Frank­furt am Main / Mark­grö­nin­gen — Kälte Eckert GmbH is pushing ahead with its plat­form stra­tegy to become the leading supplier of refri­ge­ra­tion systems in southern Germany by acqui­ring SOS Klima­tech­nik from Königs­dorf near Munich. The seller of the shares is the sole share­hol­der Alex­an­der Stiegler Iurato, who will remain with the company as mana­ging direc­tor. The inte­gra­tion of quali­fied employees, the trans­fer of know-how and the expan­sion of the catch­ment area in the Munich metro­po­li­tan region are the goals of the part­ner­ship. For the port­fo­lio company of VR Equi­typ­art­ner, this is the third add-on within a year: In Novem­ber 2019, the foun­da­tion was laid through the merger with Günther Kälte­tech­nik, and in April 2020, Gart­ner Keil GmbH was acquired.

Foun­ded in 1998, SOS Kälte­tech­nik GmbH near Munich specia­li­zes in the instal­la­tion of refri­ge­ra­tion, air condi­tio­ning and heat pump tech­no­logy and works for commer­cial, indus­trial and private custo­mers. The company has a team of highly quali­fied employees who specia­lize in opti­mally adap­ting the perfor­mance of the instal­led cooling units to the condi­ti­ons of the premi­ses to be cooled. SOS Kälte­tech­nik GmbH takes care of the main­ten­ance and service work itself.

“The tran­sac­tion unders­cores the strength of our long-term invest­ment approach, which we consis­t­ently pursue in part­ner­ship with our port­fo­lio compa­nies, even in the market envi­ron­ment curr­ently charac­te­ri­zed by the Covid-19 pande­mic,” said Chris­tian Futter­lieb (photo), mana­ging direc­tor at VR Equi­typ­art­ner. “As part of the tran­sac­tion, Kälte Eckert gains access to more highly quali­fied person­nel and can in turn trans­fer its know-how for natu­ral refri­ger­ants to SOS Kälte­tech­nik. Thus, the company can be expan­ded into a support­ing service subsi­diary. This is an important step for Kälte Eckert’s plat­form stra­tegy on the way to beco­ming the leading supplier in southern Germany.”

The Fran­k­­furt-based invest­ment company VR Equi­typ­art­ner has held a majo­rity stake in Kälte Eckert since August 2017 and is support­ing the tradi­tio­nal company, which was foun­ded more than 50 years ago, in its further growth. There, special plants for commer­cial refri­ge­ra­tion with a focus on canteen kitchens, indus­try and air condi­tio­ning are prima­rily realized.

VR Equi­typ­art­ner GmbH
VR Equi­typ­art­ner is one of the leading equity finan­ciers in Germany, Austria and Switz­er­land. The company supports medium-sized family busi­nesses in a goal-orien­­ted manner and with deca­des of expe­ri­ence in the stra­te­gic solu­tion of complex finan­cing issues. Invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties include growth and expan­sion finan­cing, corpo­rate succes­sion or share­hol­der chan­ges. VR Equi­typ­art­ner offers majo­rity and mino­rity invest­ments as well as mezza­nine finan­cing. As a subsi­diary of DZ BANK, the central insti­tu­tion of the coope­ra­tive banks in Germany, VR Equi­typ­art­ner consis­t­ently puts the sustaina­bi­lity of corpo­rate deve­lo­p­ment ahead of short-term exit thin­king. VR Equitypartner’s port­fo­lio curr­ently compri­ses around 60 commit­ments with an invest­ment volume of EUR 400 million. www.vrep.de.

Refri­ge­ra­tion Eckert at a glance
Kälte Eckert GmbH specia­li­zes in special plant engi­nee­ring for commer­cial refri­ge­ra­tion with a focus on indus­trial kitchens, indus­trial refri­ge­ra­tion and air condi­tio­ning. In addi­tion, the company is the nati­on­wide tech­no­logy leader in the field of alter­na­tive ecolo­gi­cal coolants. Custo­mers include major corpo­ra­ti­ons such as Daim­ler, UniCre­dit and LBBW. Foun­ded in 1966 by Horst Eckert, the company is now mana­ged by his sons Michael Eckert and Holger Eckert. www.kaelte-eckert.de

Consul­ting firms invol­ved in the tran­sac­tion by VR Equitypartner:

Legal: HEUKING KÜHN LÜER WOJTEK, Stutt­gart, with Dr. Rainer Hersch­lein and Char­lotte Schmitt

Finan­cial & Tax: Helmer & Part­ner, Heiden­heim, with Dr. Rüdi­ger Frieß

M & A: Stein­beis Consul­ting Mergers & Acqui­si­ti­ons, Stutt­gart, with Ulrich Praßler
RALA-Consul­­ting, Waakir­chen, with Rain­hardt Lange
Bocon Unter­neh­mens­be­ra­tung, Reichers­beu­ern, with Michael Böddeker