Oakley Capital to partially exit Wishcard to IK, EMZ

The deal, which will see both the founding and broader management teams regaining a majority position, will generate circa GBP 45m proceeds for Oakley Capital Investments Limited (OCI), according to a press release. OCI is the listed investment vehicle that invests in the funds managed by Oakley Capital.

The new ownership structure is set to support Wishcard’s expansion of its service and product offering and international footprint.

Mergermarket reported in November last year that Wishcard (formerly known as Seven Miles) was expected to hit the auction block as early as Q1 2022, advised by Jefferies. The business at that time was expected to generate between EUR 30m and EUR 40m of EBITDA, as reported.

Earlier this year, the potential deal with to EMZ Partners was notified at Austria’s Federal Competition Authority. 

Paris-headquartered EMZ will invest in Wishcard via its tenth flagship fund EMZ 10 (Euromezzanine 10), which is on track to reach its EUR 1.2bn target after holding a first close in early May 2022 in excess of EUR 800m, Unquote reported in May. 

IK will invest in the business via the IK Partnership Fund II, according to a press release from the buyer. The vehicle was registered in Luxembourg in May 2021 and is expected to follow the same investment strategy as its predecessor, IK Partnership I, with minority investments in European companies worth more than EUR 200m, according to Unquote Data.

Oakley Capital Fund IV acquired a majority stake in Wishcard in August 2019, according to a press release from the vendor. The fund, which held a final close on EUR 1.46bn in July 2019, according to Unquote Data, will retain a residual shareholding in the business.

The sponsor said in a press release that under its ownership, Wishcard more than quadrupled its revenues in under three years.

As part of the change in ownership, Andreas Betzer will become Wishcard’s new CEO. Previously, he co-initiated the Lufthansa subsidiary Miles&More International as CEO, while also holding a senior management role in PayBack LTD from its start-up phase up until its eventual sale.

Company
Founded in 2014 and headquartered in Germany, Wishcard Technologies Group operates a technology platform and develops, distributes and sells voucher products with flexible redemption options on their platform’s own online portals. The company is operating in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy, both as a business-to-consumer gift vouchers provider (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) gift card provider. At present, Wishcard has a network of over 500 redemption partners, including Amazon, Google, Apple, IKEA and Zalando. The company distributes its cards through various sales channels, which include a network of more than 110,000 retail outlets, including Aldi, Rewe, Lidl, Edeka, Rossmann and MediaMarkt and its own e-commerce store. It also sells directly to its sizeable B2B customer base. Since incorporation, Wishcard shipped more than 60 million vouchers to B2B and B2C customers in the DACH region and Italy.

People
Wishcard − Verena Argauer (COO), Andreas Betzer (CEO).
IK Partners − Detlef Dinsel (managing partner at IK and advisor to Fund II).
EMZ Partners − Klaus Maurer (partner).

Advisers
EMZ Partners − L.E.K. Consulting (commercial DD), Latham & Watkins (legal, corporate and structure), Deloitte (financial, tax and pension), Houlihan Lokey (debt advisory), Goodwin (legal, finance).
IK Partners – Deloitte (Sebastien Catteau,David Krueger), LEK (Michael Ringleb, Karin von Kienlin), Renzenbrink Partners (Ulf Renzenbrink).

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• Topics
• Exits
• Buyouts
• DACH
• Technology
• IK Investment Partners
• Oakley Capital
• Germany