DBAG Fund VIII acquires majority stake in Hipp Technology Group

Frank­furt am Main — Deut­sche Betei­li­gungs AG (DBAG) is inves­t­ing in Hipp Tech­no­logy Group (“Hipp”), a leading deve­lo­p­ment and manu­fac­tu­ring part­ner for medi­cal tech­no­logy with a focus on implan­to­logy, surgi­cal instru­ments and surgi­cal instru­ment systems in the ortho­pae­dic and dental indus­try. DBAG Fund VIII, a fund advi­sed by DBAG, will acquire the majo­rity of the shares repre­sen­ted by the Swiss invest­ment company Endura AG from the previous owners as part of a manage­ment buy-out. 

Simi­lar to the invest­ment in MAIT, the tran­sac­tion was agreed via DBAG’s own network ahead of a poten­ti­ally broad-based struc­tu­red sales process. Foun­der and CEO Markus Hipp will retain a signi­fi­cant stake in the company and will conti­nue to actively shape the next growth phase. The closing of the tran­sac­tion is subject to regu­la­tory appr­ovals. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the purchase price.

Specia­list for implan­to­logy and high-precis­­ion components

The Hipp Tech­no­logy Group is a specia­li­zed deve­lo­p­ment and manu­fac­tu­ring part­ner for the ortho­pae­dic and dental indus­try. The company deve­lops and manu­fac­tures implants, bone proces­sing tools, surgi­cal instru­ments and complete system compon­ents for robot-assis­­ted surgi­cal systems for leading medi­cal tech­no­logy companies.
Hipp has exten­sive exper­tise in implan­to­logy and supports its custo­mers along the entire value chain — from deve­lo­p­ment and proto­type produc­tion to series produc­tion, sterile pack­a­ging and dock-to-stock solutions. 

The company also has exten­sive exper­tise in the high-precis­­ion machi­ning of deman­ding mate­ri­als such as tita­nium and special alloys. These skills are also used in other tech­no­lo­gi­cally deman­ding indus­tries. For exam­ple, the Group manu­fac­tures precis­ion and system compon­ents for appli­ca­ti­ons in the aero­space indus­try, for litho­gra­phy and laser proces­sing systems and for sensor applications. 

The Group employs around 350 people at five loca­ti­ons and has long-stan­­ding rela­ti­onships with leading OEM custo­mers worldwide.

Growth through struc­tu­ral market trends

The invest­ment follows DBAG’s stra­tegy of making targe­ted invest­ments in compa­nies opera­ting in struc­tu­rally attrac­tive markets. The market for ortho­pae­dic implants bene­fits from long-term growth drivers such as demo­gra­phic change, incre­asing outsour­cing by OEMs and rising regu­la­tory requi­re­ments. Hipp is excel­lently posi­tio­ned in this envi­ron­ment. The company has modern, highly auto­ma­ted produc­tion capa­ci­ties, a high level of verti­cal inte­gra­tion and exten­sive regu­la­tory exper­tise — inclu­ding with regard to the requi­re­ments of the U.S. Food and Drug Admi­nis­tra­tion (FDA) and the Euro­pean Medi­cal Device Regu­la­tion (MDR).

“Hipp is a true hidden cham­pion in a resi­li­ent market: the company supplies essen­tial products for opera­ti­ons that are perfor­med thou­sands of times a day around the world,” says Tom Alzin, Spokes­man of the Manage­ment Board of Deut­sche Betei­li­gungs AG. He adds: “Markus Hipp is an excep­tio­nal entre­pre­neur. Toge­ther we see considera­ble poten­tial to further acce­le­rate the inter­na­tio­nal expan­sion — espe­ci­ally in the US as the worl­d’s largest medi­cal tech­no­logy market — and to further streng­then Hipp as a prefer­red part­ner of global OEMs.” 

Conti­nuity and long-term growth strategy
Since its foun­da­tion in 1993, Hipp has deve­lo­ped from a specia­li­zed contract manu­fac­tu­rer into an inter­na­tio­nally active contract manu­fac­tu­ring orga­niza­tion and an estab­lished supplier of implants, surgi­cal instru­ments and sterile surgi­cal instru­ment systems.

With DBAG Fund VIII as the new majo­rity share­hol­der, this growth course is to be consis­t­ently contin­ued. In addi­tion to expan­ding exis­ting custo­mer rela­ti­onships, the focus is on inter­na­tio­nal expan­sion in parti­cu­lar. The company is also exami­ning stra­te­gic acqui­si­ti­ons in order to further expand its tech­no­lo­gies, exper­tise and market presence. 

Markus Hipp, foun­der and CEO of the Hipp Tech­no­logy Group, says: “For our custo­mers in the medi­cal tech­no­logy sector, quality, precis­ion and relia­bi­lity are the basis for pati­ent safety.” He adds: “In DBAG, we have found a part­ner who under­stands the German SME sector very well and at the same time shares our company’s entre­pre­neu­rial values. I parti­cu­larly appre­ciate the prono­un­ced under­stan­ding of values and the short decis­­ion-making proces­ses. For our employees and our company, the invest­ment of DBAG Fund VIII is a stable and future-orien­­ted solu­tion to further deve­lop the great poten­tial of our group and to drive both strong orga­nic growth and targe­ted stra­te­gic acquisitions.” 

Deut­sche Betei­li­gungs AG (DBAG), which has been listed on the stock exch­ange since 1985, is one of the most renow­ned private equity compa­nies in Germany. As an inves­tor and fund advi­sor, DBAG’s invest­ment focus has tradi­tio­nally been on medium-sized compa­nies with a focus on well-posi­­tio­­ned compa­nies with deve­lo­p­ment poten­tial, prima­rily in the DACH region. The sector focus is on produ­cers of indus­trial goods, indus­trial service provi­ders and Indus­try­Tech compa­nies — i.e. compa­nies whose products enable auto­ma­tion, robo­tics and digi­ta­liza­tion — as well as compa­nies from the busi­ness services, IT services, soft­ware, health­care, envi­ron­ment, energy and infra­struc­ture sectors. DBAG has also been active in Italy since 2020 and has had its own office in Milan since 2021. The assets mana­ged or advi­sed by the DBAG Group amount to around 2.7 billion euros. ELF Capi­tal comple­ments DBAG’s range of flexi­ble finan­cing solu­ti­ons for SMEs with private debt capi­tal. — www.dbag.de