Equistone acquires French spirits business Dugas

Greg Gille
21 December 2017

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Equistone Partners Europe has acquired a majority shareholding in French spirits distributor Dugas Company.

Equistone is investing alongside the company's management team, led by founder François-Xavier Dugas, and Chevrillon Group, a family investment holding. The latter two will remain significant minority shareholders; Chevrillon originally secured a majority stake in 2013.

The GP is currently deploying its fifth fund, which closed on its hard-cap of €2bn in 2015. As with its predecessors, EPEF V targets European buyouts in the €50-500m region. According to unquote" data this is the sixth French buyout for the vehicle, which was 69% deployed as of September this year.

BNP Paribas, HSBC and LCL provided a senior debt package for the transaction. Mezzanine will come courtesy of LGT.

According to French publication Capital Finance, the deal would value Dugas around the €100m mark, with €40m of senior debt and €15m of mezzanine.

Company
Founded in the 1980s, Dugas is a promoter and exclusive distributor of high-end spirits, headquartered in Paris. Having originally focused on port, the company later diversified into whisky and later rum.

Although financial details were not disclosed as part of the buyout, the Chevrillon website mentions a turnover of around €50m for the business.

People
Equistone – Julie Lorin, Stanislas Gaillard (partners); Edouard Fillon (investment manager); Valérian Fleury (analyst).
Groupe Chevrillon – Caroline Jurien de la Gravière (partner); Cyrille Chevrillon (CEO); Cyril Zivré (adviser).
Dugas Company – François-Xavier Dugas (founder).

Advisers
Equity - Goodwin, Thomas Maitrejean, Benjamin Garçon, Arnaud Fromion (legal); LEK, Nohmie Ben Rekassa, Serge Hovsepian, David Danon-Boileau (commercial due diligence); Deloitte, Frédérique Chenevoy, Jerome Lafforgue (financial due diligence); Arsène Taxand (tax); Finaxy (insurance due diligence).
Sellers - Natixis Partners, Valérie Pellereau, Simon Le Guillou, Sylvain Laforet (M&A); K&L Gates, Nicola Di Giovanni, Arthur Anton, Sidney Liechtenstein (legal); Roland Berger, Olivier de Panafieu, Benjamin Edmond (commercial due diligence); Eigth Advisory, Mathieu Morisot, Edouard de Nettancourt (financial due diligence).
Debt - Hogan Lovells (legal); Herbert Smith (legal).