Germany

CAPITON INVESTS IN FAST GROWING SERVICE COMPANY BWTS

About the Company

BWTS offers maintenance and other services for wind power plants. With tailored servicing programs and advanced maintenance processes, BWTS ensures consistent availability in wind power plants, both onshore and offshore. BWTS’ customers primarily consist of wind power plant manufacturers.

BWTS’ portfolio of services includes regular maintenance, certification, and servicing activities for wind power plants. This is with the objective of identifying risks at an early stage, and therefore optimising service life and availability of wind power plants.

The transaction

BWTS has enjoyed rapid growth over recent years. The two founders and managing directors have retained a significant stake in the company, and will continue to jointly manage BWTS. capiton will be supporting both entrepreneurs in further expanding and internationalising the enterprise. As part of this process, the company also intends to expand the BWTS product portfolio through acquisitions. Plans for the company include expansion of the business model to incorporate rotor blade maintenance, significantly increasing the proportion of offshore work, and
acquiring additional customers.

CAPITON SELLS SHARES IN GESS GROUP TO JR HOLDING AG

Gess Group is a personnel services company specializing in the placement of highly qualified employees. In September 2010 capiton acquired a majority stake in Gess. During the holding period the Group continued to grow and expanded its product portfolio by acquiring the two companies, Best Job IT and Graeber & Partner. In 2016 the Group generated sales of c. EUR 72m and currently employs approximately 1,850 employees.
About the transaction

gess group

With the transaction that has now been signed, capiton is selling its shareholding in the Gess Group to JR Holding AG, based in Ingolstadt, Germany. The JR Group was founded in 2009 and currently is a portfolio company of AUCTUS. The transaction is still subject to the approval of the antitrust authorities. The parties have also agreed not to disclose further details of the transaction.

capiton is an independent, partnerowned private equity company with funds of € 1.1 billion under management. At present, capiton’s portfolio consists of 10 medium-sized companies. In its capacity as provider of equity finance, capiton supports management buy-outs and supplies growth financing to established, medium-sized companies.

CITIC CAPITAL ACQUIRES FORMEL D GROUP WITH 3i

(Hong Kong, 17 July 2017)

CITIC Capital China Partners III, L.P., a buyout fund managed by the private equity arm of CITIC Capital Holdings Limited (“CITIC Capital”), is pleased to announce it has partnered with 3i Group plc (“3i”) to acquire Formel D, a global service provider to the automotive and component supply industry on 13 July 2017.

CITIC Capital’s investment amounted to approximately EUR72 million. Formel D has a strong track record and has outperformed the market over the last 10 years. Growing at an average of 17% p.a., Formel D differentiates itself through its global scale, premium customer relationships and comprehensive service offering: it is the only player offering quality services along the entire automotive value chain.

CITIC Capital and 3i plan to support Formel D’s international growth by rolling out its existing services to clients in other geographies, expanding its client base in Asia, and increasing its higher “value add” services such as vehicle test specification and virtual testing.

Boon CHEW, Senior Managing Director of CITIC Capital, commented: “The investment in Formel D is our first deal in Germany. We are happy to partner with the renowned investor 3i and are looking forward to jointly supporting the successful growth of Formel D. We are committed to adding significant value to the company’s development, in particular by using our expertise and network in Asia.”

FORMEL D

About Formel D

Formel D is a global service provider to the automotive and component supply industry. The company develops concepts and scalable solutions for quality assurance and process optimization along the entire automotive value chain – from development to production through to aftersales. Headquartered in Troisdorf near Cologne, the company was founded in 1993 and has over 7,000 employees at 80 locations in 19 countries worldwide. The company is managed by the Managing Directors Dr. Holger JENÉ, Dr. Jürgen LAAKMANN and Claus NIEDWOROK.

About CITIC Capital

Founded in 2002, CITIC Capital Holdings Limited is an alternative investment management and advisory company. The firm manages over USD20 billion of capital from a diverse group of international institutional investors. Core businesses include Private Equity, Real Estate, Structured Investment & Finance, and Asset Management. CITIC Capital currently employs over 250 staff members throughout its offices in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Tokyo and New York.

CITIC Capital’s private equity arm, CITIC Capital Partners, leverages its extensive resources to help companies realise their full potential in Asia, and has completed over 50 investments in the past years in China, Japan, the US and Australia. The firm currently manages USD4.8 billion of committed capital.

CAPITON ACQUIRES A MAJORITY STAKE IN THE GEMACO GROUP

About the Company

Gemaco is a leading provider of full-service merchandising and promotional marketing solutions for global industry and fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) customers. Gemaco’s service offering allows its clients to outsource all business processes related to promotional merchandising – from trend analysis, design, procurement and logistics to distribution, quality control, IT and cost management.

Gemaco dark

For more than 20 years, Gemaco has been active as the premium supplier of promotional products, sales promotion solutions and fulfilment programs across a wide range of sectors. The Company’s 13 locations make it one of the very few providers able to serve large corporates on a global scale. Gemaco employs around 290 people, of which 110 are based at its headquarters in Mechelen (Belgium), and generated sales of € 90 million in 2016.

Transaction summary

Gemaco is a proprietary transaction which was identified through capiton’s targeted sector approach in the area of “marketing procurement / promotional merchandise” leading to an exclusive sales process.

capiton acquires the Gemaco Group together with Management from the family office Saffelberg Investments and will support the further internationalization of the business. Financing of the transaction is provided by capiton’s current investment vehicle, capiton V, and banks.

Based on its strong market positioning, capiton and management are planning to grow the business both organically as well as through targeted acquisitions.

The transaction remains subject to approval from competition authorities. Buyers and sellers have agreed not to disclose the financial terms of the transaction

CAPITON INVESTS IN NANO-ENGINEERING FIRM, RAITH

About the company

Raith is a leading global developer and manufacturer of nanofabrication systems and software used for printing and scanning nanostructures. Since 1980 Raith has been developing, manufacturing and distributing system solutions for R&D applications to analyze and develop microchip circuits and other nanostructures, for instance in the fields of biochemistry or cybersecurity. The company caters to a global customer base of leading universities, research labs and blue-chip technology companies. Raith has two production sites in Germany and the Netherlands, as well as three distribution units in the US, China and India. In addition, Raith’s regional sales managers are supported by local sales partners across 15 countries. Raith employs around 200 people worldwide, of which 120 are based at its headquarters in Dortmund, and generated sales of € 54 million in 2015.
raith Transaction summary

capiton acquires Raith from the equity capital partner HANNOVER Finanz, who supported the company’s growth since 2002, and will become the majority shareholder of Raith. Financing of the transaction is provided by capiton’s current investment vehicle, capiton V, and banks. capiton is planning to grow the business organically both via international and product expansion, leveraging Raith’s strong market position, as well as through targeted acquisitions, for which additional funds have been reserved in fund capiton V. The transaction remains subject to approval from competition authorities. Buyers and sellers have agreed not to disclose the financial terms of the transaction.

CAPITON EXITS ZYTOSERVICE GROUP

About the company:

ZytoService is a leading pharmaceutical company that produces parenteral infusion solutions which are customised to individual patients’ needs. These solutions are primarily used in oncological treatment. The company operates state-of-the-art cleanroom laboratories at its principal site in Hamburg, where it focuses on the preparation of pharmaceutical products, tailored to individual patients. capiton invested in the company in August 2008 during a round of growth financing. The company has enjoyed significant growth in recent years, both organically and through acquisitions. Sales have more than quadrupled during the period of capiton’s investment.

zyto About the transaction:

As part of this transaction, which has now been signed and which is still subject to regulatory approvals, capiton is selling its shares in Zyto Service to IK Investment Partners. The parties to the transaction have agreed not to disclose financial details of the transaction. capiton was advised by Ferber (M&A), Clifford Chance (Legal) and Deloitte (Financial) with respect to this transaction.

CAPITON EXITS FLEXIBLE PACKAGING BUSINESS SCHUR FLEXIBLES TO LINDSAY GOLDBERG AND MANAGEMENT

The Schur Flexibles Group, headquartered in Baden, Austria is a European market leader in the flexible packaging industry. The company was created over the past five years by capiton and the CEO and co-owner Jakob A. Mosser, in the context of a buy-and-build concept.

schur-flex

Today, the group consists of twelve companies with eleven production sites in Germany, Finland, Denmark, Holland, Poland, Slovakia and Greece. In 2015, the group generated sales of almost € 370 million and employed more than 1100 staff.

The product portfol schur-pictures io of the company consists of specialized high value added flexible packaging solutions for the food, tobacco and pharmaceutical markets. The company also covers the entire value chain of the packaging industry, from raw material sourcing to extrusion, printing, lamination and converting.

capiton acquired the first company of the group, CFS Dixie GmbH, in December 2011. The nucleus of the group was then purchased in early 2012 with the take-over of the Schur Flexibles Division (four companies) from Schur International (Denmark). Five further businesses were acquired until the end of 2014 to create the Flexibles business that exists today. In 2014 PS Polymer Sourcing, Warburg Germany was founded as an additional separate business unit.

As part of the share sale signed now, the shareholders of Schur Flexibles have sold their shareholdings to Lindsay Goldberg, represented in Europe by Lindsay Goldberg Vogel, and the management team. The new owners intend to continue the successful buy and build concept through the acquisition of further target companies, some of which have already been identified.

CAPITON EXITS PREMIUM TEXTILE MANUFACTURER POLI-TAPE GROUP TO BITBURGER HOLDING

POLI-TAPE is a globally leading, innovative manufacturer of premium textile transfer foils and foils for plotting, lamination and digital printing. POLI-TAPE Klebefolien GmbH in Remagen and its subsidiaries in the USA and Italy are part of the POLI-TAPE Group.

The company has enjoyed constant growth over recent years. Following extensive investment, primarily in production, turnover has been increased by more than 50% during capiton’s period of involvement.

capiton acquired a minority interest in the POLI-TAPE Group in March 2011.

With the transaction now been signed, capiton is selling its shareholding in the POLI-TAPE Group to Bitburger Holding. The transaction is still subject to the approval of the antitrust authorities. The parties have also agreed not to disclose further details of the transaction.