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Finexx closes first fund and acquires majority stake in GSE Vertrieb

Cate­gory: Private Equity
28. Novem­ber 2018

Stutt­gart — Stut­t­­gart-based invest­ment company Finexx has star­ted inves­t­ing from its first fund closed in mid-Nove­m­­ber 2018. In 2017, Finexx had alre­ady acqui­red mino­rity shares in the welding specia­list WIDOSas a co-part­­ner of the Hanno­ver Finanz Group, and now the first majo­rity share­hol­ding has been reali­zed with GSE Vertrieb Biolo­gi­sche Nahrungs­er­gän­zung & Heil­mit­tel GmbH from Saar­brü­cken. The tran­sac­tion, which has alre­ady been comple­ted, took place as part of a succes­sion plan: The seller of the shares is foun­der and mana­ging direc­tor Michael Gracher; the two other mana­ging direc­tors remain on board and conti­nue to be among the share­hol­ders. GSE has been on the market since 1994 and deve­lops and distri­bu­tes food supple­ments on an orga­nic certi­fied basis through natu­ral food retailers.

The volume of Finexx Fund I is 35 million euros, most of which comes from insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors such as insu­rance compa­nies and pension funds. Invest­ments are made across all sectors in small and medium-sized enter­pri­ses (SMEs) with sales of 10 million euros or more. Further prere­qui­si­tes are sustainable earning power and cash flow based on a successful busi­ness model as well as a quali­fied manage­ment team. Finexx commits five to 20 million euros of equity capi­tal in each case.

Finexx Mana­ging Direc­tor Matthias Heining: “GSE is excel­lently posi­tio­ned in the market. Toge­ther with the accom­plished manage­ment and dedi­ca­ted employees, we now want to move to the next stage of deve­lo­p­ment — this includes an expan­sion of product deve­lo­p­ment, sales, inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion and online busi­ness. We see excel­lent future pros­pects for GSE in view of incre­asingly health-conscious and orga­­nic-orien­­ted consumers.”

Such a growth stra­tegy is in line with Finexx’s invest­ment philo­so­phy: “In addi­tion to long-term orien­ted, relia­ble busi­ness models, we are prima­rily concer­ned with profes­sio­nal further deve­lo­p­ment,” explains Dr. Markus Seiler, also Mana­ging Direc­tor of Finexx. “We see oursel­ves as an insti­tu­tio­nal family share­hol­der who speaks the language of family-run compa­nies and who brings indus­try expe­ri­ence, user know­ledge and an excel­lent network to the table without inter­fe­ring in day-to-day opera­ti­ons.” Dr. Seiler, for exam­ple, has many years of expe­ri­ence as a mana­ging direc­tor in family-owned and group compa­nies in the indus­trial and tech­no­logy sectors (inclu­ding GEA Group and Brand Group); Heining was mana­ging direc­tor of the renow­ned invest­ment company BWK in Stutt­gart and in various family-owned compa­nies for seve­ral years. Toge­ther, they combine 30 years of tech­ni­cal and commer­cial exper­tise and can point to signi­fi­cant succes­ses. “In the current envi­ron­ment, we still see a lot of poten­tial and need to support exci­ting compa­nies and successful entre­pre­neurs with drive — we expect to see more tran­sac­tions,” Heining said.

About Finexx
Finexx GmbH Unter­neh­mens­be­tei­li­gun­gen, based in Stutt­gart, is a consul­ting company foun­ded in 2013 that specia­li­zes in estab­lished medium-sized compa­nies. Typi­cal fields of acti­vity are growth and acqui­si­tion finan­cing as well as the support of chan­ges in the share­hol­der struc­ture and succes­sion planning.

Finexx invests long-term funds (equity capi­tal of between 5 and 50 million euros), mainly in the form of majo­rity share­hol­dings, in compa­nies from the German-spea­king region, inclu­ding insu­rance compa­nies and pension funds. These have sales of EUR 10 million or more, a quali­fied manage­ment team, and can demons­trate sustainable earnings power and cash flow based on a successful busi­ness model.

The team has many years of indus­trial and manage­ment expe­ri­ence as well as profound know-how in the invest­ment sector — both are brought to bear for the successful further deve­lo­p­ment of compa­nies and in the asso­cia­ted change proces­ses. Finexx supports manage­ment by provi­ding active commer­cial and tech­ni­cal advice without inter­fe­ring with day-to-day opera­ti­ons, as well as a cross-indus­­try network. www.finexx.de

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