H1 2024
AUCTUS HALF-YEAR REPORT 2024
Dear friends and business partners of AUCTUS,
We’re excited to share our semi-annual report, giving you a glimpse into AUCTUS’ progress during the first half of 2024.
The overall economic climate remains challenging, with both companies and consumers continuing to prioritize saving. However, we’re starting to see signs of stabilization, as reflected in slightly increased investments and a noticeable uptick in deal flow.
2 Exits
Fortunately, we have already been able to sell two of our successfully developed portfolio companies to new strategic partners, resulting in excellent exits.
Profiltubi – is a leading Italian producer and distributor of carbon steel welded tubes. Since AUCTUS’s majority investment in 2020, the company has completed a relevant strategic add-on acquisition and achieved an impressive annual organic growth far exceeding reference market average. The company concluded 2023 with approximately €200 million in revenue.
MAXI-PRESS – is a spare parts and consumables supplier for industrial laundries with international presence. Since AUCTUS acquired a majority stake in 2018, the company has completed two add-on acquisitions and ended 2023 with a turnover of 21 million euros.
11 BUY-AND-BUILD ACQUISITIONS
Our portfolio companies have seen significant growth and continued their journey towards market leadership as our investment team seized opportunities to further integrate our existing buy-and-build concepts both geographically and vertically.
BUILTECH – As the leading provider of 360° Technical Building Service (TBS) in the German-speaking region, Builtech successfully entered the Nordic market by acquiring Sweden’s market leader, Brion Group, marking its 31st acquisition. This move not only boosted Builtech’s revenue to over half a billion EUR but also increased its workforce by 500 employees to over 2,000.
Acquisition criteria: B2B in the TGA sector with > €1m EBITDA (heating, heat pumps/air conditioning, cooling, plumbing, electrical work, etc.); German-speaking region/Nordics.
GUSTOSO – The fast-casual restaurant group made a significant step in its expansion strategy by acquiring a majority stake in the well-known Dutch tapas chain ’t Zusje Franchise B.V., establishing its presence in the Netherlands with its 11th acquisition. Gustoso plans to bring this concept to Germany next year.
Acquisition criteria: QSR (quick service restaurant) and fast-casual restaurant groups, food delivery services with > €0.7m EBITDA; Europe.
MAI – The digital agency group expanded by acquiring eresult GmbH, a leading research-based user experience (UX) agency in the German-speaking region. Eresult enhances MAI Group’s KPI-focused service offerings as its 9th acquisition and strengthens the group’s consumer enterprise UX design capabilities.
Acquisition criteria: Digital agencies (consulting and implementation services; digital products (CX/UX, mobile apps) with > €0,7m EBITDA and > 10% EBITDA margin; German-speaking region.
LIFE COURIERS – The international specialist logistics provider for medical and pharmaceutical transport strategically expanded through its 17th acquisition of the European Radio Pharma Logistics Group (RLG). This group includes IsoVital, IsoLife, and ISI, advantageously complementing existing service offerings for radiopharmaceutical transport while expanding market presence.
Acquisition criteria: Logistics company with > €1m EBIT in life sciences sectors (pharma, bioscience, medical technology, testing, CRO); Worldwide.
TERRAS – With the vision of “building connections,” the TERRAS Group continues to revolutionise the civil engineering and infrastructure markets. The group completed four acquisitions during the first half of the year with Grothe Bau, Brauckmann Damm, Vermessungsbüro Wolfert, and Wendt Grundbau. This drives further consolidation of TERRAS’s service portfolio across key metropolitan regions as it grows to over €180 million in total performance and more than 10 companies.
Acquisition criteria: Production companies (Classical civil engineering, special civil engineering, railway construction) and service providers (resources: quarries, landfills, recycling; ground investigations; testing; drilling) with > €1m EBITDA; German-speaking region/Benelux.
ORARA – The group, consisting of renowned planning and consulting companies for the construction and renovation of infrastructure-related buildings in German-speaking countries, expanded its portfolio in the first half of the year with the acquisition of sh+ GmbH, gaining professional project management and real estate consulting expertise. ORARA currently has six companies in its network and continues an inorganic growth path.
Acquisition criteria: Companies focused on general planning, architecture, specialist planning as well as related fields with > €0.5 million EBIT, > 15 employees; German-speaking region.
HIGHBERG – The transformation consulting group has gained valuable expertise this year through leading Dutch HR consulting firm BexerHamstra B.V., adding 40 specialists and growing to around 500 employees overall. BexerHamstra was Highberg’s 8th acquisition.
Acquisition criteria: Consulting firms focused on transformation consulting (digital transformation; organizational change; sustainability); training companies focused on transformation-related topics; > €0.7m EBITDA; Europe.
HORST PÖPPEL & OXALIS – The buy-and-build concept operating in the last-mile logistics sector for liquid/gaseous energy carriers has formed a network of three regional companies in Germany and the UK with market-leading positions in fuel transport stations, airport transport, bitumen transport for niche gases and hydrogen following its latest acquisition from Johannes Martens (GmbH Co. KG) Spedition.
Acquisition criteria: Logistics companies transporting fuels or liquid bulk chemicals; > €2 million EBITDA; Central Europe (DACH + neighboring countries).
Fundraising AUCTUS VI
After nearly five years of investment activity, AUCTUS V is now invested in 30 platforms and has performed exceptionally well. Therefore we will be launching AUCTUS VI in the second half of the year while continuing our proven successful buy-and-build strategy with this fund.
The team spirit at AUCTUS is exceptional
The AUCTUS team is growing rapidly and the team spirit is getting stronger and stronger. It’s incredibly important for us to maintain this sense of unity and motivation at a high level in order to keep supporting each other to achieve exceptional performance. Our fantastic team offsite in Barcelona was a huge success where we shared lots of laughs, had inspiring conversations, celebrated our friendships as well as our joint achievements.
Strengthened by this amazing team spirit we look forward to creating new market leaders together with you in the second half of the year.
Your AUCTUS team
About Auctus
With over 420 investments in the last 23 years, AUCTUS is the most active investment company for European SMEs. Our investments focus on majority shareholdings in companies with annual sales of between EUR 10 million and EUR 150 million.
AUCTUS stands for sustainable organic growth, but also inorganic growth through acquisitions. We achieve this in a trusting partnership together with the management of our companies. We specialize in building successful medium-sized groups of companies - we make market leaders. The more than 35 experienced AUCTUS investment experts currently manage 50 platform investments from various sectors of the economy. The platform holdings, with a total of over 200 individual companies, generate annual sales of € 3 billion. Sales and earnings have been growing at >10% per year for years.
Our successful work is regularly rewarded with prestigious awards and top international rankings.
