GA increases stake in Nucom through €140m portfolio merger

Oscar Geen
15 January 2019

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General Atlantic (GA) portfolio companies Nucom and Aroundhome have merged, in a transaction that values the latter at €140m.

The transaction has resulted in Nucom (which already owned a 42% stake in Aroundhome through its parent ProSiebenSat.1) holding a 94% stake in Aroundhome.

GA has exchanged its 42% stake in Aroundhome for shares in Nucom, increasing its stake from 25.1 to 28.4%, while Aroundhome co-founder Mario Kohle has sold his shares and co-founder Robin Behlau retains a 6% stake.

Nucom is the e-commerce business of media group ProSiebenSat.1 and was backed by GA in a €1.8bn buyout in February 2018 in which the GP acquired a 25.1% stake. The new group simultaneously announced the acquisition of stakes held by Oakley Capital in two of Nucom's portfolio of brands (Parship and Verivox), in which it already held stakes.

The group has announced that its investment strategy is to simplify its shareholding structure and increase its holding to a majority in all of its portfolio brands. Following the acquisition of Aroundhome, the group will hold a majority stake in each of its 10 portfolio companies, consisting of consumer services and lifestyle brands.

Nucom is the e-commerce business of ProSiebenSat.1. It regroups Amorelie, billiger-mietwagen.de, Flaconi, Mydays, KäuferPortal, moebel.de, Parship, Stylight, Verivox and Windstar Medical. The group generated revenues in excess of €650m in 2017 and expects to reach €1bn revenues for 2018, targeting €2bn by 2023.

Previous funding
Aroundhome (then Käuferportal) first attracted VC backing in July 2008 when Point Nine Capital invested in its seed round. The VC firm returned alongside Family Venture Capital in May 2012 to invest a further €3m.

GA and ProSiebenSat.1 teamed up to acquire a majority stake in the firm of 42% each, with the company's founders, Robin Behlau and Mario Kohle, retaining the remaining 16%.

Company
Aroundhome was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in Berlin. It is an online broker for home products and services. It employs 500 people and brokers projects worth €1bn annually.

People
General Atlantic – Jörn Nikolay (head of Germany).
ProSiebenSat.1 – Thomas Ebeling (CEO).
Nucom Group – Claas van Delden, Florian Tappeiner, Dirk Schmelzer (executive board).
Aroundhome – Robin Behlau (CEO).