Equistone: BUKO Traffic & Safety acquires Bremer Verkehrstechnik

Amsterdam/ Munich — BUKO Traf­fic & Safety (“BUKO”), a leading provi­der of outsour­ced traf­fic and safety manage­ment solu­ti­ons in the Nether­lands and the UK, acqui­res BVT Bremer Verkehrs­tech­nik GmbH (“BVT”). Follo­wing the acqui­si­tion of UK-based Road Traf­fic Solu­ti­ons Ltd (“RTS”) at the begin­ning of 2024, BUKO is conti­nuing its inter­na­tio­nal expan­sion by ente­ring the German market. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose details of the tran­sac­tion. TEXT BUKO Traf­fic & Safety, head­quar­te­red in Baren­d­recht, the Nether­lands, has around 450 employees and successfully carries out seve­ral thousand projects every year. With its two divi­si­ons, BUKO Infra­sup­port and BUKO Waakt, the company is a leading provi­der of outsour­ced traf­fic and safety manage­ment solu­ti­ons in its home market, the Nether­lands. BUKO Infra­sup­port, foun­ded in 1991, specia­li­zes in tempo­rary traf­fic manage­ment solu­ti­ons. With its compre­hen­sive port­fo­lio of services — from the design, plan­ning, permit­ting, supply, coll­ec­tion and manage­ment of neces­sary road signage and safety equip­ment for on-site road­works, to inno­va­tive digi­tal traf­fic manage­ment solu­ti­ons — BUKO Infra­sup­port prima­rily serves contrac­tors and autho­ri­ties invol­ved in utility-rela­­ted, urban and rural road­works. BUKO Waakt specia­li­zes in tempo­rary secu­rity solu­ti­ons with a focus on camera surveil­lance, intru­sion detec­tion systems and access control systems, which are mainly used on cons­truc­tion sites. In Febru­ary 2023, the Equis­tone funds acqui­red a majo­rity stake in BUKO. Since then, the company has been pursuing an ambi­tious growth stra­tegy, focu­sing prima­rily on expan­ding its geogra­phi­cal presence in the Dutch dome­stic market and targe­ted expan­sion into promi­sing, high-growth neigh­bor­ing count­ries. In March 2024, BUKO laid an important foun­da­tion for its inter­na­tio­nal expan­sion with the acqui­si­tion of UK-based RTS, a specia­list in traf­fic and event manage­ment solu­ti­ons with seven loca­ti­ons and 175 employees. With the recent acqui­si­tion of BVT and the estab­lish­ment of a geogra­phi­cal presence in Germany, BUKO is reali­zing another stra­te­gi­cally important mile­stone in its inter­na­tio­nal growth stra­tegy. BVT is a provi­der of high-quality services in the field of tempo­rary traf­fic manage­ment. By focu­sing on “low-speed traf­fic situa­tions” toge­ther with a high level of custo­mer orien­ta­tion, BVT has deve­lo­ped into a leading part­ner for its custo­mers, which include gene­ral contrac­tors, local autho­ri­ties and event orga­ni­zers. BVT opera­tes from a total of three loca­ti­ons and curr­ently employs around 75 people. “We are deligh­ted to have ente­red into a part­ner­ship with BVT and to be ente­ring the German market as a result. There is a high level of agree­ment between the compa­nies in terms of stra­te­gic direc­tion, corpo­rate culture and a shared vision for the future. Toge­ther, we want to further expand and deve­lop BUKO’s presence in Germany over the coming years,” explains Robert Emme­rich, CEO of BUKO. 

Tanja Berg, Direc­tor in Equistone’s Munich office (photo© Equis­tone), comm­ents: “Follo­wing its successful entry into the UK market earlier this year, BUKO has now found the ideal part­ner to enter the German market with BVT. The Equis­tone funds are deligh­ted to support BUKO in its inter­na­tio­nal growth ambi­ti­ons through a targe­ted buy & build stra­tegy, conti­nuing the company’s excep­tio­nal track record in the Dutch home market inter­na­tio­nally.” The Equis­tone funds team includes Hubert van Wolfs­win­kel, Tanja Berg and Josh Aalbers. Advi­sors to BUKO: PwC (Finan­cial & Tax), De Ange­lis (Legal), Roland Berger (Commer­cial) and Rauten­berg (M&A). About Equis­tone Part­ners Europe

The funds advi­sed by Equis­tone Part­ners Europe are among the most active Euro­pean equity inves­tors with a team of more than 40 invest­ment specia­lists in seven offices in the Nether­lands, Germany, Switz­er­land, France and the UK.

The Equis­tone funds invest prima­rily 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 foun­da­tion in 2002, the funds have inves­ted equity in more than 180 tran­sac­tions. The port­fo­lio of Equis­tone funds curr­ently compri­ses around 40 compa­nies across Europe. www.equistonepe.com.