Author: Tatjana Anderer

Frank­furt am Main — Paris — Sine­qua, a specia­list in cogni­tive search and AI-based search and analy­tics, has successfully closed a $23 million Series B finan­cing led by Jolt Capi­tal and supported by exis­ting inves­tor Trois­mer BVBA. Sine­qua will invest the addi­tio­nal funds in rese­arch and further expan­sion of its AI-powered search and analy­tics plat­form to include inno­va­tive arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence capa­bi­li­ties. For its rese­arch-based inno­va­tive tech­no­logy, Sine­qua has been ranked as a leader in the field of Cogni­tive Search by inde­pen­dent consul­ting insti­tu­tes seve­ral times.

Some of the world’s largest compa­nies are alre­ady using the Sine­qua plat­form to tap into very large volu­mes of data, analyze it, and provide their employees with contex­tual infor­ma­tion deri­ved from it. As a result, they gain new insights, make better decis­i­ons and increase their produc­ti­vity. Accor­ding to IDC, orga­niza­ti­ons that are able to analyze enter­prise content and data assets to deli­ver actionable infor­ma­tion and insights will realize an addi­tio­nal $430 billion in produc­ti­vity bene­fits over less analy­ti­cally orien­ted orga­niza­ti­ons by 2020.

“After years of rese­arch and deve­lo­p­ment to build our plat­form, we are proba­bly the only soft­ware vendor to offer compa­nies the ability to acce­le­rate inno­va­tion, improve effi­ci­ency and agility on a global scale and on an unpre­ce­den­ted scale. We do this by secu­rely aggre­ga­ting all enter­prise data in all formats and languages into acces­si­ble and useful infor­ma­tion — even with very large data volu­mes,” explains Alex­andre Bilger, CEO of Sine­qua. “This latest round of funding will enable us to more quickly realize our vision of the infor­ma­tion-driven economy.”

Fabrice de Sala­berry, COO of Sine­qua: “Sine­qua has been expe­ri­en­cing strong reve­nue growth for years, reaching 91% last year. With the addi­tio­nal resour­ces, we are able to drive inno­va­tion in our products, provide even better value to our custo­mers, expand our market presence and part­ner ecosys­tem quickly and with vigor.”

“As a private equity tech inves­tor in Europe, we support inno­va­tive tech­no­logy compa­nies with outstan­ding finan­cial perfor­mance like Sine­qua,” said Jean Schmitt, Mana­ging Part­ner at Jolt Capi­tal. “Sine­qua offers a compre­hen­sive and robust AI-based search plat­form built on state-of-the-art natu­ral language proces­sing and machine lear­ning tech­no­lo­gies that enable large enter­pri­ses to extract value from data. Given this strong appeal in the market, we are exci­ted to part­ner with Sine­qua and support the next phase of its global expansion.”

Just recently, Forres­ter Rese­arch confirmed Sinequa’s ability to expand employee intel­li­gence at scale in its “Forres­ter Wave™: Cogni­tive Search, Q2 20191“1) report. He said the AI plat­form helps compa­nies become infor­ma­tion-driven by expan­ding the know­ledge of every employee. “Sine­qua achie­ves this,” Forres­ter said verba­tim, “by uneart­hing insights and connec­ting experts through its cogni­tive search tech­no­logy. Sine­qua combi­nes its proprie­tary Natu­ral Language Under­stan­ding (NLU) tech­no­logy with the latest open source machine lear­ning tech­no­logy. The vendor has exten­sive indus­try exper­tise and offers solu­ti­ons for life scien­ces, finan­cial services and manufacturing.”

1 Forres­ter Rese­arch, Inc, “The Forres­ter Wave™: Cogni­tive Search, Q2 2019,” by Mike Gual­tieri, with Sriv­i­dya Srid­ha­ran and Eliza­beth Hoberman.

About Sine­qua
Sine­qua is an inde­pen­dent soft­ware vendor that provi­des a cogni­tive search and analy­tics plat­form for Global 2000 compa­nies and govern­ment agen­cies. As a result, their employees receive actionable infor­ma­tion in their respec­tive work envi­ron­ments, gain new insights, make better decis­i­ons and increase their produc­ti­vity — the company beco­mes infor­ma­tion-driven. The Sine­qua plat­form was crea­ted through expe­ri­ence in projects for large orga­niza­ti­ons in complex envi­ron­ments with large and diverse data and content. It is fully inte­gra­ted and confi­gura­ble to meet current and future infor­ma­tion retrie­val requi­re­ments. Sine­qua deve­lops its exper­tise and busi­ness globally with a broad network of tech­no­logy and busi­ness partners.

About Jolt Capital
Jolt Capi­tal SAS is an inde­pen­dent private equity firm that invests in fast-growing, profi­ta­ble, globally focu­sed tech­no­logy compa­nies of Euro­pean origin with reve­nues between €10 and €100 million. Jolt Capi­tal has inves­ted in and cata­ly­zed seve­ral leading tech­no­logy compa­nies, inclu­ding Hepta­gon (now part of SIX:AMS), Inside Secure (EUR:INSD), Fogale Nano­tech, Alpha Mos (EUR:ALM), Black­wood Seven, NIL Tech­no­logy and 4JET. The company is autho­ri­zed and regu­la­ted by the AMF. www.jolt-capital.com

Amster­dam — The Dutch ABN AMRO Energy Tran­si­tion Fund B.V. has agreed with the share­hol­ders and the company on a growth finan­cing by way of parti­ci­pa­tion in the Ideema­tec Group. The closing of the tran­sac­tion is subject to appr­oval by the anti­trust autho­ri­ties, which is expec­ted in the near future. A Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek team led by Düssel­dorf part­ner Dr. Martin Imhof provi­ded compre­hen­sive advice to ABN AMRO Energy Tran­si­tion Fund on the invest­ment, inclu­ding corpo­rate, patent and tax law aspects.

With head­quar­ters in Bava­ria and inter­na­tio­nal subsi­dia­ries in the USA, Chile, Turkey and the UK, Ideema­tec is a leading global supplier of key compon­ents for solar track­ing systems for the instal­la­tion of photo­vol­taic modu­les in solar parks. Ideema­tec has so far supplied compon­ents for over 2 GW of instal­led photo­vol­taic systems on six conti­nents. Current light­house projects include the instal­la­tion of 350 MW in Austra­lia and 250 MW in Jordan. With the invest­ment and parti­ci­pa­tion of ABN AMRO Energy Tran­si­tion Fund, Ideema­tec conti­nues its growth and secu­res its posi­tion as a supplier of leading tech­no­lo­gies in the global PV market. The growth finan­cing will enable Ideema­tec in parti­cu­lar to streng­then its presence in the MENA region, Asia and the Ameri­cas and to further expand capacity.

ABN AMRO Private Equity is part of the global ABN AMRO banking group, head­quar­te­red in Amster­dam, the Nether­lands. In 2018, ABN AMRO Private Equity laun­ched the Energy Tran­si­tion Fund with the goal of adding growth capi­tal and buyout tran­sac­tions rela­ted to compa­nies contri­bu­ting to a low-carbon future to its port­fo­lio. Curr­ently, the Energy Tran­si­tion Fund mana­ges around €200 million and invests in compa­nies and projects in the fields of rene­wa­ble energy, clean mobi­lity, smart infra­struc­ture and energy effi­ci­ency. The fund typi­cally invests in volu­mes between 10 and 25 million euros and focu­ses on compa­nies based in northwes­tern Europe.

Advi­sors to ABN AMRO Energy Tran­si­tion Fund B.V.: Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek:
Dr. Martin Imhof (Lead Part­ner, Private Equity/M&A),
Sebas­tian Poll­meier (Corporate/M&A),
Dr. Anton Horn (Patents),
Phil­ipp Roman Schrö­ler (patents),
Dr. Chris­tian Appel­baum (Banking/Finance),
Chris­toph Nöhles, LL.M. (Real Estate Law),
Dr. Alex­an­der Bork (Labor Law),
Astrid Lued­tke (Data Protection),
Beatrice Stange, LL.M. (Anti­trust),
Michael Vetter, LL.M. (anti­trust law), all Düsseldorf
Klaus Weinand-Härer (Taxes), Frankfurt
Yvonne Hunds­dör­fer (Taxes), Stuttgart
Daniela Szczesny (Corpo­rate Law), Munich
Dr. Marco Garbers, LL.M. (Energy/Projects), Hamburg

Berlin — Odewald KMU II has acqui­red a majo­rity stake in ARTUS Gesell­schaft für Brand- und Wasser­scha­den­sa­nie­rung mbH and ARTUS Projekt GmbH with the support of Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek attorneys.

ARTUS is a regio­nally leading damage resto­ra­tion company in the field of fire, water and natu­ral hazard damage as well as conse­quen­tial damage with head­quar­ters in Langen­ha­gen near Hano­ver and a network of seven bran­ches in the region of Lower Saxony, Hamburg, Bremen, Berlin and Leip­zig. ARTUS was foun­ded in 2012 and curr­ently employs around 100 people. The company offers complete solu­ti­ons for the entire reha­bi­li­ta­tion process. The services offe­red here cover the entire resto­ra­tion process, from initial measu­res and damage logging to clea­ning, drying and complete resto­ra­tion. The clients of ARTUS are mainly insu­rance compa­nies and their customers.

To support further growth, the foun­ding share­hol­ders have ente­red into a part­ner­ship with Odewald KMU II, an invest­ment company specia­li­zing in high-growth medium-sized compa­nies. To this end, Odewald KMU II has acqui­red a majo­rity stake in ARTUS. The foun­ders conti­nue to hold a signi­fi­cant stake in the company. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the amount of the invest­ment or further details of the shareholding.

The Odewald KMU II Fund with a volume of 200 million euros has ente­red into its seventh invest­ment with ARTUS. The Odewald KMU II Fund invests in attrac­tive target markets in German-spea­king SMEs. The indus­try focus is on profi­ta­ble, fast-growing medium-sized compa­nies in the fields of “German engi­nee­ring”, intel­li­gent services and health­care. The typi­cal invest­ment occa­si­ons are succes­sion arran­ge­ments and/or growth finan­cing. These compa­nies gene­rally gene­rate sales of between EUR 20 million and EUR 100 million, have entre­pre­neu­rial manage­ment, are very successful in opera­tio­nal terms and occupy a leading posi­tion in the rele­vant market. Equity invest­ments of five to 30 million euros are made per tran­sac­tion. The Colo­gne-based private equity experts led by Dr. Pär Johans­son regu­larly advise Odewald KMU in this regard.

About ODEWALD
ODEWALD is one of the leading inde­pen­dent invest­ment compa­nies in Germany. The company invests prima­rily in high-growth medium-sized compa­nies in German-spea­king count­ries. The focus is on
specia­li­zed mecha­ni­cal engi­nee­ring, busi­ness services, IT, energy, medi­cal tech­no­logy and health­care. Inves­tors include insu­rance compa­nies, pension funds, asset manage­ment compa­nies, family offices and wealthy private investors.

Advi­sor Odewald KMU II: Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek
Dr. Pär Johans­son (Lead Partner),
Kris­tina Schnei­der, LL.M.,
Tim Remmel, LL.M.,
Laura Rilin­ger (all Private Equity, Corporate/M&A),
Dr. Sascha Sche­wiola (Labor Law),
Dr. Verena Hoene, LL.M. (IP), all Cologne

Frank­furt am Main — Deut­sche Betei­li­gungs AG (DBAG) successfully comple­tes its invest­ment in Infiana Group GmbH (Infiana). Its shares will be sold to Pamplona Capi­tal Manage­ment, a finan­cial inves­tor based in the UK. The shares of DBAG Fund VI, which was advi­sed by DBAG, and the Infiana manage­ment will also be sold. Corre­spon­ding agree­ments were signed last week; their execu­tion is still subject to the appr­oval of the anti­trust autho­ri­ties. The tran­sac­tion is expec­ted to close within the next three months. With this tran­sac­tion, DBAG reali­zes more than double the origi­nally inves­ted capi­tal. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the purchase price.

The portion of the proceeds from the sale now agreed upon attri­bu­ta­ble to DBAG exceeds the carry­ing amount of the invest­ment in the IFRS inte­rim finan­cial state­ments as at March 31, 2019. The dispo­sal will ther­e­fore result in a slightly posi­tive contri­bu­tion to conso­li­da­ted earnings in the third quar­ter of 2018/2019, which ended on June 30, 2019. The fore­cast for the 2018/2019 conso­li­da­ted earnings of Deut­sche Betei­li­gungs AG remains unch­an­ged in view of the conti­nuing impon­der­a­bles rela­ting to other factors influen­cing conso­li­da­ted earnings.

Infiana (www.infiana.com) deve­lops and produ­ces specialty films for the consu­mer goods market and indus­trial appli­ca­ti­ons. These are used for sophisti­ca­ted pack­a­ging and as a compo­nent for hygiene products, as release and surface films for appli­ca­ti­ons in the cons­truc­tion indus­try, and as release films in tech­ni­cal adhe­sive tapes and specialty labels. Among other things, the company has iden­ti­fied specialty films for phar­maceu­ti­cal appli­ca­ti­ons and for the produc­tion of compo­site mate­ri­als as attrac­tive growth areas. The variety and breadth of end-use fields provide for great diver­si­fi­ca­tion. The high flexi­bi­lity in produc­tion enables a variety of products. In doing so, the company bene­fits time and again from its inten­sive inno­va­tion acti­vi­ties, for which it has recei­ved seve­ral awards. Infiana produ­ces at two loca­ti­ons in Germany and in the USA. The nucleus of the 165-year-old company, which curr­ently employs 800 people, is its German head­quar­ters in Forch­heim. In 2018, Infiana turned over 227 million euros.

DBAG and DBAG Fund VI had inves­ted in Infiana in Decem­ber 2014 as part of a manage­ment buyout (MBO). The previous share­hol­der, a Finnish group, had sold the specialty films busi­ness because it wanted to focus on the produc­tion of food pack­a­ging. Accor­din­gly, after the seces­sion, the first task was to shape Infiana’s inde­pen­dence. Follo­wing the dive­st­ment of produc­tion in Brazil and Thai­land, the German and US sites were expan­ded and moder­ni­zed through substan­tial invest­ment in addi­tio­nal extru­sion and coating capa­ci­ties. The ESG and compli­ance guide­lines were expan­ded and adapted to meet the increased requirements.

“Infiana is better able to seize its market oppor­tu­ni­ties today than it was five years ago,” said Dr. Rolf Schef­fels, a member of DBAG’s Manage­ment Board; “the invest­ments have contri­bu­ted to this, as has the reor­ga­niza­tion of sales from a largely regio­nal approach to a global, verti­cal approach.”

Commen­ting on the change of owner­ship, Peter Wahs­ner, Chair­man of the Manage­ment Board, said: “Infiana has deve­lo­ped enorm­ously in recent years and is well posi­tio­ned to conti­nue to operate successfully in the future — with effi­ci­ent and modern produc­tion and a leading posi­tion in attrac­tive end markets.”

The sale of the invest­ment in Infiana is the fourth closing of an MBO from the DBAG Fund VI port­fo­lio. The fund had struc­tu­red eleven MBOs between 2013 and 2016.

About DBAG
Deut­sche Betei­li­gungs AG, a listed company, initia­tes closed-end private equity funds and invests along­side DBAG funds in well-posi­tio­ned medium-sized compa­nies with deve­lo­p­ment poten­tial. DBAG focu­ses on indus­trial sectors in which German SMEs are parti­cu­larly strong by inter­na­tio­nal stan­dards. With this expe­ri­ence, know-how and equity, it streng­thens the port­fo­lio compa­nies in imple­men­ting a long-term, value-enhan­cing corpo­rate stra­tegy. The entre­pre­neu­rial invest­ment approach makes DBAG a sought-after invest­ment part­ner in the German-spea­king region. The capi­tal mana­ged and advi­sed by the DBAG Group amounts to appro­xi­m­ately 1.7 billion euros.

Kürten/Wittstock (Germany), July 2, 2019 — AVS Verkehrs­si­che­rung (“AVS”), a port­fo­lio company of Triton Fund IV, has signed an agree­ment to acquire Lorenz GmbH (“Lorenz”), a renow­ned provi­der in the field of road marking and cons­truc­tion site safety based in Wittstock/Dosse. The merger is still subject to appr­oval by the anti­trust autho­ri­ties. The parties agreed not to disc­lose the purchase price. ARQIS advi­sed AVS Verkehrs­si­che­rung GmbH (AVS) on the acqui­si­tion of Lorenz GmbH (Lorenz).

Since 1992, Lorenz has many years of expe­ri­ence in the appli­ca­tion of high-quality and sustainable marking mate­ri­als, both in perma­nent and tempo­rary appli­ca­ti­ons. In addi­tion, Lorenz sees itself as a relia­ble supplier and outfit­ter of cons­truc­tion site safety equip­ment. The company is prima­rily active in the grea­ter Meck­len­burg area and Berlin, but also nati­on­wide, and works closely with both state deve­lo­pers, cities and muni­ci­pa­li­ties, and private cons­truc­tion companies.

“Lorenz employs more than 30 people, is known as a relia­ble service provi­der also nati­on­wide at 3 loca­ti­ons and ther­e­fore repres­ents an ideal addi­tion to the AVS Group’s range of services,” explains Andreas Schwin­ge­ler, COO at AVS.

AVS Verkehrs­si­che­rung is a leading specia­list provi­der of traf­fic safety services in Germany and Europe. The company is head­quar­te­red in Kürten, Germany, and offers all essen­tial services rela­ted to road safety projects. These range from initial plan­ning and obtai­ning permits to complete site cons­truc­tion and safety aspects. AVS is charac­te­ri­zed by its inter­na­tio­nal presence at 21 loca­ti­ons. In Germany, AVS is repre­sen­ted at 18 loca­ti­ons nati­on­wide. Inter­na­tio­nally, AVS has one loca­tion in Latvia and 2 loca­ti­ons in Denmark. AVS employs around 730 people.

About Triton
Since its foun­ding in 1997, Triton has laun­ched nine funds and focu­sed on compa­nies in the indus­trial, services, consu­mer goods and health­care sectors. The Triton funds invest in medium-sized compa­nies based in Europe and support their posi­tive development.Triton’s goal is to successfully deve­lop its port­fo­lio compa­nies over the long term by working in part­ner­ship. Triton and its manage­ment strive to gene­rate posi­tive change and growth through the sustainable impro­ve­ment of opera­tio­nal proces­ses and structures.Currently, Triton’s port­fo­lio includes 38 compa­nies with total sales of around 14.9, billion euros and appro­xi­m­ately 73,000 employees.

About ARQIS
This is now the fifth trans­ca­tion that ARQIS has accom­pa­nied for AVS. Most recently, Jörn-Chris­tian Schulze’s team advi­sed AVS on the acqui­si­tion of Schötz Verkehrs- und Arbeits­stel­len-Siche­rung GmbH (Schötz), a provi­der in the field of traf­fic and cons­truc­tion site safety based in Fürth.
ARQIS is an inde­pen­dent busi­ness law firm opera­ting in Germany and Japan. The firm was foun­ded in 2006 at its current offices in Düssel­dorf, Munich and Tokyo. Around 45 profes­sio­nals advise dome­stic and foreign compa­nies at the highest level on the core issues of German and Japa­nese busi­ness law. The focus is on M&A, corpo­rate law, private equity, venture capi­tal, employ­ment law, private clients, intellec­tual property, liti­ga­tion as well as real estate law and tax law. For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.arqis.com.

Frank­furt a. M. / Stutt­gart — The Frank­furt-based invest­ment company VR Equi­typ­art­ner acqui­res a majo­rity stake in SIGNON Öster­reich GmbH, a Vienna-based IT service provi­der specia­li­zing in mobi­lity, infra­struc­ture and digi­ta­liza­tion. The seller is the German TÜV SÜD Group, which is selling all its shares. Signi­fi­cantly invol­ved is the manage­ment team of SIGNON Austria. The aim of the new part­ner­ship is to further streng­then the company’s posi­tio­ning in a niche market and to tap addi­tio­nal growth poten­tial. Finan­cial details of the tran­sac­tion, which is expec­ted to close in Q3 2019 subject to regu­la­tory appr­oval, were not disclosed.

Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek advi­sed the invest­ment company VR Equi­typ­art­ner GmbH on the acqui­si­tion of a majo­rity inte­rest in SIGNON Öster­reich GmbH. The complex, cross-border tran­sac­tion was hand­led jointly with the law firm DORDA. Anti­trust clearance is still pending.

The SIGNON Austria manage­ment team will conti­nue to hold a signi­fi­cant stake in the company. The part­ner­ship aims to streng­then the company’s posi­tio­ning in a niche market and tap addi­tio­nal growth poten­tial. — SIGNON Öster­reich GmbH is a Vienna-based IT service provi­der specia­li­zing in mobi­lity, infra­struc­ture and digi­tiza­tion and was foun­ded in 2011 by Paul Klein­rath and Dr. Chris­toph Bonelli under the name Evolit — Consul­ting. Two years later, the TÜV SÜD Group acqui­red a majo­rity stake in the company, making it part of the SIGNON Group. More than 50 people are curr­ently employed at SIGNON Öster­reich GmbH.

VR Equi­typ­art­ner is one of the leading equity finan­ciers in the DACH region. The company supports medium-sized family busi­nesses in solving complex finan­cing issues. VR Equi­typ­art­ner offers majo­rity and mino­rity invest­ments as well as mezza­nine finan­cing. As a subsi­diary of DZ BANK, 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.

The current acqui­si­tion is alre­ady the second invest­ment by VR Equi­typ­art­ner in an IT service provi­der this year, advi­sed by the team around Dr. Rainer Hersch­lein and Bene­dikt Raisch (see deal announce­ment ICS).

Advi­sors to VR Equi­typ­art­ner GmbH: Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek
Dr. Rainer Hersch­lein, Bene­dikt Raisch (both M&A), both Stuttgart

DORDA:
Dr. Bern­hard Rieder, Lukas Schmidt (both M&A), both Vienna

Luxembourg/ Colo­gne / Frank­furt a. Main — Lenbach Equity Oppor­tu­ni­ties I SCSp (LEO I), a Luxem­bourg-based PE fund has sold the MMC Group in Colo­gne to NOVUM CAPITAL, Frank­furt a. M.. Lenbach Equity was advi­sed on the tran­sac­tion by Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek.

The sale of the MMC Group took place within the frame­work of a struc­tu­red process. In the bidding process, the invest­ment company NOVUM CAPITAL, Frank­furt am Main, prevailed.

The core company of the MMC Group is MMC Studios Köln GmbH, which offers services for natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal TV, film and media produc­tions at its Colo­gne loca­tion. In Colo­gne-Ossen­dorf, MMC Studios Köln GmbH opera­tes a large number of studios for film, TV and live events and offers not only the neces­sary state-of-the-art space but also other services requi­red for produc­tions and live events. The sister company MMC Movies is active in the field of film co-produc­tions and provi­des special services for well-known natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal film productions.

Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek had alre­ady advi­sed LEO I on the acqui­si­tion of MMC Group in 2017 and acted for all legal issues in connec­tion with the sale process, the due dili­gence of the various inte­res­ted parties and the actual sale.

About NOVUM CAPITAL
Novum Capi­tal is an inde­pen­dent and owner-mana­ged invest­ment firm with offices in London and Frank­furt. Our part­ners have many years of private equity and mezza­nine expe­ri­ence, and have come toge­ther after care­ers in renow­ned invest­ment banks to invest in upper middle market compa­nies in Europe.

Advi­sor Lenbach Equity Oppor­tu­ni­ties I SCSp (LEO I): Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek
Dr. Andreas Lenz, (Lead Part­ner, M&A),
Dr. Vera Randel (Corpo­rate Law, M&A), both Cologne
Dr. Katha­rina Pras­uhn (M&A), Hamburg,
Bastian Rieck (Corporate/M&A), Cologne
Kers­tin Deiters, LL.M. (Labor Law), Cologne

Karlsruhe/ Munich — Maxburg Betei­li­gun­gen III (“Maxburg”), an invest­ment company advi­sed by Maxburg Capi­tal Part­ners, has acqui­red an inte­rest in STARFACE GmbH (“STARFACE”). P+P Pöllath + Part­ners provi­ded compre­hen­sive tax advice to Maxburg in connec­tion with the transaction.

STARFACE is a tech­no­logy company based in Karls­ruhe, Germany. The focus of the product port­fo­lio is on the Linux-based tele­phone systems, which are optio­nally available as a cloud service, hard­ware appli­ance and virtual VM edition. STARFACE soft­ware solu­ti­ons combine tele­phony with services such as e‑mail, file trans­fer, chat, video commu­ni­ca­tion and presence manage­ment in a user-friendly unified commu­ni­ca­ti­ons environment.

Maxburg is an invest­ment company focu­sed on the German-spea­king region that invests in priva­tely held as well as listed compa­nies. The Maxburg invest­ment compa­nies have capi­tal commit­ments tota­ling around EUR 600 million at their dispo­sal. STARFACE is the twelfth invest­ment of Maxburg Betei­li­gungs­ge­sell­schaf­ten and the fifth soft­ware or tech­no­logy invest­ment besi­des Tenado, Paterva, Secu­r­e­point and KGS.

About Maxburg Capi­tal Partners
Maxburg Capi­tal Part­ners is an invest­ment manage­ment company focu­sed on the German-spea­king region. Foun­ded by three part­ners with many years of expe­ri­ence as entre­pre­neurs and inves­tors in public and private equity, Maxburg focu­ses on long-term corpo­rate invest­ments with the aim of achie­ving lasting and sustainable value growth.

Based on seve­ral funds and a total fund volume of € 600 million, Maxburg has an excep­tio­nally flexi­ble invest­ment mandate: we actively invest across the entire range of capi­tal struc­tures — from equity to near-equity finan­cing opti­ons such as mezza­nine and mezza­nine-like forms of invest­ment. We hold both majo­rity and mino­rity inte­rests in compa­nies. In addi­tion, Maxburg has the option of taking an active share­hol­der role in listed compa­nies. Our finan­cings range from €10 million to €100 million per transaction.
Our most important goal is always the successful deve­lo­p­ment of resi­li­ent, entre­pre­neu­rial value deve­lo­p­ment poten­tial on the part of the port­fo­lio company. Our ambi­tion is to achieve sustainable and posi­tive long-term returns over and above short-term market trends.

P+P Pöllath + Part­ners provi­ded compre­hen­sive tax advice toMaxburg with the follo­wing Munich team:

Dr. Michael Best, Photo (Part­ner, Lead, Tax Law), Gerald Herr­mann (Coun­sel, Tax Law), Tobias Deschen­halm (Asso­ciate, Tax Law)

Antwerp/ Munich — Gimv acqui­res a majo­rity stake in the fast-growing Alro Group, a specia­list in indus­trial coating of car and truck parts. The tran­sac­tion is part of the succes­sion plan for the family busi­ness — Gimv is taking over the shares from the foun­ding family Thijs. The current manage­ment remains on board and supports the company’s further growth ambi­ti­ons with its reinvestment.

Alro Group (Dilsen-Stok­kem, Belgium, www.alro-group.com) was foun­ded in 1976 by the Thijs family. The company has grown from a small coating company to a renow­ned group with seve­ral bran­ches in Western and Central Europe. The group specia­li­zes in coating and pain­ting plas­tic or metal vehicle parts.

Alro is charac­te­ri­zed by strong custo­mer orien­ta­tion and diverse coating tech­no­lo­gies, enab­ling it to respond flexi­bly and quickly to the growing demand for custo­mi­zed solu­ti­ons. With about 1,000 employees and around 20 coating lines, the company has signi­fi­cant capa­ci­ties. These process over 100,000 products per day on modern produc­tion lines using data-control­led proces­ses. Today, the custo­mer base consists of a large number of well-known names in the car and truck industry.

As a Tier 1 supplier, the Alro Group relies on strong custo­mer rela­ti­onships: OEM truck manu­fac­tu­r­ers appre­ciate the relia­ble supply (just-in-time / just-in-sequence), the high flexi­bi­lity in pain­ting in over 1,000 colors and the assem­bly of nume­rous diffe­rent parts. Recently, Alro Group also deve­lo­ped an inno­va­tive solu­tion for coating battery housings for elec­tric vehic­les. The company is thus ideally posi­tio­ned to bene­fit from the expec­ted strong growth of the elec­tric vehicle market. In addi­tion, the Alro Group is respon­ding to the incre­asing demand for contras­ting colors, which enable auto­ma­kers to further perso­na­lize the appearance of their vehicles.

Since the start of the new manage­ment team, the company has under­gone a posi­tive trans­for­ma­tion, focu­sing on incre­asing value crea­tion and flexibility.

Increase deli­vered value-add and focus on grea­ter flexi­bi­lity. The invest­ment by Gimv is inten­ded to help imple­ment the growth plans and support the profes­sio­na­liza­tion course of the company’s management.

Chris­to­phe Van Quicken­borne, Part­ner in Gimv’s Smart Indus­tries team, descri­bes it as follows: “Alro Group comple­ments a whole range of Smart Indus­tries invest­ments in advan­ced manu­fac­tu­ring compa­nies at Gimv. Through our expe­ri­ence with other successful invest­ments in the auto­mo­tive sector, we under­stand the importance of far-reaching flexi­bi­lity and product diffe­ren­tia­tion — making compa­nies prefer­red part­ners to their OEM custo­mers. Toge­ther with Alro’s manage­ment, we intend to further leverage the group’s strengths and gene­rate addi­tio­nal growth. Alre­ady, compre­hen­sive data control, strong engi­nee­ring capa­bi­li­ties, and high flexi­bi­lity and custo­mer focus are key differentiators.”

Jan Crae­nen, CEO of Alro Group, adds: “We are convin­ced that with Gimv we have gained a very relia­ble local part­ner with exten­sive know-how in the auto­mo­tive indus­try. The tran­sac­tion is an important step in the further deve­lo­p­ment of Alro. The helm will remain in the hands of the current manage­ment team, which toge­ther with Gimv will focus on further growth and inno­va­tive solu­ti­ons for custo­mers. On behalf of the entire manage­ment team, we would like to thank the Thijs family for their trust. Our thanks also go to Kumu­lus Part­ners for their expert support in this tran­sac­tion. And last but not least, our thanks go to all the employees of Alro Group, without whom we would not be where we are today.”

The tran­sac­tion is subject to custo­mary condi­ti­ons, inclu­ding appr­oval by the compe­ti­tion autho­ri­ties. Further finan­cial details will not be disclosed.

Munich, London, Paris — Pan-Euro­pean private equity firm Silver­fleet Capi­tal has signed an agree­ment to sell Phase One to funds mana­ged by Axcel. Phase One is a leading tech­no­logy company in the field of high-end digi­tal camera systems and for image proces­sing soft­ware. The tran­sac­tion is still subject to regu­la­tory approval.

Phase One opera­tes two busi­ness units: Soft­ware Imaging Systems (“SIS”) offers market-leading image proces­sing soft­ware for raw (RAW) images under the Capture One brand; it targets both profes­sio­nal and amateur photo­graph­ers as well as busi­nesses. Image Capture Solu­ti­ons (“ICS”) has ultra-high-end medium format camera systems in its port­fo­lio that are suita­ble for aerial photo­gra­phy, for exam­ple, and are used by profes­sio­nal and amateur photo­graph­ers as well as cultu­ral heri­tage insti­tu­ti­ons. The company is head­quar­te­red in Copen­ha­gen, with addi­tio­nal offices in Germany, Hong Kong, Israel, Japan and the USA.

Silver­fleet Capi­tal had acqui­red a majo­rity stake in Phase One in 2014. The decisive factor was the clear growth poten­tial due to the incre­asing demand for high-reso­lu­tion medium-format photo­gra­phy, for exam­ple in the field of 3D mapping with aerial images or in home­land secu­rity. Since then, Silver­fleet Capi­tal has supported the company in its trans­for­ma­tion from a stron­gly hard­ware-orien­ted to a soft­ware-driven busi­ness model. From 2014 to 2018, the SIS unit increased sales by 38 percent. During this period, two acqui­si­ti­ons were also made — inclu­ding the main Japa­nese supplier — and substan­tial invest­ments were made in rese­arch and deve­lo­p­ment. This allo­wed Phase One to push its inno­va­tion course in medium format photo­gra­phy. The latest product inno­va­tions include the successfully laun­ched IQ4 and IXM systems for photo­graph­ers and indus­trial applications.

“We were deligh­ted to work with the manage­ment team during this exci­ting trans­for­ma­tion phase and to help Phase One become the market leader in imaging soft­ware,” said Rob Knight, Prin­ci­pal at Silver­fleet and Advi­sory Board Member. “We wish Henrik Håkon­sson and his team every success for the next stage of growth.”

Henrik Håkon­sson, CEO of Phase One, adds: “Thanks to Silver­fleet Capital’s stra­te­gic and finan­cial support over the past five years, we have been able to further realize our poten­tial. We have over­come tech­no­lo­gi­cal boun­da­ries and found the right answers to the new needs of our custo­mers in the two busi­ness units SIS and ICS.”

Gareth Whiley, Mana­ging Part­ner of Silver­fleet Capi­tal, said, “We could not be more plea­sed with the outcome from the sale of Phase One. This exit again repres­ents a very successful invest­ment by our company in Scan­di­na­via. There, we conti­nue to actively look for inte­res­t­ing compa­nies — such as Phase One with a diffe­ren­tia­ted busi­ness model and high inter­na­tio­nal growth potential.”

Since 2004, Silver­fleet Capi­tal has inves­ted 19 percent of its assets in compa­nies based in Scan­di­na­via. In 2016, the company sold Cimbria, a manu­fac­tu­rer of bulk hand­ling equip­ment and seed and grain proces­sing equip­ment based in Denmark, to AGCO Corpo­ra­tion for appro­xi­m­ately €310 million. Silver­fleet Capi­tal is curr­ently inves­ted in Danish women’s fashion manu­fac­tu­rer Masai.

In the current tran­sac­tion, Silver­fleet Capi­tal was advi­sed by Moor­eland Part­ners (Corpo­rate Finance), Travers Smith and Bech-Bruun (Legal), Deloitte (Finan­cial & Tax Due Dili­gence), McKin­sey (Commer­cial Due Dili­gence) and Bearing­Point (Tech­ni­cal Due Diligence).

About Silver­fleet Capital
Silver­fleet Capi­tal has been active as a private equity inves­tor in the Euro­pean mid-market for more than 30 years. The 30-strong invest­ment team works from Munich, London, Paris, Stock­holm and Amsterdam.

Nine invest­ments have alre­ady been made from the second inde­pen­dent fund closed in 2015 with a volume of 870 million euros: The Masai Clot­hing Company, a women’s fashion whole­sa­ler and retailer head­quar­te­red in Denmark; Coven­tya, a French deve­lo­per of specialty chemi­cals; Sigma Compon­ents, a UK-based manu­fac­tu­rer of precis­ion compon­ents for civil avia­tion; Life­time Trai­ning, a UK-based provi­der of trai­ning programs; Pumpen­fa­brik Wangen, a manu­fac­tu­rer of specialty pumps based in Germany; Riviera Travel, an opera­tor of escor­ted group tours and crui­ses based in the United King­dom; 7days, a German supplier of medi­cal work­wear; Prefere Resins, a leading phen­o­lic and amino resin manu­fac­tu­rer in Europe; and CARE Ferti­lity, a leading opera­tor of ferti­lity clinics in the United Kingdom.

Silver­fleet Capi­tal also main­ta­ins an invest­ment team focu­sed on smal­ler middle-market compa­nies, which has alre­ady made two successful invest­ments: STAXS Conta­mi­na­tion Control Experts, a leading supplier of clean­room supplies in the Bene­lux (closed in Janu­ary 2019), and Micro­gen Finan­cial Systems, a leading provi­der of trust and fund admi­nis­tra­tion soft­ware to the trust and corpo­rate services indus­try (pending share­hol­der appr­oval of seller Apti­tude Soft­ware Group plc).

Silver­fleet achie­ves value growth by inves­t­ing in compa­nies in its core sectors that bene­fit from speci­fic, long-term trends. Silver­fleet supports these compa­nies in their future growth stra­te­gies. As part of these stra­te­gies, invest­ments are made in orga­nic growth drivers, inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion, stra­te­gic acqui­si­ti­ons or opera­tio­nal impro­ve­ment proces­ses. Since 2004, Silver­fleet Capi­tal has inves­ted €2 billion in 30 companies.

Silver­fleet specia­li­zes in four key indus­tries: Busi­ness and Finan­cial Services, Health­care, Manu­fac­tu­ring, and Retail and Consu­mer Goods. Since 2004, the private equity inves­tor has inves­ted 31% of its assets in compa­nies head­quar­te­red in the DACH region, 33% in the UK and Ireland, 19% in Scan­di­na­via, and 17% in France and the Bene­lux (includes an invest­ment sourced in Belgium and head­quar­te­red in the US).

Silver­fleet Capi­tal has a solid invest­ment track record. Most recently, Silver­fleet sold Ipes, a leading provi­der of outsour­cing services to Euro­pean private equity firms (invest­ment multi­ple 3.7x); CCC, one of the leading BPO services provi­ders in Europe; and Cimbria, a Danish manu­fac­tu­rer of agri­cul­tu­ral equip­ment (invest­ment multi­ple cannot be disc­lo­sed for legal reasons); Kalle, a German manu­fac­tu­rer of arti­fi­cial sausage sticks (invest­ment multi­ple 3.5x); OFFICE, a UK-based foot­wear retailer (invest­ment multi­ple 3.4x); and Aesica, a leading phar­maceu­ti­cal CDMO company (invest­ment multi­ple 3.3x).
www.silverfleetcapital.com