MBO: Deutsche Beteiligungs AG invests in netzkontor nord

Frank­furt am Main — Deut­sche Betei­li­gungs AG (DBAG) acqui­res an inte­rest in netz­kon­tor nord GmbH (netz­kon­tor), a provi­der of services for the tele­com­mu­ni­ca­ti­ons indus­try. As part of a manage­ment buy-out (MBO), DBAG ECF, which is mana­ged by DBAG, will acquire the majo­rity of shares in netz­kon­tor. The remai­ning shares will remain with the foun­ders and previous sole owners Dirk Müller and Peter Schmidt, who will conti­nue to work for the company as mana­ging part­ners. For its co-inves­t­­ment along­side DBAG ECF, DBAG will invest up to EUR 4.6 million from its balance sheet. The purchase agree­ment was signed at the end of Decem­ber and is expec­ted to be comple­ted in Janu­ary 2018. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the purchase price.

netz­kon­tor is alre­ady the second invest­ment of the DBAG ECF since the start of its first new invest­ment period, DBAG ECF I for short, in June 2017. This means that more than a quar­ter of the commit­ted capi­tal has been drawn down.

netz­kon­tor (www.netzkontor-nord.de) was foun­ded in 2008 and opera­tes with around 100 employees in two busi­ness areas. Under the brand name “netz­kon­tor”, the company offers services rela­ted to the plan­ning and moni­to­ring of the cons­truc­tion of fiber optic networks. The OpenXS subsi­diary hand­les network manage­ment for fiber-optic network opera­tors. The regio­nal focus so far has been on Schles­­wig-Holstein. In addi­tion to its head­quar­ters in Flens­burg, netz­kon­tor opera­tes from two other loca­ti­ons. With the recently opened branch in Schwe­rin, the company is also active in Meck­­len­­burg-Vorpom­­mern. In 2017, netz­kon­tor gene­ra­ted sales of around eight million euros.

Demand for fast Inter­net connec­tions by private house­holds and compa­nies is incre­asing. So far, howe­ver, broad­band expan­sion in Germany has been slug­gish by Euro­pean stan­dards. It is ther­e­fore also supported by subsi­dies from the fede­ral budget. More than 40 million house­holds in Germany are not yet connec­ted to a fiber optic line. In this favorable market envi­ron­ment, netz­kon­tor bene­fits from its good repu­ta­tion as a relia­ble quality provi­der and from its exper­tise in project manage­ment. The company’s regio­nal expan­sion and the diver­si­fi­ca­tion of its custo­mer base are also to be driven forward by corpo­rate acquisitions.

“With the MBO of netz­kon­tor, DBAG is inves­t­ing in a well-posi­­tio­­ned service company in a fast-growing market,” said Tors­ten Grede, Spokes­man of the Board of Manage­ment of Deut­sche Betei­li­gungs AG on the occa­sion of the signing of the agree­ment. “We intend to support the company in its further deve­lo­p­ment with our exper­tise from DBAG’s exis­ting three invest­ments in this sector.”

“netz­kon­tor should conti­nue to bene­fit from the posi­tive market trend and the growing demand for broad­band connec­tions in the future,” said Peter Schmidt, mana­ging part­ner of netz­kon­tor. “In DBAG, we have found an expe­ri­en­ced part­ner with whose support the deve­lo­p­ment steps requi­red for this will be even easier for us.”

About DBAG
Deut­sche Betei­li­gungs AG, a listed company, initia­tes closed-end private equity funds and invests along­side DBAG funds in well-posi­­tio­­ned medium-sized compa­nies with deve­lo­p­ment poten­tial. DBAG focu­ses on indus­trial sectors in which German SMEs are parti­cu­larly strong by inter­na­tio­nal stan­dards. With this expe­ri­ence, know-how and equity, it streng­thens the port­fo­lio compa­nies in imple­men­ting a long-term, value-enhan­cing corpo­rate stra­tegy. The entre­pre­neu­rial invest­ment approach makes DBAG a sought-after invest­ment part­ner in the German-spea­king region. The capi­tal mana­ged and advi­sed by the DBAG Group amounts to appro­xi­m­ately 1.8 billion euros.