Deutsche Private Equity (DPE)
21 December 2010Deutsche Private Equity (DPE) establishes DID Industriedienstleistungen Holding GmbH and invests in dynamically growing market for specialized temporary staffing services
- Market entry of DID group creates new provider and platform for industry consolidation - Focus on organic growth as well as Buy-and-Build - First add-on acquisition with Sonesto successfully closed
Düsseldorf/Oldenburg/Munich, December 21, 2010 --- DPE Deutsche Private Equity GmbH (“DPE“), Munich, enters the growing market for temporary staffing services. To this end, funds advised by DPE finance the market entry of the newly established temporary staffing provider for qualified human resources services DID Industriedienstleistungen Holding GmbH (“DID Holding”), based in Düsseldorf. The objective is to create one of the ten leading German temporary staffing companies for highly qualified staff. The Company plans to grow organically and through a targeted buy-and-build strategy. The operating company DID Industriedienstleistungen GmbH (“DID GmbH”) was founded simultaneously and currently has around 500 employees. It opened nine offices across Germany in the last quarter of 2010 and is planning on opening six further offices in the coming year. DID GmbH offers highly qualified temporary staff and places experts and executives in specialized industries such as Energy & Power Services, Electrical and Industrial Services and offers extensive personnel management solutions.
As part of its buy-and-build strategy, DPE has already made its first add-on acquisition by buying Sonesto GmbH, former Pensum Gesellschaft für Personaldienstleistungen mbH. The company was founded in 1999 and is based in Oldenburg. Sonesto is a regionally leading provider of qualified human resources services in the North-West of Germany. Sonesto’s services include personnel placement and temporary staffing servicesin particular for skilled labor in commercial and office work as well as engineers, technicians and computer scientists. The company currently has 600 employees at five locations and is pursuing further organic growth by opening two additional locations in 2011. In the course of this transaction, Sonesto’s management reinvested in the company. The parties involved agreed not to disclose any financial details of this transaction.
DID GmbH as well as Sonesto will operate under the roof of DID Holding while each company will keep its own brand. The transaction with Sonesto will significantly reinforce the operational business of DID group and create a platform for further organic as well as external growth. A new provider with already over 1,000 employees emerges in a single stroke. Including additional acquisitions, DID group is planning to achieve group revenues of around 100 million Euros in 2011. Co-Investor in DID Holding is Alexander Tan, aged 44, who also was appointed CEO.
“We are delighted to have won Alexander Tan, an accomplished manager from the temporary staffing business, for leading DID group and managing its further expansion. He has many years of management experience with well-known companies, including Randstad and DIS (today Adecco) and a track record in the development and the integration of temporary staffing companies focusing on IT/Engineering. Our investment in the market of qualified human resources services comes at the strategically best possible point of time. The market bottomed out in April 2009 and has recovered rapidly ever since. We want to play an important role in the consolidation of the highly fragmented personnel services sector in Germany”, commented Marc Thiery, Managing Partner of DPE Deutsche Private Equity GmbH, on the new investment.
The share of temporary staffing of the total labor market in Germany remains below average compared to other European countries. It still has substantial growth potential, especially for the placement of highly qualified employees. After a record high in 2008 with industry revenues of about 14.7 billion Euros, revenues shrank by more than 20 per cent to 11.4 billion Euros in 2009. In 2010, the sector has significantly improved. Industry experts estimate that the level of 2008 will be reached again in the coming year. They do not only expect a considerable market upturn in the mid-term but also, in face of the German labor market becoming more flexible, a sustained dynamic growth of the industry.
Dr. Bernd Grummel, Managing Director and shareholder of Sonesto, also shares the view that the investment comes at the right time: “We are convinced to have found the appropriate partners in DPE and DID which will support our expansion plans and the sustainable development of our company. Our aim has always been and continues to be to offer our clients, applicants and employees perspectives that reach beyond our current region. With the investment of DPE and the cooperation with DID, we are now in a position to accelerate these plans. As soon as 2011, we are planning to open additional offices in the Hamburg region and in Lower Saxony.”
“Sonesto is an excellent company with a very good reputation in Northern Germany. While developing a Germany-wide presence of DID, we found a strong, regionally leading partner in Sonesto. Together with DPE and Sonesto’s management, we will use the momentum seen in the market for human resources services and temporary staffing to create a highly successful company in a strongly growing services sector. Our objective is to create a nationally leading personnel service provider for qualified temporary staffing and personnel placement. I’m looking forward to this task”, Tan welcomed the tasks ahead.
About DPE Deutsche Private Equity GmbH
Funds advised by DPE Deutsche Private Equity GmbH provide growth capital to companies in sectors with long-term fundamental growth prospects. Deutsche Private Equity is an independent German private equity firm, which was launched by Marc Thiery and Volker Hichert in December 2007 with the backing of Parcom Capital, a pan-European investment subsidiary of the Dutch ING Group. Parcom Capital has over €2bn invested in over 250 companies.
The fund currently advised by DPE Deutsche Private Equity GmbH (Parcom Deutschland I) has an initial committed capital of €250m and targets €5-50m equity investments in German, Swiss and Austrian middle-market companies with enterprise values of €10-150m in the following sectors: business services, education, healthcare, industrial technology and alternative energy/environment. As an active partner of management teams, DPE aims to develop companies over longer holding periods (5-10+ years) through organic and external growth.
For more information on DPE please visit www.pdpe.com.
About DID Industriedienstleistungen Holding GmbH
DID group is a professional human resources services provider for specialized experts and executives which is based in Dusseldorf. It was founded by DPE together with an experienced management team. The company specializes in temporary staffing services as well as recruiting services and consulting of qualified employees for industrial, technical and commercial fields. Through its Germany-wide office network, DID group places employees in the following sectors: energy and power, industrial services, engineering, IT, aviation, medical as well as finance and administration.
For more information on DID please visit www.did-gruppe.de
About Sonesto GmbH (formerly Pensum Gesellschaft für Personaldienstleistungen mbH)
Sonesto was established in Oldenburg in 1999 as a personnel services provider for qualified employees with a focus on temporary staffing and recruiting services. The company specializes in the sector of qualified employee assignment of technicians, commercial and office work, engineers and IT. Sonesto with its headquarters in Oldenburg has offices in Hamburg, Bremen, Leer and Wilhelmshaven. The company has more than 600 employees. In 2011, additional locations are planned in the Hamburg region and Lower Saxony. For more information on Sonesto please visit www.sonesto.de
