EQT closes acquisition of Schülke

Air Liquide plans to concentrate on its core busines areas following the sale.

The deal remains one of the only large-cap acquisitions to be announced in the DACH region since the coronavirus pandemic took hold in Europe. It was also a deal that experienced increased interest and positive EBITDA adjustments as the pandemic progressed, as reported, with PAI Partners, Ardian and EQT advancing to the final round of bidding.

Schülke generates revenues of €335m and was marketed based on EBITDA of €75m. It has 1,200 employees and is headquartered in Norderstedt.

In April 2020, Unquote sister publication Debtwire reported that EQT backed the deal with a unitranche facility from HPS to finance the acquisition. Debt quantum through unitranche was pitched at around €400m, implying leverage of 5-5.5x based on EBITDA of €70-80m, according to Debtwire.

EQT invested via EQT VIII, which held a final close in February 2018 on €10.75bn. The fund is approximately 80-85% deployed as of July 2020. EQT transferred its majority stake in Sweden-based enterprise software IFS from EQT VII to its successor vehicles EQT VIII and EQT IX in July, as reported.

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• Topics
• Buyouts
• DACH
• Consumer
• Industrials
• EQT
• Germany
• coronavirus