Deutsche Beteiligungs AG: Final closing DBAG ECF IV € 250 million

Frank­furt am Main — Deut­sche Betei­li­gungs AG (DBAG) has successfully comple­ted the capi­tal raising for DBAG ECF IV with invest­ment commit­ments of around 250 million euros — for which the DBAG team was able to convince new and exis­ting inves­tors in recent months. The volume raised by DBAG ECF IV has more than doubled compared to its prede­ces­sor fund, DBAG ECF III (DBAG ECF III: EUR 106 million fund volume). DBAG ECF IV increa­ses the assets mana­ged or advi­sed by DBAG to 2.7 billion euros. DBAG and members of the DBAG Invest­ment Advi­sory Team are invol­ved with a signi­fi­cant co-inves­t­­ment. As the majo­rity share­hol­der, DBAG ECF IV invests in family-run medium-sized compa­nies with an initial invest­ment volume of between 10 and 40 million euros. Through add-on acqui­si­ti­ons, for exam­ple, capi­tal increa­ses of up to 60 million euros can be imple­men­ted. The fund focu­ses on manage­ment buy-outs of family-run compa­nies in the context of succes­sion situa­tions and/or capi­tal increa­ses. Carve-outs of one or more busi­ness units from larger groups are also possi­ble. In addi­tion, DBAG ECF IV gene­rally aims to acquire a majo­rity stake over a period of around five years. The fund’s invest­ment period runs until the end of 2028 and it is plan­ned to make up to five further invest­ments in addi­tion to the five exis­ting invest­ments. One of the active inves­tors in the German-spea­king Mittelstand

The initial tran­sac­tions of DBAG ECF IV were made between July 2023 and Octo­ber 2024 and contri­bute to two dedi­ca­ted mega­trends in the German-spea­king region. AOE, ProMik and UNITY AG are driving digi­ta­liza­tion and the asso­cia­ted increase in produc­ti­vity. While Avrio and TBD Tech­ni­sche Bau Dienst­leis­tun­gen are bene­fiting from the energy tran­si­tion in Germany. DBAG has expan­ded its sector focus in recent years to serve these indus­tries, which are charac­te­ri­zed by struc­tu­ral growth. Since then, the team has concen­tra­ted on compa­nies in the areas of IT services and soft­ware, health­care, envi­ron­ment, energy and infra­struc­ture as well as indus­trial services and Indus­try­Tech compa­nies, i.e. compa­nies that enable auto­ma­tion, robo­tics and digi­ta­liza­tion. “Despite the chal­len­ging market situa­tion, we have mana­ged to convince exis­ting and new inves­tors. This is proba­bly even rela­ted to the macroe­co­no­mic situa­tion. After all, we have often proven in the past that our team can iden­tify and successfully deve­lop attrac­tive medium-sized compa­nies even in a chal­len­ging macroe­co­no­mic envi­ron­ment,” says Tom Alzin, Spokes­man of the Manage­ment Board of Deut­sche Betei­li­gungs AG. DBAG ECF IV bene­fits greatly from being inte­gra­ted into the DBAG ecosys­tem. The company’s invest­ment advi­sory team draws on a very broad range of expe­ri­ence with regard to German SMEs and family-run compa­nies in parti­cu­lar. The funds advi­sed by DBAG offer these compa­nies not only succes­sion solu­ti­ons, of which around 11,000 are to be imple­men­ted in Germany alone by 2026, but also indi­vi­dual equity solutions. 

DBAG ECF IV will help DBAG to further conso­li­date its posi­tion as an inves­tor in well-posi­­tio­­ned medium-sized compa­nies with attrac­tive deve­lo­p­ment potential.

Deut­sche Betei­li­gungs AG (DBAG), listed on the stock exch­ange since 1985, is one of Germany’s most renow­ned private equity compa­nies. As an inves­tor and fund advi­sor, DBAG’s invest­ment focus has tradi­tio­nally been on medium-sized compa­nies with a focus on well-posi­­tio­­ned compa­nies with deve­lo­p­ment poten­tial, prima­rily in the DACH region. The sector focus is on produ­cers of indus­trial goods, indus­trial service provi­ders and Indus­try­Tech compa­nies — i.e. compa­nies whose products enable auto­ma­tion, robo­tics and digi­ta­liza­tion — as well as compa­nies from the IT services and soft­ware, health­care, envi­ron­ment, energy and infra­struc­ture sectors. Since 2020, DBAG has also been repre­sen­ted in Italy with its own office in Milan. The assets mana­ged or advi­sed by the DBAG Group amount to around 2.7 billion euros. As part of the stra­te­gic part­ner­ship with ELF Capi­tal, DBAG is adding private debt capi­tal to its range of flexi­ble finan­cing solu­ti­ons for SMEs.