Our profile

For over 20 years, we have been supporting companies on their way to market leadership with flexible and pragmatic equity solutions.

Who we are

AUCTUS Capital Partners AG is an independent investment company founded by entrepreneurs. The fund capital under management of over € 1 billion comes from the AUCTUS team, successful entrepreneurs and some hand-picked long-term institutional investors. The AUCTUS team is comprised of over 35 experienced investment managers and is currently looking after more than 50 platform investments in various economic sectors.

WHAT WE DO

The AUCTUS team is looking for attractive, profitable companies with growth potential. We do not interfere in day-to-day operations but act as a sparring partner for the companies’ managers and a source of ideas and network for the strategic development. Also, we very actively support our platform companies with add-on acquisitions.

WHAT WE HAVE ACHIEVED SO FAR

With over 400 company investments since 2001, AUCTUS is the most successful German investment company and the clear number 1 in buy-and-build strategies where we created dozens of market leaders. Over five fund generations, AUCTUS has achieved the highest returns of all European private equity firms. A very large part of the capital comes from the AUCTUS team itself. Our senior partners have been together for more than 15 years providing enormous consistency.

„We always align our actions with our fundamental principles.“

Dr. Ingo Krocke, Founder

OUR LOCATIONS

AUCTUS Munich

AUCTUS was founded in Munich in 2001 and launched its first fund with EUR 8 million in equity in 2003. Since then, AUCTUS has continued on an exponential growth course that has been consolidated by outstanding, innovative buy-and-build strategies, highly profitable exits and steadily increasing funds. In 5 generations of funds, the German team has not only managed to successfully expand the portfolio on a European level, but has also turned numerous medium-sized companies into global market leaders. AUCTUS continues to achieve record annual results and has established itself as the most active private equity firm in the German-speaking region with a team of 35 investment experts and an annual volume of 20-30 deals and is striving to become the European market leader in the mid-market PE environment.

AUCTUS Milan

AUCTUS has been investing in Italy since 2007 and has already made dozens of successful investments here. This makes Italy the second most important country for AUCTUS after Germany. The team of 10 Italian professionals supports both national Italian companies and international buy-and-build strategies.

AUCTUS WARSAW

Poland is ideally suited for AUCTUS due to its strong manufacturing industry and the great potential for rolling out Polish buy-and-build strategies to Europe and European strategies in Poland. Since 2023, AUCTUS operates a location in Warsaw and is constantly expanding its activities in Poland.

OUR SUCCESS STORY

When AUCTUS was founded in 2001, the investment industry in Germany was almost exclusively focused on Internet start-ups and large buyouts by foreign funds. After a decade of economic stagnation in the 1990s (“Germany, the sick man of Europe”), equity ratios of less than 15% in the SME sector and the erosion of the competitive edge in many areas, there was little investor interest in German SMEs. However, we saw this as an opportunity to invest in good medium-sized companies and develop them further together with the entrepreneurs.

Raising equity for the fund was virtually impossible after the global economic crisis triggered by September 11, 2001. It took one and a half years and over 200 investor visits to launch our Evergreen Fund with € 8 million in equity in 2003.

But then things really got going. In 2004, the first buy-and-build concept was launched with TimePartner, which forged 10 successful temporary employment agencies into a market-leading group in just 24 months. By 2007, the funds had increased to over € 100 million thanks to successful disposals and additional investors. At that time, the AUCTUS team already consisted of 8 managers.

In 2007, 10 investments were made in a single year for the first time. Highlights of the AUCTUS portfolio at the time included Career Partner in the education sector and PharmaZell in the pharmaceutical sector. AUCTUS was also successful with its first, highly profitable exits and received the “Small/Mid Cap Exit of the Year Award 2007” for the TimePartner transaction.

After the AUCTUS team had built up a diversified portfolio of 11 platform companies, the full focus during the financial crisis was on preserving the value of the companies – with success. Between 2008 and 2011, the team was successful in setting up new buy-and-build concepts in the healthcare sector (Celenus and Procon) or marketing & sales services (DialogFeld, Benchmark Partner), among others. Other concepts in which AUCTUS participated were Noventiz in the area of waste disposal services, CTJ as a logistics provider and Flemming Dental, Germany’s leading group of dental laboratories.

The third fund was launched in 2011 with a volume of EUR 155 million and highly reputable international investors. Further buy & build platforms were established in the logistics, rehabilitation clinics, IT services, food laboratories and pharmaceutical certification segments, among others. AUCTUS began targeted European expansion with many platform companies. To date, almost 100 acquisitions and around 50 new store openings have been made from the investments of the third fund – the majority of these abroad.

The launch of the fourth fund with EUR 230 million marks the step towards globalization of the AUCTUS portfolio. Over the past 5 years, our platforms have acquired dozens of companies in North America and Asia and opened additional locations there.

The fifth AUCTUS fund was launched in 2019. More than ¾ of the capital comes from the AUCTUS team and entrepreneurs – many of them successful managers of AUCTUS platforms. We are further expanding our market leadership in Germany – particularly in the buy-and-build segment – and investing globally from our German-speaking platforms.

In April 2021, AUCTUS moved to a new location in Munich’s beautiful Haidhausen district and from now on works from a brand new office in Franziskanerstr. 14 with the latest technical standards and in a modern open-space atmosphere. In addition, 2021 was an absolute record year, despite the many challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic. With 53 acquisitions and 8 platform investments, AUCTUS sets a number of milestones for the portfolio

Despite complex economic challenges, 2022 and 2023 were also two clearly successful years for AUCTUS with a total of 6 exits, 9 new platforms and 81 acquisitions. In addition, there is increased activity on the Italian market with a local team that has grown to 10 members. By the end of 2023, the AUCTUS Milan team will hold a significant share of the AUCTUS success with a total of 30 investments, including 6 platform companies.

AUCTUS operates a location in Warsaw since 2023 and is constantly expanding its activities in Poland.