Astorg Partners invests in Armor Iimak

Astorg invested from Astorg Mid-Cap Fund, which launched in October 2020 with a target of EUR 1bn. Speaking to Unquote, Astorg director Charles-Hubert Le Baron said of the fund: "We will make a final announcement in February for the final close of Mid-Cap. We are already above the EUR 1bn target. The first close was held pre-summer 2021."

Le Baron told Unquote: "We have a strong deal pipeline and we are focusing on companies with enterprise values of around EUR 150m-400m, investing equity tickets of around EUR 150m-250m. We have a disciplined investment strategy, and we generate many investment opportunities at a European level."

The auction process kicked off in early November, according to Le Baron. "We had tracked Armor for almost a year, which had put us in a situation to submit a quasi-binding offer when the sell-side bank was expecting non-binding offers, and we were then able to convert our offer into a firm offer a week later. We understand there were less than five other bidders. The company was in a situation where they had completed a transformational acquisition (Iimak) which was announced in early October, creating a lot of integration work for the management team. It was in both parties' interests to progress with our offer after having found the right financial partner."

Astorg has secured a debt package of a little more than 5x, according to Le Baron. "The equity split is 60% for the management team of Armor and 40% for Astorg."

Previously, Armor's management team held 75%, while the remaining 25% was owned by regional investment funds including Siparex, Arkéa, Ouest Croissance and LCL, according to Le Baron. "We are mostly buying back those shares from regional investors and some shares of managers," he said.

Astorg Mid-Cap has made one other investment, in UK-based software company Opus in 2021.

Company
Armor-Iimak is headquartered in Nantes, France, and produces specialised printing materials, including thermal transfer ribbons. It employs 1,600 people globally.

The Armor group posted annual revenues of more than EUR 200m in 2021, according to a press release.

People
Astorg Partner – Charles-Hubert Le Baron (director); Lionel de Posson (managing partner).
Armor Group – Hubert de Boisredon (chair, CEO)

Advisers
Vendor – Natixis Partners (M&A); Equalis Capital (M&A); LEK (commercial due diligence); PwC (financial due diligence); Jones Day (legal).
Equity – Advancy (commercial due diligence); PwC (financial due diligence); Paul Hastings (legal).

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