Genui to sell Cherry to Argand Partners

Duke Street had been set to secure the deal and was in exclusivity to acquire the asset, as reported by Unquote sister publication Debtwire. However, it lost this exclusivity near the start of the coronavirus outbreak, having secured it in December 2019. Genui had previously looked to sell the business to a strategic bidder based in China, but the deal fell though in part due to German competition law concerns, as reported by Debtwire.

Argand's bid for the company gives it an enterprise value of around €200m, according to Debtwire.

Cherry was initially marketed based on €22m in EBITDA, according to Debtwire, but this was adjusted to €28m as the process went on and the company continued to trade well in spite of coronavirus concerns in China and Europe.

Genui backed Cherry's MBO from ZF Friedrichshafen in October 2016 with a debt package from SEB to support the deal. The GP invested via Genui Fund, which held a final close in July 2016 on €407m. The fund deploys equity tickets of €15-75m and has made nine platform investments, according to Unquote Data.

Genui had not responded to a request for comment at the time of publication.

Debt
As reported by Unquote sister publication Debtwire, Argand is backing the deal with a unitranche package from Hayfin.

Company
Cherry produces input devices such as keyboards and computer mice for use in gaming, security and offices. The company reported revenues of €80m in 2015 and generated EBIT of €4.6m from sales of €95.9m in 2017. Cherry was founded in 1953, the company has 342 employees according to LinkedIn and is based in ‎Auerbach.

People
Genui – Sumeet Gulati (partner).
Cherry – Rolf Unterberger (CEO); Bernd Wagner (CFO)

Advisers
Vendor – William Blair (M&A).

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