Equistone buys Polo from Paragon

Equistone bought a majority stake, acquiring the business from Paragon Partners, Tempus Capital and SM Investment. Paragon was the previous majority owner of the company.

Under Equistone's ownership, Polo plans on expanding its network in both its home market of Germany as well as Switzerland, where it currently has seven stores.

Previous funding
In 2011, Polo became insolvent and its CEO, Klaus Esser, left the company in February 2012. In March 2012, Paragon and Tempus bought the business.

Company
Founded in 1980 and headquartered in Jüchen, Polo is a retailer of motorcycle clothing, accessories and technology.

The company stocks 40,000 products across 80 stores in Germany and seven in Switzerland.

Polo generated €114m in revenues for the year ending in September 2014. It employs 800 staff.

People
Michael Kern is the CEO of Polo. Equistone director Dirk Schekerka, investment director Alexis Milkovic and analyst Katja Mühlhäuser worked on the deal.

Advisers
Equity - Pöllath + Partners (M&A); Deloitte (Financial due diligence); N+1 (Debt advisory); Latham (Legal); Goetzpartners (Commercial due diligence).

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• Topics
• DACH
• Buyouts
• Consumer
• Germany
• Equistone Partners Europe
• Secondary buyout