Equistone: KWC sells Nokite EcoSmart Water Heating to Franke Group

Zurich/ Unter­kulm — The KWC Group, premium specia­list for sani­tary room equip­ment, fittings and water manage­ment systems and part of the Equis­tone Funds port­fo­lio since 2021, is selling its OEM divi­sion, Nokite EcoSmart Water Heating Systems (Guang­dong) Co. (“Nokite”), to the Swiss Franke Group. KWC is thus successfully reali­zing the final step in its stra­te­gic focus on the core area of profes­sio­nal sani­tary room equip­ment, which is aimed in parti­cu­lar at (semi-)public faci­li­ties and busi­nesses. Supported by the Equis­tone funds as majo­rity share­hol­der, KWC intends to further exploit the high market poten­tial in this area and expand the busi­ness with full concen­tra­tion. Funds advi­sed by Equis­tone Part­ners Europe acqui­red a majo­rity stake in KWC Group in April 2021. As part of its new stra­te­gic focus, the KWC Group successfully sold its KWC Medi­cal divi­sion with products for the medi­cal sector to the Alum­bra Group in Janu­ary 2024. This was follo­wed in summer 2024 by the sale of the Home divi­sion with its high-quality bath­room and kitchen fittings for the private sector to the Italian sani­tary specia­list Paini. 

With around 150 employees, Nokite is a leading manu­fac­tu­rer of high-quality private label kitchen fittings, which deli­vers world­wide from China and acts as a high-quality OEM supplier. Follo­wing the successful sale to the Franke Group, Nokite will now be inte­gra­ted into the busi­ness divi­sion of the leading inter­na­tio­nal supplier of kitchen equip­ment, appli­ances and access­ories, which is aimed in parti­cu­lar at private end custo­mers. In future, KWC will focus on the profes­sio­nal busi­ness, which serves (semi-)public insti­tu­ti­ons such as airports, shop­ping centers, schools, sports and leisure faci­li­ties as well as hospi­tals and secu­rity faci­li­ties. The company has loca­ti­ons in Switz­er­land, Germany, the UK, Austria, Finland and the Middle East and curr­ently employs around 400 people. Marten van der Mei, CEO of the KWC Group, and Viktor Bern­hardt, CFO, empha­size the stra­te­gic importance of this step: “The sale of the inde­pen­dent OEM divi­sion enables us to focus our resour­ces and exper­tise enti­rely on the successful profes­sio­nal busi­ness. This area offers enorm­ous market poten­tial and we want to further expand our posi­tion as a leading provi­der for (semi-)public insti­tu­ti­ons with inno­va­tive solu­ti­ons and the highest quality.” David Zahnd, Part­ner at Equis­tone, empha­si­zes: “With the sale of Nokite, KWC has successfully comple­ted its stra­te­gic realignment and can now fully focus on expan­ding the profi­ta­ble growth of the Profes­sio­nal busi­ness.” On the Equis­tone side, Stefan Maser, David Zahnd and Roman E. Hegglin were invol­ved in an advi­sory capacity. 

Advi­sor Equistone:
DC Advi­sory (M&A) and Bär & Karrer (Legal & Tax). About Equis­tone Part­ners Europe

The funds advi­sed by Equis­tone Part­ners Europe are among the most active Euro­pean equity inves­tors with an expe­ri­en­ced invest­ment team opera­ting across Europe in a total of seven offices in Germany, Switz­er­land, the Nether­lands, France and the UK. The Equis­tone funds prima­rily invest 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. More infor­ma­tion at www.equistonepe.com.