Hano­ver — NORD Holding has acqui­red a majo­rity stake in Dr. Födisch Umwelt­mess­tech­nik AG. The tran­sac­tion was carried out with the parti­ci­pa­tion of WMS Wachs­tums­fonds Mittel­stand Sach­sen. The Födisch family and the foun­der and CEO Dr. Holger Födisch will also remain share­hol­ders in the company. Toge­ther with NORD Holding and WMS, the market posi­tion is to be expan­ded and the successful growth course of recent years is to be contin­ued on a sustainable basis.

Dr. Födisch Umwelt­mess­tech­nik AG is a leading manu­fac­tu­rer of emis­sion tech­no­logy for moni­to­ring envi­ron­men­tally harmful gases, dust and volume flows. Areas of appli­ca­tion are emis­sion moni­to­ring (CEMS: Conti­nuous Emis­sion Moni­to­ring Systems), process and envi­ron­men­tal measu­re­ment tech­no­logy and recur­ring tests of statio­nary measu­ring equip­ment. The product range extends from mobile and statio­nary measu­ring devices to complete systems. The medium-sized company opera­tes in a market envi­ron­ment that has been growing steadily for years, driven by global mega­trends and stric­ter envi­ron­men­tal regu­la­ti­ons, and supports its more than 600 custo­mers inter­na­tio­nally in acting sustain­ably and with an eye to the future. Dr. Födisch Umwelt­mess­tech­nik AG curr­ently has over 180 employees.

“Dr. Födisch Umwelt­mess­tech­nik AG is a typi­cal exam­ple of a true hidden cham­pion, charac­te­ri­zed by a culture of inno­va­tion and engi­nee­ring exper­tise. From the very begin­ning, we were very impres­sed by the company’s team spirit and tech­no­logy focus as well as the entre­pre­neu­rial vision of Dr. Holger Födisch. With the part­ner­ship that has now been estab­lished, we would like to accom­pany this outstan­ding company, with our possi­bi­li­ties, into the next growth phase — we are looking forward to the joint future,” says Andreas Bösen­berg, Mana­ging Direc­tor of NORD Holding.

Dr. Holger Födisch, foun­der and board member: “After 29 years of successful and dyna­mic deve­lo­p­ment of the company and the Födisch Group, we have actively pursued the realignment of the shareholder/participation struc­ture. This will enable us to meet the chal­lenges of future growth and create the basis for a further consis­tent orien­ta­tion of the Group towards the envi­ron­men­tal and auto­ma­tion tech­no­logy sectors. With NORD Holding, we have now found the right part­ner for the imple­men­ta­tion of our stra­te­gies, goals and visi­ons. We look forward to the joint chal­lenges and cooperation.”

For NORD Holding, the invest­ment in Dr. Födisch Umwelt­mess­tech­nik AG marks the third invest­ment in the green and clean­tech sector. This under­pins the invest­ment stra­tegy of focu­sing on sustaina­bi­lity tech­no­lo­gies and bene­fiting from long-term mega­trends such as the need to increase resource and energy produc­ti­vity and reduce pollution.

On the part of NORD Holding, the tran­sac­tion was imple­men­ted by Andreas Bösen­berg (photo), Martin Scheff­ler and Marcel Rosengarten.

The WMS alre­ady held a stake in Dr. Födisch Umwelt­mess­tech­nik AG with its prede­ces­sor fund. Harald Rehberg (Mana­ging Direc­tor WMS) on the tran­sac­tion: “We are plea­sed to now conti­nue to accom­pany the Födisch Group in part­ner­ship with our third-gene­ra­­tion WMS. The company has deve­lo­ped magni­fi­cently in recent years — also thanks to its successful inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion. We also see high momen­tum in the future, not least through further acqui­si­ti­ons in suita­ble segments.”

Harald Rehberg and Andreas Müller were respon­si­ble for the project at WMS Wachs­tums­fonds Mittel­stand Sachsen.

About Dr. Födisch Umwelt­mess­tech­nik AG
Foun­ded in 1991, Dr. Födisch Umwelt­mess­tech­nik AG is a leading and inde­pen­dent group of compa­nies for appli­ca­ti­ons in the field of envi­ron­men­tal, process and analy­sis tech­no­logy. With its head­quar­ters in Markran­städt near Leip­zig as well as service and sales compa­nies in Germany and a subsi­diary in China, the company employs over 180 people. In addi­tion to envi­ron­men­tal, service and main­ten­ance services, the product port­fo­lio includes fine dust sensors, filter moni­tors, dust measu­re­ment concen­tra­tion devices, gas analy­zers and volu­metric flow meters. Custo­mers are Euro­pean and non-Euro­­pean compa­nies, among others from the energy, chemi­cal, cons­truc­tion, and waste and dispo­sal indus­tries, which are supported world­wide in comply­ing with emis­sion limits and in moni­to­ring various processes.

In 2018, EP Ehrler Prüf­tech­nik Engi­nee­ring GmbH (Nieder­stet­ten) was successfully inte­gra­ted as a wholly owned subsi­diary. EP Ehrler is a specia­list in the field of flow measu­re­ment tech­no­logy for air, gases and liquids and deve­lops its own custo­mi­zed and at the same time tech­­no­­logy-orien­­ted complete solu­ti­ons. www.foedisch.de

About WMS Wachs­tums­fonds Mittel­stand Sachsen
The WMS Wachs­tums­fonds Mittel­stand Sach­sen is an initia­tive of the Free State of Saxony and regio­nal credit insti­tu­ti­ons and has supported more than 30 Saxon compa­nies in imple­men­ting their growth stra­te­gies since 2005. Since the begin­ning of this year, the WMS has been ente­ring its third gene­ra­tion of funds. In addi­tion to the savings banks, the inves­tors now also include the Säch­si­sche Aufbau­bank, the Bürg­schafts­bank Sach­sen and the Mittel­stän­di­sche Betei­li­gungs­ge­sell­schaft. The fund will invest a further 85 million euros in Saxony’s SME sector in the coming years. www.wachstumsfonds-sachsen.de

About NORD Holding
With its 50-year history and assets under manage­ment of € 2.5 billion, NORD Holding is one of the leading private equity asset manage­ment compa­nies in Germany. The focus is on the busi­ness areas of direct invest­ments and fund of funds investments.

The focus of the direct busi­ness is on the struc­tu­ring and finan­cing of corpo­rate succes­sion models, the acqui­si­tion of group parts/subsidiaries and the expan­sion finan­cing of medium-sized compa­nies. In contrast to most other finan­cial inves­tors, who only manage time-limi­­ted funds, NORD Holding acts as a so-called “ever­green fund” with no time limit and invests from its own balance sheet. The company is curr­ently invol­ved with more than 15 compa­nies in Germany and other German-spea­king countries.