Equistone sells property protection specialist Heras to Garda Group

Amsterdam/Munich — The funds advi­sed by Equis­tone Part­ners Europe (“Equis­tone Funds”) announ­ced the sale of their majo­rity stake in Heras, an estab­lished pan-Euro­­pean full-service provi­der of perma­nent and mobile peri­me­ter protec­tion solutions.
The new majo­rity owner is the Garda Group, which also specia­li­zes in peri­me­ter protection.
Heras was foun­ded in 1952 with its head­quar­ters in Oirschot, the Nether­lands, and is now repre­sen­ted throug­hout Europe with loca­ti­ons in a total of eight countries.
With its compre­hen­sive port­fo­lio of peri­me­ter protec­tion solu­ti­ons — from plan­ning and produc­tion to instal­la­tion, main­ten­ance and repair — the company serves an inter­na­tio­nal custo­mer base in more than 20 markets and curr­ently employs around 1,000 people.
With the tran­sac­tion now agreed, Heras will become part of the Garda Group, which is curr­ently active in Scan­di­na­via and Germany.
The Group’s brands include a.o. Garda Sikring, Heda Secu­rity, KIBO Secu­rity, Great Secu­rity, Frei­hoff Group, Gleich Group, Schmid Alarm and vi2vi.
Since the Equis­tone funds acqui­red a majo­rity stake in 2019, Heras’ stra­te­gic focus has been
primarily
on deve­lo­ping the busi­ness in the high-secu­rity sector and the range of services for custo­mers from the public and private sectors, parti­cu­larly in the area of criti­cal infrastructure.
This deve­lo­p­ment was addi­tio­nally supported by two stra­te­gic acqui­si­ti­ons in Denmark and Germany.
The part­ner­ship with the Equis­tone funds also focu­sed on estab­li­shing a Group-wide ESG stra­tegy, as well as signi­fi­cant invest­ments in the produc­tion sites for perma­nent and mobile product solu­ti­ons in the Dutch dome­stic market and in Belgium and France. Hubert van Wolfs­win­kel, Part­ner in Equistone’s Amster­dam office, comm­ents: “It has been a plea­sure for the Equis­tone funds to support Heras in the stra­te­gic deve­lo­p­ment of the company and the team over the past five years. Parti­cu­lar atten­tion was paid to streng­thening Heras’ focus on the important areas of high secu­rity and service solu­ti­ons, estab­li­shing a compre­hen­sive ESG stra­tegy and moder­ni­zing the produc­tion sites. Heras is now ideally posi­tio­ned to successfully conti­nue the successful course initia­ted toge­ther with the Equis­tone funds as a pan-Euro­­pean property protec­tion specia­list under the aegis of the new owner.”
Moritz Treude (photo)
, Direc­tor in Equistone’s Munich office, adds: “Heras has perfor­med excel­lently during the holding period of the Equis­tone funds, in parti­cu­lar due to the stra­te­gic realignment. With the support of the Equis­tone funds, the company has inves­ted in state-of-the-art produc­tion, inclu­ding auto­ma­ted machi­nery and equip­ment and robo­tiza­tion — which today is reflec­ted in higher quality, capa­city and more effi­ci­ent and sustainable production.”
Emma­nuel Rigaux, CEO of Heras, says: “Since the launch of the joint part­ner­ship with the Equis­tone funds in 2019, Heras has comple­ted a remar­kable trans­for­ma­tion and is now excel­lently posi­tio­ned in the Euro­pean market. Toge­ther with Garda Group as our new part­ner, with whom we share our values, vision and growth stra­tegy, we will seam­lessly build on the succes­ses of the last five years and take Heras’ deve­lo­p­ment to a new level.” Jon Ola Stokke, CEO of Garda Group
says: “We are very plea­sed to welcome Heras and its expe­ri­en­ced team to the Garda Group. Heras is a well-mana­­ged, inno­va­tive company whose recent invest­ments in incre­asing the capa­city, quality and effi­ci­ency of its faci­li­ties will bene­fit our custo­mers. Like us, Heras shares a focus on sustaina­bi­lity and works with its part­ners across the value chain to reduce CO2 emis­si­ons and imple­ment a circu­lar economy. With this acqui­si­tion, we gain new exper­tise, as well as a broa­der product range and modern tech­ni­cal solu­ti­ons. At the same time, we are streng­thening our Group presence in Scan­di­na­via and in important new regi­ons such as the UK, Bene­lux and France. In addi­tion, we can now offer our custo­mers in Germany peri­me­ter protec­tion solu­ti­ons along­side our exis­ting tech­ni­cal secu­rity solutions.”
The tran­sac­tion is subject to custo­mary closing condi­ti­ons, inclu­ding the consul­ta­tion process with the Dutch works coun­cil and rele­vant regu­la­tory approvals.
Comple­tion of the tran­sac­tion would be the fifth over­all sale in 2024, conti­nuing a series of successful exits by the Equis­tone funds. 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 35 invest­ment profes­sio­nals across 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. About Heras https://www.heras.co.uk/ About Garda Group https://gardasikring.no