Ardian sells ADA Cosmetics to Moonlake

Oscar Geen
08 October 2018

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Ardian has sold Kehl-based ADA Cosmetics to newly formed private investment firm Moonlake Capital.

Ardian made the divestment from Ardian Expansion Fund III, which acquired the business in 2014 and supported the bolt-ons of Scandinavian Amenities, Pacific Direct and RDI Malaysia.

The GP said that ADA's revenues and workforce doubled under its ownership to €110m and 700 employees, while the customer base grew from 15,000 to 25,000.

Acquirer Moonlake was founded by ex-KKR director Philip Wack last year and is investing its own funds in European companies with enterprise values between €250-300m.

The enterprise value was more than €300m, based on €28m expected EBITDA for 2018, Unquote understands. Debt financing has not yet been arranged.

Previous funding
ADA was first acquired by private equity firms from the Dahlmeyer family in 2006. German buyout firm Halder Beteiligungsberatung acquired a majority stake with Investkredit Bank providing the finance.

Halder sold the business to Carlyle in 2011, which drew equity from its growth capital fund, CETP II. At the time of the secondary buyout, the business employed 270 people and generated revenues of €43m.

Carlyle sold its stake to Ardian in 2014, by which time the business had expanded its staff to 300 and reported revenues of €50m.

Company
Founded in 1979 in Kehl, ADA manufactures and sells personal care products for hotels including shampoo, body lotion and soap. Its customer base is three to five star hotels and hotel chains, as well as airlines and cruise ships. The business supplies 25,000 customers in 50 countries, with the majority of sales generated in the DACH region and France.

People
Ardian – Dirk Wittneben; Marc Abadir (managing directors).
Moonlake Capital – Philip Wack (managing partner).

Advisers
Vendor – GCA Altium (corporate finance); Deloitte (financial due diligence); EY-Parthenon (commercial due diligence); Willkie Farr & Gallagher (legal); EY Tax (tax); Taxess (tax).