Afinum exits Garz & Fricke in EUR 180m trade sale

The purchase price comprises a cash consideration of EUR 165m plus EUR 15m in newly issued Seco shares.

The GP acquired a majority stake in G&F in September 2017 via its seventh fund. The vehicle held a final close in April 2013 on EUR 280m and was fully deployed as of April 2020, according to Unquote Data. The fund deploys equity tickets of EUR 10m-30m, with a EUR 20m-25m sweet spot.

Commerzbank and Norddeutsche Landesbank provided senior debt to support the acquisition of G&F, according to Unquote Data.

During the investment period, the company acquired Germany-based E-Gits and Keith & Koep, which now form G&F's brands for system-on-modules, and software and platform respectively. G&F's headcount also increased from around 100 staff to 190 and it established new activities in the US, Taiwan and India, according to a statement. In addition, the GP assisted with the recruitment of CEO Stefan Heczko.

Afinum said in the same statement that it had changed G&F's business model from that of an HMI hardware and vending machine electronics supplier to an Internet-of-Things systems supplier with proprietary software and payment solutions.

Afinum is currently on the road for its ninth fund, which was launched near the start of 2021 and has a target in the EUR 450m-500m range, as reported. The vehicle is expected to make investments in the EUR 25m-75m region, with a sweet spot of EUR 30m-35m, targeting businesses with enterprise values of EUR 40m-150m.

G&F is Afinum's third exit of 2021 and follows the sale of its majority stake in Evitria to Atlas Antibodies; the GP had invested in the company alongside healthcare investor SHS.

Company
Founded in 1992 by Manfred Garz and Matthias Fricke, Garz & Fricke provides HMI software and hardware, focusing on single-board computers, displays, touch screens and contactless payment devices. The company has 190 employees and is headquartered in Hamburg.

Garz & Fricke is expected to generate revenues of around EUR 45m and adjusted EBITDA of more than EUR 10m in 2021. At the time of its acquisition by Afinum, the company posted revenues of EUR 28m and EBIT of EUR 3.8m.

People
Afinum Beteiligungsgesellschaft – Gernot Eisinger (founder, managing partner).
Garz & Fricke – Stefan Heczko (CEO).
Seco – Massimo Mauri (CEO).

Advisers
Acquirer – Goldman Sachs (M&A); White & Case (legal); PwC (financial due diligence, tax); Deloitte (commercial due diligence).
Vendor – Goetzpartners (M&A); Oaklins (M&A); CMS (legal); KPMG (financial due diligence, tax).

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