Hamburg — Proven­tis Part­ners advi­ses Customs Support Group on the acqui­si­tion of iZD Group. Customs Support streng­thens its presence in Germany with the merger with the iZD Group.

Customs Support, the leading provi­der of customs services in Europe, is plea­sed to announce the merger with iZD Group, a freight forwar­ding inde­pen­dent customs service provi­der based in Southern Germany. The connec­tion with the iZD Group is part of Customs Support’s stra­tegy to streng­then its presence and growth in Germany.

The Customs Support Group is commit­ted to provi­ding the best possi­ble service to its custo­mers and the merger with the iZD Group is evidence of this contin­ued commit­ment. With the inte­gra­tion of the iZD Group, the Customs Support Group is now even better posi­tio­ned to serve its custo­mers in Germany and the surroun­ding countries.

”We have also had a branch in Switz­er­land for many years and are stri­ving for further inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion toge­ther with Customs Support,” says Gerd Stro­bel, Mana­ging Director.

”Quali­ta­tive and quan­ti­ta­tive growth is what we do best, which is why we want to push this even more stron­gly toge­ther with the Customs Support Group from now on,” says Clau­dia Stro­bel, Mana­ging Direc­tor of the Customs Support Group.

“We are deligh­ted to announce the merger with the iZD Group in Germany, which repres­ents a signi­fi­cant mile­stone in our ongo­ing commit­ment to expan­ding our Euro­pean busi­ness. With the iZD Group, our custo­mers are supported with an even higher level of exper­tise and resour­ces. We look forward to the jour­ney ahead of us as we conti­nue to provide our custo­mers with the highest quality services and faci­li­tate smooth inter­na­tio­nal trade,” explains Frank Weer­mei­jer, CEO Customs Support.

The role of Proven­tis Partners

Proven­tis­Part­ners has been the exclu­sive M&A advi­sor to Customs Support for its expan­sion in the DACH region for many years. 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 to commer­cial nego­tia­ti­ons and successful comple­tion. The Proven­tis Part­ners tran­sac­tion team consis­ted of Jost Hart­mann (Part­ner, Hamburg), Dr. Leon­hard Aust­mann (Asso­ciate, Hamburg) and Leon Holt­mann (Asso­ciate, Hamburg).

About iZD Group

The iZD Group, consis­ting of iZD GmbH and iZS GmbH, was foun­ded in 2000 and is one of the indus­try leaders among freight forwar­­ding-inde­­pen­­dent customs service provi­ders in Germany with addi­tio­nal exper­tise for customs decla­ra­ti­ons in Switz­er­land. It also offers specia­li­zed customs soft­ware solu­ti­ons, trai­ning and consul­ting services in the customs sector. iZD GmbH has set itself the task of opti­mi­zing the digi­tal land­scape and simpli­fy­ing the customs clearance process for its custo­mers. The common goal of digi­ta­liza­tion and the compa­nies’ shared values and culture pave the way for grea­ter effi­ci­ency, inno­va­tion and impro­ved services. This is perfectly comple­men­ted by the new part­ner­ship with the Customs Support Group. In addi­tion to its customs clearance services, the iZD Group offers a variety of in-house and online trai­ning cour­ses via iZS GmbH, cove­ring a wide range of topics. The custo­mi­zed trai­ning cour­ses are highly valued by customers.

About Customs Support Group

Head­quar­te­red in the Nether­lands, Customs Support Group is Europe’s leading inde­pen­dent, digi­tal and neutral provi­der of customs services, employ­ing nearly 2,000 dedi­ca­ted customs experts who serve over 30,000 clients annu­ally. Customs Support Group is a port­fo­lio company of Castik Capi­tal. 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, the Customs Support Group offers customs consul­ting and gas measu­re­ment services. The company curr­ently opera­tes in the Nether­lands, Belgium, Germany, Poland, France, the United King­dom, Ireland, Italy, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Switz­er­land and Spain. In Europe, Customs Support Group serves nume­rous cross-border custo­mers in various sectors such as the auto­mo­tive indus­try, the food and beverage indus­try, the manu­fac­tu­ring indus­try and many others. Customs Support Group is the number one digi­tal customs broker and is inves­t­ing heavily in the digi­ta­liza­tion of customs processes.

About Castik Capital

Castik Capi­tal S.à r.l. (“Castik Capi­tal”) mana­ges private equity invest­ments. 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. The advi­sor to Castik Capi­tal S.à r.l. is Castik Capi­tal Part­ners GmbH, based in Munich.

About Proven­tis Partners

Proven­tis Part­ners is a part­­ner-led M&A advi­sory firm whose clients are predo­mi­nantly medium-sized family busi­nesses, corpo­rate groups and private equity funds. With 30 M&A advi­sors, Proven­tis Part­ners is one of the leading inde­pen­dent M&A consul­tancies in the German-spea­king region and can look back on more than 20 years of M&A expe­ri­ence and over 430 comple­ted tran­sac­tions. The M&A consul­tants with offices in Frank­furt, Hamburg and Zurich are active in the Indus­tri­als, Chemi­cals & Mate­ri­als, Busi­ness Services, Tech­no­logy & Media, Consu­mer & Retail and Health­care sectors. The exclu­sive member­ship in the Mergers Alli­ance — an inter­na­tio­nal part­ner­ship of leading M&A specia­lists — enables Proven­tis Part­ners to support clients in 30 count­ries in the most important markets world­wide. The members of the Mergers Alli­ance, with more than 250 M&A profes­sio­nals, offer Proven­tis Part­ners and its clients unique access to local markets in Europe, North America, Latin America, Asia and Africa. www.proventis.com.