Succession: SHS Capital acquires majority stake in Ackermann Instrumente

Tübingen/ Riet­heim-Weil­heim — The health­care inves­tor SHS Capi­tal has acqui­red a majo­rity stake in Acker­mann Instru­mente GmbH. The aim of the invest­ment is to further expand Acker­man­n’s core busi­ness and to estab­lish a leading global medi­cal tech­no­logy group through targe­ted part­ner­ships with other compa­nies in the region. 

Rolf Acker­mann will remain a mino­rity share­hol­der. Peter Grassl will conti­nue to lead Acker­mann Instru­mente GmbH as Mana­ging Direc­tor and conti­nue on the growth path. 

Acker­mann Instru­mente, based near Tutt­lin­gen, is a leading manu­fac­tu­rer of high-quality surgi­cal instru­ments with a focus on endo­scopy, implan­to­logy and gene­ral surgery. Verti­cally inte­gra­ted in-house produc­tion ensu­res high product quality, cost effi­ci­ency and full control along the value chain. Thanks to its strong regu­la­tory exper­tise and opera­tio­nal flexi­bi­lity, Acker­mann has estab­lished itself as a relia­ble part­ner for medi­cal profes­sio­nals and MedTech compa­nies. Conti­nuous sales growth and a diver­si­fied and growing custo­mer base make the company an attrac­tive part­ner to bene­fit from the global trend towards mini­mally inva­sive surgi­cal proce­du­res — espe­ci­ally in emer­ging markets. 

SHS sees great poten­tial in Acker­man­n’s scalable busi­ness model and in the company’s inter­na­tio­nal growth stra­tegy. In the coming years, Acker­mann will conti­nue to streng­then its core busi­ness, expand its market presence and drive inno­va­tion in a targe­ted manner. 

In an incre­asingly conso­li­da­ting Euro­pean MedTech market, driven by MDR requi­re­ments and corpo­rate succes­sion, Acker­man­n’s global distri­bu­tion chan­nels provide an attrac­tive plat­form for stra­te­gic part­ner­ships and acqui­si­ti­ons in the region and beyond. SHS aims to build a leading medtech group with other compa­nies in the region and beyond to realize distri­bu­tion syner­gies based on Acker­man­n’s global distri­bu­tor network and econo­mies of scale rela­ted to the Medi­cal Device Regu­la­tion (MDR)

“SHS is the right part­ner for company succes­sion in medi­cal tech­no­logy,” says Rolf Acker­mann, former majo­rity share­hol­der of Acker­mann Instru­mente GmbH. “A trust­wor­thy address with a deep under­stan­ding of the indus­try and a long-term approach — that’s what convin­ced us.” 

“With SHS, we have the oppor­tu­nity to posi­tion Acker­mann as a plat­form for buil­ding a powerful medi­cal tech­no­logy group,” says Mana­ging Direc­tor Peter Grassl. “The combi­na­tion of regu­la­tory pres­sure from the MDR, inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion poten­tial and possi­ble econo­mies of scale makes this step stra­te­gi­cally sensi­ble for many companies.” 

Dr. Corne­lius Maas, Part­ner at SHS Capi­tal, adds: “Acker­mann is a hidden cham­pion of German medi­cal tech­no­logy — exactly the kind of company we part­ner with. The team has built a highly profi­ta­ble, inter­na­tio­nally opera­ting company that offers a compel­ling value propo­si­tion to users and indus­try part­ners alike. We look forward to shaping the next chap­ter of growth toge­ther, both orga­ni­cally and through targe­ted part­ner­ships and acquisitions.” 

About Acker­mann Instru­mente GmbH

For over seven deca­des, the Acker­mann Group has been deve­lo­ping, manu­fac­tu­ring and distri­bu­ting solu­ti­ons of the highest quality for a wide range of surgi­cal appli­ca­ti­ons, parti­cu­larly in the fields of open and mini­mally inva­sive surgery, but also liga­ture and spinal implants. — In addi­tion to our strong brands, as an OEM manu­fac­tu­rer we are behind a large number of unique products and are proud of our global market leadership. 

True to our INNOVATING TRADITION vision, our goal has always been to offer our custo­mers and users indus­­try-leading added value not only through conti­nuous inno­va­tion in our products and proces­ses, but also to never lose sight of our roots and to preserve the craft­sman­ship perfec­ted over gene­ra­ti­ons as an estab­lished family business.

This enables us to create a respon­si­ble home for our employees and improve clini­cal outco­mes every day in over 100 count­ries around the world. — www.acker­mann­sur­gi­cal.com

About SHS Gesell­schaft für Betei­li­gungs­ma­nage­ment mbH

SHS, an indus­try inves­tor, is a private equity firm foun­ded in 1993 that makes invest­ments in health­care compa­nies in Europe. The focus of invest­ments is on expan­sion finan­cing, share­hol­der chan­ges and succes­sion situa­tions. “Buil­ding Euro­pean Health­care Cham­pi­ons” is the invest­ment philo­so­phy accor­ding to which SHS finan­ces and deve­lops port­fo­lio compa­nies. The Tübin­­gen-based inves­tor is taking both mino­rity and majo­rity stakes.

SHS funds’ natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal inves­tors include pension funds, funds of funds, foun­da­ti­ons, family offices, stra­te­gic inves­tors, entre­pre­neurs and the SHS manage­ment team. The equity or equity-like invest­ment of the AIF amounts to up to € 50 million. Volu­mes in excess of this can be reali­zed with a network of co-inves­­tors. When making invest­ment decis­i­ons, SHS places strong empha­sis on conside­ring ESG aspects and is ther­e­fore commit­ted to the UN PRI guide­lines. SHS is curr­ently inves­t­ing from its sixth fund, which was laun­ched in 2022 and has a volume of around € 270m. — www.shs-capital.eu