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European Imaging Group closed acquisition of majority stake in CYFROWE.PL

Aurelius Capital

Munich, May 10, 2022 – The European Imaging Group (“EIG”), a subsidiary of AURELIUS Equity Opportunities SE & Co. KGaA (ISIN: DE000A0JK2A8), closed the acquisition of a majority stake in Cyfrowe.pl (“Cyfrowe”). The company is the leading Polish omni-channel speciality retail operator of high-end photo and video equipment for professionals and enthusiasts. This transaction reinforces EIG’s position as the leading pan-European photo and video specialist multi-channel retailer and offers a base for further expansion into Central and Eastern European markets.

Cyfrowe is headquartered in Gdansk and maintains close partnerships with the major blue-chip brands in the industry. It runs five successful retail destination stores across Poland and a renowned e-commerce platform. The offering is based on both new as well as used equipment and is complemented by a comprehensive range of services, such as customer training and workshops. Cyfrowe has built high levels of brand awareness and is managed by a strong team led by founder and CEO Jaroslaw Banacki, who will remain a significant minority shareholder. Banacki will continue to run the company and will be responsible for Cyfrowe’s future development.

Richard Glatzel, Group CEO of the European Imaging Group, states: “We are ambitious to strengthen our position as the pan-European market leader in our field. Adding Cyfrowe represents our step into the Eastern European Market, further increasing EIG´s reach throughout the continent and leveraging synergies.”

Jaroslaw Banacki, Founder and CEO of Cyfrowe, comments: “Today, Cyfrowe is the leading omni-channel photo and video retailer in Poland. With the completion of our partnership with EIG, we are excited to see the opportunities this will bring and to continue on our successful growth path.” With the founder staying on bord, EIG will have access to the longstanding Cyfrowe industry know-how and expertise, that can be combined with EIG’s wealth of knowledge to capture future growth opportunities.

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Altor enters an equal partnership with the founders of Audiowell

Altor

Altor Fund V (“Altor”) has signed an agreement to enter a partnership with the founders of Audiowell, the Swedish founded international music group. The founders will remain owners and continue in their operational roles.

Andreas Romdhane and Josef Svedlund, launched the Audiowell Group with a mission to increase the quality of lifestyle music by dedicating time, resources and partnering up with talented creators. They have the ambition to enable musicians, songwriters, and creators to live off their music in today’s music industry.

Both founders have worked for more than 20 years as music producers and songwriters, scoring several UK #1 singles, and working with diverse artists such as Westlife, Kelly Clarkson, Diana Ross and Il Divo to name a few. In 2013, they decided to work more closely with artists and creators, identifying talent on YouTube and supporting them by increasing production quality and broadening their reach, publishing music across multiple platforms. Their first signing to the label was Sofia Karlberg. Her rendition of Crazy in Love became viral on YouTube. Today she has over 2 million followers and over 600 million streams across multiple platforms.

Audiowell is located in a music studio complex in the heart of Stockholm, from where it supports over 100 music creators spanning from the US to Hong Kong and South America and focusing on a broad range of genres such as Jazz, Relaxation, Acoustic, Dance, Rock, Classical. In 2021, the company generated in excess of 150M SEK in revenues and have generated billions of streams across 50+ streaming platforms.

Audiowell and Altor have partnered up together with leading producer and co-investor Martin Sandberg (a.k.a. Max Martin), who will provide strategic advice to the company and founders.

”There is so much creativity that needs an outlet. To come to the studio every day and work with our fantastic team of creators is pure joy.” says Andreas Romdhane. “Now we want to step up the pace, and that is where Altor and Max Martin come in. They can help support us in scaling our team so that we can focus on supporting our creators and releasing quality music.” continues Josef Svedlund.

“Audiowell has a tremendous track record, and we were immediately struck by the sheer talent of Josef and Andreas and their creator network. We are very proud to have partnered up together with them and producer Max Martin and look forward to being a strategic partner in their future growth ambitions.” says Andreas Källström Säfweräng, Partner at Altor.

For more information, please contact:
Tor Krusell, Head of Communications at Altor, tor.krusell@altor.com, +46 705 43 87 47

About Altor
Since inception, the family of Altor funds has raised some EUR 8.3 billion in total commitments. The funds have invested in excess of EUR 5 billion in more than 85 companies. The investments have been made in medium sized predominantly Nordic companies with the aim to create value through growth initiatives and operational improvements. Among current and past investments are Iyuno-SDI, Meltwater, RevolutionRace, Raw Fury and Totême. For more information visit www.altor.com.

 

 

Author: Katarina Karlsson
Date: 2022.05.25
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Nooteboom Textiles partners with Bencis to accelerate its international growth

Bencis

Amsterdam, 20 May 2022

Bencis acquired a majority interest in Nooteboom Textiles from prior owner Egeria. Nooteboom, founded in 1852, is the leading European textile wholesaler specialised in women and children’s fabrics for home sewing and small tailors as well as home-decoration. Headquartered in Tilburg, the Netherlands, Nooteboom operates with approximately 100 employees and reaches more than 5,000 B2B customers in over 50 countries.

Under Egeria ownership, Nooteboom transitioned from a historically family-led company to a company with an independent management team. Through its recently enhanced e-commerce platform and increased operational efficiencies Nooteboom is ideally positioned to become the European wide go-to supplier for finished textile fabrics. Bencis will support the company in further building this leading position by focussing on international expansion through Nooteboom’s tailored commercial approach and by establishing strategic partnerships across the European fabrics market.

Michiel Dreesmann and Joost Tabbers, CEO and CFO of Nooteboom are excited about the new partnership with Bencis and are looking forward to further build on the company’s growth story together. Michiel Dreesmann: “With Bencis, we found the ideal partner for our next phase of growth. Their experience with international expansion, B2B e-commerce platforms and their people-centred approach are a perfect fit for Nooteboom.”

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Egeria sells Nooteboom Textiles to Bencis Capital Partners

Egeria

Amsterdam, 20 May 2022 – Egeria and Bencis Capital Partners (“Bencis”) have completed the sale of Nooteboom Textiles, the leading European wholesaler in finished textile fabrics.

 

Over the last four years, Nooteboom transitioned from an owner-led company to a company with an independent management team. We are proud to have supported the company in developing an e -commerce platform, improving its operational efficiency, enhancing its commercial approach and creating a solid ESG product portfolio. Nooteboom further strengthened its leading position as a wholesaler in finished textile fabrics, improving its margins and realizing growth across Europe.

Backed by its strong track record, we believe that the company is ready to continue to realize further growth with its new shareholder. We wish the company and her employees all the best for this next phase.

About Nooteboom Textiles

Founded in 1852, Nooteboom is the leading European textile wholesaler specialised in women and children fabrics for home sewing and small tailors as well as home-decoration. Headquartered in Tilburg, the Netherlands, Nooteboom operates its warehousing activities with approx. 100 employees reaching over 5,000 B2B customers in over 50 countries.

About Egeria

Established in 1997, Egeria is an independent Dutch investment company focused on mid-sized companies in the Netherlands and DACH region. Egeria invests in healthy businesses with an enterprise value of between EUR 50 million and EUR 350 million, and believes in building businesses jointly with entrepreneurial management teams (Boldly Building Together). Egeria Private Equity Funds has interests in 12 companies in the Netherlands and Germany, while Egeria Evergreen has investments in 7 companies. Egeria’s portfolio companies generate combined revenues of more than EUR 2 billion and employ circa 12,000 people.

About Bencis

Bencis is an independent investment company that supports business owners and management teams in achieving their growth ambitions. Working out of offices in Amsterdam and Brussels, and more recently in Düsseldorf, Bencis has been investing in strong and successful businesses in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany since 1999.

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Zibber acquires Topr thanks to collaboration with Mentha

Mentha Capital

akeover makes Zibber the largest player in real estate presentation

Zibber, specialist in real estate presentation and related services to real estate agents, will partner with Mentha to achieve accelerated, sustainable growth. Mentha will play an active role in this strategy by contributing knowledge and resources. The first step is the acquisition of industry peer Topr, making Zibber the largest provider of visual content for real estate promotion.

Zibber provides services to support brokers and project developers in the sale of real estate, such as attractive images, detailed floor plans and measurement reports using 3D laser scanning. These services are in high demand and the company has the ambition to continue to grow, driven by an optimal customer experience and employee satisfaction. It wants to expand its presence in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany and also make inroads into other countries. Mentha has extensive experience in exploiting the growth potential of profitable companies, has supported many organizations in comparable international expansion and has previously invested in related business models, in which visual content plays an important role.

The first step in the collaboration is the acquisition of Topr, which provides comparable services and has a great deal of knowledge of 3D visualization in-house. The 3D service developed by Topr visualizes, among other things, project-based new construction. Zibber’s pointcloud technology, which uses 3D laser scans to create highly accurate floor plans and measurement reports, offers a high degree of accuracy and efficiency. Customers of both companies can now benefit from the combination of these services.

Dogan Kahveci, co-founder of Zibber: “We always look ahead and have big plans. With Mentha on board, we can execute these plans even faster. Their knowledge and experience is of great value, and they understand our vision. The acquisition of Topr is a clear example of this. Thanks to the good relationship between all the parties involved, this deal was concluded quickly and smoothly. We are looking forward to a bright future!”

Edo Pfennings, partner at Mentha: “End-to-end visual content services are playing an increasingly important role for real estate agents in the sales success of real estate, and Zibber is a forerunner in this. The ambition that Dogan and Hans and their team have is ample motivation for us to enter into a collaboration and to take their growth plans to an even higher level.”

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Impressive growth performance of our companies leads to strong result

GIMV

Topic: Results publication

CEO Koen Dejonckheere:

After demonstrating their resilience in the exceptional year 2020, the Gimv companies showed an impressive power in the past year. Both the turnover (+24%) and the profitability (+38%) of our companies experienced a very strong growth. Thanks to this exceptional performance, we again achieved a portfolio return of over 20% for the financial year 2021-22. This result was also supported by the realised capital gains on a number of exits, proof of successful value creation processes over the past years.

The strong growth in our companies, combined with a continued high investment level – both in promising new companies and through a series of bolt-on acquisitions in our portfolio companies – has resulted in a significant growth of our portfolio to almost EUR 1.5 bln. The value of our private equity portfolio has never been so high and offers considerable potential for future value creation. Combined with our net profit (EUR 6.6 per share) and our solid balance sheet, this strengthens our confidence to propose an increase of the dividend to EUR 2.6 per share.

Chairman Hilde Laga adds:

Our businesses face exceptional challenges: after the pandemic, there is now the war in Ukraine. The human suffering touches us deeply, but the situation also leads to an unstable global economy. All this is taking place in a context in which digitalisation is accelerating, the importance of sustainability is growing and international trade rules are being rewritten. As an active and experienced shareholder, we want to support our portfolio companies at the moments that really matter.

In addition, we take our responsibility as a sustainable investor. We want to build leading companies that deliver strong results and growth, offer the highest quality, are top employers for their teams and optimise their digital processes, while at the same time minimising the impact of their activities on the climate and the environment. In short, we are very proud of our companies that work with impressive dedication towards a better economy and a more sustainable society.

The results for the 2021-2022 financial year cover the period from 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022.

Key elements

Results

  • Impressive growth realised by our portfolio companies in 2021: 24% revenue and 37.6% EBITDA increase.
  • This exceptional performance, combined with capital gains realised on several successful exits, results in a strong portfolio return and a solid net result.
  • Portfolio result: EUR 251.3 million, or a portfolio return of 20.4%.
  • Net result (group share): EUR 174.3 million (or EUR 6.6 per share)

Investments / Exits

  • A high investment level of EUR 193.8 million, spread over a number of new participations and a growing number of bolt-on acquisitions within our portfolio companies (26 add-on acquisitions in the past financial year 2021-22).
  • Total cash proceeds from divestments: EUR 218.9 million, with a realised money multiple of 3.2x compared to the total invested amount.

Balance sheet and portfolio

  • A continued high investment rhythm and the strong performance of the Gimv companies result in a further growth of the investment portfolio by 17.5% to a new record level of EUR 1 449 million (invested in 59 companies).
  • Liquidity remains substantial, with a cash position of EUR 377.8 million (of which EUR 350 million financed by LT-bonds, resulting in net cash of EUR 27.8 million).

Equity

  • Value of equity (group share): EUR 1 413 million (or EUR 53.0 per share).

Dividend

  • Proposal to increase the dividend to EUR 2.6 gross (EUR 1.82 net) per share for the financial year 2021-22 (compared to EUR 2.50 gross (EUR 1.75 net) per share over the previous year), subject to approval by the general meeting of 29 June 2022.
  • Payment via an optional dividend, which will enable Gimv to further strengthen its liquidity with a view on the continued growth of its portfolio.

 

Read the full document

English – French – Dutch
 

Gimv

Karel Oomsstraat 37, 2018 Antwerpen, Belgium

www.gimv.com

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DIF Capital Partners to sell French fibre company ADTIM

DIF

DIF Capital Partners (“DIF”) is pleased to announce that DIF Core Infrastructure Fund I (“CIF I”) signed an agreement to sell its 55% ownership stake in ADTIM SAS (“ADTIM”), a French fibre company, to HICL Infrastructure PLC (“HICL”), the listed core infrastructure fund managed by InfraRed Capital Partners. This will be the first exit for CIF I.

ADTIM operates an independent wholesale broadband network that focuses on low-density areas in the Ardèche and Drôme departments. ADTIM was awarded two complementary concession contracts by the public local authority Syndicat mixte ADN, under the French PIN (Public Initiative Networks) scheme. The company operates two infrastructure networks providing broadband access to telecom operators serving both residential and business retail markets.

During DIF’s ownership, ADTIM has realised over 100,000 new rolled-out connections in the low density household areas of the Drôme and Ardèche departments, and established a very robust BtB platform with over 2,000 enterprises served by the ADTIM network. It has maintained its network to a high standard with an overall availability of its network reaching over 99%. DIF has exercised its oversight authority effectively as majority shareholder of ADTIM to ensure that ADTIM complies responsibly with its concession agreements with ADN as well as to its clients and end users.

Andrew Freeman, Head of Exits, said “This is the first exit for CIF I, an important milestone for our CIF strategy. Benefitting from the strong momentum in the European fibre market, this exit is expected to yield attractive returns to our CIF I investors. We believe InfraRed is an excellent counterparty and is very well placed to manage the company going forward.”

DIF was advised on the transaction by DC Advisory (financial), Orrick (legal), Analysys Mason (commercial), KPMG and Denjean & Associés (tax & accounting), Currie & Brown (technical), as well as Marsh (insurance).

Closing of the transaction is subject to the receipt of customary approvals and consents.

About DIF Capital Partners

DIF Capital Partners is a leading global independent investment manager, with ca. EUR 11 billion in assets under management across ten closed-end infrastructure funds and several co-investment vehicles. DIF invests in infrastructure companies and assets located primarily in Europe, the Americas, and Australia through two complementary strategies:

  • DIF CIF funds, of which DIF CIF III is the latest vintage, target equity investments in small to mid-sized core-plus infrastructure companies in the telecom, energy transition, and transportation sectors.
  • Traditional DIF funds, of which DIF Infrastructure VI is the latest vintage, target core infrastructure equity investments with long-term contracted or regulated income streams including public-private partnerships, concessions, utilities, and energy transition projects (incl. renewable energy).

DIF Capital Partners has a team of over 190 professionals, based in eleven offices located in Amsterdam (Schiphol), Frankfurt, Helsinki, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, New York, Paris, Santiago, Sydney, and Toronto. For more information please visit www.dif.eu.

Contact: Thijs Verburg, t.verburg@dif.eu.

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IK Partners to sell 2Connect to Rivean Capital

IK Partners

IK Partners (“IK”) is pleased to announce that the IK Small Cap II Fund (“IK SC II”) has reached an agreement to sell 2Connect (“the Company”) to Rivean Capital alongside management who will be reinvesting. Financial terms of the transaction are not disclosed.

2Connect designs, develops and produces innovative and customised interconnection solutions for original equipment manufacturers (“OEMs”) and original design manufacturers (“ODMs”) globally.

Founded in 2000, the Company prides itself on setting new standards for interconnection solutions by designing high-quality and cost-effective units in partnership with its long-term client base. 2Connect employs over 450 people across its headquarters in Waalwijk, the Netherlands and three manufacturing sites in Romania and Germany. Their market reach spans over 40 countries.

IK invested in 2Connect in November 2018 and since then, the Company has more than doubled its revenues, completed two add-on acquisitions in both Germany and the Netherlands, expanded internationally and showed strong capability to scale its operations.

Mark van den Heuvel, CEO of 2Connect, commented: “We are delighted to have enjoyed a successful partnership with IK, which has seen 2Connect grow beyond all expectations and deliver on its strategic goals as a business and for our customers. Having expanded our footprint internationally we are delighted to welcome Rivean Capital on board for the next stage of the journey.”

Sander van Vreumingen, Partner at IK and Advisor to the IK SC II Fund, added: “It has been a pleasure working with the team at 2Connect for the past three years. The business is uniquely placed to capitalise on continued positive megatrends driving growth of automation and digitisation, increasing demand for sensors and advanced connectors. We are proud of everything we have achieved together and wish them well as they continue with a new partner.”

Tom Muizers, Senior Partner at Rivean Capital, said: “We are truly impressed with 2Connect’s track record of consistent growth, its entrepreneurial management team as well as its ability to maintain high standards for demanding customers while scaling up the business operationally. We are excited to join Mark and the team to build on this momentum and support them in the Company’s next phase of development and growth.”

For further questions, please contact:
IK Partners
Vidya Verlkumar
Phone: +44 (0) 7787 558 193
vidya.verlkumar@ikpartners.com

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Novo Holdings Portfolio Company F2G enters strategic collaboration with Shionogi to commercialise its new antifungal agent Olorofim in Europe and Asia

Novo Holdings

  • Deal value includes upfront payment of US$100 million with F2G eligible for additional regulatory and commercial milestones of up to US$380 million, as well as double-digit royalties on net sales and share development costs

  • Validation of Novo Holdings’ strategy to identify and invest in promising European biotech opportunities

Novo Holdings A/S, a leading international life sciences investor, has announced that its portfolio company F2G Ltd. (F2G) has entered into a strategic collaboration with Shionogi & Co., Ltd. (Shionogi) to develop and commercialise its antifungal agent olorofim for invasive fungal infections, in Europe and Asia.

F2G is a UK, US and Austria based biotech company focused on the discovery and development of novel therapies to treat life-threatening invasive fungal infections. Novo Ventures, the venture capital team at Novo Holdings, has led and participated in a series of financings since 2016. Naveed Siddiqi, Senior Partner at Novo Holdings, serves as a Board Member of F2G and Eric Snyder, Partner at Novo Holdings, as Board Observer.

Olorofim is a novel oral antifungal therapy developed by F2G to treat invasive aspergillosis (IA) and other rare mold infections. Olorofim works through a unique mechanism of action, different from all existing classes of antifungals, exerting fungicidal activity through inhibition of the pyrimidine synthesis pathway. Olorofim represents the first truly novel antifungal class developed in the past 20 years and is the only antifungal medication to be awarded a Breakthrough Therapy Designation (BTD) for multiple indications by the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA).

The world market for antifungal agents is currently worth in excess of US$6 billion with consistent annual growth driven by year-on-year increases in the susceptible immune compromised patient population. Increases in cancer, organ transplants and use of potent drugs, including broad spectrum antibiotics has led to significant increases in fungal infections. Fungi are now recognised as a major issue in several respiratory conditions, being responsible for exacerbations of symptoms in asthma, COPD and bronchiectasis patients. This is likely to increase the use of antifungal drugs over the coming years. F2G believes that its novel agent, olorofim, and subsequent agents, will address some of the many challenges which face the treating physician and the patient with invasive fungal infections.

Olorofim is currently in a Phase 2b open-label study and Phase 3 randomized study (“OASIS”).

Naveed Siddiqi, Board Director of F2G and Senior Partner, Novo Holdings, said: “Globally there is a high unmet medical need for novel antifungal therapies that are active against resistant and refractory infections and also against pathogenic fungal species which have been difficult to successfully treat historically. F2G is developing a completely new class of antifungal agents called the orotomides.  The strategic collaboration with Shionogi is an exciting development for the Company as it offers the prospect of olorofim, once approved, to reach even more patients around the world. This is Novo Ventures’ second anti-infective investment in 2022 that has attracted interest from partners in the pharmaceutical industry.”

Francesco Maria Lavino, Chief Executive Officer of F2G, said: “This collaboration will enable us to progress the development of olorofim with a regional partner.  Shionogi has a proven track record in both global drug development and business development and we look forward to working closely together while we now concentrate our efforts on the development and commercialisation of olorofim for the US market.”

Since January 2020, Novo Ventures has helped deploy over US$1.1 billion in life science investments.  The team consists of highly experienced investment professionals who operate from Copenhagen, Boston, London and San Francisco. The team advises on investments in early-stage startups through later stage crossover financings.  On the public side, the team helps catalyse IPOs and follow-on financings as well as participation in the open market.

About F2G

F2G is a biotech company with operations in the UK, US, and Austria focused on the discovery and development of novel therapies to treat life-threatening invasive fungal infections. F2G has discovered and developed a completely new class of antifungal agents called the orotomides which selectively target a key enzyme in the de novo pyrimidine biosynthesis pathway. This is a completely different mechanism from that of the currently marketed antifungal agents and gives the orotomides fungicidal activity against a broad range of rare and resistant fungal mold infections. For more details, please visit the F2G web site.

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CVC Fund VIII to acquire majority stake in The Quality Group

CVC Capital Partners

Together with the founders, CVC will help to further accelerate the business’s growth path

CVC Capital Partners VIII (“CVC Fund VIII”) has agreed to acquire a majority stake in The Quality Group (“TQG”). CVC Fund VIII will invest alongside all previous owners of TQG, who will reinvest in the business as minority shareholders. Founders Benjamin Burkhardt and Christian Wolf will continue to play key roles in the operational development of TQG. Financial terms of this transaction were not disclosed.

TQG is a leading manufacturer of innovative sports performance nutrition products and healthy, low-sugar food alternatives in the DACH region. Formed in December 2020 through the merger of “ESN” and “More Nutrition” the group offers a wide range of high-quality lifestyle products such as protein powder, weight management products, vitamins and sports supplements. Direct interaction with its customers is at the heart of the TQG’s strategy – from the sale of products via own web shops to their partnerships with 300 influencers who are part of its brands’ loyal customer base. Through these partnerships and its own channels, TQG reaches five million followers daily on various social media platforms. TQG’s headquarters and production facilities are based in Elmshorn near Hamburg and it employs 360 people.

Together with the founders, CVC will help to further accelerate the business’s growth path by scaling its logistics activities and improving the customer experience, as well as expanding the product portfolio in both the DACH region and internationally. TQG will benefit from CVC’s entrepreneurial expertise and large international network.

CVC has been active in the German market for more than 30 years and successfully works with numerous large and medium-sized companies. These include several companies in which the founders and founding families are still co-invested, such as Douglas, Europe’s leading premium beauty retailer, and the Messer Group, a global leader in industrial gases.

Closing of the transaction is subject to approval by the relevant regulatory authorities and is expected for the end of the second quarter of 2022.

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