Ardian sells Charlois to ICG

Ellie Pullen
17 February 2015

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Ardian has sold its 31% stake in Groupe Charlois, a French cooperage specialising in oak, back to the company’s management and Intermediate Capital Group (ICG).

The group's president, Sylvain Charlois, increased his majority stake through the transaction from 51% to 67%.

Ardian (then Axa Private Equity) acquired oak stave producer Charlois in January 2010. The acquisition financed the merger of the company with cooperage Saury Group.

BNP Paribas Développement, Unigrains, Carvest and Grand Sud-Ouest Capital all invested for minority stakes at the time of Ardian's acquisition.

Charlois has since acquired Winemakers Cooperage in California from Australia's Foster's Group.

Company
Headquartered in Murlin, Charlois specialises in the production and natural drying of oak staves, which are used to make barrels for wine and spirits. It operates two stave mills and one sawmill.

The company also operates three cooperages, from which it manufactures 62,000 barrels per year.

Charlois generated revenues of €51m for the year ending March 2014.

People
Sylvain Charlois is the president of Groupe Charlois. François Jerphagnon is a managing director within Ardian's expansion team. Hadj Djemaï is head of mezzanine and equity investments at ICG in France.

Advisers
Vendor – Messiers Maris & Associés, Jean-Marie Messier, Guillaume Dumesnil (M&A); PwC, Philip Dykstra, Abdelhamid Daoud (Financial due diligence); De Pardieu Brocas Maffei, Jean-François Pourdieu, Maxime Dequesne (Legal).
Company – Azoulai & Associés, Jean-Michel Azoulai (Legal).
Acquirer – Edmond de Rothschild Corporate Finance, François Paillier (M&A); Linklaters, Vincent Ponsonnaille, Sébastien Pontillo, Edouard Chapellier (Legal, tax); KPMG, Axel Rebaudières, Céline Lecuyer, Stéphanie Taupin (Financial due diligence); LEK, Serge Hovsepian, David Danon-Boileau, Benedicte Guenegan (Commercial due diligence); Fidal, Florence Olivier (Legal).