EQT's Saur buys Nijhuis from Wagram, Egeria

Harriet Matthews
23 June 2020

Tweet
Facebook
LinkedIn
Google plus
Send to

France-based water treatment company Saur, a portfolio company of EQT, has acquired Netherlands-based Nijhuis Industries from Wagram Equity Partners and Egeria Capital Management.

Menno Holterman, CEO of Nijhuis Industries, will become head of Saur Industrial Water, while Nijhuis CFO Ronald Ruijtenberg will become CFO of Saur Industrial Water.

The deal is expected to complete in H2 2020.

Nijhuis will join Saur Industries, Unidro and Econvert in the Saur Industrial Water platform, which reports revenues of €200m and plans to increase this figure to €300m by 2022.

EQT bought a majority stake in Saur in July 2018 via its third infrastructure fund, which held a final close in February 2017 on €4bn. Previous shareholder BNP Paribas retained a minority stake in the business, while BCPE exited the company. Saur was reportedly valued at €1.5bn, equivalent to an EBITDA multiple of 11x. In 2017, Saur reported revenues of €1.29bn.

Egeria acquired Nijhuis in August 2008 from its parent company Alpha Group International, deploying equity via Egeria Private Equity Fund II, which held a final close in September 2005 on €360m.

In July 2014, Wagram bought a majority stake in Nijhuis from Egeria. At the time, the company generated revenues of €40m and had 230 employees.

Company
Nijhuis was founded in 1993 and is headquartered in Dinxperlo. The business provides waste water treatment services for clients in the food and dairy production and oil and gas industries, as well as for municipalities and for use in industrial cooling tower systems. It also installs systems including screening systems, dissolved air flotation systems and gravity screening.

Nijhuis generated revenues of €90m in 2019, having doubled its revenues since 2017, and employs 350 staff.

People
Wagram Equity Partners – Joost Rieper (CEO).
Egeria Capital Management – Peter Visser (founding partner); Floris Waage (managing partner, PE funds).
Saur – Patrick Blethon (executive chairman).
Nijhuis Industries – Menno Holterman (CEO); Ronald Ruijtenberg (CFO).

Advisers
Acquirer – ABN Amro (corporate finance); Case (corporate finance); Orrick (legal); EY (financial due diligence).
Vendor – Baker McKenzie (legal).