IT & Engineering & Manufacturing Consulting Services

An international Automotive Engineering company wondered which German companies, through partnership or acquisition, would support its strategy to grow its expertise and skills in digitizing its production processes.

• Victanis first supported its client in defining the key issues and strategic objectives, given the many companies that are active in the targeted market in Germany.
• On the basis of this initial analysis, a specific industrial project was built and a subset of companies was selected and approached by Victanis for potential acquisition.

• The rigorous strategic approach led to the acquisition of a company with a turnover of € 27m. Victanis led the entire process to the acquisition of the target (Pricing, Letter of Intent, steering of the advisers retained for due diligences and producing the SPA).

• By defining upfront an industrial project (not only financial) and inviting them to be part of it, Victanis and its client won the confidence of the chosen acquisition targets.

The Groupe CLAIRE specializes in products and solutions for the distribution of drinking water (connections, valves, meters, hydraulic equipment). It is also developing innovative systems for better monitoring and controlling the drinking water supply network.

Our client had two challenges:

• To enhance its value proposition, it needed to move from a being supplier of products (such as valves) to becoming a provider of effective management solutions to help manage drinking water networks.
  
  
• To establish itself as a European player with a particular focus on Germany and the UK as priorities.

As a first step, Victanis studied the German and UK drinking water markets to better understand the important differences with France in terms of structure, technologies and standards, distribution models and the nature of end customers.

• In the United Kingdom and Germany, Victanis conducted a search for companies corresponding to the Groupe CLAIRE’s  strategic goals: similar companies were approached as well as companies contributing to the development of the new high-value proposition of the group.
• In parallel and to improve its position in Europe, Groupe CLAIRE created a German subsidiary. 

• Victanis enabled the identification of possible targets in Germany and supported the full M&A process leading to the acquisition of a leading company in the detection of leaks in water networks (FAST GmbH).

• During the course of the project, Victanis acquired a thorough understanding of Groupe CLAIRE’s expertise and strategic goals which lead to a very autonomous execution of Group CLAIRE's geographical and business diversification strategy, and helped the successful post-merger integration with FAST.

• Our client is contemplating to reinforce its footprint on the German market and to proceed to a second acquisition that extend LEHMANN+PARTNER’ current segment of activity (preservation and maintenance of traffic infrastructure);
• Our client offers in France and abroad a wide spectrum of activities and wants to understand the corresponding markets in Germany;
• Aim is to target the most appropriate segment(s) of activity for leveraging the future growth of the Group in Germany.

• A high-level review of the Construction and Infrastructure and Real Estate markets in Germany (the “Selected Markets”);
• An analysis of the related suppliers to the Selected Markets of soil investigation, construction material testing, specialist surveying and environmental engineering services;
• the identification of potential acquisition targets that will support Ginger’ strategy for expanding in Germany and broadening its portfolio of surveying and consulting services.

• A strategic report including detailed Construction market understanding with focus on the relevant fields of Ginger, along with the market drivers and future trends;
• A thorough identification and analysis of the market suppliers that can be of interest of Ginger;
• On-going project.

• Our client is already active in several countries (Spain, UK, Poland, …) where it offers traceability solutions to numerous clients on projects for the Retail, laundry, logistics, aeronautics and industry markets;
• Our client knows that growing fast in Germany requests a local footprint and has therefore decided to grow through an acquisition in Germany in the same field of “track & trace solutions”.

• Identification and review of potential acquisition targets that will support Ubi Solutions for advising, selling, install and maintaining its traceability solutions as well as reinforcing Ubi Solutions presence in Germany;
• Strategic assessment of the targets selected and how they would fit with Ubi Solutions’ growth strategy;
• Identification and detailed analysis of companies in Germany that meet the agreed criteria (“Suitable Companies”), aiming at a maximum of 80 companies;
• A joint review of the Suitable Companies with Ubi Solutions in order to short list a maximum of 10 targets for acquisition or strategic partnership (“Preferred Targets”).

• A detailed report, including thorough analysis of each Preferred Target (core know-how, business model, products, customer base if available, financials, ownership).
• On-going project.