IK's Trigo merges with PIC

José Rojo
09 November 2015

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Trigo Group, a French quality control service owned by IK Investment Partners since July 2011, has acquired Canadian peer PIC Group.

The combination of Trigo and PIC will result in a group generating an annual $230m in sales and employing a combined workforce of 7,000 across 20 countries. Trigo is expected to benefit from PIC's presence in the North American market, while PIC will enjoy the Trigo's access to aerospace clients.

The add-on is the third to be carried out by Trigo since IK became a majority shareholder in July 2011. The company first acquired French aeronautics and defence specialist Qualitaire, bolted on with IK's support in 2012, followed by Spanish counterpart Global Q, bought in May 2015.

Previous funding
According to unquote" data, the first private-equity-backed buyout for Trigo took place in 2004, when BBS Finance acquired the business with debt coming from Crédit Agricole and San Paolo IMI.

In June 2006, BBS offloaded its stake to Atria Capital Partenaires. Under its five-year tenure, Atria supported the company's build-up programme across Spain, China, India and CEE markets such as Russia, Hungary and the Czech Republic; the strategy reportedly led to revenues increasing by 2.5x.

IK became Trigo's majority shareholder in July 2011, when it drew equity from its €1.7bn IK 2007 fund. The GP's investment was not revealed, but the vehicle typically writes €50-150m cheques.

Company
Founded in 1985 and headquartered in Oshawa, Canada, PIC provides quality control, engineering and training services to North American manufacturers and automotive clients. The company's current headcount sits at 2,000 professionals.

Also specialising in quality control services, Trigo was created in 1997 and works with clients from the transportation sector, with a focus on the automotive and aerospace industries. Headquartered in Nanterre, the business employs 5,000 people across offices in France, Belgium, Spain, Germany, eastern Europe, Brazil, India, China and Thailand. The company most recently reported sales around the €150m mark.

People
Matthieu Rambaud is Trigo's current CEO, while Al Duffy holds the same position at PIC after founding the business in 1985.