Astorg buys Aries Alliance in SBO

Aries Allience's enterprise value was less than €300m. CEO Eric Guyon and management retained a substantial minority in the business, a source close to the situation told Unquote.

As part of the transaction, previous backers including family holding company Phoenix, CM-CIC Investissement, BNP Paribas Développement and Ace Management exited their investments.

Astorg drew capital from the €2.1bn Astorg VI to finance the deal. The vehicle held a final close in 2015 and was 40% deployed by March 2018, according to Unquote Data.

The LBO sees the Guyon family sell its majority stake in the business. In the previous capital structure, the family owned two thirds of the company, Unquote understands. The deal was sourced via an auction led by Rothschild that attracted interest from international GPs.

Astorg plans to support Aries' organic growth, and will consider expansion via acquisitions in the US. 

Debt
The transaction was supported by senior debt amounting to €80m, with A and B tranches provided by banks BNP Paribas, Banque Populaire du Grand Ouest, LCL and Societe Generale, several of which have been historical backers of Aries, Unquote understands.

Previous backing
CM-CIC and BNP Paribas first backed Aries in 2000.

In 2015, Aries bought Dufieux Industrie, a Grenoble-based manufacturer of five-axis milling machines, aided by financing from CM-CIC. 

In 2016, Ace Management joined the capital structure in a transaction that saw €87m invested in the business.Management invested €58.5m, while CM-CIC injected €16.6m, BNP Paribas €8.9m and Ace €3m.

Company
The company was created from the spin-out of Alstom's metal forming activities in 2000. Today, Aries is a specialist in metal forming and milling technologies for the aeronautics industry, offering its clients specialised metal forming machines as well as mission critical parts. More recently, the company has produced titanium hot-formed parts, serving leading aircraft and engine manufacturers in Europe, North America and Asia.

Headquartered in Nantes, Aries generates sales of €130m and employs 350 people at three production sites in Nantes and Grenoble (France), as well as in Monroe (North Carolina, US).

People
Aries Alliance – Eric Guyon (CEO).
Astorg – Christian Couturier (partner); Benjamin Dierickx (director).

Advisers
Equity – Goodwin, Christophe Digoy, Thomas Dupont (legal); Bain & Company, Jean Marc Leroux, Bernard Birchler, Aurélien Fougerard (corporate finance), 8 Advisory, Justin Welstead, Dimitri Cromback (financial due diligence).
Vendor – Transaction R, Pierpaolo Carpinelli, Martin Volatier, Augustin Delouvrier (corporate finance); Paul Hastings, Olivier Deren, Charlotte Dupont (legal); LEK, Serge Hovsepian, David Danon-Boileau (corporate finance); EY, Stanislas de Gastines, Jérôme Cazauvieilh (financial due diligence).

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• Topics
• Buyouts
• Exits
• France
• Industrials
• France
• Astorg Partners
• Credit Mutuel Equity (ex CM-CIC Investissement)
• BNP Paribas Développement
• Secondary buyout