Exit: DPE sells Engelmann Sensor to Rivean Capital

Munich — Deut­sche Private Equity (DPE) announ­ces the successful sale of its port­fo­lio company Engel­mann Sensor (“Engel­mann”) to Rivean Capi­tal. The exit from DPE Fund IV marks the successful comple­tion of a strong growth phase for the company and is the second sale from the fund laun­ched in 2021. 

Since DPE joined the company five years ago, Engel­mann has deve­lo­ped from a German heat meter specia­list into an inter­na­tio­nal player for sub-meter­­ing systems. Since 2021, Engel­mann has signi­fi­cantly expan­ded its inter­na­tio­nal custo­mer base, intro­du­ced new products to the market and more than doubled its EBITDA. 

Sales and tech­­no­­logy-driven growth

Under the leader­ship of the manage­ment team led by CEO Michael Keuthen, CFO Diet­rich Fabri­cius and CSO Bene­dikt Heid, exten­sive growth and profi­ta­bi­lity initia­ti­ves were imple­men­ted. The company succee­ded in gaining signi­fi­cant market share thanks to its leading product port­fo­lio and excel­lent custo­mer service. 

Engel­mann also laun­ched inno­va­tive products in the areas of water, elec­tro­nic heat cost allo­ca­tors and gate­ways. At the same time, inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion was successfully driven forward in Europe as well as in selec­ted markets such as Canada and the United Arab Emirates. 

The company also set stan­dards in the area of sustaina­bi­lity with the estab­lish­ment of a recy­cling program for elec­tro­nic compon­ents. In addi­tion, produc­tion effi­ci­ency was increased, proces­ses were auto­ma­ted and successful value engi­nee­ring was imple­men­ted in product development. 

“DPE proved to be an excel­lent compa­n­ion. The trus­ting coope­ra­tion was exactly the right foun­da­tion for our sustainable growth and further inde­pen­dence,” says Michael Keuthen, CEO of Engelmann.

“With its diffe­ren­tia­ted product offe­ring and considera­ble growth poten­tial, Engel­mann was a perfect fit for our invest­ment focus. It was a plea­sure to accom­pany the manage­ment on its chal­len­ging growth path,” adds Fabian Rücker, Part­ner and Mana­ging Direc­tor at Deut­sche Private Equity.

Engel­mann is now embar­king on its next growth round with Rivean Capi­tal — the manage­ment remains invol­ved. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the purchase price of the tran­sac­tion. It is subject to the usual condi­ti­ons, inclu­ding appr­oval by the compe­ti­tion authorities. 

Consul­tant DPE:

Houli­han Lokey (M&A), Milbank (Legal), Roland Berger (Commer­cial), Deloitte (Finan­cial) and FGS (Tax).

About Engel­mann

Foun­ded in 1976 in Wies­­loch-Baier­­­tal, Engel­mann offers a fully inte­gra­ted product and service port­fo­lio of heat, cooling and water meters, elec­tro­nic heat cost allo­ca­tors as well as gate­ways, soft­ware and data services. With one of the most compre­hen­sive product ranges on the market, Engel­mann is one of the few provi­ders to offer buil­ding meter­ing service provi­ders a complete end-to-end ecosys­tem. Engel­mann supplies seve­ral million devices to custo­mers world­wide every year. The company supports its custo­mers in effi­ci­ently imple­men­ting the legal requi­re­ments of the EU Energy Effi­ci­ency Direc­tive and enab­ling precise, consump­­tion-based billing. 

About Deut­sche Private Equity

Deut­sche Private Equity (DPE) is an inde­pen­dent private equity firm that supports medium-sized compa­nies on their growth path as a part­ner­ship inves­tor. Over the past 18 years, DPE has deve­lo­ped into one of the largest growth inves­tors in the DACH region and curr­ently mana­ges total assets of over €3 billion. The core of DPE’s invest­ment stra­tegy lies in the areas of indus­trial tech­no­logy, busi­ness services, IT and soft­ware, health­care, energy and envi­ron­men­tal tech­no­logy. Within these sectors, DPE focu­ses on estab­lished compa­nies that hold a strong market posi­tion with a leading product or service offe­ring and offer signi­fi­cant growth poten­tial for the future. DPE is curr­ently inves­t­ing €1 billion from its DPE Fund IV, which focu­ses on medium-sized compa­nies in Germany, Austria and Switz­er­land. — www.dpe.de

About Rivean

Rivean Capi­tal iden­ti­fies compa­nies with poten­tial for acce­le­ra­ted deve­lo­p­ment and offers stra­te­gic inter­na­tio­nal mergers and acqui­si­ti­ons, orga­nic growth initia­ti­ves and struc­tu­ral impro­ve­ments to streng­then successful plat­forms. We offer exten­sive expe­ri­ence across all major indus­try sectors. Assets under manage­ment total around € 5 billion. — https://riveancapital.com/