LBO France exits Sonovision in trade sale

Ellie Pullen
14 February 2014

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LBO France has reaped a 2.1x money multiple on the sale of Sonovision Group, a Paris-based provider of logistics and document engineering services for the space industry, to French industrial firm Ortec Group.

LBO France had originally planned to launch a sales process for the divestment of Sonovision in 2013, but was approached by Ortec last summer prior to beginning a formal process.

Following the sale, Sonovision will retain its brand and become an affiliate of Ortec. The acquisition by Ortec will give the industrials group a work force totalling 8,600 and sales of more than €1bn.

Aix-en-Provence-headquartered Ortec is a specialist in industrial, energy and environment services. The group employs 7,000 staff and generates revenues of €845m across 110 agencies in France and 25 locations in 15 African countries.

LBO France acquired Sonovision in August 2006, picking up a majority stake via the €152m Hexagone II fund that closed in the same month, according to unquote" data. The firm acquired Sonovision from turnaround fund Carevelle, which had bought the business in 1998.

BNP Paribas underwrote a senior debt package for LBO France's acquisition, while mezzanine financing was supplied by CIC Mezzanine and Mezzanis (the mezzanine fund of Crédit Agricole Private Equity, now Omnes Capital).

Under LBO France's ownership, the group entered the German, Spanish and Canadian markets, as well as the UK through the strategic acquisition of a small UK business in 2009.

Company
Founded in 1948, Sonovision is headquartered in Paris with 16 additional sites in France and a further seven abroad in Romania, Germany, Spain, the UK, Canada, India and the US. The company employs 1,600 staff and generates sales of €120m.

In the year prior to LBO France's acquisition, Sonovision generated sales of €83m and employed 1,125 staff, according to unquote" data.

Sonovision provides logistics services to the aeronautic and space industries, including project, document and language engineering, risk management and the engineering and production of maintenance tools.

The company has four subsidiaries: Gedev, Sedoc, Cigma and Kappa Conseil.

People
Laurent Gautret is the CEO of Sonovision and will remain in the role following the acquisition by Ortec. Jean-Marie Leroy, a partner at LBO France and head of its Hexagone fund, worked on the original deal for the firm. André Einaudi is the president of Ortec.

Advisers
Vendor - Transaction R, Pierpaolo Carpinelli, Pierre Sader (Corporate finance); Cabinet Stehlin, Armelle Maitre, Jean-Marie Aussedat (Legal); Deloitte, Cyril Stivala (Financial due diligence).
Acquirer - Maitre Moatti (Legal); PwC, Philippe Willemin (Financial due diligence).