Naxicap buys European Cargo Services in SBO

Francesca Veronesi
16 April 2018

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Naxicap Partners has acquired a majority stake in French outsourced airfreight operations service European Cargo Services (ECS) from Alpha Private Equity.

Naxicap Partners typically invests in firms with a €30-200m enterprise value.

Ardian provided a unitranche package for the transaction via Ardian Private Debt Fund III, Unquote understands. The vehicle writes cheques in the €40-300m region.

ECS has been under Alpha's ownership since 2013. The GP used its Alpha Private Equity Fund VI for the transaction at the time, which invests in companies with an enterprise value in the €20-500m region, according to Unquote Data.

The GP bought the company in an SBO transaction from Chequers Capital, Equistone Partners and Indigo Capital, which had held stakes since 2005.

Company
Established in 1998, ECS is a general sales and services agent providing outsourced services for airfreight operations. ECS aims to enable airlines to maximise their cargo capacity and sales yield, while reducing their costs. It claims to handle 900,000 tonnes of airfreight each year.

The company's turnover currently stands at €1.3bn. ECS is based in Paris and has 137 offices worldwide; it employs 949 people.

People
Alpha Associés Conseil – Olaf Kordes (partner).
European Cargo Services – Bertrand Schmoll (chair); Adrien Thominet (CEO).
Naxicap Partners – Angèle Faugier (partner).

Advisers
Equity – Banque Hottinguer (corporate finance); Archers, Fabrice Patrizio, Claire Gamain (legal); PwC, Karia Carow, Sofia Bennis (financial due diligence); Emilie Bobin (ESG due diligence); Seabury Consulting, Marco Bloemen, Tim de Bie (commercial due diligence).
Vendor – Weil Gotshal & Manges, Frederic Cazals, Cassandre Porges (legal); EY, Paul Gerber (financial due diligence); Arthur D Little, Vincent Bamberger, Matthieu Blondel (commercial due diligence); Lamartine Conseil, Emmanuelle Prost (tax); PwC, Cecile Debin (legal).
Management – Lamartine Conseil, Olivier Renault (legal); Axys Finance, Sandrine Chouard (M&A).