Investment company Gimv strengthens Munich location

Munich - The Euro­pean invest­ment company Gimv reports a successful third quar­ter in the 2017/2018 finan­cial year. The Munich office has been streng­the­ned with the new Part­ner Phil­ipp von Hammer­stein (35) and the two new Prin­ci­pals Fried­rich von Wall­witz (32) and Patrick Schaich (38) — Gimv is thus gearing up for new invest­ments in the German-spea­king region across all focu­sed invest­ment platforms.

Phil­ipp von Hammer­stein (35, photo), on board as a Prin­ci­pal at Gimv in Munich since 2016, has been appoin­ted Part­ner in the Health & Care prac­tice, effec­tive Janu­ary 1, 2018. Prior to joining Gimv, von Hammer­stein worked for KPMG in Germany in the area of Deal Advi­sory — M&A. There, he has advi­sed on more than 50 projects — prima­rily in the health­care sector and for various client groups such as large listed corpo­ra­ti­ons, family-owned compa­nies, the public sector as well as private equity funds and their port­fo­lio compa­nies. At Gimv, von Hammer­stein was instru­men­tal in tran­sac­tions such as the invest­ment in the Swiss MVZ Holding. He holds a degree in Busi­ness Admi­nis­tra­tion (Tech­ni­cal Univer­sity of Berlin) and a Master in Manage­ment (ESC Toulouse/Toulouse Busi­ness School).

Fried­rich von Wall­witz (32) has been a Prin­ci­pal in the Smart Indus­tries team since Janu­ary. He previously worked in London, first as a commo­di­ties trader, then as an M&A advi­sor and merchant banker for PMB Capi­tal. There he deve­lo­ped long-term and sustainable finan­cing solu­ti­ons for compa­nies in the DACH region. Fried­rich von Wall­witz studied Econo­mics & Inter­na­tio­nal Rela­ti­ons (BA) at Lancas­ter Univer­sity, Law & Econo­mics at the Univer­si­ties of Hamburg, Rotter­dam and UC Berke­ley (LL.M), and Chris­tian Theo­logy at the Univer­sity of London (MA).

Patrick Schaich (38), Prin­ci­pal in the Connec­ted Consu­mer team since Febru­ary, joins from inter­na­tio­nal small-mid market private equity inves­tor The River­side Company. There, Schaich worked on tran­sac­tions in various indus­tries for nearly five years. Prior to that, he gained exten­sive expe­ri­ence in invest­ment banking at Kepler-Cheu­­v­reux and at Beren­berg, prima­rily in the retail and consu­mer goods sectors. Patrick Schaich holds an MSc as well as a BBA in Finance from the ESF Euro­pean School of Finance / HfWU Nürtingen-Geislingen.

Laun­ched in Belgium almost 40 years ago, Gimv, which is listed on Euron­ext Brussels, now opera­tes across Europe with around 90 employees and mana­ges around 1.6 billion euros. In addi­tion to its head­quar­ters in Antwerp, Gimv has offices in Munich, Paris and The Hague. The company curr­ently holds stakes in around 50 port­fo­lio compa­nies. The focus is on the four invest­ment plat­forms Smart Indus­tries, Health & Care, Connec­ted Consu­mer and Sustainable Cities — inno­va­tive, leading compa­nies from these sectors with high growth poten­tial are supported by Gimv with capi­tal and know-how on their way to market leadership.

Promi­sing last quar­ter of 2017

Gimv’s on-balance sheet invest­ments from Octo­ber 1, 2017 to Decem­ber 31, 2017 amoun­ted to 55 million euros — brin­ging the total inves­ted in 2017 to 159 million euros. In the last quar­ter of 2017, two major invest­ments were reali­zed, inclu­ding in WEMAS Absperr­tech­nik GmbH from Güters­loh. Total dive­st­ments reco­gni­zed in the balance sheet in the third quar­ter amoun­ted to 197 million euros (full year: 314 million euros); five compa­nies were dive­s­ted. Gimv’s brisk busi­ness acti­vity has contin­ued since the begin­ning of 2018 — five new invest­ments and one sale have alre­ady been repor­ted since Janu­ary 1.

Great poten­tial in the DACH region

The team strength of Gimv’s Munich office, which is respon­si­ble for acti­vi­ties in the DACH region, has now been increased to ten invest­ment specia­lists — the reason for this is the increased demand for specia­li­zed inves­tors in the market: “In the DACH region in parti­cu­lar, many medium-sized compa­nies are curr­ently having to realign them­sel­ves and are looking for ways and means to expand into new regi­ons or to grow via addi­tio­nal busi­ness acti­vi­ties. With our almost 40 years of expe­ri­ence in future-orien­­ted sectors and indus­tries, we can provide opti­mal support to these compa­nies — helped by the back­ground of our experts, all of whom have worked for many years in an opera­tio­nal and advi­sory capa­city in our target indus­tries,” explains Dr. Sven Oleow­nik, who heads the Munich office.

Gimv’s port­fo­lio in the German-spea­king region curr­ently compri­ses eleven growth compa­nies. To date, the team has reali­zed four successful exits, inclu­ding most recently the high-profile sale of compu­­ter-gene­ra­­ted imagery market leader Macke­vi­sion to Accenture.

About GIMV
Gimv is a Euro­pean invest­ment firm with nearly 40 years of expe­ri­ence in private equity and venture capi­tal. The company is listed on Euron­ext Brussels, curr­ently mana­ges around EUR 1.6 billion and has invest­ments in 50 port­fo­lio compa­nies. As a reco­gni­zed leader in exclu­sive invest­ment plat­forms, Gimv iden­ti­fies inno­va­tive, leading compa­nies with high growth poten­tial and supports them on their way to market leader­ship. Each of the four invest­ment plat­forms Connec­ted Consu­mer, Health & Care, Smart Indus­tries and Sustainable Cities is mana­ged by a dedi­ca­ted and compe­tent team, each based in Gimv’s home markets — the Bene­lux, France and Germany — and supported by an exten­sive inter­na­tio­nal network of experts.