News-Kategorie: Private Equity

Hano­ver — A Hano­ver-based Deloitte Legal team led by corporate/M&A part­ners Dr. Harald Stang and Dr. Maxi­mi­lian Habel has advi­sed HANNOVER Finanz on its invest­ment in PAUL Tech AG (PAUL), based in Mann­heim, as part of a growth finan­cing with a total volume of EUR 40 million.

PAUL will use the newly provi­ded funds in parti­cu­lar for invest­ments and further growth in the area of energy-saving tech­no­lo­gies & solu­ti­ons for large resi­den­tial buil­dings. With its core product PAUL Perfor­mance, PAUL has deve­lo­ped a system control­led by intel­li­gent soft­ware using AI that can reduce energy consump­tion and thus energy costs and CO2 taxes in buil­dings by up to 40 percent through perma­nent adap­tive hydrau­lic balan­cing in real time. This also makes it possi­ble to install heat pumps.

About HANNOVER Finanz

Foun­ded in 1979, HANNOVER Finanz has more than 40 years of expe­ri­ence as an equity part­ner for SMEs. The private equity firm based in Hano­ver and with an office in Vienna is one of the first venture capi­tal provi­ders for the D‑A-CH region in Germany and is an owner-mana­ged invest­ment company in its second gene­ra­tion. Well-known compa­nies such as Fiel­mann, Ross­mann and AIXTRON have reali­zed their growth with equity capi­tal from HANNOVER Finanz and taken advan­tage of its entre­pre­neu­rial support. Since its foun­ding, the equity part­ner for SMEs has comple­ted over 250 projects and inves­ted over two billion euros. Invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties are mainly growth finan­cing and succes­sion plan­ning for solid medium-sized compa­nies with annual sales of 20 million euros or more. In addi­tion to majo­rity share­hol­dings, the HANNOVER Finanz Group is one of the few invest­ment compa­nies in Germany to acquire mino­rity inte­rests. The port­fo­lio curr­ently includes 35 companies.

About PAUL Tech AG
PAUL Tech AG is the tech­no­logy leader and specia­list for the digi­tal trans­for­ma­tion of the real estate indus­try. PAUL uses arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence to make exis­ting buil­dings climate-friendly with mini­mal invest­ment and no loss of comfort for resi­dents. Inves­tors and opera­tors rely on PAUL to make their proper­ties fit for the future and compe­ti­tive. PAUL curr­ently supports over 150 compa­nies in the real estate indus­try with over one hundred thousand resi­den­tial units.

The Hano­ver-based private equity house HANNOVER Finanz has regu­larly relied on the exper­tise of the Hano­ver-based Deloitte Legal team for many years, as eviden­ced by nume­rous tran­sac­tions invol­ving PE inves­tors and medium-sized compa­nies. Follo­wing the invest­ment in First Climate AG in spring 2022, the Deloitte Legal team was once again able to support HANNOVER Finanz with an invest­ment in the rapidly growing market for inno­va­tive solu­ti­ons and tech­no­lo­gies to miti­gate climate change. In the PAUL tran­sac­tion, the Deloitte Legal team was entrus­ted with the legal due dili­gence, in parti­cu­lar in the areas of corpo­rate law, labor law, commer­cial, IP/IT and regu­la­tory law.

Advi­sor HANNOVER Finanz: 

In-house: Dr. Chris­tina Silber­ber­ger (Gene­ral Counsel/Partner; lead)
Deloitte Legal: Dr. Harald Stang, Foto (Part­ner, Corporate/M&A), Dr. Maxi­mi­lian Habel (Part­ner, Corporate/M&A), Johan­nes Passas (Part­ner, Commer­cial), Dr. Char­lotte Sander (Part­ner, Employ­ment Law), Gunnar Fehrin­ger (Coun­sel, Real Estate), Laura Vaske (Senior Asso­ciate, Commer­cial), Daniela Wasseram (Senior Asso­ciate, Employ­ment Law), Anna Beth­mann (Senior Asso­ciate, Corporate/M&A), all Hanover

Frank­furt am Main / Bous — KTP Kunst­stoff Palet­ten­tech­nik GmbH (KTP) has acqui­red the majo­rity of shares in K2 PAK of Koper, Slove­nia. KTP was supported in this by the Frank­furt-based invest­ment company VR Equi­typ­art­ner, which holds a mino­rity stake in the Saar­land-based company. KTP is one of the Euro­pean market leaders in the produc­tion and deve­lo­p­ment of foldable large contai­ners and large load carri­ers as well as pallets and carrier systems made of plas­tic. With the acqui­si­tion of K2 PAK, KTP is streng­thening its busi­ness area around the inner pack­a­ging of trans­port boxes, lever­aging valuable syner­gies between the two compa­nies and conti­nuing its long-term growth strategy.

KTP had alre­ady acqui­red a majo­rity stake in K2 PAK at the begin­ning of 2022; the stake was now signi­fi­cantly increased again at the turn of the year. The remai­ning shares remain with the mana­ging part­ner Marco Krmac. For more than two deca­des, the family-owned company K2 PAK has been deve­lo­ping and supp­ly­ing advan­ced indus­trial reusable pack­a­ging solu­ti­ons made of a wide variety of mate­ri­als as an inner packer, provi­ding opti­mum protec­tion for custo­mers’ compon­ents during trans­port. There are alre­ady long-stan­ding busi­ness rela­ti­onships with KTP — the inte­gra­tion will enable further syner­gies to be lever­a­ged and deve­lo­p­ment and inno­va­tion oppor­tu­ni­ties to be driven forward.

KTP Kunst­stoff Palet­ten­tech­nik GmbH, based in Bous (Saar­land), has specia­li­zed in the manu­fac­ture and deve­lo­p­ment of foldable large contai­ners and large load carri­ers as well as pallets and carrier systems made of plas­tic since 1988. The advan­ta­ges of the KTP contai­ners are the ease of use and the space saving due to volume reduc­tion. In addi­tion, resour­ces are conser­ved — both through the use of recy­cled raw mate­ri­als and the possi­bi­lity of retur­ning them to the raw mate­rial cycle, and thanks to the lower trans­port weight. VR Equi­typ­art­ner (VREP) had acqui­red a mino­rity stake in KTP at the end of 2011 to support manage­ment in exploi­ting the company’s further growth poten­tial and driving inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion. From its head­quar­ters in Bous and its Chinese sales loca­tion in Taicang, KTP now exports its products to over 100 countries.

“The 2022 finan­cial year was the best in KTP’s history,” says a deligh­ted KTP Mana­ging Direc­tor Martin Hent­schel: “We also acqui­red a majo­rity stake in K2 PAK, thus ente­ring the inner pack­a­ging market. This expands our offer to our custo­mers, increa­ses our compe­ti­ti­ve­ness and enhan­ces custo­mer proximity.”

Chris­tian Futter­lieb, Mana­ging Direc­tor at VR Equi­typ­art­ner, also welco­mes the new part­ner­ship: “With the acqui­si­tion of K2 PAK, KTP is conti­nuing its successful growth story: after the strong expan­sion of produc­tion capa­ci­ties, the ongo­ing diver­si­fi­ca­tion out of the auto­mo­tive sector into other indus­tries and the successful inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion, the acqui­si­tion of K2 PAK is a real game chan­ger. The addressa­ble market has increased signi­fi­cantly and now offers custo­mer access through both trans­port boxes and inner packaging.”

The tran­sac­tion team of VR Equi­typ­art­ner: Sarah Oster­mann, Simone Weck

Advi­sor VR Equitypartner:
Finan­cial Due Dili­gence: ECOVIS CF, Ljubljana, with Chris­toph Geymayer
Legal due dili­gence and legal advice: CMS REICH-ROHRWIG HAINZ / Senica & Part­ners, Ljubljana, with Aleš Lunder

Heitersheim/ Munich — Para­gon Part­ners and the mino­rity share­hol­ders sell 100% of the shares in inpro­tec to Inter­na­tio­nal Chemi­cal Inves­tors Group. The tran­sac­tion is still subject to appr­oval by the rele­vant anti­trust authorities.

Based in Heiters­heim, Baden-Würt­tem­berg, inpro­tec AG is a leading service provi­der for indus­trial contract drying and granu­la­tion based on spray drying, spray granu­la­tion, fluid bed coating as well as matrix encap­su­la­tion. Para­gon acqui­red a majo­rity stake in inpro­tec in 2018 and has since inves­ted more than €20 million in expan­ding its produc­tion faci­li­ties. During the past four years, inpro­tec has signi­fi­cantly expan­ded its market posi­tion as a tech­no­logy leader in large-volume granu­la­tion and drying proces­ses, further broa­dened its custo­mer base, and achie­ved profi­ta­ble busi­ness deve­lo­p­ment with double-digit annual growth rates.

Based on the special strengths of the company, the current manage­ment will conti­nue the successful corpo­rate deve­lo­p­ment of inpro­tec within the ICIG network with ICIG as a future partner.

About Para­gon Partners

Para­gon Part­ners is an owner-mana­ged invest­ment company and has been inves­t­ing in medium-sized compa­nies in German-spea­king count­ries since its foun­da­tion in 2004. The invest­ment port­fo­lio spans various indus­tries and curr­ently compri­ses 14 compa­nies. Curr­ently, Para­gon mana­ges more than €1.2 billion in equity. www.paragon.de

About ICIG

Inter­na­tio­nal Chemi­cal Inves­tors Group is a priva­tely owned indus­trial group with total sales of €4 billion. ICIG focu­ses on three main plat­forms: Fine Chemi­cals under the Weyl­Chem brand, Chlo­ro­vi­nyls under the Vynova brand, and Enter­pri­ses with specia­li­zed compa­nies in fermen­ta­tion products, viscose fila­ments, acti­va­ted carbon and wood preser­va­tion chemi­cals (inclu­ding “Corden BioChem”, “ENKA”, “Carbo­Tech” and “Rütgers Orga­nics”). Since its foun­ding in 2004, ICIG has grown to include more than 20 inde­pen­dent chemi­cal compa­nies, all of which have their orig­ins in large global chemi­cal or phar­maceu­ti­cal groups. Today, the ICIG compa­nies employ around 4,500 people and operate more than 20 produc­tion sites in Europe and the United States. Addi­tio­nal infor­ma­tion can be found at www.ic-investors.com.

Clif­ford Chance advi­sed Para­gon Part­ners and the mino­rity share­hol­ders on the sale of 100% of the shares in inpro­tec to Inter­na­tio­nal Chemi­cal Inves­tors Group.

The Clif­ford Chance team was led by part­ner Dr. Mark Aschen­bren­ner (Corporate/Private Equity, Munich).

Munich, Germany — The River­side Company, a global private equity inves­tor focu­sed on the lower middle market, has signed a defi­ni­tive agree­ment to acquire a majo­rity stake in Montel AS (Montel), a Norwe­gian energy and power market infor­ma­tion provi­der owned by its foun­der and manager.

Montel, head­quar­te­red in Oslo, is an inter­na­tio­nal niche market leader provi­ding energy and power market infor­ma­tion to energy produ­cers, grid opera­tors, finan­cial insti­tu­ti­ons, trading compa­nies and indus­trial end users. The company’s services are prima­rily deli­vered through its proprie­tary Montel Online subscrip­tion-based plat­form and include energy market news and real-time and histo­ri­cal trading data.

Montel provi­des full-service energy infor­ma­tion services and is the only focu­sed provi­der of energy market infor­ma­tion services.

“This acqui­si­tion fits well with our invest­ment stra­tegy. “Montel is a true ’small market leader’ in the energy infor­ma­tion market and we believe the company is perfectly posi­tio­ned to bene­fit from the shift from fossil fuels to rene­wa­ble energy sources in many parts of the economy,” said Kars­ten Langer, Mana­ging Part­ner of River­side Europe. “We are plea­sed to invest along­side the foun­der and manage­ment team, who will remain with the company and conti­nue to play an important role in the company’s growth in the years to come.”

River­side will support Montel’s growth by scaling the orga­niza­tion to further gain share in a growing market, deve­lo­ping new products and services, and driving geogra­phic expan­sion. In addi­tion, the Group will make selec­tive acqui­si­ti­ons to expand its range of analy­ti­cal services.

Montel’s acti­vi­ties are highly aligned with various ESG aspects and the UN Sustainable Deve­lo­p­ment Goals, as its services help compa­nies gain a better under­stan­ding of their energy consump­tion so they can take action to reduce the causes of climate change in the longer term and enable a smooth tran­si­tion to rene­wa­ble energy consumption.

“We are exci­ted to part­ner with River­side in Montel’s next phase of growth,” said Tom Nyblin, CEO of Montel. “In gene­ral, the demand for infor­ma­tion services and analy­sis for the elec­tri­city market is expec­ted to increase shar­ply in the future. By joining forces with River­side, Montel is in a strong posi­tion to capi­ta­lize on these trends.”

Working with Langer on the tran­sac­tion for River­side were Senior Part­ner Dr. Michael Weber, Vice Presi­dent Dan Parksjö, Senior Direc­tor Jeroen Lens­sen, Opera­ting Part­ner Julian Heer­de­gen and Senior Legal Coun­sel Peter Parmen­tier. Prin­ci­pal, Origi­na­tion, Ali Al Alaf broke­red the tran­sac­tion for River­side. — The closing of the tran­sac­tion is subject to custo­mary regu­la­tory approvals.

Consul­tant Riverside:

BAHR, Allen & Overy, Hannes Snell­man Bain & Company, PWC, Deloitte and Code & Co. advi­sed, while the company and its share­hol­ders were advi­sed by Alpha Corpo­rate Finance, Wiers­holm and BDO.

The River­side Company

The River­side Company is a global private equity firm focu­sed on invest­ments in middle-market growth compa­nies valued at up to $400 million. Since its foun­ding in 1988, River­side has made over 870 invest­ments. Riverside’s inter­na­tio­nal private equity and struc­tu­red capi­tal port­fo­lios include over 130 compa­nies. River­side Europe is an inte­gral part of the company’s global network and has been inves­t­ing in Europe since 1989. River­side belie­ves this global presence provi­des excep­tio­nal insight into local condi­ti­ons, culture and busi­ness prac­ti­ces, making the River­side team better inves­tors and busi­ness partners.

Karlsruhe/ Munich — German tech­no­logy inves­tor LEA Part­ners and Danish IT inves­tor VIA equity announ­ced today that they are selling a majo­rity stake in SEMA, the leading Euro­pean CAD/CAM soft­ware solu­tion in the field of timber cons­truc­tion and prefa­bri­ca­ted buil­dings, to Bregal Unter­neh­mer­ka­pi­tal. Details of the tran­sac­tion were not disclosed.

SEMA, foun­ded in 1984, provi­des join­ery and prefa­bri­ca­ted cons­truc­tion compa­nies with solu­ti­ons cove­ring all acti­vi­ties rela­ted to wood and stair cons­truc­tion. On a uniform, easy-to-use program inter­face, the soft­ware offers appli­ca­ti­ons such as 2D/3D CAD plan­ning and design, photo-reali­stic visua­liza­tion, quota­tion calcu­la­tion and crea­tion, as well as produc­tion plans and working drawings. In Germany, Austria, France, Italy and Switz­er­land, SEMA has a signi­fi­cant market share and a remar­kable active custo­mer base of more than 10,500 join­ery and prefa­bri­ca­ted cons­truc­tion companies.

VIA equity and LEA Part­ners had acqui­red the majo­rity stake in SEMA in 2019 and have since supported the company in its mission to expand market leader­ship and achieve opera­tio­nal excel­lence. Under the new owners and thanks to its proven product and excel­lent custo­mer rela­ti­onships, SEMA had achie­ved signi­fi­cant sales and profit growth. As part of its invest­ment stra­tegy, SEMA broa­dened its leader­ship team, inves­ted in its tech­no­logy plat­form, acqui­red an ERP/CRM soft­ware company, and imple­men­ted seve­ral pricing and product bundle initiatives.

Alex­an­der Neuss, CEO of SEMA: “Our colla­bo­ra­tion with VIA and LEA over the past three years has really helped us to realize our full poten­tial. Our inves­tors’ exten­sive expe­ri­ence in the soft­ware market combi­ned with deep busi­ness exper­tise has been a perfect stra­te­gic fit, enab­ling us to acce­le­rate our growth and conti­nue to deli­ver indus­try-leading services and inno­va­tion to our custo­mers. I am extre­mely grateful for the colla­bo­ra­tion and now look forward to conti­nuing on our growth path and expan­ding into addi­tio­nal markets internationally.”

Chris­tian Roth (photo, © LEA Part­ners), Mana­ging Part­ner at LEA Part­ners: “We are very proud to have played a role in SEMA’s growth story over the last few years. During our colla­bo­ra­tion, the SEMA team did an outstan­ding job and made the company a true soft­ware cham­pion in its indus­try. Our team has thoroughly enjoyed helping Alex­an­der and manage­ment drive stra­tegy and growth, and we are confi­dent that their dedi­ca­tion and drive will enable them to achieve many succes­ses in the future.”

VIA equity and LEA Part­ners were advi­sed by Houli­han Lokey, Noerr and Milbank on this transaction.

About LEA Partners

With curr­ently EUR 460 million in commit­ments, LEA Part­ners, as an entre­pre­neu­rial equity part­ner, supports foun­ders and manage­ment teams at diffe­rent stages of deve­lo­p­ment in their growth and achie­ve­ment of a leading market posi­tion. Based in Karls­ruhe, one of the largest tech­no­logy clus­ters in Europe, LEA has mana­ged invest­ments in nume­rous tech­no­logy compa­nies since 2002. www.leapartners.de.