Equistone acquires property protection company Heras

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.