AXA PE acquires Fives from Charterhouse

Amy King
27 July 2012

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AXA Private Equity has backed the management buyout of industrial engineering firm Fives Group in a deal that values the company at around €850m.

Previous owner Charterhouse made a full exit from the company.

AXA PE beat rival buyout houses including Cinven, PAI partners and BC Partners when it entered exclusive talks to buy the firm earlier this month.

Previous funding
Charterhouse acquired Fives Group (then Fives-Lille) in 2006 from Barclays Private Equity for around €450m, marking the company's third LBO.

Barclays acquired the firm in 2004 from Industri Kapital for €330m, in a deal that saw the first exit of a Nordic GP from the French market.

IK originally acquired the company at a price of €107 per share, in a transaction that valued Fives at around €235m. A debt package was structured by Royal Bank of Scotland and Natexis Banques Populaires.

Company
Founded in 1958, Fives is an industrial engineering firm. The company designs and manufactures process equipment, production lines and turnkey plants for sale to the aluminium, steel, glass, automotive, logistics, cement and energy sectors.

In 2011, the firm reported sales of €1.27bn. Fives employs 6,100 members of staff in 30 countries.

People
Dominique Gaillard, Lise Fauconnier, Laurent Roquette, Alexandra Goltsova and Arnaud Tardan worked on the deal for AXA PE. Lionel Giacomotto, James Arnell and Fabrice Georget led the deal at Charterhouse.

Advisers
Acquirer – Messier Maris & Associés, Erik Maris, François Guichot Perere, Edouard Giuntini (M&A); Weil Gotshal & Manges, David Aknin, Arthur de Baudry d'Asson, Alexandre Duguay, David Malamed (Legal); AT Kearney, Jérome Souied, David Richard, Charles David, Charles Perrard (Commercial due diligence); PricewaterhouseCoopers, Hervé Mader, Grégory Volpi (Financial due diligence); Landwell, Anne-Valérie Attias-Assouline, Cécile Debin, Bernard Borrely (Legal, tax).
Vendor – HSBC, Gilles Collombin, Emilie Bauvillard (M&A); Rothschild, Laurent Baril, Arnaud Joubert, Brice Lemonnier (M&A); Ashurst, Nicolas Barberis (Legal).
Company – HSBC, Gilles Collombin, Emilie Bauvillard (M&A); Rothschild, Laurent Baril, Arnaud Joubert, Brice Lemonnier (M&A); Latham & Watkins, Xavier Farde, Xavier Renard, Thomas Forschbach, Alexander Benedetti (Legal); Scotto & Associés, Lionel Scotto, Nicolas Ménard-Durand (Legal); LEK Consulting, Serge Hovsepian (Commercial due diligence); Ernst & Young, Daniel Benquis, Etienne Morlier (Financial due diligence).