Marie-Laure PLV (France) - Dec 2007

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01 December 2007

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Argos Soditic has completed the buy-in management buyout of promotional materials maker Marie-Laure PLV, in a transaction valuing the company between €30-40m. The private equity firm took a 53% stake in the business, with the founder and incoming and existing management holding the balance. The deal was sourced via intermediary Financière Anne-Charles, which ran a limited selection process, without an open bid.

Financing

LCL Direction Ile de France Est arranged a single tranche of amortising debt, alongside a pool of banks comprising Société Générale, Banque Populaire Rives de Paris and Caisse d’Epargne et de Prévoyance Champagne Ardennes. Acto Mezzanine arranged a mezzanine strip. The debt package was worth 2.5x the company’s EBITDA.

Company

Established in 1982 and headquartered in Paris, Marie-Laure PLV designs and produces merchandising displays and other promotional materials for a range of clients in the media, cosmetics, automobile, consumer electronics and luxury sectors. The company generated sales of approximately €45m, with an EBIT margin close to 10%. The business hopes to double in size within five years thanks to an international expansion into areas where the firm’s clients are developing, including Eastern Europe, Asia and the US. This growth will be either organic or via acquisitions.

People

Gilles Mougenot, Gilles Lorang and Bastien Guelton worked on the transaction for Argos Soditic, while Erik Pebreuil arranged the debt for LCL and Eric Gallerne represented Acto Mezzanine. The company’s founder Marie-Laure Traux-Binsse is now the chairman of the supervisory board, while Lawrence Tuck-Sherman, the former CEO of communications group Altavia Deutschland, took over as CEO of Marie-Laure PLV.

Advisers

Equity - Cabinet Arsene, Franck Chaminade, Frédéric Donnedieu (Tax)Equity - De Pardieu Brocas Maffei, Guillaume Touttee (Legal)Equity - PricewaterhouseCoopers, Didier Sidois (Financial Due Diligence)Equity - Solving International, Yves Hombreux (Other Due Diligence)Vendor - Cabinet Granrut, Frédéric Cohen (Legal)Vendor - Financière Anne-Charles, Christophe Le Cornec, Jean-Michel Olagnier (Corporate Finance)