Good morning Eurohubsters, Craig McGlashan here with Thursday’s Dealflow.
Digital transformation has been one of the biggest topics we’ve covered since launching PE Hub Europe a few months ago, whether that’s private equity firms investing in companies that aid businesses with their move to the cloud or simply help bring their tech into the 21st century. We’ve got a couple more deals on that trend to report today.
Increasing scale. Apax Partners today announced that its portfolio company, Lutech, has entered exclusive negotiations with Atos Group to acquire Atos Italia.
Atos Italia operates across six diversified verticals and helps what it calls “major” Italian companies with digital transformation. The company has approximately 1,600 employees in over five sites across the country.
The combination of the companies will aid increased scale and strengthen Lutech and Atos Italia’s offering by adding complementary expertise, while also bolstering their presence in strategic sectors, according to Apax.
“When the Apax Funds first invested in Lutech we saw the opportunity to consolidate the Italian IT services market, and this transaction is a crucial step in that process,” said Gabriele Cipparrone, partner at Apax, in a statement. “By combining the complementary scale, expertise, and capabilities of Lutech and Atos Italia into one group, we are creating a leading provider in the market that can offer an even wider suite of products and services to clients across a more diversified set of sectors.”
In the cloud. Keensight Capital announced that its portfolio company, the Adista Group, has acquired Cyres.
Cyres, based in Tours, France, aims to help companies migrate their IT projects to the cloud. The company has approximately 30 employees and more than 600 customers, both corporate clients and local authorities.
The transaction is an integral part of Adista’s growth strategy as a “leading” multi-cloud services operator, according to Keensight. Maxéville, France-based Adista also benefits from additional expertise in Microsoft Azure managed services, as well as DevOps, Cloudera and Smart Data skills.
Exyte-in deal. BDT Capital Partners announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire a “significant” minority interest in Exyte. Georg Stumpf, Exyte’s sole owner, will retain a majority stake.
Stuttgart-based Exyte works in design, engineering, procurement, and construction in controlled and regulated environments. It serves firms in the markets of semiconductors, battery cells, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and data centres.
“Exyte is a leader in the design, development, and delivery of the world’s most sophisticated manufacturing environments,” said Don McLellan, partner at BDT, in a statement. “The company plays an indispensable role enabling clients across semiconductor, biopharma, life sciences, and cloud computing industries to create best-in-class facilities where technological breakthroughs happen.”
Find out more about the deal here.
Open wide. The central and eastern European region has been busy for deals this week – a trend that is likely to grow stronger, according to a report by Bain & Company we covered yesterday – and we have some more to report on that front.
Miura Partners-backed Proclinic Group bought Meditrans, a distributor of dental products and services in Poland.
Proclinic expects the acquisition of Kielce-based Meditrans to push its turnover to more than €220 million this year, with more than 35 percent of that coming from international activity. Meditrans distributes 20 percent of the dental consumables market in Poland.
Zaragoza-headquartered Proclinic is an integrated supplier of products for the dental sector in Spain, with nearly 100,000 product references and presence in 31 countries. The purchase of Meditrans will grow its portfolio of products and help consolidate its presence in central Europe, especially in Germany and Poland, the firm said, and add new e-commerce to its digital platforms.
Renewable. ICG announced that ICG Infra I, its debut €1.5 billion infrastructure fund, has acquired Dos Grados, a renewable platform located across Spain and Portugal. The transaction is the fund’s eighth deal and its fourth within the renewable energy sector.
Madrid-based Dos Grados has a portfolio of 900MW of renewable projects under development across Iberia, comprising four PV solar assets and two hybrid assets (solar and wind). The first project in Portugal, a 126MW solar photovoltaic plant, will start construction in early 2023, with the rest of the portfolio targeting ready-to-build dates between 2023 and 2024.
ICG, headquartered in London, will work with the Dos Grados management team to build and operate the existing projects in the long term.
Trime’s up. 21 Invest signed a binding agreement to purchase lighting tower company Trime from Wise Equity.
Milan-headquartered Trime develops and produces lighting towers for construction sites, mines and live events. It expects to hit €90 million in consolidated sales this year and generates about 40 percent of its turnover from products powered by renewable energy. More than 90 percent of its turnover is generated outside Italy, particularly in countries where it has a direct branch such as the UK, the Netherlands and the US. It has customers in more than 30 countries.
The lighting tower market will grow, according to the firms, because of an increasing focus on worker safety in construction sites and the replacement of traditional diesel-powered lighting towers with renewable energy powered infrastructure.
Check out more about the deal here.
That’s it from me – Nina Lindholm will be with you tomorrow with the final Dealflow of the week.
Cheers,
Craig
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