Cobepa buys Socotec from Qualium

Five Arrows, one of Rothschild's private equity arms, invested via the €600m Five Arrows Principal Investments fund. Salvepar, which had provided convertible loans to the company, realised €6.7m as part of the sale.

Previous funding
Qualium (then CDC Capital Investissement) bought a 98.5% stake in Socotec from the company's management and employees in 2008. The deal was based on a valuation of 8-9x EBITDA, which gave the company an enterprise value of between €300-500m. As part of the deal, a 25% stake in the firm was set aside to leave management and employees an option to reinvest.

The senior debt of €130m was provided by BNP Paribas, Calyon, Société Générale and Natixis, while the €50m mezzanine package was provided by Capzanine, Axa Mezzanine and IFE. The senior debt providers also arranged a €60m bridge loan and a €20m revolving loan.

Company
Socotec is a provider of risk management services in the fields of quality, security, health and environment. The company provides inspection, technical assistance, consulting, training and certification services to the construction, real estate, industrial and tertiary sectors.

Based in St-Quentin-en-Yvelines and established in 1953, Socotec employs 5,000 staff. It posted a €475m turnover in 2012, up from €404m at the time of the 2008 buyout.

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• Topics
• France
• Buyouts
• Exits
• France
• Secondary buyout