Happy Friday Eurohubsters, it’s Craig McGlashan here with the Dealflow.
I wrote on Wednesday about how the Nordic region was getting back up to speed after the summer holidays there and that theme held true to the end of the week.
Internet of Things. Accent Equity has announced that a consortium, led by Accent Equity 2017 fund, has agreed to acquire Inteno Group from Accent Equity 2012 and a number of minority shareholders. The consortium comprises Unigestion, Simac Techniek and Inteno Group’s management.
Headquartered in Stockholm, Inteno Group is a developer and provider of fibre products, powered by an open-source operating system and software platform. The group’s product and software offering includes wi-fi routers, gateways and extenders, mesh systems and fibre termination units for home IoT devices.
Since Stockholm-based Accent Equity’s initial investment in 2016, Inteno Group has expanded into new markets and regions and tripled its revenues with the aid of growth initiatives and product investments.
“Inteno has a market leading position and is very well positioned to capitalise on the home digitalisation megatrend,” said Claes Bodell, partner at Accent Equity. “Online services, media streaming, and working from home drives a rapid growth in data consumption and consumer speed requirements – fibre-based internet connection is the solution to this.”
Energy transition. We’ve seen a definite pickup in interest in bioenergy, with Earth Capital merging four of its UK bioenergy portfolio companies into one group earlier in the week.
Not to be outdone, Palisade Real Assets announced on Thursday that it had bought 100 percent of Malaby Biogas. The acquisition is the first investment for Palisade’s BioticNRG, a newly established UK bioenergy platform focused on anaerobic digestion assets and adjacent infrastructure.
Based in Warminster in the UK, Malaby owns and operates Bore Hill Farm Biodigester, an organic waste anaerobic digestion technology plant. The company recycles food waste into renewable energy and sustainable biofertiliser for local farmers. Malaby was the first plant in England to be certified by the Anaerobic Digestion Certification Scheme.
“The Malaby team, led by Thomas Minter, are industry pioneers, leading the way in providing local, distributed renewable energy, integrated development and driving practical innovation into the sector,” said Stephen Burns, CEO of Palisade Real Assets.
Sydney-headquartered Palisade Real Assets, a subsidiary of Palisade Investment Partners, is an infrastructure manager that targets mid-market assets.
Mow-mentum. I’m sure for many people, weekends are synonymous with mowing the lawn. But such mindsets could become a thing of the past (not just because the recent heatwave in Europe has parched all the grass). Our colleague Aaron Weitzman over at PE Hub in the US wrote last week about the ‘do-it-for-me’ trend that inspired Detroit’s Huron Capital to launch a lawn care services platform.
It looks like mindset is pollinating the European private equity landscape, as Ufenau Capital Partners’ portfolio company, GarLa Group, has just acquired a majority stake in gardening and landscaping services firm Bietigheimer Gartengestaltung – its first foray into Germany.
Based in Tamm, Bietigheimer Gartengestaltung services public, commercial and private building projects in and around Stuttgart.
“We are extremely pleased that with Bietigheimer Gartengestaltung we have been able to win one of the leading companies in gardening and landscaping in Baden-Württemberg to establish the nucleus of GarLa Group Germany,” said Andreas Joehle, partner at Ufenau Capital Partners.
GarLa Group and Ufenau are both based in Pfäffikon, Switzerland.
That’s it from me. Have a great weekend – whether or not you’re spending it mowing your lawn – and we’ll speak again on Monday.
Cheers,
Craig