Rigeto Unternehmerkapital buys majority stake in Crusta Nova

Founder and managing partner Fabian Riedel will continue in his management role and will retain a significant stake in the business, according to a statement.

"We know Mr Riedel personally and first read about his plans for Crusta Nova in a newspaper article last summer, and the deal took about half a year from then," Rigeto associate partner Wolf Hoffmann told Unquote. "The company was speaking to some other potential investors, but it was not a classic M&A approach, it was more a collective approach, and we had a good position and went into exclusive talks."

Rigeto intends to support Crusta Nova with the development of its land-based aquaculture facilities, as well as its B2B wholesale and B2C e-commerce channels, including via the establishment of a retail site in Schwabing.

The GP also intends to pursue bolt-ons for the company, Hoffmann said. "Add-ons are one of our approaches in our growth strategy. These could be other companies in the shrimp farming industry, as well as companies that fit into the fish market area of the food business field. We are looking at similar sizes of companies to Crusta Nova, focusing on the German, Austrian and Swiss markets, as well as other European countries."

Munich-headquartered Rigeto is backed by Swiss and German entrepreneurs and family offices, and makes investments on a deal-by-deal basis. The GP invests in DACH-based Mittelstand companies with revenues of €5-100m and EBITDA of €1-8m.

Asked about Rigeto's current portfolio and deal pipeline, Hoffman said: "We have a good working portfolio, in spite of corona – we have invested in medtech, software and services, which are still performing very well. We usually do two to four deals per year and our deal pipeline right now is good; we are working on other deals and still see lots of growth opportunities."

Rigeto's recent investments include digital x-ray business Oehm & Rehbeim, in which the GP acquired a majority stake in August 2020.

Company
Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Langenpreising, Crusta Nova is a fish and seafood e-commerce retailer and wholesaler. The company sells its produce via its online shop, serving businesses including supermarkets, restaurants and the hospitality sector, as well as individual consumers. The company employs 20 people and reports revenues of €5m.

People
Rigeto Unternehmerkapital – Wolf Hoffmann (associate partner).
Crusta Nova – Fabian Riedel (founder, managing partner).

Advisers
Equity – Tricon (legal).
Vendor – GLNS (legal).

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• Buyouts
• DACH
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• Germany