Exit: Perusa Fund sells Xindao to Gilde Buy-Out

Guernsey/ Munich/ Amsterdam/ Rijs­wijk — The invest­ment fund Perusa Part­ners Fund 2, L.P. (“Perusa”), advi­sed by the inde­pen­dent Perusa GmbH, has sold Xindao Inter­na­tio­nal GmbH and its subsi­dia­ries (“Xindao”) to Gilde Buy-Out Fund V (“Gilde”). The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the purchase price or the details of the transaction.

Perusa acqui­red Xindao Holding BV from its foun­ders in August 2017. Foun­ded in 1986, Xindao is a leading supplier of high-quality func­tional promo­tio­nal products to more than 4,500 B2B and B2C retail­ers throug­hout Europe and the world. The company has an excel­lent repu­ta­tion as a premium supplier that gene­ra­tes a large part of its sales with self-desi­­g­ned bran­ded products. In addi­tion to its head­quar­ters in Rijs­wijk, the Nether­lands, Xindao opera­tes its own prin­ting and logi­stics center in Roma­nia and a design studio and procu­re­ment center in Shang­hai. The company sells its products through a network of its own sales compa­nies in Germany, France, the Nether­lands, Spain, Sweden, the UK, China and the USA, as well as through exclu­sive repre­sen­ta­ti­ves in Russia and Italy.

Successful trans­for­ma­tion to a mana­ge­­ment-led company
Xindao has a history of double-digit annual growth. As a result, the company has more than tripled its sales in the last ten years. Under Perusa’s owner­ship, Xindao comple­ted its trans­for­ma­tion into a company led by inde­pen­dent manage­ment, expan­ded its inter­na­tio­nal reach through the acqui­si­ti­ons of Xindao UK and Xindao Spain, and estab­lished XD Design as an emer­ging luggage and back­pack brand in global retail.

“Under Perusa, we have succee­ded in further streng­thening our posi­tion as one of the largest suppli­ers in the promo­tio­nal products indus­try in Europe. We have worked extre­mely successfully with Perusa. This is a good exam­ple of how a private equity firm and a form­erly owner-mana­­ged company can work toge­ther to drive the growth of a busi­ness,” said Albert van der Veen, CEO of Xindao Group.

“The company has succee­ded in conti­nuing to follow an excel­lent econo­mic path during the tran­si­tion from an owner-mana­­ged to a mana­ge­­ment-mana­­ged company , ” sums up Dr. Hanno Schmidt-Gothan, Mana­ging Direc­tor of the consul­ting Perusa GmbH. “Xindao demons­tra­tes the importance of a strong manage­ment team for the company’s deve­lo­p­ment, which has estab­lished highly effi­ci­ent struc­tures and proces­ses as well as an excel­lent working envi­ron­ment,” adds Raphael Weller, Invest­ment Direc­tor of the advi­sing Perusa GmbH.

About Perusa
Perusa is an inde­pen­dent equity invest­ment company that curr­ently invests 350 million euros of equity in medium-sized compa­nies and group busi­nesses from German-spea­king or Scan­di­na­vian count­ries via two funds. Perusa takes a highly opera­tio­nal approach to streng­thening perfor­mance and thus lever­aging the long-term value crea­tion poten­tial of its port­fo­lio compa­nies. Further­more, stra­te­gic acqui­si­ti­ons (buy-and-build stra­tegy) are targe­ted to streng­then the growth of the port­fo­lio compa­nies. The funds are advi­sed by Perusa GmbH.