Category: Uncategorized

ARX Equity Partners (“ARX”), a leading lower mid-cap focused private equity firm operating in Central Europe, is pleased to announce the first close of its fifth fund, ARX CE V (the “Fund”), with total subscribed commitments of €78 million.

The Fund, which has a target of €100 million, will continue to execute ARX’s value creation strategy of investing in lower mid-cap SMEs in selected Central European countries and includes commitments from the European Investment Fund (“EIF”) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (“EBRD”).To date, ARX has completed 33 platform investments and numerous add-on acquisitions during its 27-year operating history across the region.

ARX anticipates that the majority of the Fund will be deployed within the Czech Republic, where the firm has established itself as a trusted partner for succession-driven transactions. The Czech Republic possesses highly competitive, export-oriented precision manufacturing and engineering industries and the ARX team has a long and successful track-record of investing in the country.

The Fund will also complement its strong Czech focus with additional investments in neighbouring Central European countries that offer attractive investment environments. One example of a target geography is Slovenia, where over the past decade ARX has already completed five platform investments as well as several add-on acquisitions.

The sector strategy of the Fund will be consistent with ARX’s successful track-record, with a primary focus on B2B businesses operating in areas such as manufacturing and business services. This approach is in addition to select subsectors including healthcare, education and lifestyle services.

First close investors in the Fund include the EIF and EBRD in addition to other institutional investors, several family offices and private investors respectively.

WTS Klient completed its second complementary add-on acquisition on September 30, 2024, via the purchase of Hungarian business service and accounting group VGD Hungary (“VGD”). The acquisition of VGD has added further scale to WTS Klient, with combined 2024 sales exceeding € 15.0 million and 350 employees. ARX Equity Partners acquired WTS Klient in Q1 2022 and quickly augmented the HR and IT functions to facilitate the company’s internal capability to expand via acquisitions. The initial add-on acquisition (Finacont) was completed in mid-2023 and is now fully integrated into WTS Klient. The VGD integration process has been initiated, with a plan to relocate VGD employees to the WTS Klient Budapest Headquarters in November 2024.

WTS Klient is now the leading sector player on the Hungarian market, with 2025 sales expected to reach € 17.0 million.

ARX Equity Partners (“ARX”) completes the 100% sale of TES Vsetin s.r.o., a Czech electro-mechanical engineering company (“TES” or the ”Company”), to a private equity consortium. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Headquartered in Vsetin, Czech Republic, TES (http://www.tes.cz) is an engineering company engaged primarily in the manufacturing of system components related to electrical machines, in addition to the design and manufacturing of its own proprietary electric machines, such as generators and electric motors. TES supplies critical components and machines to several blue-chip customers across various industries.

ARX acquired the business in 2019 from an affiliate of Advent International in a structure that immediately eliminated the company’s excessive indebtedness. This financial restructuring transaction facilitated an opportunity for the company to realise its potential, as the previously high level of financial leverage constrained development of the Company. As part of the transaction ARX partnered with the TES management team who led the further growth and evolution of the Company. The success of TES during the ARX holding period was underpinned by the Company‘s core engineering competencies and its ability to serve large and demanding blue-chip customers that are increasingly seeking reliable suppliers in the CEE region.

The successful TES investment builds on the deep ARX investment track-record in Central European engineering-driven manufacturing companies.

ARX Equity Partners (“ARX”) acquires a majority shareholding in DOORS d.o.o., a Slovenian manufacturer of premium residential front entry doors (“DOORS” or the “Company”). The financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

DOORS was founded in 2002 and since then has established its position as a fast growing premium front entry doors manufacturer, primarily serving the residential segment within the DACH region. DOORS produces several design lines based on natural and sustainable wood production and combinations of wood and aluminium. The Company’s customers consist of window manufacturers, wholesalers and specialised retailers in target markets of Austria, Germany, Switzerland and local Slovenia.

Following the acquisition, the two founders of the Company will retain significant minority stake in DOORS and will continue to drive the further growth and development of the business. The strategic focus of DOORS shall remain on premium quality product timely delivery to its customers, as well as organic growth supported by an extension of the existing production facility.

ARX Equity Partners (“ARX”) acquires majority stake in Brebeck Composite s.r.o., a Czech headquartered manufacturer of composite products from carbon fiber (“Brebeck” or the ”Company”).

Brebeck was founded in 2011 by Thomas Brebeck and Marcel Benda, in order to utilise Mr. Brebeck’s extensive track record and expertise in carbon fiber manufacturing in Germany over almost 20 years. Brebeck is now one of the leading European manufacturers of carbon fiber parts and components, used mainly in technically demanding motorsport activity and automotive applications.

In addition to its facility in Senov, Czech Republic, Brebeck also operates internationally through its wholly owned subsidiary in Deggendorf, Germany. The Company generates annual sales in excess of €10 million, with more than 160 employees. Brebeck’s customer base includes several prominent word-class players in the motorsport market, such as KTM AG, BMW AG, Porsche AG and Audi AG.

Moving forward, both founders will retain a significant minority stake in the Company and Mr. Brebeck will continue to drive the further growth and development of the business. The Company’s primary strategic focus will remain centered around servicing its blue-chip, anchor customers in the motorsport and automotive industries while also broadening its product offering to customers in the aerospace market.

ARX Equity Partners (“ARX”), a Central European lower-mid market private equity specialist, today announces the completion of the majority acquisition of Hungarian professional services company Klient Holding Kft, which is part of the WTS global network (“Klient Group”).

Klient Group is a Budapest based professional services firm providing outsourced accounting, payroll and tax services. Klient Group currently generates sales in the region of ~€ 5million with more than 120 employees, and is now a Top 10 accounting, payroll and tax services provider in Hungary, predominantly servicing local subsidiaries of large multinational companies.  

The financial terms of the deal agreement were not disclosed. ARX acquired the company from its founders and ARX agreed to partner with the company´s existing management team who will lead the future growth and development of the Company. Klient Group will use the capital invested by ARX to drive long-term growth initiatives, which include accelerating the development of its suite of service offerings, considerable investment into talent and technology and strategically expanding via organic growth and targeted mergers and acquisitions.

ARX Equity Partners, a private equity firm with a 20-year track record supporting the growth and development of mid-sized companies in Central Europe, has agreed to complete the acquisition of Promens Zlin.

ARX is acquiring the company from Berry Global (NYSE: BERY) with deal completion being subject to customary closing conditions. As part of the investment, ARX has agreed to partner with the company´s existing management team, who will continue to lead its future growth and development.

Promens Zlin (headquartered in Zlin, Czech Republic) is a Tier 1 system and development supplier, focused predominantly on large vehicle exterior and interior parts, which are key components in the production of buses, earth moving vehicles and agriculture equipment. Promens Zlin possesses exceptional R&D capability, especially in the important areas of reaction injection molding and vacuum forming. The company is currently undergoing a substantial capital expenditure programme to both expand and modernise its production facility, in order to meet growing demand from its customer base. In fiscal year ending 2020, Promens Zlin generated sales of ~€ 37 million.

ARX Equity Partners has been selected as a finalist for the third consecutive year for the Real Deals Central and Eastern Europe Deal of the Year Award for Slovenian portfolio company Diagnosticni Center Bled (“DCB”).

ARX acquired DCB in 2015 to develop its already robust business and best-in-class, specialist medical capabilities as a platform to further consolidate and grow its market leading position in the Slovenian diagnostics sector. This objective was successfully achieved during the period of ARX ownership with four strategic add-on acquisitions completed and the company doubling in size. DCB was exited to a strategic investor in early 2020.

ARX Equity Partners (“ARX”), a private equity firm focused on the Central European region, has agreed to complete the acquisition of Instrumentation Technologies (“I-Tech”, www.i-tech.si). Founded in 1998 and headquartered in Solkan, Slovenia, I-Tech is the global market leader in the development and assembly of high-specification instrumentation for data acquisition and signal processing used in scientific particle accelerators. Also core to the I-Tech strategy is utilizing the company’s know-how and R&D capabilities to develop instrumentation for medical proton therapy applications as well as broader industrial markets.

The transaction also includes Red Pitaya (www.redpitaya.com), a handheld electronics lab incorporating instruments such as oscilloscopes and signal generators and which is seeing widespread adoption among signal processing engineers, hobbyists and students.

ARX acquired the company from its founders and financial details of the transaction were not disclosed. Completion of the transaction is subject to customary closing conditions. As part of the transaction, ARX agreed to partner with the company´s existing management team who will lead the future growth and development of the Company.

ARX Equity Partners has been selected as a finalist for the second consecutive year for the Real Deals Central and Eastern Europe Deal of the Year Award for portfolio company Anwis. Last year, ARX Equity Partners won the Central and Eastern Europe Deal of the Year Award for VUES. Finalists for the Deal of the Year awards are established through research undertaken by Real Deals, in association with Cass Business School and Preqin.

Additionally, ARX Equity Partners has been nominated for the Polish Private Equity Association “Nagrody PSIK” Private Equity Deal of the Year for Anwis. The aim of Nagrody PSIK is to recognize private equity and venture capital fund managers, advisors, banks and law firms for their achievements on the Polish private equity market.

ARX acquired a majority shareholding in Poland-headquartered Anwis from the retiring founder in 2014, with the intention to leverage the company’s technical capabilities, strong domestic market position, wide product range and advanced internet-based ordering solutions in order to grow and internationalize the business. This strategy positioned the company to benefit from the fast growth of the e-commerce channel in key export markets of Germany and the Netherlands. Over the past five years ANWIS retained its profit margins, while consistently growing sales and more than doubling headcount. The realization of this strategy proved Anwis is one of the leading manufacturers of window coverings and related components in Europe. The ARX investment in Anwis was exited via a sale of the company to Warema Group, a leading global player in the sun protection segment, in August 2019.