ECM-backed Wieners+Wieners bolts on Apostroph

The investment is the sixth made by ECM’s GEP IV fund, which closed on its €230m hard-cap in July 2012. The current managing director of Apostroph, Philipp Meier, has also invested and will continue in his role.

The bolt-on is a continuation of ECM’s buy-and-build strategy in the German-speaking language services market. The GP acquired Wieners+Wieners in June 2014, at which point the target company had already bought competitor Sprachkontor.

Wieners+Wieners has focused until now on providing language and translation services to PR and marketing departments, whereas Apostroph’s client base is mainly in the healthcare, industrial and financial sectors.

The brands will continue to operate separately but will collaborate on the use of IT systems and hope to provide a seamless cross-border service to clients.

Company
Apostroph group was founded in Luzern in 1994 and now has four offices across Switzerland. The company offers translation and proofreading of official certification documents in 50 languages. It employs around 25 people.

People
ECM Equity Capital Management – Florian Kähler, Alexander Schönborn, Max Thielemann (partners).
Wieners+Wieners – Kai-Dominik Weyel (managing partner).
Apostroph – Philipp Meier (managing partner)

Advisers
Equity – Milbank (M&A); Tweed (M&A); Hadley & McCloy (M&A); Meyerlustenberger Lachenal (legal); Goetzpartners (commercial due diligence); Ernst & Young (financial due diligence, tax); McDermott Will & Emery (operational due diligence); Willis Towers Watson (insurance due diligence).
Company - Wineus Capital (M&A).

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• Topics
• Expansion
• DACH
• Support services
• Switzerland
• Build-up