2004-11-18

Industri Kapital acquires Idex

Category

Press Releases

The Industri Kapital 2000 Fund has signed an agreement to acquire Idex S.A. from the founding family and a consortium of financial investors for an enterprise value of approximately €200 million.

Founded in 1963 by the Planchot family, Idex is France’s largest independent energy and environment services company. The group employs approximately 3,000 people and has estimated sales of €400 million in 2004. Idex’s core activity is the technical maintenance and management of energy. The group offers global solutions to its clients including the management of collective heating and cooling networks (public and private) as well as the technical maintenance of buildings and third party management of utilities. Idex’s clients include local authorities, residential complexes and industrial corporations.

Commenting on the acquisition Christopher Masek, Partner of Industri Kapital (IK) said: “This acquisition is IK’s fifth investment in France since 2000 and constitutes our first French buy-out of a family-owned company. IK’s experience in local technical services as well as management of long- term contracts, will allow us to support the development of the group. We will work with the management team, led by Alain Planchot, to identify and implement profit improvement opportunities together with strategic acquisitions”.

Alain Planchot, Chairman of Idex, adds: “We are pleased to have partnered with Industri Kapital. Their industrial approach and financial resources combined with an active ownership will provide the group with the means to successfully continue its development”.

For further information please contact:

Christopher Masek, Partner, Industri Kapital: +44 778 756 87 40
Françoise Planchot, DRHC, IDEX : +33 1 47 12 42 15
Maria Nilsson, Press co-ordinator, Industri Kapital: +46 8 678 95 51

About Industri Kapital

Industri Kapital is a European private equity firm with Nordic roots, managing close to € 4 billion in fund commitments from Nordic, European and international institutional investors. Since 1989, Industri Kapital has acquired 48 European companies. The current portfolio encompasses 26 companies with a total turnover exceeding €9 billion.
IK invests mainly in mid-sized companies with strong cash flow and profit improvement potential, operating in mature industries with fundamental underlying growth. Over the years, IK has developed significant experience within a number of industry sectors, primarily the manufacturing and service industries.
In France, IK's current investments include Laho Equipement (2000), the number two construction equipment rental group in France, and Ceva Sante Animale (2003), a French company providing animal health products and veterinary pharmaceuticals. During 2004, the exits of Groupe Fives-Lille, a leading international engineering group and Labeyrie, a European market leader in seafood, blini and spreadable products, have been announced.