FSN Capital to acquire Bäcker Görtz in MBO

The business came up for sale in early summer in a Houlihan Lokey-run auction process. It drew a lot of interest and was being marketed off EUR 27m in EBITDA, with FSN Capital and L-GAM left battling it out, Mergermarket reported.

The company has revenues of around EUR 130m and has grown revenues organically at a CAGR of 14% since 2006, through developing automated planning and distribution capabilities to service its branch network, according to a press release.

"We were very impressed after we met the owners, saw the production site and how the company organises its production, logistics and distribution of products," Robin Mürer, the co-managing Partner at FSN Capital Partners, told Unquote.

The GP will invest in the business via FSN Capital VI. The vehicle held a final close on EUR 1.8bn, exceeding its original target of EUR 1.5bn, according to Unquote Data. It is expected to make 14-16 platform investments in companies across manufacturing, consumer, and business services.

The deal, expected to close in Q4 2022, is the GP's seventh investment from the fund, which is now approximately half deployed, said Mürer. Investments include Danish company Obton Group, IT company Omegapoint, Norwegian sportswear and sports equipment supplier Active Brands, German B2B pharmaceuticals company Adragos Pharma, German specialist retailer for sanitary products Megabad (formerly Gottfried Stiller) and Sweden-based OptiGroup.

FSN will support the expansion of the business in Germany's bakery market, while consolidating Bäcker Görtz market position as a producer and retailer for both at-home and out-of-home food.

The sponsor's investment strategy will continue to focus on organic growth and will opportunistically involve potential acquisitions, said Mürer.

The bakery market in Germany is highly fragmented with a large amount of regional players, he added. Approximately 10,000 bakeries operate 45,000 bakery stores, showing the fragmentation of the market.

"One of the reasons we invested in food production and distribution is that we're considering it a very stable space supported by a strong trend towards out-of-home eating, which particularly in Germany is served by bakeries," said the managing partner.

Unigestion also invested in Germany-based organic bakery chain Zeit für Brot in July.

Company
Headquartered in Ludwigshafen, Germany, Bäcker Görtz is a bakery chain in the Rhine-Neckar region in South-West Germany and has been founded and owned by the Görtz family since 1963. It operates with a network of approximately 200 branches and a product offering of baked goods and out-of-home meals. The business is focused on a core region of two million inhabitants within a 50km radius. It operates a production facility of 5,000 sqm and employs about 1,400 full-time employees.

People
Bäcker Görtz − Peter Görtz, Frank Görtz (co-CEOs).
FSN Capital Partners − Robin Mürer (co-managing partner).

Advisers
Equity – Alantra; Roland Berger; GLNS; Grant Thornton; PwC; Frank Partners; AON.

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• Topics
• Buyouts
• DACH
• Consumer
• FSN Capital
• Germany