Capvis and Partners Group acquire majority stake in Kaffee Partner
Zurich, May 4. 2010 - Funds consulted by the two Swiss-based private equity firms Capvis Equity Partners AG, Zurich, and Partners Group AG, Zug, have acquired a majority interest in coffee specialist, Kaffee Partner Holding GmbH, Wallenhorst. The acquisition is subject to approval by antitrust authorities. The parties involved agreed not to disclose the acquisition price. Michael Koch, CEO of Kaffee Partner Holding GmbH, and Dr. Andreas Ost, Supervisory Board member and founder of Kaffee Partner Holding GmbH, acquired further shares, thereby increasing their interest in the company considerably. The shares being sold were previously held by funds managed by Odewald & Compagnie, Berlin, as well as Michael Koch, Dr. Andreas Ost and Wilhelm Schulte.
“As experts in the SME sector, we are delighted to be able to acquire a stake in Kaffee Partner,” explains Daniel Flaig, the partner responsible for the transaction at Capvis. “Just like the management of Kaffee Partner, we are convinced that coffee is a long-term growth market and are therefore lending our full support to the expansion strategy the company has initiated.”
Dr. Jens Odewald, founder of Odewald & Compagnie and chairman of the Kaffee Partner Group Supervisory Board, commented: “Since our fund acquired an interest at the end of 2005, the group’s sales and profits have increased significantly and the product range has been expanded considerably, and that also includes by acquisition. We can only complement the managing partner Michael Koch and the founder of the company and its Supervisory Board member Dr. Andreas Ost, for their business achievements, and we wish them more entrepreneurial success in the future.”
Walter Keller, partner and head of the direct investment team at Partners Group adds: “On the back of our investment into the leading German full-service provider for the commercial provision of coffee-brewing systems, we are pleased to be able to actively participate in a highly attractive end-user market. In doing so, we are also supporting an excellent management team in developing potential in the future.”
Kaffee Partner GmbH based in Wallenhorst near Osnabrück is the nationwide market leader in commercial coffee provision to the SME sector. The company sells a broad range of brewing systems and is a one-stop-shop offering an extensive range of services. Kaffee Partner continued to grow successfully even in the difficult year 2009. “Capvis and Partners Group are a perfect fit, putting us in a position to realise our long-term goals,” explains Michael Koch, CEO of Kaffee Partner.
The Kaffee Partner transaction marks the 40th investment by the Capvis team and the third by the Capvis Fund III, which was issued in March 2008 with a volume of EUR 600 million.
Since 1998, Partners Group has made more than 100 direct investments around the globe worth in excess of USD 2 billion.
For further information, please contact:
Uwe Lill
GFD – Finanzkommunikation
+49 69 971 247 13
lill@gfd-finanzkommunikation.de
About Capvis
Capvis is the leading private equity firm in Switzerland and one of the leaders in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. It acquires well positioned SME operations headquartered in the GSA region. Typically this is undertaken either in succession planning or in corporate spinoffs. Capvis’ mission is to invest in attractive companies, to work closely with management in a spirit of partnership as a shareholder with the objective of leveraging additional business potential and advancing the development of the company both in strategic and operating terms. Today, Capvis funds total EUR 900 million. Since 1990, the team has undertaken 40 transactions totalling in excess of EUR 3 billion.
About Partners Group
Partners Group is one of the world’s leading private markets investment management firms with assets under management exceeding CHF 25 billion in the areas Private Equity, Private Debt, Private Real Estate and Private Infrastructure. The company offers international institutional investors a broad range of funds and bespoke portfolios. Headquartered in Zug, the company also operates further offices in San Francisco, New York, London, Guernsey, Luxembourg, Singapore, Beijing, Tokyo and Sydney. Partners Group employs more than 360 members of staff, is listed on the Swiss stock exchange SIX (symbol: PGHN) with market cap of CHF 4 billion. The majority of the company is held by its 36 partners and its workforce. Since 1998, Partners Group has made direct investments in excess of USD 2 billion into more than 100 companies around the world.
About Odewald & Compagnie
With assets under management in excess of EUR 1 billion, Odewald & Compagnie is one of the leading German private equity companies. Founded in 1998 by Dr. Jens Odewald, funds managed by O&Cie invest in SMEs mainly in Germany. The objective is for the network of partners to support the management of portfolio companies to grow business in existing and new areas either organically or by acquisitions. Target companies have a management team which delivers above average results and has a distinct entrepreneurial approach. Odewald & Compagnie portfolio companies come from the manufacturing as well as the service sector and generate sales between EUR 50 million and EUR 500 million
About Kaffee Partner
Kaffee Partner Group has 60,000 customers and almost 500 employees, making it the leading company supplying coffee and more to the SME sector. The company can look back on more than 37 years in developing hot beverage brewing systems, which can freshly prepare all popular specialities at the strike of a button. These systems are modular in their design and are tailored to the needs of small and medium-sized enterprises. Every day Kaffee Partner machines make more than 2 million cups of coffee, cappuccino, latte macchiato and hot chocolate. But the company is not limited to supplying employees in offices and businesses. Target groups like hairdressers, bakeries, filling stations, and other operations dedicated to supplying their customers with coffee and more without the effort involved are just as important.
The same applies to the retail sector, where customer retention is a crucial factor. Last year, readers of the retail magazine Handelsjournal presented Kaffee Partner with the “Top Retail Product” award in the “customer satisfaction” category. In addition to that, Kaffee Partner is a one-stop-shop making sure that all refill products required to play perfect host to customers as well as all items to set conference tables arrive exactly where they are needed. A network of more than 100 employed service engineers sets-up, services and maintains machines. Another USP is that Kaffee Partner systems can also be rented for only a few cents per cup. Thanks to a built-in counter this is as easy as reading an electricity metre. This then eradicates the initial investment, which puts off many business owners. The monthly rental fee can then be settled from the coffee kitty.
Offering this full-service range makes Kaffee Partner Germany’s leading company for the provision of hot beverages to small and medium-sized companies.