Cinven confident on carve-outs; Bridgepoint and Verdane make cybersecurity plays

We’ve got a little more info on Blackstone’s take-private plans for UK property company Industrials REIT to fill you in on, before Nina Lindholm takes a deep dive into Cinven’s recent carve-out of MBCC Admixtures. That piece also takes a broader look at the potential for carve-outs in Europe this year.

Next, we have some new cybersecurity deals to report, with Bridgepoint and Verdane plugging in to new investments.

We then have a hire by law firm Dechert to tell you about, before we take a quick look at our PE Hub and Buyouts’ colleagues Deals of 2022.

Enterprising

A quick addendum to yesterday’s coverage of Blackstone’s bid to take UK property firm Industrials REIT private, which had an equity valuation of £500 million ($623 million; €571 million). We understand that the total enterprise value of the offer, including debt, was £700 million.

Carve-outs ahead

Cinven partner Pontus Pettersson spoke to PE Hub Europe’s Nina Lindholm about the firm’s recent carve-out of MBCC Admixtures (which operates under the Master Builders brand) from multinational specialty chemicals company Sika.

Headquartered in Mannheim, Germany, MBCC Admixtures is a global manufacturer of concrete admixtures, as well as other sustainable products for the construction industry.

The interview touches on Cinven’s plans for MBCC, including a potential re-entry to the Middle East and Asian markets, as well as how it hopes to end a period of uncertainty for the firm and its employees.

But I was particularly interested in Pettersson’s suggestion that more carve-outs could be on the way.

“I think that there is a growing recognition, in corporate Europe, that strategic focus has value,” Pettersson told Nina. “Large groups that have come together over time, they are coming to the realisation that they own and operate numerous activities that are not essential to what they do. They strategically think it makes sense to rationalise their portfolios.”

Check out the full interview here.

Cybersecurity

Bridgepoint has made a strategic investment in DataExpert via Bridgepoint Development Capital IV (BDC IV).

DataExpert is a provider of products and services to combat cybercrime and fraud and deliver forensic and incident response services. The firm is headquartered near Utrecht in the Netherlands.

Interstellar has sold its stake in DataExpert to Bridgepoint as part of the transaction.

This deal follows Bridgepoint’s strategic investment in Infinigate, a distributor of enterprise cybersecurity services to SMEs in Europe.

“We share the leadership teams’ ambition to grow through expanding their product offering, broadening their customer base and targeting new territories globally, all while continuing to partner with vendors and customers to fight against cybercrime and fraud,” said David MacKenzie, partner at Bridgepoint Development Capital.

(Note: Bridgepoint owns PEI Group, the publisher of PE Hub Europe.)

Know your customer

Sticking with cybersecurity, Verdane has secured an investment in Verified, a B2B SaaS company providing anti-money laundering and ‘know-your-customer’ services, digital signing, and authentication workflows.

Verified is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden.

Verified has also acquired Assently, an e-signing and e-ID solutions company headquartered in Sweden.

Verdane’s investment will help Verified to continue its growth both organically and via acquisitions, according to a release.

Legal growth

Law firm Dechert has added to its private equity headcount by appointing Kai Terstiege as a partner in the Munich office.

Terstiege, who joins from WilmerHale, focuses on mid- and large-cap private equity deals, and has advised clients in multiple industries, particularly technology.

Dechert has made several private equity appointments in the last two years.

Awards

Finally, our colleagues over at PE Hub and Buyouts in the US have compiled the Deals of the Year for 2022. You can check out the full list here, or if you want to look at the write-up of a winner that came from Europe – JC Flowers’ exit from the UK’s Interactive Investor – then click here.