Owner’s buy-back: GME buys back shares from BayBG and Bayern Kapital

Erlangen/Munich/Landshut — GME German Medi­cal Engi­nee­ring GmbH, Erlan­gen, has bought back the shares in the company held by BayBG Baye­ri­sche Betei­li­gungs­ge­sell­schaft and Bayern Kapi­tal GmbH (owner’s buy-back). The two invest­ment compa­nies had joined the medi­cal tech­no­logy company, which specia­li­zes in derma­to­lo­gi­cal lasers, as inves­tors in 2011 and 2013, respectively.

“The commit­ment of the invest­ment compa­nies enab­led GME to imple­ment a dyna­mic deve­lo­p­ment with balan­ced finan­cing during the growth phase. Our powerful, porta­ble lasers are now in use in more than 40 count­ries,” says Dr. Stefan Schulze, Mana­ging Part­ner of GME. With the conti­nuously incre­asing sales, which now amount to € 5 million annu­ally, earnings also increased and this enab­led the company and its share­hol­ders to exer­cise the option of a buy-back given by the asso­cia­ted compa­nies. “This is a first step towards reali­zing our medium-term goal of 100 percent owner­ship. We are deligh­ted that BayBG and Bayern Kapi­tal have given us this oppor­tu­nity after years of successful coope­ra­tion.” HTGF remains inves­ted for the time being, and will conti­nue to support GME’s development.

Foun­ded in 2011, the high-tech company stands for high-perfor­­mance porta­ble laser devices for medi­cine and cosme­tics. GME devices are used, for exam­ple, for perma­nent hair removal, skin tigh­tening or the treat­ment of skin dise­a­ses such as psoria­sis or white skin cancer (acti­nic keratoses).

“Demo­gra­phic deve­lo­p­ments combi­ned with growing health aware­ness and modern beauty ideals mean that demand for derma­to­lo­gi­cally appli­ca­ble devices based on laser and light systems will conti­nue to increase,” BayBG invest­ment mana­ger Otto Hopf­ner is convin­ced. “GME is excel­lently posi­tio­ned with its pionee­ring laser tech­no­logy and will conti­nue on its path to success.” Dr. Natha­lie Weitemeyer, Bayern Kapi­tal, agrees: “GME stands out in this growing market thanks to a number of unique selling points and special features, such as a new tech­no­logy that allows the lasers to be parti­cu­larly compact.” All those invol­ved are satis­fied with the many years of coope­ra­tion: We thank GME for the coope­ra­tion and wish the company contin­ued success,” Hopf­ner and Weitemeyer agreed.

About GME German Medi­cal Engi­nee­ring GmbH
GME was foun­ded in June 2011 by four indus­try experts. Product deve­lo­p­ment takes place in Erlan­gen with a team of expe­ri­en­ced engi­neers and tech­ni­ci­ans. GME combi­nes exten­sive appli­ca­tion know­ledge with state-of-the art elec­tro­nics and robust beam sources desi­gned for conti­nuous use in indus­trial appli­ca­ti­ons. This allows new deve­lo­p­ments to be imple­men­ted quickly and effi­ci­ently. www.gmeonline.de

About BayBG
BayBG Baye­ri­sche Betei­li­gungs­ge­sell­schaft mbH is one of the largest private equity and venture capi­tal compa­nies for medium-sized compa­nies. It curr­ently has commit­ments of 315 million euros to around 500 compa­nies. With its venture capi­tal and equity invest­ments, it enables small and medium-sized compa­nies to imple­ment inno­va­tion and growth projects, arrange for company succes­sion or opti­mize their capi­tal struc­ture. Since 1972, BayBG has accom­pa­nied more than 3,000 compa­nies on their path to success. www.baybg.de

About Bayern Kapital
Bayern Kapi­tal GmbH, Lands­hut, was foun­ded in 1995 as a wholly owned subsi­diary of LfA Förder­bank Bayern. As the venture capi­tal company of the Free State of Bava­ria, Bayern Kapi­tal provi­des the foun­ders of inno­va­tive high-tech compa­nies and young, inno­va­tive tech­no­logy compa­nies in Bava­ria with equity capi­tal inclu­ding the growth phase. To date, Bayern Kapi­tal has inves­ted around 238 million euros of venture capi­tal in 250 inno­va­tive tech­­no­­logy-orien­­ted compa­nies from a wide range of sectors. www.bayernkapital.de

About High-Tech Gründerfonds
The High-Tech Grün­der­fonds (HTGF) has been a powerful engine for successful high-tech foun­ders since 2005. With know-how, entre­pre­neu­rial spirit and passion, the expe­ri­en­ced team of invest­ment mana­gers and startup experts accom­pa­nies the best compa­nies on their way from foun­da­tion to success. With a volume of EUR 886 million distri­bu­ted across three funds and an inter­na­tio­nal part­ner network, HTGF has now finan­ced almost 500 start­ups. www.high-tech-gruenderfonds.de