Waterland-backed Netgo acquires ComNet

ComNet's managing director, Holger Schmitz, will acquire a stake in Netgo.

Idinvest provided a debt package for the acquisition.

Waterland bought a 60% stake in Netgo in October, with the remaining 40% stake held by founders Patrick Kruse and Benedikt Kisner. The fund drew equity from Waterland Private Equity Fund VII, which is currently around 30% deployed.

Netgo generated an EBIT of €100,000 and EBITDA of around €340,000 from revenues of €10.16m in 2017.

Carsten Rahlfs, managing partner at Waterland, told Unquote that the GP proactively sourced the Netgo deal and that it did not take place via an auction process.

The acquisition of ComNet marks the first in Waterland's buy-and-build strategy for Netgo. Rahlfs told Unquote: "The ComNet transaction was introduced to us by the Netgo management – they had heard that ComNet was open for a sale. We worked on the ComNet and Netgo transactions at the same time, and were able to close them at more or less the same time."

Rahlfs highlighted the growth possibilities of ComNet: "The company has a turnover of less than €10m, so it is a small add-on, but they have already done the conversion to recurring revenues, so it will be very interesting for us to increase the service component and the recurring revenues component."

Waterland is also currently implementing a buy-and-build strategy with Swiss IT company Tineo, which acquired Nexellent earlier this month, as reported by Unquote.

Company
ComNet was founded in 1990 and is based in Würselen, North Rhine-Westphalia. It has a headcount of 21 and provides its 200 clients with IT infrastructure services, including private cloud technology. The group specialises in services for businesses including tax advisory firms, law firms and nursing homes.

People
Netgo – Patrick Kruse, Benedikt Kisner (founders).
ComNet – Holger Schmitz (managing director, co-founder).
Waterland Private Equity – Carsten Rahlfs (managing partner).

Advisers
Equity – Hengeler Mueller, Alexander Nolte (legal); EY (financial due dilligence).

• Tweet  
• Facebook  
• LinkedIn  
• Google plus  
• Send to  

• Topics
• Expansion
• DACH
• Technology
• Build-up
• Acquisition finance
• Germany
• Waterland Private Equity