The weather situa­tion for private equity in Germany is indeed better than it has been for a long time. For exam­ple, the inves­tor group of EIS Aircraft mana­ged a bravura exit with an impres­sive multi­ple in just over 3 years. Private equity firms have a lot of ‘dry powder’. In addi­tion, the available liqui­dity in the markets faci­li­ta­tes effi­ci­ent and successful fund­rai­sing. Over­all, howe­ver, there are still too few take­over candi­da­tes (prima­ries), espe­ci­ally from the midmar­ket. Combi­ned with the ample avai­la­bi­lity of debt capi­tal, this status quo natu­rally conti­nues to drive up prices, espe­ci­ally for mid-cap secon­da­ries. This makes it an ideal time for exits of opera­tio­nally strong compa­nies with an intact growth story.

The sellers had opted for a quiet process with pre-selec­ted bidders. As expec­ted, inte­rest was extre­mely high among a large number of stra­te­gists and finan­cial investors.

It was a very successful deal for ever­yone invol­ved. The stra­tegy of brin­ging about funda­men­tal, opera­tio­nal chan­ges with a great deal of effort has paid off in full. EIS Aircraft is expec­ted to conti­nue to grow dispro­por­tio­na­tely. Leverage contri­bu­ted only margi­nally to the double-digit money multi­ple. The sellers have a strong opera­tio­nal back­ground with deep expe­ri­ence in stra­tegy consul­ting and private equity. It is likely that we will see this successful stra­tegy in their next deals as well.