Author: Tatjana Anderer

Frank­furt am Main/Berlin — German Equity Part­ners V (“GEP V” or the “Fund”), a fund mana­ged by the inde­pen­dent German private equity firm ECM Equity Capi­tal Manage­ment GmbH (“ECM”), has inves­ted in the Berlin-based social media and influen­cer marke­ting specia­list Inter­mate Group, consis­ting of Inter­mate Media GmbH (“Inter­mate”) and TRUEMATES GmbH (“True­ma­tes”), through a part­ner­ship investment.

The fast-growing social media agency Inter­mate and the “social first” produc­tion company True­ma­tes specia­lize in the concep­tion and imple­men­ta­tion of social media and influen­cer campaigns on all social plat­forms as well as the produc­tion of the corre­spon­ding content. The Group is a leader in Germany, parti­cu­larly in campaigns and the deve­lo­p­ment of brand chan­nels for compa­nies on the fast-growing social media plat­form TikTok.

Toge­ther with ECM, the company foun­ders Ales­san­dro De Pasquale, Jörn Mecher, Philip Papen­dieck, Sonja Wolff and Phil­ipp Wolff want to conti­nue the success story of the Inter­mate Group and expand the enorm­ous poten­tial in the fast-growing area of social media and influen­cer marke­ting as well as in social commerce, which is expec­ted to grow about three times as fast as tradi­tio­nal online commerce by 2025. The foun­ders remain substan­ti­ally invol­ved and will conti­nue to lead and deve­lop the Inter­mate Group as mana­ging part­ners. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose further details of the transaction.

Philip Papen­dieck, co-foun­der, part­ner and CEO of Inter­mateIn order to posi­tion our clients and part­ners as the stron­gest play­ers in their indus­try in the social and influen­cer market, we will conti­nue to invest in our crea­tive and stra­te­gic infra­struc­ture, content studios, recrui­ting and social talent, as well as in our tech­no­logy. In addi­tion, we will expand our own formats Daily Pie and the VERTIES, also under the aspect of social commerce and meta­verse. With ECM, we have found a part­ner who, toge­ther with us, is rapidly expan­ding an agency model of the future, both tech­no­lo­gi­cally and crea­tively. The part­ner­ship now gives us the tail­wind to further main­tain and expand the market posi­tion we have built up within our seven years of existence.”

Florian Kähler, Part­ner and Mana­ging Direc­tor of ECM (photo), added: “The Inter­mate Group has an impres­sive market posi­tion in the rapidly growing market for social media marke­ting in Germany, for which we also see great poten­tial in the coming years. Buil­ding on Inter­ma­te’s proprie­tary tech­no­logy, we want to conti­nue the company’s success story toge­ther and expand into new markets and busi­ness areas. I look forward to part­ne­ring with Inter­mate Group’s ambi­tious and dyna­mic manage­ment team.”

Inter­mate connects successful brands with young generations
on social media platforms

Inter­mate was foun­ded in Berlin in 2015, initi­ally under the name Insta Media. In 2016, the company was rena­med Inter­mate. With a rapidly growing team, Inter­mate is one of the leading agen­cies for social media and influen­cer marke­ting in Germany, Austria and Switz­er­land. The company’s strong focus on crea­tors in parti­cu­lar has enab­led it to estab­lish an outstan­ding posi­tion in the social space. For influen­cer selec­tion, campaign plan­ning, and report­ing, Inter­mate uses a complex, proprie­tary tech­no­lo­gi­cal ecosys­tem. Using its unique tech­no­logy plat­form, Inter­mate has signi­fi­cantly acce­le­ra­ted its proces­ses and work­flows in these areas, achie­ving unique and effec­tive social media and influen­cer campaigns for clients.

In recent years, Inter­mate has imple­men­ted a number of successful campaigns for major clients and inter­na­tio­nal brand compa­nies from all indus­tries, inclu­ding Volks­wa­gen, Beiers­dorf and Deich­mann. The produc­tion of elabo­rate formats takes place in the company’s own studio in Berlin Char­lot­ten­burg with the spin-off produc­tion company True­ma­tes, which focu­ses prima­rily on verti­cal video content. In total, the Group curr­ently employs around 110 people in its two produc­tion studios in Berlin and its four office loca­ti­ons in Berlin, Hamburg, Colo­gne and Vienna. The profi­ta­ble company has grown rapidly in recent years, doubling its work­force since 2018 and tripling its reve­nue. Inter­mate and True­ma­tes and its own formats Daily Pie and VERTIES now operate under the new name Inter­mate Group.

ECM brings entre­pre­neu­rial and stra­te­gic exper­tise, rele­vant network, and deep expe­ri­ence in imple­men­ting growth strategies

The invest­ment company ECM has exten­sive expe­ri­ence in the imple­men­ta­tion of growth and inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion stra­te­gies, which it has alre­ady brought to bear in nume­rous part­ner­ship invest­ments. With ECM’s exper­tise, Inter­mate plans to conti­nue the pace of growth seen in recent years. The part­ners see great poten­tial in parti­cu­lar in the struc­tu­rally growing market for social commerce and in the busi­ness with influen­cer campaigns on the social media plat­form TikTok, which is gaining stron­gly in importance. In the German-spea­king markets, Inter­mate is one of the abso­lute specia­lists for social media and influen­cer marke­ting campaigns on the plat­form, which is parti­cu­larly popu­lar with youn­ger generations.

In the coming years, the Berlin-based company intends to build on its leading market posi­tion in this area toge­ther with ECM and also expand in other Euro­pean count­ries. Ambi­tious growth plans are also being pursued by Inter­mate, with ECM’s support, to expand other chan­nels such as the self-built and opera­ted plat­forms Daily Pie, the number one enter­tain­ment chan­nel on TikTok, and VERTIES, a content crea­tor award on TikTok presen­ted by the agency. Against this back­drop, the part­ners intend to adapt Inter­mate Group’s orga­niza­tio­nal struc­tures to its highly scaled busi­ness and streng­then opera­tio­nal excel­lence. Beyond orga­nic growth, Inter­mate Group plans to evaluate suita­ble add-on acqui­si­ti­ons with ECM’s support.

Great growth poten­tial in social commerce
and with influen­cer campaigns on TikTok.

The growth plans are supported by the expec­ted dyna­mic market growth in the coming years. Digi­tal consul­tancy OMMAX predicts that the German market for influen­cer marke­ting alone will grow from €1.1 billion in 2020 to €2.3 billion in 2024. On average, OMMAX expects the market to grow by around 20 percent annu­ally. The reason for the expec­ted leap in market growth is, in parti­cu­lar, incre­asing social media consump­tion. In 2021, about 90 percent of all smart­phone users were active on social media, each of whom had nearly nine social media accounts on average. The wide­spread use of social media makes it incre­asingly attrac­tive for compa­nies to promote their brands on the various plat­forms with the help of influen­cer campaigns. They enable them to reach youn­ger gene­ra­ti­ons Y and Z in particular.

GEP V was advi­sed on this tran­sac­tion by Milbank (legal and struc­tu­ring), OMMAX (commer­cial), Ebner Stolz (finance & tax), Houli­han Lokey (debt advi­sory) and Willis Towers Watson (insu­rance). Florian Kähler, Tim Krume and Bene­dikt Müller are respon­si­ble for the tran­sac­tion at ECM. Inter­mate was advi­sed on the tran­sac­tion by Lincoln Inter­na­tio­nal (M&A) as well as Hyac­inth and GLNS (legal & struc­tu­ring), KPMG (finance) and the tax firm Brunow (tax).

About ECM Equity Capi­tal Manage­ment GmbH (“ECM”)

ECM is a trus­ted part­ner for medium-sized compa­nies and entre­pre­neurs in German-spea­king Europe. Since 1995, ECM has laun­ched the GEP I‑V equity funds with a total volume of more than €1 billion and is curr­ently inves­t­ing from the fifth fund GEP V (€325 million). The funds invest prima­rily in leading medium-sized compa­nies with attrac­tive growth poten­tial in the course of succes­sion plan­ning, part­ner­ship invest­ments and corpo­rate spin-offs. www.ecm-pe.de

About Inter­mate Group (“Inter­mate” and “True­ma­tes”)

With over 110 employees and offices in Berlin, Hamburg, Colo­gne and Vienna, the Inter­mate Group is one of the largest social agen­cies in DACH. With its own produc­tion company True­ma­tes, its own content studios, a holi­stic in-house deve­lo­ped influen­cer tech­no­logy and the influen­cer and social agency Inter­mate, the group has been able to estab­lish a leading posi­tion in the social market with its strong crea­tor-centric focus.

Through a close connec­tion directly to the plat­forms and by means of its own tech­ni­cal infra­struc­ture, the Inter­mate Group offers the complete value chain on social media from a single source: influen­cer campaigns, crea­tor-centric social media manage­ment, content produc­tion and perfor­mance ads. Through its own inven­tory and formats, such as the TikTok show Daily Pie with nearly 1,000,000 follo­wers or the VERTIES, the “Oscars” of TikTok crea­tors, Inter­mate Group can demons­tra­bly bring first-hand social exper­tise to clients’ stra­te­gies and concepts. These now include compa­nies and insti­tu­ti­ons such as o2 Tele­fó­nica, Beiers­dorf, Volks­wa­gen, the German Fede­ral Minis­try of Health, ALDI Nord and HUAWEI. www.intermate-group.de

Munich/Amsterdam — Amadys, a leading provi­der of passive network compo­nent solu­ti­ons for utility infra­struc­ture in the Bene­lux region and port­fo­lio company of Equis­tone Part­ners Europe, is acqui­ring the two sales specia­lists SKG Netz­werk­tech­nik GmbH and Muth Kommu­ni­ka­ti­ons­tech­nik GmbH. Follo­wing the market entry in Germany through the acqui­si­tion of tso GmbH in early 2021, the two acqui­si­ti­ons mark the next important mile­stone in Amadys’ buy & build stra­tegy. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose details of the transaction.

Amadys, head­quar­te­red in Belgium, offers a wide range of solu­ti­ons in the field of passive network compon­ents for utility networks — with a focus on tele­com­mu­ni­ca­ti­ons, water, gas and elec­tri­city — as well as for indus­trial appli­ca­ti­ons. Funds advi­sed by Equis­tone, toge­ther with the manage­ment team, acqui­red the Belgian end-to-end systems inte­gra­tor in Decem­ber 2019; since then, Amadys has been conti­nuously expan­ding and deve­lo­ping its market posi­tion with a targe­ted buy-&-build stra­tegy. The acqui­si­ti­ons of SKG and Muth repre­sent another important mile­stone for Amadys, follo­wing the market entry in Germany in 2021 — both in the expan­sion of its DACH presence and in its stra­tegy to become a leading pan-Euro­pean full-service provi­der for connec­ti­vity solutions.

SKG Netz­werk­tech­nik was foun­ded in 1978 as part of the SKB-GROUP and is one of the leading Austrian suppli­ers of active and passive products for tele­com­mu­ni­ca­ti­ons and data­com networks. Head­quar­te­red in Schwe­chat, Austria, the company, toge­ther with its Slova­kian subsi­diary FCS Fiber Compon­ents Slova­kia, serves a broad custo­mer base with a focus on the digi­tal infra­struc­ture, energy, and tech­no­logy and cons­truc­tion sectors. Thanks to its many years of exper­tise in the fiber optics sector, SKG and its solu­ti­ons have estab­lished them­sel­ves as a relia­ble part­ner for their customers.

Muth Kommu­ni­ka­ti­ons­tech­nik GmbH, based in Kabel­s­ke­tal near Leip­zig, is one of Germany’s leading specia­list whole­sa­lers for elec­tri­cal and commu­ni­ca­ti­ons tech­no­logy. The company was foun­ded in 1991 and focu­ses on the distri­bu­tion of antenna tech­no­logy for satel­lite and broad­band cable systems as well as products for data and network tech­no­logy — espe­ci­ally from the copper and fiber optic sector. The distri­bu­tion specia­list offers its custo­mers a broad product port­fo­lio from well-known manu­fac­tu­r­ers and in some cases acts as an exclu­sive logi­stics part­ner. With more than 1900 m² of warehouse space, Muth guaran­tees its custo­mers a high deli­very capa­city as well as fast deli­very times and, toge­ther with its exten­sive product know-how, has estab­lished itself as a well-known and relia­ble part­ner for its customers.

With the acqui­si­tion of the two compa­nies, which are excel­lently posi­tio­ned in their count­ries, Amadys reali­zes another mile­stone on its way to beco­ming a pan-Euro­pean full-service provi­der for connec­ti­vity solu­ti­ons: “The acqui­si­ti­ons of SKG and Muth mark an important step in the joint buy & build stra­tegy. Amadys has signi­fi­cantly expan­ded its geogra­phic foot­print over the past two years with loca­ti­ons in the Bene­lux, Germany, Denmark, Austria and Slova­kia — ideal condi­ti­ons to further drive the inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion of the group with the support of strong market dyna­mics”, comm­ents Tanja Berg, Invest­ment Direc­tor in Equis­to­ne’s Munich office (photo), the transaction.

“I am very plea­sed that SKG will become part of the Amadys Group,” adds Alex­an­der Trem­mel, mana­ging part­ner at SKB Indus­trie­hol­ding GmbH. “SKG serves an attrac­tive market that is poised to grow signi­fi­cantly due to increased data traf­fic and explo­ding demand for high-speed band­width. Toge­ther with Amadys, SKG will be able to further expand its market position.”

About Equis­tone Part­ners Europe

Equis­tone Part­ners Europe is one of the most active Euro­pean equity inves­tors with a team of more than 40 invest­ment specia­lists in seven offices in Germany, Switz­er­land, the Nether­lands, France and the UK. Equis­tone prima­rily invests in estab­lished medium-sized compa­nies with a good market posi­tion, above-average growth poten­tial and an enter­prise value of between EUR 50 and 500 million. Since incep­tion, equity has been inves­ted in more than 170 tran­sac­tions. The port­fo­lio curr­ently compri­ses over 50 compa­nies across Europe, inclu­ding around 20 active holdings in Germany, Switz­er­land, the Nether­lands and Belgium. Equis­tone is curr­ently inves­t­ing from its sixth fund, which closed in March 2018 with €2.8 billion. www.equistone.de

About Amadys
For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.amadys.be.

About SKG
For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.skg.at

About Muth GmbH
For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.muth.kt.de

Wend­lin­gen — Crédit Mutuel Equity, the inter­na­tio­nal direct invest­ment company of Crédit Mutuel Alli­ance Fédé­rale, is inves­t­ing addi­tio­nal capi­tal in CF Group, incre­asing its mino­rity stake in the company. The CF Group is loca­ted in Wend­lin­gen am Neckar and is one of the two largest compa­nies in Europe for the produc­tion and equip­ment of swim­ming pools. Crédit Mutuel Equity has held a stake in the company since the end of 2019. Finan­cial details of the tran­sac­tion were not disclosed.

Sébas­tien Neiss (photo), Mana­ging Direc­tor of Crédit Mutuel Equity in Germany, said: “We only invest equity from the Crédit Mutuel Alli­ance Fédé­rale balance sheet, so we have a free hand in how we use the proceeds from dispo­sals of port­fo­lio compa­nies. Each year, we reinvest around one-third of these proceeds in the exis­ting port­fo­lio of more than 330 compa­nies around the world in which we have a stake. We use the remai­ning two-thirds for new invest­ments. The advan­tage of our ‘pati­ent capi­tal’ is its great flexi­bi­lity: We are able to accom­pany compa­nies over time hori­zons that are tail­o­red to their respec­tive projects and thus enable us to create value for all stake­hol­ders — manage­ment, share­hol­ders and employees. Ther­e­fore, it is wort­hwhile for us to increase our invest­ments both in chal­len­ging phases and when growth pros­pects are parti­cu­larly posi­tive, e.g. through exter­nal growth projects. CF Group has deve­lo­ped extra­or­di­na­rily successfully since our invest­ment and the further pros­pects are also very good. With addi­tio­nal capi­tal, we want to do our part to leverage the company’s long-term deve­lo­p­ment potential.”

CF Group was formed from the 2019 merger of Germany’s Chemo­form AG and Fran­ce’s FIJA Group. The tran­sac­tion took place with the support of Crédit Mutuel Equity, which also acqui­red a stake in the newly crea­ted company. Since then, CF Group has acqui­red three more compa­nies, inclu­ding the acqui­si­tion of a majo­rity stake in Dr. Nüsken Chemie GmbH, in which it alre­ady held a mino­rity stake.

Cedrik Mayer-Klenk, CEO of Chemo­form AG, added: “For many years now, we have been pursuing a growth stra­tegy in which we open up new markets or addi­tio­nal distri­bu­tion chan­nels by acqui­ring comple­men­tary compa­nies or long-stan­ding coope­ra­tion part­ners. Having the finan­cial strength and M&A exper­tise of an active mino­rity share­hol­der expe­ri­en­ced in such proces­ses in the back­ground helps us a lot. We have become faster in decis­ion-making and more profes­sio­nal in the execu­tion of acqui­si­ti­ons and can main­tain a very solid equity ratio even with ambi­tious growth.”

Advi­sor to the tran­sac­tion: Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek
Dr. Rainer Hersch­lein, Bene­dikt Raisch

About CF Group

CF Group is a leading Euro­pean company for swim­ming pool tech­no­logy, main­ten­ance and water treat­ment. The company was formed by the merger of Chemo­form AG, foun­ded in Wend­lin­gen (Germany) in 1962, and the FIJA Group, foun­ded in Brécé (France) in 1975. With its multi-brand port­fo­lio, CF Group covers the entire spec­trum from cons­truc­tion, equip­ment and main­ten­ance to clean­li­ness, hygiene and care of private and public pools. The group employs more than 1,000 people, opera­tes in more than 40 count­ries world­wide and gene­ra­tes sales of more than 300 million euros annu­ally. www.chemoform.com

About Crédit Mutuel Equity

Crédit Mutuel Equity bund­les the inter­na­tio­nal direct invest­ment busi­ness of the French banking group Crédit Mutuel Alli­ance Fédé­rale. The subsi­diary offers medium-sized compa­nies solu­ti­ons in all areas of equity financing.

At Crédit Mutuel Equity, the focus is on the rela­ti­onship and close coope­ra­tion between the expe­ri­en­ced invest­ment team and the execu­ti­ves in the port­fo­lio compa­nies. With the long-term perspec­tive of a fund-inde­pen­dent “ever­green” approach, the company has alre­ady been successful for 40 years.

Crédit Mutuel Equity curr­ently has around 3.5 billion euros of equity inves­ted, and its port­fo­lio consists of more than 330 compa­nies. Since 2016, the company has expan­ded its acti­vi­ties to Canada (Mont­real and Toronto), USA (New York and Boston), Germany (Frank­furt) and Switz­er­land (Geneva and Zurich). www.creditmutuel-equity.eu

About Crédit Mutuel Alli­ance Fédérale

Crédit Mutuel Alli­ance Fédé­rale is one of Fran­ce’s leading banks, with more than 75,000 employees1 serving over 29 million customers1. With a network of around 4,500 branches1, Crédit Mutuel Alli­ance Fédé­rale offers a compre­hen­sive range of services for private custo­mers, the self-employed and compa­nies of all sizes. With equity of EUR 51.8 billion2 and a CET1 ratio of 18.3%2 , the Group is one of the best-capi­ta­li­zed banks in Europe.

The Crédit Mutuel Alli­ance Fédé­rale is compo­sed of the Crédit Mutuel sub-asso­cia­ti­ons Centre Est Europe (Stras­bourg), Sud-Est (Lyon), Ile-de-France (Paris), Savoie-Mont Blanc (Annecy), Midi-Atlan­tique (Toulouse), Loire-Atlan­tique and Centre Ouest (Nantes), Centre (Orlé­ans), Normandy (Caen), Dauphiné-Viva­rais (Valence), Médi­ter­ra­néen (Marseille), Anjou (Angers), Massif Central (Cler­mont-Ferrand), Antil­les-Guyane (Fort-de-France) and Nord Europe (Lille).

Crédit Mutuel Alli­ance Fédé­rale also includes Caisse Fédé­rale de Crédit Mutuel, Banque Fédé­ra­tive du Crédit Mutuel (BFCM) and all its subsi­dia­ries, inclu­ding CIC, Euro-Infor­ma­tion, Assu­ran­ces du Crédit Mutuel (ACM), Targ­obank, Cofi­dis, Banque Euro­pé­enne du Crédit Mutuel (BECM), Banque de Luxem­bourg, Banque Trans­at­lan­tique and Homiris.