Financial investor EQT sells Getec to the infrastructure unit of JP Morgan

Magdeburg/ Munich — One of Germany’s largest energy service provi­ders is being sold. The Swedish invest­ment fund EQT sells its 75 percent stake in Magde­­burg-based Getec. The buyer is Infra­struc­ture Invest­ments Fund (“IIF”), an invest­ment firm advi­sed by J.P. Morgan Invest­ment Manage­ment. — GEH, the family holding company of company foun­der Karl Gerhold, is also selling its shares. EQT holds 75 percent of the shares, Gerhold the remai­ning 25 percent. The autho­ri­ties still have to approve the tran­sac­tion. Closing is expec­ted at the end of the first quar­ter of 2022.

As various media repor­ted a few weeks ago, Getec could be valued at twenty times its Ebitda of around 200 million euros in the event of a sale — that would be around 4 billion euros inclu­ding debt. The high valua­tion is supported by the fact that Ebitda margins in this sector are often in the double-digit range, espe­ci­ally for busi­nesses with good capa­city utiliza­tion. Compa­nies in this segment are ther­e­fore very profitable.

G+E GETEC, head­quar­te­red in Magde­burg, Germany, offers indus­trial and real estate compa­nies custo­mi­zed, effi­ci­ent and sustainable energy solu­ti­ons desi­gned and imple­men­ted by highly quali­fied engi­nee­ring teams. The company was foun­ded in 1993 by Dr. Karl Gerhold and today opera­tes more than 11,500 power gene­ra­tion plants in nine Euro­pean count­ries with more than 5.2 GWth total instal­led capa­city and over 2,200 employees. G+E GETEC is highly inte­gra­ted into its custo­mers’ opera­ti­ons and provi­des essen­tial services under long-term contracts.

Since the acqui­si­tion of EQT Infra­struc­ture as the new majo­rity share­hol­der in 2017, GEH and EQT Infra­struc­ture have jointly taken a number of initia­ti­ves to future-proof GETEC. The company was driven by a new manage­ment team of expe­ri­en­ced execu­ti­ves led by CEO Thomas Wagner and supported by a high-cali­­ber indus­try advi­sory board. Key achie­ve­ments include the deve­lo­p­ment of a world-class sales func­tion, the opti­miza­tion of G+E GETEC’s opera­ti­ons, the digi­ta­liza­tion of the equip­ment port­fo­lio and the expan­sion of the range of envi­ron­men­tally friendly solutions.

In addi­tion to strong orga­nic growth, G+E GETEC, with the support of EQT Infra­struc­ture and GEH, has deve­lo­ped from a German to a Euro­pean market leader through six large-scale mergers and acqui­si­ti­ons and has estab­lished a strong foot­hold in Switz­er­land, Italy and the Netherlands.

GETEC Ener­gie Holding, EQT Infra­struc­ture and the manage­ment of G+E GETEC are confi­dent that IIF is the right part­ner to conti­nue this excep­tio­nal progress and further G+E GETEC’s mission to support indus­trial and real estate custo­mers across Europe on their decar­bo­niza­tion journey.

Matthew LeBlanc, Chief Invest­ment Offi­cer at IIF, says: “We are exci­ted to invest in G+E GETEC, a leading sustainable energy services company and a stra­te­gic plat­form uniquely posi­tio­ned to cata­lyze the energy tran­si­tion across Europe. We look forward to buil­ding on the unpar­al­le­led track record of growth and inno­va­tion that EQT Infra­struc­ture, Dr. Karl Gerhold and the manage­ment team have demons­tra­ted. We look forward to the signi­fi­cant addi­tio­nal invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties to support the coll­ec­tive growth ambi­ti­ons of G+E GETEC’s custo­mers and employees.”