Equistone offloads In Time

Katharina Semke
14 July 2015

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Equistone has sold German logistics supplier In Time Express Logistik to South African business Super Group, having purchased a majority stake in the company in August 2011.

Super Group stated it had bought In Time for 8.7x EBITDA, giving the business an enterprise valuation of €153.5m.

Under the vendor's tenure, In Time acquired Austrian railway company LTE Transport. It also entered the air cargo sector, expanded its branch network and created an internet sales platform.

On the buy side, Equistone has bought four companies since the start of 2015, the most recent being German businesses Rhodius and Sport Group.

Previous investment
In August 2011, Equistone (then Barclays Private Equity) bought In Time from ECM Equity Capital Management. The investment was made from Barclays Private Equity European Fund III, which had €2.45bn under management and is now fully invested.

Company
Based in Hannover, In Time is a provider of logistic services for the automotive and industrial suppliers sectors. The company was founded in 1983 as Direkt-Kuriere Schmidt & Busch and rebranded in 1987. In Time currently has 550 employees and operates out of 20 offices in six countries.

People
Equistone was represented by managing director Michael Bork and partners Oskar Schilcher and Alexis Milkovic. Peter Mountford is chief executive officer at Super Group. Gerd Röttger and Torsten Prelle are managing directors at In Time.

Advisers
Equity – Lincoln International (M&A); P+P Pöllath + Partners (Legal); KPMG (Tax, financial due diligence); PwC (Commercial due diligence).