Good morning Eurohubsters, Craig McGlashan here with the first Dealflow of the week.
We’ve got a deal to report straight out the blocks this morning that involves not one, not two, but three private equity firms. We also have an add-on to tell you about, as well as some more central and eastern European news – this time fast food related – and the latest on private equity’s interest in cricket.
Combination. Cinven announced that the Seventh Cinven Fund, in partnership with Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board, has agreed to acquire and combine group.ONE and dogado group.
Jacob Nordestgaard Jensen, founder and non-executive director of group.ONE, is reinvesting alongside Cinven and Ontario Teachers’ in the new transaction for a significant minority stake in the combined group.
Based in Malmö, Sweden, group.ONE offers online presence services via mass hosting and business software products to small-and medium-sized enterprises and small-office home-offices through brands including one.com, Hostnet and WP Media.
Dogado is a provider of online presence services in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, offering mass and cloud hosting and digital marketing services to more than 380,000 customers through brands including dogado, Metanet and Herold. The company is headquartered in Dortmund, Germany. Dogado is part of EDSA Group, a portfolio company of London-headquartered private equity firm Triton.
“We see the combined business as a great fit for our European private capital portfolio given group.ONE and dogado’s leading positions in their respective markets and resilient subscription-based business models,” said Jean-Charles Douin, senior managing director, private capital for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at Ontario Teachers’.
Check out the full coverage of the deal to read more about how Cinven developed group.ONE during its first ownership period.
First add-on. Medical device provider Natus Medical is set to make its first acquisition since ArchiMed bought it in July.
The company has entered a definitive agreement to buy Micromed, a provider of medical devices for the neurophysiology sector. The firm supplies hospitals, sleep labs and research centres in “over 78 countries worldwide”, according to a statement. It is headquartered in Treviso in Italy and owns products such as BRAIN QUICK/MYQUICK, NEUROWERK, SleepRT and MOBERG.
The buyer, Natus, provides products focused on the screening, diagnosis and treatment of central nervous and sensory system disorders. The firm owns brands such as NeuroWorks/SleepWorks, Natus Quantum, Grass, Nicolet, Xltek, Embla, Dantec, TECA and others. It is headquartered in Middleton, Wisconsin.
ArchiMed is a private equity firm headquartered in Lyon, France, with offices in the US and Europe. It focuses exclusively on healthcare. The firm manages €6 billion across various funds.
ArchiMed closed its take-private deal of Natus for $1.1 billion in July, as covered by our affiliate site PE Hub.
Tasty deal. Affiliates of private investment company McWin acquired exclusive master franchise and development rights from Restaurant Brands International to develop the Burger King and Popeyes brands in central and eastern Europe.
Through its new Rex Concepts CEE platform, McWin will expand the Burger King brand in Czech Republic, Poland and Romania, and bring the fried chicken brand Popeyes to Czech Republic and Poland. It plans to open 600 restaurants in these countries over the next 10 years.
“Following the acquisition of BK SEE Poland SA in August, this is the second investment made through our €525 million McWin Restaurant Fund,” said Henry McGovern, co-founder of McWin.
Toronto, Canada-headquartered Restaurant Brands International owns several quick-service restaurant brands with over $35 billion in annual system-wide sales and more than 29,000 restaurants in more than 100 countries.
McWin is a private investment firm that partners with founders and CEOs looking to disrupt their markets, principally in food service and food technology. It is headquartered in Prague.
The central and eastern European region is attracting ever more attention from private equity. Last month, we wrote about a report from Bain & Company highlighting the increased opportunities in the area.
Cricket score. Finally, we wrote in late November about reports suggesting the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) had some private equity interest in its tournament The Hundred.
Sky News cited a source close to the ECB who said that London-headquartered Bridgepoint Group had made a £400 million ($491 million; €465 million) approach in the last few weeks to take a 75 percent stake in the tournament, which uses a new 100-ball format.
But ECB chair Richard Thompson has said that while an offer had been made for the format, a successful offer would need to be in the region of a “few billion”, particularly when using the Indian Premier League (IPL) as a benchmark.
“We understand there’s value in the tournament and teams, there’s lots of other untapped value in the game that goes beyond The Hundred as well,” he said. “We shouldn’t fixate over one thing. What we won’t do is be opportunistic. We’ll think things through, and understand that we won’t sell the game short.
“Lucknow Super Giants, one team in the IPL, sold for a billion. One team. That should establish a benchmark of value. I think we’ve got a long way to go before we do something. If offers want to be made, they will be made.”
We’ve asked Bridgepoint for comment and will share anything we learn.
Note: Bridgepoint is the owner of PEI Group, the publisher of PE Hub Europe.
Looks like we might need some more private equity/cricket themed headlines – check out Friday’s Dealflow for the best our readers have sent in so far.
That’s it from me – I’ll be back with you tomorrow.
Cheers,
Craig
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