capiton acquires majority stake in Betonbau Group

capiton acquires a majority stake in the Betonbau Group alongside its experienced management team, Mr. Volker Ernst and Mr. Thomas Sachers, from the SCHWENK Group in a carve-out transaction.

Betonbau Group, headquartered in Waghäusel, Germany, was established in 1963. The name “Betonbau” goes back to its foundations when the company focused on the production of concrete enclosures for local electrical substations.

Today, Betonbau is the largest German player in the attractive niche markets of turnkey technical stations such as transformer stations for power grids, charging infrastructure for e-mobility and point of presence/ POP stations for telecommunication networks. The company successfully expanded its operations to all stages of the value chain, including planning and engineering, production of the enclosures and different metal components, assembly of the electronical components as well as transportation, installation, and ultimate replacement/refurbishment of old technical stations. The group employs a total of 900 FTEs across four sites in Germany and one site in the Czech Republic, manufacturing its products for more than 1,000 public and private customers.

Betonbau’s key differentiating factors are its market leading quality, its strong track-record in serving various different segments and long-term customer relationships, its ability to execute large contracts for a broad product portfolio and its strong vertical integration. Additionally, Betonbau’s strategically well-positioned production sites optimize the geographic coverage and underpin its market-leading position.

Thomas Sachers and Volker Ernst, managing directors of Betonbau commented: “Over the past years, together with our employees and a cultural change, we have been able to successfully develop Betonbau to the clear market leader for turnkey technical stations. We look forward to continuing this strong growth trajectory via further geographical expansion, buildout of new, fast-growing segments as well as inorganic growth. With capiton, we have found a strong financial partner to accelerate this growth strategy.”

Christoph Spors, partner at capiton added: “We are delighted to be the partner of Betonbau, a real hidden champion with a strong technological footprint. Betonbau will be a key-player in the energy transition (“Energiewende”) that will benefit from the long-term growth in demand for energy caused by the booming e-mobility market and the replacement of fossil heating energy with electrical energy, for instance. Betonbau‘s intelligent transformer stations will indeed play a crucial role in providing energy ranging from conventional to decentralized green energy supplies to households all over the country.”

Transaction summary

Financing of the transaction is provided by capiton’s most recent investment vehicle, capiton VI fund, which held a final close at € 504 million in November of this year. Additional funds have been reserved to finance both organic and inorganic growth initiatives. Sellers and buyers have agreed not to disclose the financial terms of the transaction. capiton was advised by BMH Bräutigam and Ashurst (legal), BET (commercial), Deloitte (financial & IT), EY (tax & structure), Lincoln International (debt advisory), Marsh (Insurance), Tauw (Environmental and ESG) as well as by senior industry professionals.