Riverside and Halder acquire Keymile from Hannover Finanz

Sonnie Ehrendal
03 November 2011

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The Riverside Company and Halder have acquired telecommunications firm Keymile from Hannover Finanz in a secondary management buyout.

Riverside took a majority stake and invested from its fourth Riverside Europe Fund, which closed at €420m in October 2008. Halder acquired a substantial minority shareholding, investing from Halder Gimv Germany II, which closed at €325m in December 2007.
Hannover Finanz and former CEO Ziaedin Chahabadi have fully exited their investments. Management has increased its stake in the company. The value of the transaction is believed to be up to €150m.
Riverside vice president Balázs Tahy told unquote" that the GP will look to grow the company organically and through add-on acquisitions, with two potential targets in the pipeline already. He expressed support for the current management and its strategy over the next three to four years. The investment originated through a limited auction introduced by a corporate financier.

Debt
Debt was refinanced by a bank club consisting of Raiffeisen International Bank, Bayerische Landesbank, LBBW and KBC, which provided senior debt and a working capital revolver facility. The transaction was leveraged in line with the current average debt ratio for similar transactions, which is around 50-55%.

Previous funding
Previous owner Hannover Finanz took a majority stake in Keymile via an MBO in 2007. It supported the company's acquisition of Aastra Networks in 2010 and its expansion into South America.

Company
Keymile, established in a 2002 merger, manufactures data transmission systems to telecommunications network operators. Its main products consist of multi-service access platforms, which allow for voice and data transmission over copper and fibre-optic cables. Headquartered in Hannover, Germany and Switzerland, the company employs around 430 staff and recorded sales of €120m in 2010.

People
Principal Peter Schaberger, vice president Tahy and senior associate Sven Schulze managed the deal on behalf of Riverside. Partners Thomas Fotteler and Michael Wahl, and investment manager Christian Muschalik worked on the deal for Halder. CEO Andreas Schober, managing director Martin Walka, investment manager Volker Tangemann and corporate counsel Jörg Swoboda represented Hannover Finanz.

Advisers
Equity, Riverside – Jones Day, Ansgar Rempp, Olaf Benning, Sandra Kamper, Martin Kock, Friederike Göbbels, Adriane Sturm, Johannes Zöttl, Luis Riesgo (Legal); Doralt Seist Csoklich, Christoph Leitgeb (Legal); Schellenberg Wittmer, Anita Schläpfer (Legal); Inhouse, Peter Parmentier (Legal).
Equity, Halder – Mayer Brown, Markus Strelow, Neil Caddy (Legal).
Vendor – DC Advisory Partners, Sascha Pfeiffer (Corporate finance); Aderhold, Dirk Lange, Jan Hartmann (Legal); Gassauer-Fleissner, Hanno Schatzmann, Georg Eckert (Legal); Inhouse, Jörg Swoboda (Legal).
Management – Loschelder, Frank Heerstraßen, Martin Empt (Legal).