Hamburg/ Munich — Customs Support Group B.V. (“Customs Support”), a port­fo­lio company of Castik Capi­tal, acqui­res Porath Customs Agents GmbH (“Porath”), one of the brand-leading and best-known customs agen­cies in Germany with further acti­vi­ties in Poland and the Netherlands.

The tran­sac­tion

Customs Support, the leading and digi­tal customs broker in Europe, announ­ces the acqui­si­tion of Porath Customs Agents. This acqui­si­tion streng­thens Customs Support’s presence in Germany and Poland to faci­li­tate customs clearance for global trade within and outside Europe.

“Offe­ring Europe-wide, digi­tal customs solu­ti­ons from a single source for our custo­mers is an idea that has linked Porath and Customs Support for a long time. That Porath as a custo­­mer-centric customs specia­list and Customs Support as a leading digi­tal customs service provi­der are now going down a common path makes me very happy.” Thors­ten Porath, Mana­ging Direc­tor of Porath Customs Agents.

“With their focus on digi­ta­liza­tion and their know­ledge of the customs profes­sion, Porath’s team is a perfect fit for Customs Support’s goals: making customs simple for global trade.” Frank Weer­mei­jer, CEO of Customs Support Group.

The role of Proven­tis Partners

Proven­tis Part­ners has been accom­pany­ing Customs Support as exclu­sive M&A advi­sor in its expan­sion in the DACH region for years. The acqui­si­tion of Porath is alre­ady the seventh acqui­si­tion that has been successfully imple­men­ted jointly, and work is under­way on further acqui­si­tion oppor­tu­ni­ties. In addi­tion to iden­ti­fy­ing the customs agency and cont­ac­ting the share­hol­ders, Proven­tis Part­ners carried out the stra­te­gic analy­sis of the target company and accom­pa­nied the further tran­sac­tion process from due dili­gence, through commer­cial nego­tia­ti­ons, to successful closing. The Proven­tis Part­ners tran­sac­tion team consis­ted of Timo Stahl­buhk and Dr. Leon­hard Austmann.

About Porath Customs Agents

Porath Customs Agents is a family owned and opera­ted company that has been in the market for over 30 years. Start­ing out as a freight forwar­ding company, the focus has shifted to its core compe­tence, customs clearance. With a dedi­ca­ted team stra­te­gi­cally loca­ted in Germany and Poland, the company is known for its excel­lence and meeting high custo­mer expec­ta­ti­ons. Its expe­ri­ence and focus on digi­tiza­tion offer custo­mers a tail­o­red solu­tion for every customs matter. The wide range of services offe­red, such as import and export clearance, tran­sit proce­du­res and customs consul­ting, is tail­o­red to speci­fic needs. Porath’s team provi­des fast and accu­rate customs advice, profes­sio­nal hand­ling and compre­hen­sive customs manage­ment, and excel­lent service to custo­mers. Porath is AEO-certi­­fied and a member of VHSp and Hafen Hamburg. www.porath.com

About Customs Support Group

Head­quar­te­red in the Nether­lands, Customs Support Group is Europe’s leading inde­pen­dent, digi­tal and neutral provi­der of customs services, employ­ing over 1,500 dedi­ca­ted customs profes­sio­nals serving over 15,000 custo­mers annu­ally. Through our compre­hen­sive suite of services and digi­tal capa­bi­li­ties, we consis­t­ently help clients maxi­mize compli­ance, achieve opera­tio­nal effi­ci­en­cies, opti­mize import duties, customs plan­ning, and conti­nuously evolve in an ever-chan­­ging customs landscape.

In addi­tion to tradi­tio­nal brokerage and digi­tal services, Customs Support Group provi­des customs consul­ting and gas measu­re­ment services. The company curr­ently opera­tes in the Nether­lands, Belgium, Germany, France, the United King­dom, Poland, Italy, Ireland, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Switz­er­land, Spain and Luxembourg.

In Europe, Customs Support Group serves many cross-border custo­mers from various indus­tries such as auto­mo­tive, food and beverage and many others. Customs Support is number one in digi­tal customs and is inves­t­ing signi­fi­cantly in the digi­tiza­tion of the customs process. www.customssupport.com

About Castik Capital

Castik Capi­tal S.à r.l. (“Castik Capi­tal”) mana­ges invest­ments in private equity. Castik Capi­tal is a Euro­pean private equity firm that acqui­res signi­fi­cant stakes in Euro­pean private and listed compa­nies where long-term value can be crea­ted through active part­ner­ships with manage­ment teams.

Foun­ded in 2014, Castik Capi­tal is based in Luxem­bourg and focu­ses on iden­ti­fy­ing and deve­lo­ping invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties across Europe. Invest­ments are made by the Luxe­m­­bourg-based fund EPIC II SLP. Castik Capi­tal S.à r.l.’s advi­sor is Castik Capi­tal Part­ners GmbH, based in Munich. www.castik.com

About Proven­tis Partners

Proven­tis Part­ners is a part­­ner-led M&A advi­sory firm whose clients include a majo­rity of mid-sized family busi­nesses, corpo­rate subsi­dia­ries and private equity funds. With more than 30 M&A advi­sors, Proven­tis Part­ners is one of the largest inde­pen­dent M&A consul­tancies in the German-spea­king region and looks back on more than 20 years of M&A expe­ri­ence and well over 300 comple­ted tran­sac­tions. The M&A consul­tants with offices in Düssel­dorf, Hamburg, Munich and Zurich are active in the sectors Indus­tri­als & Chemi­cals, Busi­ness Services, Consu­mer & Retail, TMT, Health­Care and Energy & Sustaina­bi­lity. Exclu­sive member­ship in Mergers Alli­ance — an inter­na­tio­nal part­ner­ship of leading M&A specia­lists — enables Proven­tis Part­ners to assist clients in 30 count­ries in key markets world­wide. www.proventis.com