Brussels/Rueil-Malmaison, 6 November 2024 – Cobepa is pleased to announce that it has entered into exclusive discussions with IK Partners (“IK”), ISAI Gestion (“ISAI”) and Bertrand Liber to acquire a majority stake in Ascentiel Groupe (“Ascentiel” or “the Group”), a leading digital insurance brokerage platform providing Property & Casualty (“P&C”) cover for individuals and small businesses in several specialty niches. The acquisition will be made in partnership with the management team and is subject to consultation with the works council. The transaction is expected to close before the end of 2024 and financial terms are not disclosed.

Founded in 1970, Ascentiel has established itself as a leading digital brokerage platform specialising in the distribution and management of non-life insurance contracts for both individuals and professionals. Having developed significant expertise in the field of car insurance, the Group mainly focuses on near-to-sub-standard motor insurance risks, leveraging the prominence of its flagship brand Assurpeople.com and its fully digital customer experience. The Group covers the entire insurance distribution cycle, from product co-development with insurers to underwriting or contract and claim management.

Over recent years, Ascentiel has continued to diversify its offering to include attractive new specialty products, most notably through the highly successful launch of Airbag, a wholesale brokerage platform specialised in inherent defect insurance for construction professionals. Since then and with the support of IK and ISAI, the Group has achieved several strategic objectives and successfully executed add-on acquisitions, including Atara in 2022 and NIBW in 2024. The acquisition of Atara strengthened the Group’s position in the pet insurance sector, while the acquisition of NIBW facilitated the Group’s geographic expansion into Spain and Portugal. At present, Ascentiel employs over 180 people who are based across its headquarters in Rueil-Malmaison as well as its offices in Aix-en-Provence and Madrid. In partnership with leading insurance companies operating in France, Ascentiel manages contracts for over 220,000 end-clients.

For further questions, please contact:

IK Partners
Vidya Verlkumar
Phone: +44 (0)7787 558 193
vidya.verlkumar@ikpartners.com

Renta Group Oy (“Renta Group” or “Renta”) acquires Tunnel Support AS and Tunnel Support Sverige AB (together “Tunnel Support” or “the Company”), from Andersen Mek Verksted AS. Tunnel Support is a rental company offering specialised machinery for tunnelling infrastructure projects across Norway and Sweden. The Company is headquartered in Bergen, Norway.

With the acquisition, Renta significantly strengthens its offering and market position in the tunnelling infrastructure rental segment. Tunnel Support is a growing company with strong profitability and a modern fleet consisting of machines from high-quality OEMs. Renta’s objective, together with the management of Tunnel Support, is to seek further growth in the rental of specialised tunnelling machines, while also capturing cross-selling synergies between the Company and Renta’s general rental operations.

The acquisition was completed on 31 October 2024.

Leif-Martin Drange, Managing Director at Renta Norway, said: “Tunnel Support provides high-quality specialised equipment and has highly skilled employees. I am looking forward to joining forces and combining Tunnel Support’s expertise with Renta’s broad depot network and offering. With the acquisition, we will strengthen our overall market position and be able to provide an even more comprehensive offering to the customers of both companies.”

Kato Stien, CEO of Tunnel Support AS, said: “We are looking forward to becoming part of Renta’s professional organisation. We can utilize our specialised equipment and technical expertise while benefitting from Renta’s broad presence and digital solutions. Together, we will be able to offer a complete solution that will help our customers operate more efficiently and sustainably.”

Enquiries: ir@renta.com

Poortugaal, 29 October 2024 – Yellow Hive, the parent company of You Sure, Felixx® werk & inkomen, Yinco and several other speciality insurance broker brands, takes a significant first step into the German market. The insurance broker and employee benefits advisory organisation announces the acquisition of the German insurance broker FVB, specialised in brokering personal and commercial lines insurances and financial investment products, from HDI Deutschland AG. With the acquisition of FVB, Yellow Hive enters the German market and achieves full national coverage in both Germany and the Netherlands. The structure and management of FVB will largely remain unchanged and its founder, Thomas Schallenberg, will support Yellow Hive Germany as an advisor after closing. Closing is anticipated year-end and subject to German merger clearance. The transaction is intended to boost the growth and further development of Yellow Hive and FVB in Germany, both organically and through further add-on acquisitions.

In April 2024, Yellow Hive refinanced with a significant new commitment from its existing shareholder IK Partners (“IK”) to support the continued growth of the company, not just in specific Dutch regions and niche markets, but also in other European countries such as Germany and Spain. The acquisition of FVB in Germany marks the first major milestone of this growth strategy.  Following IK’s initial investment in 2020 and under the leadership of CEO Ger Knikman, Yellow Hive transformed from a local insurance broker to a national distribution platform and is now entering Germany. Benefiting from scale, the company will make additional investments in innovation and have a stronger ability to negotiate better conditions for its customers.

National coverage with local presence

FVB is a renowned insurance broker with national coverage in Germany. The company strongly believes in the importance of close personal engagement with clients, which allows the affiliated advisors, who are well-acquainted with the regions, to provide the best tailored advice. Yellow Hive sees added value in the extensive product expertise of FVB and the local knowledge of the involved advisors in various regions.

Ger Knikman, CEO and Founder of Yellow Hive, said: “In FVB, we have found a partner that pursues the same objectives in the German market as we do with our own growth targets in the Netherlands. Now that we have shifted our focus to European expansion beyond the Netherlands, FVB fits perfectly within our growth strategy. By partnering with FVB, we will work with true specialists, enabling us to expand Yellow Hive with even more expertise. We can’t wait to start to work together with this experienced team within our organisation.”

Thomas Schallenberg, Founder of FVB and Advisor to Yellow Hive Germany, commented: “Joining forces with Yellow Hive will allow FVB to continue growing as an independent insurance broker. The company has a strong record of building an integrated platform to drive sustained organic and acquisitive growth. We are excited to join forces with the team at Yellow Hive to accelerate growth together and offer a broader spectrum of products and services to our customers.”

Jens Warkentin, CEO of HDI Deutschland AG, added: “We are delighted to have secured a very good new owner for FVB in Yellow Hive. HDI Germany will of course remain present in the broker market and further strengthen exclusive sales partners in future. We have utilised the consolidation efforts in the German market to place FVB in new hands at very good conditions. I would like to thank FVB, especially Thomas Schallenberg and his team, for their commitment to the HDI brand.”  

European expansion

In the upcoming years, Yellow Hive will focus its growth strategy on Germany and Spain. In these countries, Yellow Hive intends to acquire existing service providers, underwriting companies and insurance brokers.

For more information or inquiries regarding this message, please contact:

De Bruijn PR
Marianne de Bruijn
marianne@debruijnpr.nl or 06-14441398

October 15, 2024 – Hastings, UK – Medica Group, the leading provider of telemedicine services, is pleased to announce the appointment of Tom Hargreaves as Chief Financial Officer (CFO). Tom will be joining Medica Group in early 2025.

This strategic leadership appointment strengthens Medica’s executive team following its acquisition by IK Partners.

Tom Hargreaves joins Medica with extensive experience in high-growth technology and business services sectors, most recently serving as CFO of Auction Technology Group (ATG). At ATG, he played a pivotal role in scaling the business from $25 million in revenue to its listing on the FTSE250, delivering substantial returns for private equity investors. Prior to ATG, Tom held leadership roles at Vodafone and Yell UK, where he helped drive significant growth.

With a strong foundation in blue-chip finance and a proven track record of success in private equity-backed environments, Tom brings valuable expertise in scaling businesses, enhancing financial performance and delivering shareholder value. His ability to lead and grow companies in dynamic industries aligns with Medica’s ongoing transformation and growth strategy.

Commenting on his appointment, Tom Hargreaves said:
“I am excited to join Medica at this critical juncture in its growth journey. Having spent seven years at ATG, I am ready for a new challenge and see significant growth potential at Medica. The company’s service model, supported by its dedicated teams, has many parallels to my previous experiences, and I am eager to leverage my expertise in a high-growth environment backed by a highly regarded private equity firm like IK Partners.”

Andrew Cannon, CEO at Medica Group, added:
“We are delighted to welcome Tom Hargreaves to Medica’s leadership team. His impressive track record of delivering results in both technology and service-related organisations makes him an ideal fit for Medica as we continue to drive growth and improve lives through excellence in diagnostics and research”

Medica Group continues to play a key role in the healthcare industry by providing innovative teleradiology services to reduce imaging backlogs, improve clinical outcomes and support healthcare professionals across the UK, Ireland, and the US.

Advania, a portfolio company of Goldman Sachs Alternatives and one of the largest providers of IT services in Northern Europe, has announced the acquisition of CCS Media, one of the largest independent IT solutions providers in the United Kingdom. This acquisition aligns with Advania’s strategic focus on expanding both its footprint and its capability within the UK market. The combination will enable a highly complementary solutions and services offering, providing top tier depth and breadth of expertise across an end-to-end customer-centric offering commensurate with the group’s overall strategy. It will also offer the UK midmarket a much needed fresh and comprehensive approach to IT services from a scaled provider with access to the full resources of Advania. This transaction represents a key milestone in Advania’s broader goal of becoming the leading IT services provider in Northern Europe and will further accelerate the growth of the group.

Key transaction highlights

• Advania has reached an agreement to acquire 100% of the shares in CCS Media from management and employees. The closing of the transaction is expected during the fourth quarter of 2024, subject to regulatory approvals.
• With the acquisition of CCS Media, and the recent acquisition of Servium in the UK, Advania will scale its existing solution operations and strengthen its opportunity to provide a differentiated and comprehensive end-to-end IT services and solutions to customers across the UK, providing a fresh approach for existing and new customer.
• CCS Media is a fast-growing technology and solution specialist delivering IT products, solutions and services to customers across the UK with revenue of GBP 280m / SEK 3.8bn.
• Advania is one of the largest independent providers of IT services in Northern Europe, with top tier capabilities across the full range of customer needs. Following the transaction Advania will have a combined revenue of SEK 19bn (GBP 1.4bn) and employ more than 5,000 employees across Northern Europe.
• In the UK Advania is one of Microsoft’s most certified partners and will be able to offer these market leading capabilities to CCS customers in an integrated way.
• The acquisition will now see Advania in the UK employing over 1,500 people at more than 20 locations providing its customers with innovative solutions and flexible procurement options, once the preserve of only the largest enterprises.
• As the tech company with people at heart, Advania will offer even wider opportunities for employees to broaden their career opportunities and thrive in a growth environment.

The acquisition will enable new and existing customers of Advania and CCS Media to access deep and broad expertise within IT-services and to transform core business processes, optimise spend and secure operations through a single service provider. Advania UK’s class leading positioning with Microsoft as a top-tier cloud transformation and AI enablement partner, holding all six cloud solution designations, twelve specialisations and Azure Expert MSP status, combined with CCS Media’s expertise on the provision, supply, implementation and support of the broadest range of technology products offers customers a complete portfolio for digital transformation services backed by comprehensive service experience and extensive industry accreditations. In 2024 alone CCS Media have won awards from world-leading vendors including Dell, HPE, Lenovo and Logitech.

“I’m very excited to have CCS Media join forces with Advania. CCS has a strong and proven track record of growth, customer relationships and delivering cutting-edge IT solutions across the UK market. Together with the Advania UK operation, we are certain that this investment will further accelerate our growth and elevate our position in the UK market” says Hege Støre, Group CEO of Advania.

“The CCS Media Leadership Team is immensely excited to unite forces with Advania and extend an even greater depth of expertise and services to our loyal customers across the UK. CCS Media was on a journey to develop more comprehensive solution offerings for our customers and the transaction will hugely accelerate this trajectory. This acquisition will also benefit our employees, offering wider opportunities for growth and development at such an exciting time in the industry. Like Advania, people are at the heart of our business and our shared culture and customer centricity was a key driver for the deal to progress. The extensive capability of the combined business, and particularly Advania UK’s class leading partnership with Microsoft, will enable us to address a broader range of customer needs from devices & infrastructure, to strategy, cloud transformation, AI, and managed services” says Terry Betts, CEO of CCS Media

“We and our co-investment partners are very pleased to welcome CCS Media into the fast-growing Advania platform and to support the company in further scaling Advania’s operations and offering. The acquisition of CCS Media will create a differentiated and highly compelling end-to-end proposition for the UK market” says Michael Bruun, Global Co-Head of Private Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives.

For more information, please contact: 

Advania AB
Hege Støre, Group CEO
E-mail: hege.store@advania.com 
Phone: +47 901 42 548

Bluegem Capital Partners (“Bluegem”), the value-oriented consumer staples private equity fund, and AREV today announce that they have completed the joint acquisition of Pinard Group (“Pinard” or “the Group”), a producer of high-end packaging solutions for the Beauty & Personal care (“BPC”) and Pharmaceutical industries. Bluegem and AREV are acquiring their respective stakes from the Pinard Management Team and IK VIII Fund, a fund managed by IK Partners (“IK”).

Bluegem and AREV will be co-majority shareholders, owning the company alongside the Pinard Management Team and the founding family members who are reinvesting.

Pinard Group specialises in the design and manufacture of packaging solutions for prestige and luxury brands in the BPC space through its Pinard Beauty Pack (PBP) subsidiary and for pharmaceutical customers through its Lablabo subsidiary, the inventor of the bag-in-bottle airless technology.

Since IK’s acquisition of Pinard in July 2017, the company launched and delivered several successful initiatives including: the strengthening of the Group’s management with the recruitment of a CFO and several key managers; continued investment to increase capacity, including eco-friendly packaging solutions; and the accretive acquisition of Lablabo. The collaboration between IK and the Pinard Management Team delivered robust organic growth in the ownership period, as well as the expansion into the Healthcare sector.

Bluegem and AREV’s strategy is to capitalise on the technical know-how and strong IP of the Group to build a high-end supplier of fully circular plastic packaging solutions for the BPC and Pharmaceutical sectors. PBP is a Platinum EcoVadis manufacturer of sustainable plastic packaging solutions ranked within the Top 1% globally. As plastics become increasingly circular, with three major plastic recycling facilities being built in France, the Group will be ideally placed to supply its customers with high-end sustainable plastic solutions. 

Thomas Pinard, CEO of Pinard, commented: “We are looking forward to working with our new shareholders as we consolidate our position as a leading provider of high-end solutions to the world’s most prestigious and most dynamic brands, building on our unique combination of customer-focus, operating excellence, global reach, technical know-how, and passion. We would like to thank the team at IK for their continued support over the past seven years.”

Mathieu Develay, Partner at Bluegem, commented: “We are delighted to invest in Pinard Group alongside its founding family, its management team and our co-controlling partner AREV. We have closely followed the progress of the company in recent years and have been very impressed by the successes achieved by its management team. Pinard Group is a unique player in the packaging industry, with market-leading positions in prestige Beauty and Pharmaceuticals, thanks to over 50 years of industrial knowhow and circular plastic innovations. We are looking forward to supporting an accelerated growth strategy, both organically and through acquisitions, in what is a highly fragmented market.”

Emilio Di Spiezio Sardo, Founding Partner at Bluegem commented: “Pinard is a great example of the Bluegem strategy to invest earlier in the entire value chain within the non-discretionary consumer staple space. With the Consumer sector accounting for over 50% of global GDP, we see a vast opportunity to make investments which are underpinned by solid fundamentals (strong R&D and IP), structural tailwinds (fully circular plastic solutions and nearshoring of high-end manufacturing) and have the ability to perform consistently through the cycle.”

Xavier Geismar, Co-Founder of Arev Partners added: “We are excited about our partnership with Thomas and Pierre-Olivier Pinard and the management team, and we have high ambitions for the company. We are very impressed with Pinard Group’s strong market positioning based on its superior customer orientation and operational excellence, which is reflected in the company’s growth and performance over the years. We will work with the management team to continue strengthening Pinard’s ESG innovation capabilities, accelerating expansion, and by pursuing a synergistic buy-and-build strategy to tap into adjacent market segments and to broaden the product portfolio.”

Julien Lammoglia, Co-Founder of Arev Partners declared: “The acquisition of Pinard Group is AREV’s third transaction in France and marks another milestone in the development of the fund’s strategy to build a concentrated portfolio of high-quality assets operating in markets with attractive fundamentals, strong management teams and where we identify significant opportunities for AREV to support and accelerate growth, organically and through buy and build. The Group is positioned in the growing and resilient end markets of prestige cosmetics and pharmaceuticals and is a high-end packaging innovation leader. Pinard Group is notably an ESG front-runner in the packaging space and this transaction is a great example of AREV’s objective to invest in companies that have a positive impact on society.”

Dan Soudry, Partner at IK Partners and Advisor to IK VIII Fund, commented: “We are pleased with the progress the business has made in the past seven years, overcoming market challenges to deliver robust growth, while the acquisition of Lablabo has also allowed for the diversification of the product range. We wish the team at Pinard as well as their new owners, the very best of luck in the next stage of its development.”