Hanover/ Hamburg/ Cologne/ Munich — Follo­wing its invest­ment in ESG soft­ware pioneer VERSO, NORD Holding is conti­nuing its compre­hen­sive ESG initia­tive by acqui­ring stakes in Hamburg-based Silves­ter Group and Colo­­gne-based sustaina­bill. The three compa­nies are merging under the majo­rity share­hol­ding of NORD Holding. VERSO is a provi­der of ESG manage­ment soft­ware and services, while Silves­ter Group guides and advi­ses clients on corpo­rate, ESG and finan­cial stra­tegy, commu­ni­ca­tion and report­ing. The sustaina­bill cloud plat­form increa­ses the trans­pa­rency and sustaina­bi­lity of supply chains.

With the merger of the compa­nies, NORD Holding is crea­ting a leading provi­der for sustaina­bi­lity manage­ment and report­ing with a holi­stic solu­tion “Made in Germany”, from which more than 200 active custo­mers are alre­ady bene­fiting today. In addi­tion to the orga­nic deve­lo­p­ment of compe­ten­cies in all sustaina­bi­lity areas, stra­te­gic addi­ti­ons are sought through syner­gi­stic acqui­si­ti­ons within the merger.

“We are plea­sed to have formed an ESG cham­pion with these three compa­nies, thus acce­le­ra­ting the sustainable trans­for­ma­tion of the economy and crea­ting a diffe­ren­tia­ted tech­no­logy and consul­ting offe­ring for medium-sized busi­nesses,” says Chris­tian Moritz Kukwa, Prin­ci­pal at NORD Holding.

Andreas Maslo, as co-foun­­der of VERSO and CEO of the newly formed company comm­ents, “Sustaina­bi­lity is beco­ming incre­asingly complex and our newly formed company is the answer to this. We combine compre­hen­sive sustaina­bi­lity exper­tise with leading tech­no­logy. We are plea­sed that with NORD Holding we have the right part­ner to imple­ment this vision.”

“NORD Holding and we are united by a common goal: the sustainable success of our custo­mers. That is why we accom­pany the deve­lo­p­ment of the sustainable corpo­rate stra­tegy and commu­ni­cate on the status and success deve­lo­p­ment of the ESG and finan­cial perfor­mance, actively and target group-orien­­ted in busi­ness and sustaina­bi­lity reports,” says Thilo Tern, Mana­ging Direc­tor of Silves­ter Group and Co-CEO of the newly formed company.

“The sustainable supply chain is an irre­placeable buil­ding block in the sustaina­bi­lity orien­ta­tion of compa­nies. The vision of NORD Holding to create a holi­stic offe­ring toge­ther with VERSO and Silves­ter Group to meet all ESG requi­re­ments now and in the future was crucial for us,” explains Klaus Wiesen, co-foun­­der of sustainabill.

The invest­ment has been supported by the NORD Holding Busi­ness Services and Soft­ware team since Novem­ber 2022 and under­lines the sector exper­tise in the area of tech­­no­­logy-enab­­led services. On the part of NORD Holding, the tran­sac­tions were imple­men­ted by Chris­tian Moritz Kukwa, Moritz Stolp and Korne­lius Karl Komischke.

About VERSO

VERSO supports medium-sized compa­nies holi­sti­cally in their sustainable trans­for­ma­tion with its soft­ware (SaaS) solu­tion and services for sustaina­bi­lity manage­ment. Consul­ting and trai­ning in ESG report­ing, manage­ment and climate accoun­ting make VERSO a compre­hen­sive part­ner for corpo­rate sustaina­bi­lity and ESG. Sustaina­bi­lity mana­gers profes­sio­na­lize and digi­tize their sustaina­bi­lity manage­ment with VERSO or bring even more effi­ci­ency into their exis­ting proces­ses, above all CSR report­ing. In addi­tion, VERSO supports them on their way to beco­ming a climate-friendly company.

About Silves­ter Group

Silves­ter Group is the leading company for inte­gra­ted stake­hol­der rela­ti­ons in Germany. With expe­ri­ence from more than 30 years in the market and over 2,150 client projects, Silves­ter Group offers corpo­rate, ESG and finan­cial commu­ni­ca­ti­ons holi­sti­cally from a single source: stra­tegy, consul­ting, rese­arch and editing. Design, brand and image. Inves­tor Rela­ti­ons (IR), Public Rela­ti­ons (PR) & ESG. Online, Offline, Social Media, Digi­tal & Film.

About sustaina­bill

With its cloud plat­form, sustaina­bill offers a compre­hen­sive solu­tion for mana­ging sustaina­bi­lity and ESG risks in the supply chain. The company was foun­ded in 2017 based on rese­arch conduc­ted at the renow­ned Wupper­tal Insti­tute, one of the world’s leading think tanks for sustainability.

About NORD Holding

With a history of over 50 years and assets under manage­ment of € 3 billion, NORD Holding is one of the leading private equity and asset manage­ment compa­nies in Germany. The focus is on the busi­ness areas of direct invest­ments and fund invest­ments. The focus of the direct busi­ness is on the struc­tu­ring and finan­cing of corpo­rate succes­sion models, the acqui­si­tion of group divisions/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. The Fund Invest­ments busi­ness unit targets the micro and small cap segment of mid-market-orien­­ted private equity funds in Europe. The focus here is on
Primary, Secon­dary and Co-Inves­t­­ments. NORD Holding focu­ses stron­gly on buyout mana­gers newly estab­lished on the market, opera­tio­nal invest­ment stra­te­gies and also regu­larly acts as an anchor investor.