Hands full for DBAG – no ‘summer lull’ in 2023

Despite recent challenges for the private equity market, Deutsche Beteiligungs AG (“DBAG”), a leading private equity company in Germany, was able to prove its strength. Six successful disposals and four new investments demonstrate that even a difficult market environment can offer attractive opportunities.

One example is DBAG’s investment in R+S Group (“R+S”), a leading group of companies that between them offer sustainable supply technology, digital and energy-efficient solutions for sustainable building systems, a wholesale and e-commerce service, and future-proof skilled labour. The stake in the company was sold to NOKERA AG (“NOKERA”), a producer of buildings in serial and sustainable construction. DBAG acquired a majority stake in R+S back in March 2021 and has now reinvested part of the sales proceeds in a minority stake in NOKERA, aiming to gain a foothold in the attractive growth market for serial construction and the serial (and energy-efficient) refurbishment of buildings.

DBAG is also becoming increasingly committed to the energy transition – as demonstrated, for example, by its most recent investments. Firstly, in the biogas platform Avrio Energie, and again in TBD Technische Bau Dienstleistungen (TBD), both of which are held via a fund advised by DBAG. In addition, DBAG continues to embrace technology: an investment in AOE Group (AOE), a leading service provider for agile software development with a focus on customised business solutions, is its seventh foray into the growth sector of IT services and software. With this transaction and the other investments currently held in the sector, DBAG benefits from the strong tailwinds provided by transformative topics such as cloud, digitalisation and data management.

Being at the forefront of the transformation remains a key focus for DBAG. The three investments mentioned above show the Company’s clear commitment to the energy transition (Avrio Energie and TBD), and to the digital transition and transformation of the software sector (AOE). And while DBAG’s strength lies clearly in its proprietary processes, the potency of its close ties with the German Mittelstand also provides the Company with a broad-based and reliable network, together with the ability to realise bilateral investment scenarios.

It’s been a pretty busy financial year for DBAG so far: the disposal of the investment in Pmflex, a leading European manufacturer of electrical installation conduits, marked the first realisation in Italy – a market that DBAG entered as recently as 2021. The stake in Pmflex was sold to the Hager Group, a provider of solutions and services for electro-technical installations in residential, industrial and commercial buildings. Next up was the stake in BTV Multimedia (BTV) – DBAG supported the broadband telecommunications equipment and services provider with comprehensive M&A expertise that led to five add-on acquisitions and successful implementation of BTV’s value appreciation strategy. DBAG managed to successfully dispose this investment to ETC Group, a strategic buyer headquartered in France. The investments in Heytex, a manufacturer of technical textiles serving a variety of end markets, Cloudflight, a supreme European full-service provider for digital transformation, and GMM Pfaudler, the leading supplier of technologies, systems and services for the chemical and pharmaceutical industries as well as for many other sectors, complete the list of transactions executed in the current financial year.