Munich/Gütenbach — Funds advi­sed by Equis­tone Part­ners Europe (“Equis­tone”) acquire a majo­rity stake in RENA Group. The company, head­quar­te­red in Güten­bach in the Black Forest, builds tech­no­lo­gi­cally advan­ced equip­ment for wet-chemi­­cal surface treat­ment and employs around 800 people world­wide. The sellers are funds advi­sed by Capvis AG. The manage­ment team around RENA CEO Peter Schnei­de­wind is also taking a stake in the company as part of the change of owner­ship, ther­eby commit­ting itself to RENA for the long term. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose details of the tran­sac­tion. The sale is still subject to appr­oval by the rele­vant anti­trust authorities.

RENA was foun­ded in 1993 and is the leading global equip­ment manu­fac­tu­rer in the field of wet-chemi­­cal surface treat­ment. The globally active high-tech company addres­ses custo­mers from the semi­con­duc­tor sector, medi­cal tech­no­logy as well as the rene­wa­ble energy indus­try and glass proces­sing. With three produc­tion and R&D sites in Germany and Wikroty, Poland, and sales and service loca­ti­ons in Asia, for exam­ple in China and Singa­pore, as well as in North America, the company has a strong inter­na­tio­nal presence. RENA recently achie­ved an annual produc­tion output of over 120 million euros.

Toge­ther with Equis­tone, RENA aims to conti­nue to grow in exis­ting segments and expand its tech­no­lo­gi­cal market leader­ship. The company’s prono­un­ced strength in rese­arch and deve­lo­p­ment will conti­nue to be a key buil­ding block for this in the future. In addi­tion, part­ner­ships with exis­ting custo­mers are to be inten­si­fied and new custo­mer groups are to be deve­lo­ped for RENA’s inno­va­tive, high-quality machi­nes and systems.

“We are impres­sed by RENA’s market posi­tion, which is based prima­rily on inno­va­tive tech­no­logy, high quality, long-stan­­ding custo­mer rela­ti­onships as well as its strong manage­ment team,” said Stefan Maser (photo), part­ner at Equis­tone. David Zahnd, Invest­ment Direc­tor at Equis­tone, added: “Toge­ther with RENA’s manage­ment team and employees, we intend to consis­t­ently conti­nue the company’s growth trajec­tory, promote rese­arch and deve­lo­p­ment and expand into new markets and regions.”

Peter Schnei­de­wind, CEO of RENA, comm­ents: “We are very plea­sed to have Equis­tone as a relia­ble and finan­ci­ally strong new part­ner that will support our further growth. For us, this is a clear sign to secure and expand our sites. Toge­ther with our custo­mers, we will deve­lop addi­tio­nal indi­vi­dual appli­ca­ti­ons and launch new intel­li­gent solu­ti­ons for wet-chemi­­cal surface treat­ment — worldwide.”

On the Equis­tone side, Stefan Maser, David Zahnd and Tanja Berg are respon­si­ble for the tran­sac­tion. The mid-market inves­tor was advi­sed by goetz­part­ners (Commer­cial), KPMG (Finan­cial & Tax), Latham & Watkins (Legal), ERM (Envi­ron­men­tal), Sher­man & Ster­ling (Legal Finan­cing) and GCA Altium (Finan­cing).

About Equis­tone Part­ners Europe
Equis­tone Part­ners Europe is one of Europe’s leading equity inves­tors with a team of more than 35 invest­ment specia­lists in six offices in Germany, Switz­er­land, France and the UK. Equis­tone prima­rily invests in estab­lished medium-sized compa­nies with a good market posi­tion, above-average growth poten­tial and an enter­prise value of between EUR 50 and 500 million. Since its foun­ding, equity has been inves­ted in more than 140 tran­sac­tions, mainly mid-market buy-outs. The port­fo­lio curr­ently compri­ses over 40 compa­nies across Europe, inclu­ding around 20 active holdings in Germany, Switz­er­land and the Nether­lands. Equis­tone is curr­ently inves­t­ing from its sixth fund, which closed in March 2018 with €2.8 billion at the hard cap. www.equistonepe.de