Castik Capital portfolio: Alpega acquires wtransnet

Munich — Alpega acqui­res wtrans­net to signi­fi­cantly expand its freight exch­ange foot­print in Southern and Western Europe. wtrans­net is the leading freight exch­ange in Spain and Portu­gal with a growing foot­print in count­ries such as Italy, France and Germany.

wtrans­net is owned by Wotrant SL, foun­ded in 1996 and head­quar­te­red in Terrassa, Spain. Wotrant has shown attrac­tive growth in the past and crea­ted an appe­al­ing product that is used by more than 11,500 custo­mers. wtrans­net diffe­ren­tia­tes itself from its compe­ti­tors with a strong focus on ensu­ring trust between users of the plat­form, for exam­ple by thoroughly scree­ning any new carrier.

Alpega’s freight exch­an­ges Tele­route, Bursa and 123cargo focus on other geogra­phic areas such as France, Bene­lux and Roma­nia. The combi­na­tion with wtrans­net promi­ses an increase of the liqui­dity in terms of ship­ments and trucks for all freight exch­an­ges in the Group. This will improve the value propo­si­tion to custo­mers who will be able to access a wider market in the future. It is envi­sa­ged that all freight exch­ange brands in the Group, inclu­ding wtrans­net, conti­nue to operate in the market with diffe­rent geogra­phi­cal focus areas.

Alpega intends to conti­nue its invest­ments in inno­vat­ing freight exch­ange products to further improve their attrac­ti­ve­ness to custo­mers by adding func­tion­a­li­ties allo­wing for more conve­ni­ence and higher effi­ci­ency in the daily use of the products.

The manage­ment of Alpega, as well as its majo­rity share­hol­der Castik Capi­tal, Photo: Michael Phil­lips, Invest­ment Part­ner Castik Capi­tal, are grateful to the foun­ders of Wotrant SL, Jaume Esteve, Anna Esteve, Salva­dor Ejar­que, Carmen Grau and Josép Maria Sallés about the oppor­tu­nity to part­ner with Wotrant as this is an exci­ting stra­te­gic addi­tion to the Group.

With the addi­tion of wtrans­net, Alpega is growing its carrier network to signi­fi­cantly more than 70,000 members across Europe, which provi­des for a strong value-add to its custo­mers. Alpega was formed in 2017 as a leading global logi­stics soft­ware company that offers end-to-end solu­ti­ons cove­ring all trans­por­ta­tion needs, inclu­ding trans­por­ta­tion manage­ment solu­ti­ons (“TMS”) and freight exchanges.

About Castik Capital
Castik Capi­tal S.à r.l. (“Castik Capi­tal”) mana­ges invest­ments in private equity. Castik Capi­tal is a Euro­pean multi-stra­­tegy invest­ment mana­ger, acqui­ring signi­fi­cant owner­ship posi­ti­ons in Euro­pean private and public compa­nies, where long-term value can be gene­ra­ted through active part­ner­ships with manage­ment teams. — Castik Capi­tal has an invest­ment hori­zon of up to ten years — longer than most other private equity funds. This enables Castik Capi­tal to focus resour­ces on its port­fo­lio compa­nies and ensure sustainable, long-term value creation.

Foun­ded in 2014, Castik Capi­tal is based in Luxem­bourg and focu­ses on iden­ti­fy­ing and deve­lo­ping invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties across Europe. Invest­ments are made by the Luxe­m­­bourg-based fund, EPIC I SLP, the first fund mana­ged by Castik Capi­tal, which had its final close at EUR 1bn in July 2015.

Advi­sor Alpega Group: Will­kie Farr & Gallag­her LLP
Part­ner Dr. Axel Wahl (Lead, Corporate/M&A, Frank­furt) and included Part­ner Luca Leonardi(Corporate/M&A, Milan), Natio­nal Part­ner Didier Willer­main (Corporate/M&A, Brussels), Coun­sel Leonardo Fedrini (Tax, Milan) and Asso­cia­tes, Kars­ten Silber­na­gel, Manuel Köchel, Ilie Manole (all Corporate/M&A, Frank­furt), Virgi­nie Sayag, Marie Aubard (both Corporate/M&A, Paris), Fede­rica Peco­rini (Corporate/M&A, Milan) and Zoé Jans­sen (Corporate/M&A, Brussels).