Activa, Paluel-Marmont sell Gaz Européen to DCC's Butagaz

Alice Tchernookova
16 November 2016

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Activa Capital and Paluel-Marmont Capital have sold their stakes in natural gas provider Gaz Européen to Butagaz.

Butagaz's owner, the industrial conglomerate DCC Group, has made a binding offer to acquire 97% of the share capital of Gaz Européen, based on an initial enterprise value of €110m.

The remaining shares, held by members of Gaz Européen's management team, will subsequently be acquired based on Gaz Européen's results for the years ending 31 March 2021, 2022 and 2023. The acquisition will be made fully in cash and is expected to be completed in Q1 2017.

The transaction is hoped to strengthen Butagaz's position in the liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) segment, DCC said in a statement.

According to a statement, Activa's and Paluel-Marmont's backing saw the number of sites managed by Butagaz triple and turnover more than double over the last three years, from €105m and 26 staff in 2012/13, to €205m and 31 employees today.

Previous funding
In December 2013, Activa and Paluel-Marmont took a minority stake in Gaz Européen, a French B2B energy supplier though an OBO transaction.

DCC acquired GPL Butagaz from Shell in 2015 for €465m.

Company
Founded in 2005 and headquartered in Paris, the Gaz Européen group is a natural gas retailer serving the entire French territory through regional entities, including Gaz de Paris, Gaz de Lille, Gaz de Nantes, Gaz de Lyon, Gaz de Marseille and Gaz de Toulouse.

Supplying energy management companies, apartment blocks with collective heating systems, public authorities and the service sector in France, Gaz Européen also has experience in customised products and services claiming to offer customers more control over their energy consumption. The group was founded in 2005, when the French natural gas market was deregulated.

Gaz Européen currently claims 500,000 customers in the collective residential B2B market across 10,000 sites, and a turnover in excess of €200m (€205m in 2015). It employs 31 staff. Its normalised operating profit in 2015 was of €15.7m, according to DCC.

People
Activa Capital – Charles Diehl (partner).
Paluel-Marmont Capital – Xavier Poppe (partner).

Advisers
Vendor – Transaction R, Laurent Buiatti (M&A); DLA Piper, Sarmad Haidar (legal); Mayer Brow, Olivier Aubouin (legal); KPMG, Mathieu Schohn (financial due diligence).