Ciclad buys Slat from Initiative & Finance

Ellie Pullen
30 January 2014

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Ciclad has acquired French producer of electrical power supplies Slat in a secondary buyout from Initiative & Finance.

Members of the company's management team reinvested in Slat alongside Ciclad and increased the size of their shareholding in the business. Ciclad acquired a majority stake in Slat, allowing Initiative & Finance to exit the business.

Following Ciclad's acquisition, the firm will begin to look at replacing Slat's current CEO André Guinet, who took up his position in 2003. Guinet partially sold his shareholding in the company in this transaction.

Under Ciclad's ownership, Slat is anticipating organic growth in the French market and will look to make strategic acquisitions. The company also plans on increasing product performance, said Ciclad's Eric Bruguière.

Initiative & Finance acquired Slat in June 2009, when the management carved out the division from US conglomerate 3M (Slat had been acquired by 3M in 2000). Initiative & Finance picked up a stake in excess of 75% in the transaction, according to unquote" data. A senior debt package was supplied by Banque Populaire Loire et Lyonnais and CIC Lyonnaise de Banque.

At the time of Initiative & Finance's acquisition in 2009, Slat employed 60 staff and had recorded revenues of €11.7m in the year prior.

Debt
A senior debt package has been supplied by LCL and CIC for the transaction. According to French publication Capital Finance, the facility is worth 3x Slat's 2013 EBIT figure.

Company
Founded in 1953, Slat is headquartered in Champagne-au-Mont-d'Or with an additional office in Stuttgart. The company employs 70 staff and recorded turnover of more than €15m in 2013.

Slat designs and manufactures electrical power supplies and battery chargers for security and surveillance. Its products are designed to work autonomously in the event of a power failure, ensuring constant surveillance or protection for buildings and companies.

The company's power supplies can be used for burglar and fire alarms, video surveillance systems and access control panels.

People
André Guinet is the CEO of Slat. Ciclad's Nicolas Rostand and Eric Bruguière worked on the deal.

Advisers
Equity - Mazars Corporate Finance, Matthieu Boye, Stéphane Pithois, Ghislain de Feydeau (Corporate finance); HPML, Thomas Hermetet, Aurélie Bonsch (Legal); Auditeurs & Conseils Associés, Eric Chapus (Financial due diligence).
Vendor - Lamartine Conseil, Fabien Mauvais, Fanny Malgat (Legal).