NewsNews
Entry of Erik Smidt (Financieel Dagblad)
“Since August 1st 2011 Erik Smidt has joined the management of Match Plan Corporate Finance BV. Erik is a certified business valuator and he has more than 10 years of experience in Corporate Finance discipline at both Deloitte and Van Oers Corporate Finance. Erik is responsible for the office of Match Plan Corporate Finance at Tilburg. Match Plan is a medium sized consultant in the field of acquisition and sale of companies, management buy-out’s, valuation and financing. Involving Erik Smidt was inspired by the current growth that is occurring to Match Plan and will support her additional expanding ambition.“
Batenburg Beheer completes acquisition of Dekker van Geest
Batenburg Beheer N.V. has acquired the shares of Dekker van Geest Installaties B.V. in Monster. This all-round mechanical engineering installation company with a turnover of over € 11 million is a valuable addition in West-Netherlands to the activities of Batenburg Beheer. The company is continued under control of the current management.
Dekker van Geest is a medium size engineering installation company with € 11 million annual turnover mainly active in the Westland and the Haaglanden region. The company is located in Monster and has about 60 employees. Projects are realized in schools, squatted buildings, care institutions and various business premises. In addition to these projects, Dekker van Geest also performs preventive and corrective maintenance to systems.
Given the size of the company, Dekker van Geest will become an independent subsidiary in the Batenburg Installatiegroep. The current management of Dekker van Geest will be continued and keep managing this strong player in regional markets of mechanical engineering and installation. The acquisition price was paid in cash and is expected to contributing to the profit per share of Batenburg Beheer from the date of acquisition.
Rotterdam, July 14th 2011
Management Batenburg Beheer N.V.
Corporate profile Batenburg Beheer N.V.
Batenburg Beheer is a well reputated technical service provider, active in the field of installation engineering and technical trade. The activities are performed in the sector of utility construction, industry and infrastructure. The Batenburg Groep consists of twelve operational subsidiaries, mainly established in the Netherlands and Belgium employing in total about 950 employees. The shares of the company are listed on stock exchange of Euronext Amsterdam N.V.
Adressing:
Batenburg Beheer N.V.
Postbus 9441
3007 AK Rotterdam
Phone. +31 (0) 10-2928080
E: info@batenburg.nl
Business & Financing
Martin Roos (Lobeco):
‘Rabobank unburdens the customer during business acquisitions’
A successful business acquisition begins with duly preparations, so discovered Martin Roos, director of Lobeco. He enabled the correct advisors on time during the acquisition of Lobeco in The Hague. During the consultancy process, the acquisition in Belgium passed as well.
Lobeco, located in The Hague and Wevelgem, is a technical wholesaler. The 38-year old company supplies fire alarms, card readers, cameras and burglary-resistant materials to installers and ICT professionals. They install the materials at the end users, such as large office buildings and hotels. In addition, Lobeco provides training to installers and makes them aware of market opportunities. In conclusion, the company has an in-house (24-hour) Support department and supports customers with project assistance, certification and marketing assistance.
Welcome
‘Lobeco has always been a family business’ director-owner Martin Roos explains. ‘When I became director, I had already agreed to acquire the company, because the former owner had no successors. We wanted to conduct the acquisition deal in a professional manner, which is why, in October 2009, we enabled Hans van de Pas of MatchPlan. He formalized everything, wrote a financing memorandum and offered it to three banks’. De Rabobank Den Haag was one of these three, and that’s who Martin chose eventually. ‘For starters, this bank had a substantially strong and fitting offer’, Martin substantiates his choice. ‘But the most important thing was that I felt welcome. That feeling of hospitality lacked at the other providers. They simply threw in my question, addressed the matter internally and threw back the final answer the same way they received it. At de Rabobank Den Haag this process was much more transparent and during the treatment process, we had frequent mutual contact.’
Deal team
Rabobank puts together a specially selected deal team for complex questions such as these. The benefit of that to Martin was that several people within the bank knew all ins and outs of his bussiness. ‘When consulting about business acquisitions, we always establish a deal team of colleagues from different disciplines’ Harmen Bosma, manager Large Business of the Rabobank Den Haag explains. ‘The team for Lobeco consisted of an account manager, an advisor financial logistics, an analyst, a specialist international business and our subsidiary in financing solutions De Lage Landen.
In our opinion, it is very important that the customer and the account manager are understanding each other also in an emotional way and we invest a lot of time in this. We introduce the customer to several advisors and leave the choice up to him or her. We want to unburden the customer, in other words relieve him of all financing issues, so that the only thing he has to do is to sign the plan, of course after mutual agreement.’
Lobeco’s acquisition of a Belgian company, Ben Poelman, account manager Large Company department of Rabobank Den Haag, became account manager in the deal team for Lobeco. ‘Last year May we had completed the transfer deal for Lobeco, when this company was suddenly able to acquire the shares of the Belgian company GCO BV BA. As a distributor of GE Security in Belgium, GCO BV BA was equal to Lobeco in the Netherlands. Bankruptcy was imminent, caused by poor management.
Due to that imminent bankruptcy and the fact that there were more candidates, swift action was necessary. GE Security preferred Lobeco acquiring GCO’. According to Harmen Bosma, experienced bankers are able to guide smoothly all technical details concerning acquisitions, however the emotions are usually heavily underestimated. And it is often emotions that are the determining factor to whether the deal is made or not. ‘What made this case very special was the international portion’, Harmen explains. ‘Eventually we provided funding for the acquisition of shares and work capital of GCO BV BA (the current Lobeco België BV BA) based on Belgian securities with credit guarantee partially covered by the Dutch government.
This financing was made possible thanks to the rapid action of the local International Finance Manager and our colleagues of Rabobank International Desk in Antwerp.
Subsequently, we performed the legal check for all contracts and other legal documents. The Rabobank is unique in such local, interlocal and international collaboration.’
Best International Deal
The relevant deal team has won a prize with this international acquisition: the Best International Deal, an internal prize within the Rabobankgroup. ‘We are very proud of this’, Harmen says. ‘International business is very important to Rabobank. When our Dutch customers are expanding their company abroad, we would like to remain the bank of that customer in that other country. Our deal has won the prize, because it concerned a business acquisition in the Netherlands and Belgium and because we financed the Belgian cash flows and securities using a Dutch credit guarantee’. Ever since that acquisition, Lobeco is doing very well. ‘We have ended 2010 with very positive figures and in addition we had a great start of 2011’, Martin Roos confirms. ‘Everything is right. De Rabobank Den Haag turned out to be an excellent party. Their advice and commitment doesn’t stop after the deal has been made. We still have frequent contact, which makes me feel very good.’
