt­gart — The Stutt­gart-based invest­ment company Finexx has supported its port­fo­lio company GSE Vertrieb with capi­tal for the stra­te­gic acqui­si­tion of the FITNE brand. The Saar­brü­cken-based specia­list for orga­nic nutri­tio­nal supple­ments takes over FITNE from LOGOCOS Natur­kos­me­tik AG, a subsi­diary of the consu­mer goods group L’Oréal, and thus expands its port­fo­lio by curr­ently 27 nutri­tio­nal supple­ments and cosme­tic products. The tran­sac­tion crea­tes FITNE Health Care GmbH, which toge­ther with GSE Vertrieb Biolo­gi­sche Nahrungs­er­gän­zungs- und Heil­mit­tel GmbH will be part of BioneXX Holding, in which Finexx holds a majo­rity stake. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the finan­cial details.

The FITNE brand was foun­ded in 1994 and since then has successfully compe­ted with orga­nic quality products for main­tai­ning health, vita­lity and joie de vivre, which are mainly sold in health food stores and orga­nic stores. FITNE was part of the LOGOCOS Group since 2014. GSE has also been on the market since 1994 and deve­lops and distri­bu­tes food supple­ments on an orga­nic certi­fied basis through natu­ral food retail­ers. Last Novem­ber, Finexx had acqui­red the GSE shares as part of a long-term succes­sion plan.

“We want to support GSE in further expan­ding its leading market posi­tion. Our stra­tegy includes a number of measu­res for further orga­nic growth, but also the expan­sion of the plat­form via suita­ble acqui­si­ti­ons when the oppor­tu­nity arises,” explains Finexx co-mana­ging direc­tor Matthias Heining. “The acqui­si­tion of the renow­ned FITNE brand will allow GSE to bene­fit even more from the contin­ued growth in demand for health main­ten­ance products.”

Expe­ri­en­ced invest­ment mana­ger streng­thens Finexx team
In addi­tion to GSE, Finexx also holds a majo­rity stake in Sicko, a provi­der of all aspects of digi­tiza­tion and auto­ma­tion of proces­ses in the wood­wor­king indus­try. Finexx also holds shares in the welding specia­list WIDOS. The focus of the invest­ment company is on estab­lished, small and medium-sized compa­nies in Germany; Finexx supports these compa­nies in their further deve­lo­p­ment as a part­ner with strong capi­tal and know-how. “Without inter­vening in day-to-day opera­ti­ons, we support manage­ment across the entire spec­trum of corpo­rate proces­ses. As with the current tran­sac­tion, the deve­lo­p­ment and imple­men­ta­tion of a buy-and-build stra­tegy can also be a key compo­nent of this,” says Co-Mana­ging Direc­tor Dr. Markus Seiler. “We are plea­sed to be able to convince more and more family busi­ness owners and manage­ment teams of the oppor­tu­ni­ties of part­ne­ring with Finexx.”

In order to manage the growing number of invest­ments even more inten­si­vely and also to iden­tify further invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties, the team around the expe­ri­en­ced mana­ging direc­tors Matthias Heining and Dr. Markus Seiler has now brought in rein­force­ments: Frank Weller (44) has come on board as Invest­ment Direc­tor as of July 1, 2019. He moves from the invest­ment company BWK in Stutt­gart, where he spent eleven years as a senior invest­ment mana­ger looking after nume­rous medium-sized compa­nies. This period also saw an inten­sive colla­bo­ra­tion with Matthias Heining, who was Mana­ging Direc­tor at BWK between 2008 and 2013. Frank Weller holds a degree in econo­mics and also has seve­ral years of profes­sio­nal expe­ri­ence in audi­ting at Price­wa­ter­hous­e­Coo­pers. Matthias Heining: “We are very plea­sed about the addi­tion to the team — Frank Weller will conti­nue to drive Finexx’s growth course with valuable know-how.”

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 invest­ment 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

Frank­furt am Main / Stutt­gart / Lauter­bach — The Frank­furt-based invest­ment company VR Equi­typ­art­ner, toge­ther with co-inves­tor Süd Betei­li­gun­gen GmbH (SüdBG), is selling its majo­rity stake in DUO PLAST Holding GmbH, which it acqui­red around six years ago. The remai­ning shares held by the manage­ment also change hands. The new owner of the successful high-perfor­mance film manu­fac­tu­rer is the Munich-based private equity firm Para­gon Part­ners. The tran­sac­tion, which is pending regu­la­tory appr­oval, is expec­ted to close later in summer 2019; no finan­cial details are disclosed.

DUO PLAST Group, foun­ded in 1983, is a leading manu­fac­tu­rer in the pack­a­ging and stretch film market. The company is head­quar­te­red in Lauter­bach, Hesse, with addi­tio­nal produc­tion and sales bran­ches in Thurin­gia, Austria, France and Turkey. Its parti­cu­lar strengths lie in the acknow­led­ged high quality of its products and in the company’s high level of inno­va­tion and custo­mer orien­ta­tion. The product port­fo­lio consists of five busi­ness areas: stretch, stretch and wrap films for load secu­ring, films for silage appli­ca­ti­ons, barrier films for food pack­a­ging, and semi- and fully-auto­ma­tic pack­a­ging lines for indus­try. In addi­tion, the company’s range of services is roun­ded off by the globally unique tech­no­logy center for cargo and trans­port secu­rity and exten­sive service activities.

Dr. Edin Hadzic, photo, co-foun­der and mana­ging direc­tor of PARAGON PARTNERS: “We are exci­ted about DUO PLAST’s long-stan­ding tech­no­logy leader­ship, inno­va­tive strength and stable custo­mer base. We look forward to working toge­ther to further deve­lop DUO PLAST and support its next phase of growth with fresh equity.”

VR Equi­typ­art­ner and SüdBG acqui­red a majo­rity stake in DUO PLAST in 2013 as part of a succes­sion plan; the company’s foun­der and until then CEO and main share­hol­der Norbert Jäger moved to the Super­vi­sory Board at that time. During the part­ner­ship, DUO PLAST has contin­ued to grow — the company now employs about 150 people and turns over nearly 60 million euros a year. Exten­sive invest­ments in deve­lo­p­ment and produc­tion took place and the company was able to push ahead with its internationalization.

“We are plea­sed that we were able to fulfill the trust placed in us by the foun­ding gene­ra­tion. In addi­tion to important invest­ments, mile­sto­nes in the further deve­lo­p­ment of DUO PLAST were above all the reor­ga­niza­tion of the manage­ment and the profes­sio­na­liza­tion of nume­rous proces­ses. Today, DUO PLAST is conside­red an inno­va­tion leader and has a corre­spon­din­gly outstan­ding market posi­tion,” explains Chris­tian Futter­lieb, Mana­ging Direc­tor of VR Equi­typ­art­ner. Direc­tor Johan­nes Fleck adds to the successfully imple­men­ted cata­log of measu­res: “During its time as a port­fo­lio company of VR Equi­typ­art­ner and SüdBG, DUO PLAST has repo­si­tio­ned itself as a high-end supplier of extru­sion films with a strong sales focus — among other things by syste­ma­tiz­ing and pushing direct sales and key account manage­ment as well as estab­li­shing a unique sales approach.”

Erich Stei­ner, CEO of DUO PLAST, confirms the good coope­ra­tion: “I would like to thank the previous share­hol­ders for what we have achie­ved toge­ther. We have achie­ved what was inten­ded: the trans­fer of the company into trust­wor­thy hands, the conti­nua­tion of the successful growth and niche stra­tegy and the sustainable posi­tio­ning for the future of the company. We are now exci­ted about the next deve­lo­p­ment steps in which the new, entre­pre­neu­rial inves­tor intends to support us.”

About VR Equi­typ­art­ner GmbH
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. VR Equitypartner’s port­fo­lio curr­ently compri­ses around 100 commit­ments with an invest­ment volume of EUR 500 million.

Consul­ting firms invol­ved in the tran­sac­tion by VR Equitypartner:

M&A: William Blair Inter­na­tio­nal, Frankfurt
Finan­cial, Tax, Commer­cial: Price­wa­ter­hous­e­Coo­pers, Munich, Stuttgart
Legal: McDer­mott Will & Emery, Frankfurt
Envi­ron­men­tal: ERM, Munich, Neu-Isenburg

Berlin, London, Frank­furt a. Main, Munich — Signa­vio recei­ved EUR 157 million (USD 177 million) in a Series B finan­cing round for further global expan­sion. The finan­cing round led by Apax Digi­tal, the growth capi­tal arm of London-based finan­cial inves­tor Apax Part­ners, also included Deut­sche Tele­kom Capi­tal Part­ners (DTCP) and Summit Part­ners. The Frank­furt and Munich offices of inter­na­tio­nal law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP advi­sed Apax Digi­tal on its invest­ment in SaaS provi­der Signavio.

Signa­vio, which was valued at EUR 350 million in the finan­cing round, is a leading provi­der of cloud-based process mode­ling and manage­ment systems. The company is head­quar­te­red in Berlin and opera­tes at a total of nine loca­ti­ons worldwide.

Advi­sor Apax Digi­tal: Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP
The Weil tran­sac­tion team was led by Frank­furt-based Corpo­rate Part­ner Dr. Kamyar Abrarin this tran­sac­tion. and was supported by Tax Part­ner Ludger Kempf (Frank­furt) and Asso­cia­tes Sebas­tian Bren­ner, Thomas Weise, Aurel Hille, Stef­fen Giolda (all Corpo­rate, Frank­furt), Mareike Pfeif­fer (Labor Law, Frank­furt), Alisa Preis­sler (Tax, Frank­furt), Dr. Konstan­tin Hoppe, Dr. Barbara Sand­fuchs (IP/IT, Munich), Dr. Sandra Kühn (Liti­ga­tion, Munich) and Para­le­gals Sandra Maurer (Corpo­rate, Munich) and Kris­tina Thiel (Labor Law, Frank­furt). Weil’s U.S. attor­neys also served: part­ners Kevin Sulli­van (Corpo­rate, Boston) and Ted Posner (Liti­ga­tion, Washing­ton, DC) and asso­ciate Anthony Cahill (Corpo­rate, Boston).

Frank­furt am Main / Koblenz — The Frank­furt-based invest­ment company VR Equi­typ­art­ner is finan­cing the further growth of HGA VertriebsGmbH(HGA Cosme­tics). To this end, VR Equi­typ­art­ner is provi­ding the Koblenz-based company, which sells hair styling, care and color products, with mezza­nine capi­tal in the lower single-digit millions.

HGA Cosme­tics was foun­ded about 20 years ago and has been in the hands of the foun­der ever since. The company distri­bu­tes a wide range of premium products for hair styling, care and color in the DACH region. To this end, HGA Cosme­tics holds the exclu­sive distri­bu­tion rights for curr­ently nine niche brands, which are secu­red by long-term frame­work agree­ments. Custo­mers include hair salons and whole­sale. HGA has grown stron­gly in recent years and most recently achie­ved sales of over 11 million euros with 25 employees.

In its successful deve­lo­p­ment in recent years, HGA Cosme­tics has also been able to bene­fit from the envi­ron­ment, as the market for hair­dres­sing services is growing steadily. The reasons for this include the trends towards natu­ral cosme­tics and sustain­ably produ­ced and envi­ron­men­tally friendly sham­poos. This is accom­pa­nied by higher consu­mer demands on products and, at the same time, a grea­ter willing­ness to spend on corre­spon­ding premium products, for which HGA’s brand range is ideally positioned.

In addi­tion to opti­mi­zing its exis­ting finan­cing struc­ture, HGA Cosme­tics plans to use the mezza­nine capi­tal to finance further growth and expand its sales organization.

About VR Equi­typ­art­ner GmbH 
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 100 commit­ments with an invest­ment volume of EUR 500 million.

Consul­ting firms invol­ved in the tran­sac­tion by VR Equi­typ­art­ner:

Commer­cial: maconda
Tax, Legal, Finan­cial: Warth & Klein Grant Thorn­ton, Düsseldorf

Hamburg/Frankfurt/Stockholm/Oxford — Viva­Neo, a group of ferti­lity centers in the port­fo­lio of Water­land Private Equity (“Water­land”), and The Ferti­lity Part­ner­ship, a corpo­rate invest­ment of inves­tor Impilo, are joining forces.

Water­land had acqui­red the Kinder­wunsch­zen­trum Wies­ba­den in 2011 — the start­ing point for the deve­lo­p­ment of Viva­Neo. To date, Viva­Neo has deve­lo­ped into one of Europe’s leading groups of ferti­lity centers with 15 loca­ti­ons in Germany, Denmark, Austria and the Nether­lands. Viva­Neo curr­ently gene­ra­tes annual sales of around 50 million euros. As part of the tran­sac­tion, Water­land will sell its Viva­Neo shares to The Ferti­lity Part­ner­ship. Further finan­cial details of the tran­sac­tion were not disclosed.

Viva­Neo employs around 300 people in its Europe-wide network of clinics. The group is led by a team of experts with commer­cial and medi­cal back­grounds, as well as expe­ri­en­ced physi­ci­ans and renow­ned embryo­lo­gists. Every year, around 25,000 pati­ents make use of the Group’s broad port­fo­lio of services. VivaNeo’s services are based on labo­ra­tory diagno­stics, the use of the latest tech­no­lo­gies and perso­na­li­zed advice on all facets of repro­duc­tive medi­cine. A syste­ma­tic exch­ange of know­ledge between the indi­vi­dual clinics crea­tes the basis for the broad range of services and their conti­nuous further development.

With the acqui­si­tion of the Wies­ba­den ferti­lity center in 2011 and its rebran­ding as Viva­Neo, Water­land laun­ched its buy & build program from this plat­form. Still in 2011, Viva­Neo expan­ded with the acqui­si­tion of a branch office in Berlin. In 2012, further German subsi­dia­ries were added, as well as a sperm bank and a labo­ra­tory diagno­stics center. The inte­gra­tion of Medisch Centrum Kinder­wens in the Nether­lands also marked the first step towards inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion in 2012. Acqui­si­ti­ons in Denmark and Austria follo­wed in 2015 and 2017. They shape the current profile of Viva­Neo: 15 loca­ti­ons in Germany, the Nether­lands, Denmark and Austria. Throug­hout Waterland’s invest­ment period, Viva­Neo has successfully comple­ted a total of 12 acqui­si­ti­ons, massi­vely incre­asing its market share and selec­tively expan­ding its regio­nal presence.

“Since the start of our buy & build stra­tegy at Viva­Neo in 2011, we have accom­pa­nied nume­rous acqui­si­ti­ons at Viva­Neo. Their successful inte­gra­tion crea­ted a multi­na­tio­nal group of ferti­lity centers in the Central Euro­pean market. During Waterland’s invol­vement, Viva­Neo was able to achieve important mile­sto­nes in the deve­lo­p­ment of repro­duc­tive medi­cine and signi­fi­cantly improve stan­dards of pati­ent care in the field of infer­ti­lity treat­ment and arti­fi­cial inse­mi­na­tion,” says Dr. Cars­ten Rahlfs, Mana­ging Part­ner at Water­land Private Equity. “We are plea­sed to announce the merger of Viva­Neo and The Ferti­lity Part­ner­ship. This will create a leading Euro­pean group. The new group aims to invest even more in services and medi­cal treat­ment quality. In total, the group will have 19 IVF clinics in six Euro­pean countries.”

“Through a targe­ted growth stra­tegy, we have been able to signi­fi­cantly expand VivaNeo’s regio­nal foot­print and successfully drive the Group’s expan­sion in a focu­sed manner. We thank Water­land for its part­ner­ship support throug­hout the invest­ment period. Toge­ther with The Ferti­lity Group and Impilo, we are now looking forward to ente­ring the next growth phase,” says Sebas­tian Ahrens, CEO of VivaNeo.

“The Ferti­lity Part­ner­ship is alre­ady a market leader in the UK and Poland in the areas of IVF as well as ultra­sound exami­na­ti­ons. Thanks to VivaNeo’s strong Central Euro­pean presence, we are now the number one IVF provi­der in Nort­hern Europe. Toge­ther, we now want to build a pan-Euro­pean group to share exper­tise, expe­ri­ence and exis­ting know­ledge in the IVF field,” adds Andrew Came, CEO of The Ferti­lity Partnership.

Inde­pen­dent invest­ment firm Water­land Private Equity has exten­sive expe­ri­ence in the health­care sector. Part of the Water­land port­fo­lio in Germany are, for exam­ple, ATOS, a group of soma­tic acute-care hospi­tals specia­li­zing in cutting-edge ortho­pe­dic medi­cine, and the care service provi­der Schö­nes Leben Group, a service plat­form for outpa­ti­ent, inpa­ti­ent and open geria­tric care as well as mobile services, assis­ted living and leisure acti­vi­ties. Water­land has been active in this sector in Germany since 2011 through the estab­lish­ment of MEDIAN, the current market leader in reha­bi­li­ta­tion medicine.

Advi­sors Water­land: Quar­ton Inter­na­tio­nal AG (M&A) and Will­kie Farr & Gallag­her (Legal)

About Viva­Neo
Viva­Neo is a leading provi­der of infer­ti­lity treat­ments in Europe with loca­ti­ons in Austria, Denmark, Germany and the Nether­lands. The Group opera­tes a total of nine specia­list clinics for arti­fi­cial inse­mi­na­tion in these four count­ries, as well as a sperm bank, a labo­ra­tory for blood diagno­stics and its own dialy­sis clinic. In the count­ries where Viva­Neo is active, Viva­Neo is either the market leader or in second place in the market compa­ri­son. Viva­Neo places the utmost importance on first-class pati­ent care and medi­cal treat­ment success. https://vivaneo-ivf.com/de/kinderwunschzentren/

About The Ferti­lity Partnership
The Ferti­lity Part­ner­ship, with loca­ti­ons in the UK and Poland, is a leading Euro­pean provi­der of arti­fi­cial inse­mi­na­tion, ultra­sound exami­na­ti­ons for pregnant women and hormone treat­ments. In addi­tion to eight IVF clinics in the UK and 27 addi­tio­nal sites and two IVF clinics in Poland, TFP also opera­tes 88 ultra­sound clinics in the UK and an incre­asing number of hormone treat­ment centers. Foun­ded in 2012 through the merger of two IVF clinics, TFP has since grown through targe­ted add-on acqui­si­ti­ons, green­field deve­lo­p­ments and expan­sion into adja­cent service sectors. Today, TFP is the largest provi­der of ferti­lity services in the UK, as well as the third largest in Poland, and is the leader in ultra­sound scans in the UK. https://www.thefertilitypartnership.com/

About Water­land
Water­land is an inde­pen­dent private equity invest­ment firm that helps compa­nies realize their growth plans. With substan­tial finan­cial support and indus­try exper­tise, Water­land enables its port­fo­lio compa­nies to achieve acce­le­ra­ted growth both orga­ni­cally and through acqui­si­ti­ons. Water­land has offices in the Nether­lands (Bussum), Belgium (Antwerp), Germany (Hamburg, Munich), Poland (Warsaw), the UK (Manches­ter), Denmark (Copen­ha­gen) and Switz­er­land (Zurich). Curr­ently, six billion euros in equity funds are under management.

Water­land has consis­t­ently outper­for­med its invest­ments since its foun­ding in 1999 and has regu­larly ranked among the top three leading private equity firms world­wide in past HEC/Dow Jones Private Equity Perfor­mance Rankings.