Summa co-invests in Castik-backed TBAuctions

Castik's original acquisition of TBAuctions valued TBAuctions at 15-16x EBITDA, giving the company an enterprise value in the EUR 225m-EUR 240m range, Unquote sister publication Debtwire reported.

As part of the co-investment deal, Summa Equity will merge Nordic auction platforms Auksjonen.no and PS Auction, as well as appraiser Bjarøy, with TBAuctions. Summa Equity partner Michael Vollset told Unquote that Summa provided the financing for the add-ons, thus acquiring a stake in TBAuctions.

Vollset told Unquote that Summa had been looking for potential investments in the reusable goods market for some time, with the aim of finding sustainable ways of extending the lifetime of goods and reducing the over-consumption of resources. "We found online auctions to be a very efficient means to help accelerate this market," he said. "Summa had exclusivity and pre-empted any process on the Nordic assets, while Castik had successfully executed fast on the TBAuctions process, essentially pre-empting that one in Netherlands. We saw a significant benefit of size for customers in this market, and therefore decided to join forces to help accelerate TBA's growth."

In January 2022, TBAuctions acquired British Medical Auctions, expanding its presence to the UK. The company plans to engage in further M&A, according to a statement.

The deal is the third announced by Summa in March 2022 alone; it acquired financial crime prevention software Intix, followed by smart energy firm Tibber.

TBAuctions is the fourth deal from Summa Equity III. The fund held a final close in January 2022 on EUR 2.3bn, as reported. The fund invests in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), focusing on the themes of resource efficiency, changing demographics, and technology-enabled transformation. The vehicle can deploy EUR 30m-200m per buyout deal, including co-investment capital.

Company
TBAuctions is an online auction house. The company was formed in 2018 via the merger of Dutch online auction platforms Troostwijk Auctions and BVA Auctions. Troostwijk focused on the B2B segment, while BVA focuses on B2C. The company operates in the UK, as well as the Benelux, DACH and Nordics regions. TBAuctions auctions movable and immovable goods on behalf of third parties via its Atlas software platform, handing more than 13,000 auctions and 2.75 million lots per year, with more than over 10 million website visits per month.

People
Summa Equity – Michael Vollset (partner).
Castik Capital – Michael Phillips (investment partner).
TBAuctions – Herberth Samsom (CEO).

Advisers
Equity – Arma Partners (corporate finance); Wikborg Rein (legal); PwC (financial due diligence, tax); BCG (commercial due diligence); Frank & Partners (ESG due diligence).

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• Topics
• Expansion
• Benelux
• Consumer
• Netherlands
• Build-up
• Castik Capital
• Summa Equity
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