EMZ in talks to buy Vignal Lighting in SBO

Francesca Veronesi
19 November 2018

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French GP EMZ Partners has entered exclusive talks with Eurazeo to buy a majority stake in France-based Vignal Lighting Group, a lighting and signalling products specialist in a €119m deal.

The transaction would allow Eurzaeo's small- and mid-cap investment subsidiary, Eurazeo PME, to make €119m in proceeds from the sale, including the 2016 repayment of the bonds for €27m, representing a return of 2.8x on its initial investment.

The GPs have entered into exclusives negotiations until January 2019.

EMZ, currently investing via EMZ 8 (which closed on €815m around a year ago), specialises in private bond financing as part of management-sponsored transactions, in which family or management are majority shareholders. EMZ 8 generally invests between €10-120m at a time.

Previous funding
Vignal was created as the result of a 2014 merger between Vignal Systems and ABL Lights.

3i, Finadvance and Viveris Management acquired a 75% stake in Vignal in 2004, in a €20m buyout. ActoMezz backed the sponsorless buyout of Vignal in April 2008. Eurazeo subsequently acquired a 72% stake in Vignal in 2014, alongside Jean-Louis Coutin and the management team, in a deal that valued the company at €50m.

That same year Eurazeo PME provided an extra €15m to Vignal Systems for the €25m bolt-on of French light manufacturer ABL Lights, backed by 21 Centrale Partners.

21 Partners invested in ABL in 2006, when the company was called Auteroche-ABL – a result of the merger of Auteroche and ABL Lights – prior to its merger with NBB Nordisk Bilbelysing to create the ABL Lights Group.

Company
Based in Corbas, Vignal specialises in the design, manufacture and marketing of lighting and signalling products and systems for industrial and commercial vehicles.

The group made annual sales of €106m in 2017 and employs 500 people. Its R&D centres are located in France in the industrial areas of Lyon and Caen, and in Rancate, Switzerland.

People
Eurazeo – Pierre Meignen (managing director).
Vignal Lighting Group – Jean-Louis Coutin (CEO).

Advisers
Vendor – Canaccord (corporate finance).