Exit: Equistone sells its shares in Oikos Group to Goldman Sachs

Munich — Funds advi­sed by Equis­tone Part­ners Europe (“Equis­tone”) are selling their majo­rity stake in Oikos Group, a leading Euro­pean provi­der of prefa­bri­ca­ted houses head­quar­te­red in Schlüch­tern, Hesse. The buyer of the group is West Street Capi­tal Part­ners VIII, a fund mana­ged by Gold­man Sachs.

Equis­tone had acqui­red the group of compa­nies — consis­ting of the Bien-Zenker, Hanse Haus and Living Haus brands — at the begin­ning of 2018 and targe­ted the group’s growth stra­tegy as well as the areas of digi­ta­liza­tion and opera­tio­nal excel­lence. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the purchase price or further details of the tran­sac­tion. The sale is still subject to the usual appr­oval by the rele­vant authorities.

The Oikos Group is one of the leading B2C provi­ders of single-family and two-family homes with a focus on crea­ting future-proof and sustainable living space and combi­nes the Bien-Zenker, Hanse Haus and Living Haus brands under one roof. Thanks to its multi-brand stra­tegy, the Group has an excel­lent posi­tio­ning in the market for prefa­bri­ca­ted houses and is able to serve a wide variety of custo­mer groups with future-orien­­ted cons­truc­tion methods and indi­vi­dual living concepts: From shell cons­truc­tion to ready-to-occupy living solu­ti­ons, Oikos offers its custo­mers houses at all stages of produc­tion as well as the highest quality and sustaina­bi­lity stan­dards. The group, which is parti­cu­larly active in the core markets of Germany, Austria, the UK and Switz­er­land, curr­ently employs around 1,300 people and increased its sales to more than 400 million euros in 2020.

Bien-Zenker, foun­ded in 1906, has estab­lished itself as one of the market leaders and best-known manu­fac­tu­r­ers of prefa­bri­ca­ted houses in Germany and is also one of the pioneers in prefa­bri­ca­ted energy-saving houses. Head­quar­te­red in Schlüch­tern, Hesse, the company has a nati­on­wide sales network throug­hout Germany and has posi­tio­ned itself stron­gly with its inno­va­tive prefa­bri­ca­ted house solu­ti­ons, parti­cu­larly in the mid-price segment. With the launch of the inde­pen­dent Living Haus brand in 2015, the company expan­ded its range of products to include the quality-conscious but more price-sensi­­tive prefa­bri­ca­ted house concept.

Hanse Haus, based in Ober­leich­ters­bach in Lower Fran­co­nia, is one of the pioneers in Germany in the cons­truc­tion of turn­key prefa­bri­ca­ted houses. Since its foun­ding in 1929, the company has evol­ved from a carpenter’s busi­ness into a full-service provi­der of high-quality living solu­ti­ons, serving prima­rily the mid-range and higher price segments with its product portfolio.

Equis­tone acqui­red majo­rity stakes in Bien-Zenker and Hanse Haus in Janu­ary 2018. By estab­li­shing a best-prac­­tice approach between the compa­nies, a group with a shared vision was crea­ted. In recent years, Equis­tone has successfully supported the growth of the various brands under the Oikos Group umbrella, not least by conti­nuously streng­thening opera­tio­nal excel­lence and expan­ding digi­ta­liza­tion, parti­cu­larly in the areas of sales and custo­mer journey.

Stefan Maser, Part­ner at Equis­tone, says: “In the past years, Oikos Group has deve­lo­ped excel­lently. The initia­ti­ves driven toge­ther with the manage­ment have streng­the­ned the company sustain­ably. As a result, Oikos has succee­ded in further expan­ding its market-leading posi­tion vis-à-vis compe­ti­tors and also in further incre­asing sales.”

Marco Hammer, CEO of Oikos Group, adds: “Toge­ther with Equis­tone, we have been able to streng­then our leading posi­tion across Europe, targe­ting key areas such as digi­ta­liza­tion as well as the expan­sion of our compe­ten­cies in ESG and a sustainable marke­ting stra­tegy. We look forward to conti­nuing this successful growth path with Gold­man Sachs in the future.

“With a strong and inno­va­tive product and brand port­fo­lio, Oikos has successfully estab­lished itself as a leading Euro­pean manu­fac­tu­rer of prefa­bri­ca­ted houses. We are exci­ted to invest in the future of sustainable home buil­ding with Oikos and to support Oikos’ growth ambi­ti­ons,” added Mike Ebel­ing, Mana­ging Direc­tor of Gold­man Sachs. “We are impres­sed with the high quality and leader­ship of the Oikos manage­ment team, led by Marco Hammer, and are very exci­ted about our joint partnership.”

Stefan Maser, David Zahnd and Tanja Berg are respon­si­ble for the tran­sac­tion on the part of Equistone.

Equis­tone was advi­sed on the tran­sac­tion by Alan­tra (M&A and Debt), Boston Consul­ting Group (Commer­cial), Ernst & Young (Finan­cial + Tax), Latham & Watkins (Legal) and ERM (Envi­ron­men­tal).
West Street Capi­tal Part­ners VIII, a fund mana­ged by Gold­man Sachs, was advi­sed on the tran­sac­tion by Gold­man Sachs Invest­ment Banking Divi­sion (M&A), Roland Berger (Commer­cial), Deloitte (Finan­cial), Ernst & Young (Tax), Fresh­fields Bruck­haus Derin­ger (Legal), Allen & Overy (Legal Debt), Herter & Co (Debt), ERM (Envi­ron­men­tal), Aon (Insu­rance) and Arup and CBRE (Tech­ni­cal) advised.

About Equis­tone Part­ners Europe
Equis­tone Part­ners Europe is one of the most active Euro­pean equity inves­tors with a team of more than 40 invest­ment specia­lists in seven 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 foun­da­tion, equity has been inves­ted in around 160 tran­sac­tions in the DACH region and the Nether­lands, 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.

For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.equistonepe.de.

About Oikos Group
For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.oikos-group.de.