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Optimum Alliance is a new network of high performing mid-market investors in Europe. The Alliance covers key European private equity markets and consists of partners with a proven track-record of value creation and facilitates accelerating European rollouts and privileged access to scarce resources in deal origination and transactions.

The objective of the Optimum Alliance is to create a platform of independent – high performing – firms that can share best-practises, investment experiences, cooperate on deal situations as and when appropriate and allow co-investment.

Portfolio companies of Optimum Alliance members benefit from “local access” to the extensive networks of the Alliance’ members. Many of our portfolio companies have extensive export operations or are looking to expand cross-border. Facilitating this and supporting our management teams has been one of the key drivers for the establishment of the Optimum Alliance.

As we strengthen our cooperation, we will look to gradually expand the Optimum Alliance with relevant new members – that do not compete with any of the existing members – and share our focus on our market segment and proven out-performance.

The founding partners of Optimum Alliance are:

• Auctus Capital Partners – a German mid-market private equity firm focusing on buy & build investments in the DACH area
• Sherpa Capital – a Madrid based mid-market private equity firm focusing on distressed and underperforming companies in Spain and Portugal
• and H2 Equity Partners – a leading hands-on mid-market private equity firm focused on the UK, Ireland and the Benelux

The founding partners belief that there is a significant value add in creating the Optimum Alliance and are excited to build the alliance and remain at the forefront of high-performance private equity investing.

For more information about the Optimum Alliance and its founding partners please refer to:
www.optimum-alliance.com
www.h2ep.co.uk
www.sherpacapital.es
www.auctus.com

NRS is the UK’s leading provider of healthcare products and services to support independent living at home. NRS supports local authorities and the NHS through its portfolio of Integrated Community Equipment Services’ contracts, as well as providing clinical services. NRS also has a fast-growing product sales business into the private sector, mainly sold through online channels. Based in Leicestershire, NRS has 1000 FTEs and sales of approximately £200 million.

H2 acquired a majority share of NRS alongside LDC in December 2014. The business grew significantly under H2’s ownership, with a focus on providing a broader range of products and services, as well as a significant investment in new product development, clinical resources and IT capability to support operational delivery and high levels of customer service.

Graphite is a leading UK mid-market private equity firm with strong credentials in the healthcare sector. Graphite will work alongside the existing management team, who remain important shareholders in NRS.

The sale of NRS represents another successful exit from H2 Fund IV, which commenced investing in 2011 and continues to deliver market leading returns.

H2 Equity Partners is pleased to announce its sixth investment by Fund V: the acquisition of Amberon – the UK’s leading low-speed traffic management service provider.

Amberon, founded in 2002 and headquartered in Paignton, Devon, has grown rapidly to become the market leader in low-speed traffic management with national coverage. The company is able to provide a full-service offering to its clients: high speed traffic management, low speed traffic management as well as barrier repair and installation services.

The company generates c£37.5 million sales and operates out of 24 depots across England and Wales. Amberon is extremely well positioned to further expand its depot network, expand its portfolio of services and provide both high speed and low speed traffic management services to clients in England and Wales.

The Amberon group employs over 500 people and places safety at the centre of everything it does. The company has a full portfolio of safety accreditations and effectively utilises technology throughout the business to maintain the highest safety standards.

Management, led by Terry Musson and Dan East, and H2 Equity Partners expect to accelerate the growth of the group as we drive to become the UK’s largest and best-in-class provider of full-service traffic management solutions.

For further information on Amberon please refer to: www.amberontm.com

H2 Equity Partners is pleased to announce that it has sold Oerlemans Foods Group (“Oerlemans”), a producer and supplier of freshly frozen vegetables and fruit to Virto Group (“Virto”), a leading company in the production and distribution of deep-frozen vegetables for retail, foodservice and industry.

With this acquisition Virto further strengthens its position in the growing international market for freshly frozen vegetables and fruit. Joining forces with Oerlemans provides significant synergies in a number of areas and allows Virto to meet the increasing customer demand. The acquisition will create a global player with 400+ million euros sales and a footprint in the 4 main European harvest areas – Spain, France, Benelux/Germany and Poland.

Javier Virto, CEO of Virto, commented: “This acquisition of Oerlemans allows us to further improve and reinforce our product range and service offerings to current and potential customers.”

Raoul Vorage, CEO of Oerlemans, commented: “Joining forces with Virto, the industry leader in the field of quality, availability and innovation, is a true recognition of our hard work to find the best solutions for our customers.”

Peter Kroeze, Partner at H2 Equity Partners, commented: “After the acquisition of Oerlemans in 2014 the company has successfully been transformed into a frozen potato business – acquired by Lamb Weston/Meijer in 2017 – and a frozen vegetables business. The combination of Virto and Oerlemans makes a lot of sense in today’s consolidating frozen vegetables market. We thank management for the cooperation, their leadership and commitment and wish them a lot of success going forward.”

Oerlemans and H2 were advised by Squarefield Corporate Finance (M&A), Deloitte (financial) and Houthoff (legal).

For more information, please see the press release from Virto.

Search Group has announced the acquisition of Henderson Scott, a specialist provider of executive search and recruitment solutions in technology.

• Search completes first add-on acquisition since H2 Equity Partners investment
• Organisation grows national footprint with 17 offices and 750 employees generating over £220 million in revenues
• Acquisition creates truly national coverage for Search Group and creates leading provider of tech recruitment

Following investment from H2 Equity Partners in 2017, Search announced ambitious growth plans that focused on increasing the number of consultants, enhancing its UK coverage, and making selected bolt-on acquisitions. Today’s deal is the first strategic acquisition since that announcement.

Working across a range of niche markets in both the public and private sector, Henderson Scott is a market leader in technology, with vast experience across the fast-evolving tech landscape.

The acquisition gives the newly created Search Group combined revenue of £220 million and Ebitda in excess of £10 million with more than 750 people across an estate of 17 UK offices, and positions it as one of the UK’s leading providers of technology recruitment. Crucially it underpins the strategic development of Search’s technology capability in a rapidly evolving growth market. For more information about Search Group please refer to www.search.co.uk

Established in 1999 by CEO Mark Bailey, Henderson Scott has offices in Amersham and London. Working with a range of leading names in tech, the 50+ staff base – under the current leadership team – will continue to grow the Henderson Scott business under its existing brand, operating as part of the Search Group. Mark Bailey will join the Search board as part of the acquisition. For more information about Henderson Scott please refer to www.hendersonscott.com

With strength in London and a strong book, the Search board believes it is perfectly positioned to develop Henderson Scott and leverage the group strength, providing access to its wider service proposition. They also see opportunity for the wider Search business to leverage opportunity for Henderson Scott via its people, relationships and reputation to support future growth.

Patrick Kalverboer, Chairman of the Search Group and Managing Partner at H2 Equity Partners said: “H2’s strategy was to work with Grahame and the senior team at Search, helping to develop and scale up the business in line with growth ambition and potential. This acquisition is testament to that ambition and is very much in line with the growth aspirations of Search Group, strengthening its offering and expanding the footprint and proposition of the enlarged group.“

H2 Equity Partners is pleased to announce its fifth investment by Fund V: parallel investments in Healthcare 21 and Aquilant with the aim to create a new market-leading group in healthcare and scientific sales & distribution – partnering with the shareholders of Healthcare 21.

H2 Equity Partners recently completed the acquisition of Aquilant and has reached agreement to invest in Healthcare 21 Group with the aim to facilitate the creation of a new market-leading group consisting of Aquilant and Healthcare 21. The envisaged transaction is subject only to Competition Authority approval – and is expected to complete by the end of September 2018.

The combined companies will have a turnover in excess of €150 million and employ 450 people across Ireland, the UK, Germany and Austria. The businesses complement each other extremely well and the combined group offers an expanded product portfolio in many exciting therapy areas. In addition, the combined group’s infrastructure and expertise will ensure that both companies can maintain focus on their current plans and continue to deliver world class outcomes for their customers and suppliers alike.

Healthcare 21, Aquilant and H2 Equity Partners expect to accelerate the growth of the combined group as we drive to become Europe’s largest and best-in-class provider of outsourced sales, marketing and service solutions for the new group’s suppliers and customers.

For further information on Healthcare21 and Aquilant please refer to:
www.healthcare21.eu
www.aquilant.net

H2 Equity Partners is pleased to announce that it has agreed to sell Myler to Headfirst Source Group. Myler is a tech-enabled IT search & managed service provider (“MSP”) platform which connects blue chip clients with large project-based IT needs with over 40,000 independent IT professionals and hundreds of suppliers of IT specialists. Myler sources, facilitates and manages the flexible IT projects layer for its clients, taking over all related administrative processes and ensuring 100% compliance with all applicable regulatory and fiscal requirements. The company’s tech-enabled business model is highly scalable and results in attractive recurring business on the back of a large and growing portfolio of contracts. H2 acquired a majority stake in Myler in 2015 immediately followed by the bolt-on acquisition of Jenrick which was subsequently integrated into the Myler organisation. Headfirst Source Group is a leading Dutch player in the sourcing of external professionals including matchmaking, contracting and payrolling.

Geo van der Wilk, CEO of Myler, commented: “We are thankful for the collaborative partnership with H2 over the last years. With the support of H2 we were able to turn Myler into the most scalable and state-of-the-art IT staffing platform in the Benelux market with attractive growth and profitability. We are also delighted to become part of Headfirst Source Group. We believe the companies fit very well together and will form a strong group that can deliver even better service and opportunities to our customers, professionals and other partners.”

Harmen Geerts, the responsible Partner at H2 Equity Partners, commented: “Myler is another example of our ability to build better companies. We would like to thank the management of Myler for their leadership over the past years; it was a pleasure working with them. We are convinced that Headfirst Source Group and Myler form a great combination. We wish them lots of success going forward.”

Closing of the transaction is subject to the approval of the ACM.

Myler and the selling shareholders were advised by Lincoln International (M&A), Houthoff (Legal), Deloitte (Financial/Tax) and SIG (IT).

For more information, please see the press release from Headfirst Source Group.

On Monday 11 June 2018, the shareholders of Foppen Groep B.V. in Harderwijk and Klaas Puul Beheer B.V. in Volendam reached agreement on a merger between the two companies with H2 Equity Partners as majority shareholder. Both Foppen and Klaas Puul are renowned companies in salmon and shrimp processing and have a long history as family-owned businesses in the food processing industry. This year, the two companies celebrate their 100-year and 50-year anniversaries.

The current management teams of Foppen and Klaas Puul will be in charge of the new combination, led by CEO André van de Padt. “The merger of these two great companies will provide us with a stronger market position and it allows us to serve our clients even better. By applying and implementing all our expertise and experience into our processes, we can better respond to market requirements and opportunities”, says Van der Padt.

“Merging with Klaas Puul gives us state-of-the-art processing capacity and access to a diverse range of products in the global market. We will be able to offer our clients high-quality salmon and shrimp products, whereby the highest standard in food safety and a consistent production quality are important priorities”, says Jan Foppen.

Sander van den Berg, CEO of Klaas Puul: “Our new production facilities for the processing of shrimps in Volendam and Edam offer the combination of flexibility and additional production capacity which will, in turn, create scope for a further development of our product and client portfolio both on a national and international level”.

Rutger Jan Vlek, Partner at H2: “Together with the Foppen family, the Mooijer family and management we will continue to strengthen and grow the company. Working with founding families, to reinforce and grow their business by providing capital and active support, is a typical investment for H2.”

The management boards expect to finalise the merger in August 2018, which is subject to the approval of the Works Council of Klaas Puul and the Authority for Consumers & Markets. The group will continue under the name ‘Dutch Seafood Company’. All employees, clients, and stakeholders have now been informed about this next step.

About Foppen
Foppen is a leading salmon smoker with headquarters in Harderwijk and production sites in the Netherlands and Greece. The company was founded in 1918 and over the past 100 years the Foppen family has overseen its successful expansion. Foppen is known for its innovations, high product quality and its front-runner position in the USA. In 2017 the company generated sales of approx. €150 million. For more information, please visit: www.foppenpalingenzalm.nl

About Klaas Puul
Klaas Puul is a leading shrimp processor with headquarters in Volendam, the Netherlands and production sites in the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, and Morocco. The company was founded in 1968 and over the past 50 years the Mooijer family has overseen its successful expansion. H2 Equity Partners invested in Klaas Puul in 2016 which allowed the company to build new state-of-the-art production facilities. Klaas Puul is known for its high-quality products, broad product range, and excellent service levels. In 2017, the company generated sales of almost €175 million. For more information, please visit: www.klaaspuul.com

About H2 Equity Partners
H2 Equity Partners, founded in 1991, is an independent investment firm with offices in Amsterdam and London. H2 focuses on medium sized companies that are uniquely positioned and provide significant growth potential. H2 offers these businesses a combination of capital and active management support to realise the untapped potential. H2 has a robust, multi-sector, track record in building stronger companies, with a sustainable competitive advantage and profitable growth. For more information, please visit: www.h2ep.com

H2 Equity Partners is pleased to announce its fourth investment in Fund V: the investment in Cadogan Tate alongside the management team of the business.

Cadogan Tate was established in 1977 by its exiting majority shareholder Rohan Masson-Taylor. Cadogan Tate is a premium specialist logistics group offering packing, moving, shipping, storage and insurance for fine art and other valuable possessions. Cadogan Tate’s customers include wealthy individuals, interior designers, auction houses, art galleries and museums. The business is headquartered in London, although geographically diversified with offices in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Paris and Cote d’Azur. The company generated sales of c.£50 million in its most recent financial year to September 2017 and employs c.450 FTE’s.

Cadogan Tate has grown significantly in recent years, driven by its market leading global brand, high quality customer service and well-invested storage facilities. Cadogan Tate is one of a handful of global companies able to provide end-to-end global specialist storage and logistics services for high-value items. Cadogan Tate has a deep-rooted culture of excellent customer service and has worked on some of the world’s top jobs including working for moving President Obama as he left the White House.

H2 will work closely with the existing management team and will continue to invest in its state-of-the-art storage facilities, open new offices and drive the company’s strong focus on providing a premium service.

Rohan Mason-Taylor said “We chose to partner with H2 based on their good knowledge of our sector and excellent track record built up over 27 years of working with family-owned businesses. Our management team and H2 have developed a strong relationship and we look forward to seeing Cadogan Tate continue to develop and grow.”

For further information on Cadogan Tate please refer to https://www.cadogantate.com/en.

About H2 Equity Partners

H2 Equity Partners is a leading independent investment firm founded in 1991, making investments in medium-sized companies with significant growth or improvement potential. The H2 team has built an exceptional track record of acquiring, strengthening and growing fundamentally attractive businesses. H2 invests in companies across all sectors, that have strong market positions and competitive advantages, which can benefit from the extensive international operating experience of the H2 team.

H2 Equity Partners Fund V was launched in February 2017 and makes investments in the United Kingdom, Ireland and the Benelux. Cadogan Tate represents the fourth investment from Fund V. For further information please refer to www.h2ep.co.uk

H2 Equity Partners is pleased to announce that it has agreed to sell Reparenco, a paper and recycling business in the Netherlands, to Smurfit Kappa Group plc (“SKG” or the “Group”), one of the world’s largest integrated manufacturers of paper-based packaging products with operations in Europe and the Americas, for EUR 460 million.

Halex is a German industrial group – comprising of two businesses – that provides metal hardening and heat treatment services for a variety of end markets, and that manufactures complex steel dies for the aluminum extrusion industry.

Reparenco operates a two machine paper mill in the Netherlands with a capacity of 675,000 tonnes together with a 750,000 tonne recovered fibre operation. Reparenco’s strong strategic fit with SKG’s existing European businesses is expected to deliver significant synergies in the near-term in a number of areas, including increased integration of containerboard and the recycling operations into the Smurfit Kappa Group.
Smurfit Kappa Group CEO, Tony Smurfit, commented: “We are pleased to announce our agreement to acquire Reparenco, successfully concluding a process which began on February 1st this year. The acquisition of Reparenco is complementary with our existing business; strengthens our integrated business model; and accelerates a central element of our medium term plan. We welcome all the Reparenco employees to Smurfit Kappa. We believe there is a strong cultural fit between our businesses and that, together, we will generate value in the short, medium and long term for all our stakeholders.”
Parenco CEO, Raymond Jolink, commented: “We are very thankful for the collaborative partnership with H2 over the last years. With the support of H2 we were able to implement our strategy for growth and innovation and strengthened our market position. At this time, we are delighted to become part of the Smurfit Kappa Group. With their extensive experience and expertise in paper-based packaging products SKG is an ideal partner for Reparenco. Together we can take our business to the next level.”

H2 Equity Partners partner Harmen Geerts, commented: ”We are proud of what we have achieved with Reparenco over the last years. And it was a great pleasure to work with the Reparenco team. Together, we have transformed the company in a highly competitive packaging paper business. We are convinced that we have found the ideal partner for Reparenco going forward in SKG. We wish Reparenco and SKG a successful future.”

Reparenco and H2 were advised by William Blair (M&A), McKinsey (commercial), Deloitte (financial/tax), Houthoff (legal) and Tauw (environmental).
For more information, please see the press release from SKG.

About H2 Equity Partners
H2 Equity Partners, founded in 1991, is an independent investment firm with offices in Amsterdam and London. H2 focuses on medium sized companies that are uniquely positioned and provide significant growth potential. H2 offers these businesses a combination of capital and active management support to realise the untapped potential. H2 has a robust, multi-sector track record in building stronger companies, with a suistanable competitive advantage and profitable growth.

H2 Equity Partners (“H2”) is pleased to announce that it has agreed to sell Halex Holding GmbH and its subsidiaries (“Halex” or the “Company”) to Bencis Capital Partners (“Bencis”), a mid-market private equity investor that supports strong and successful businesses in the Benelux and Germany.

Halex is a German industrial group – comprising of two businesses – that provides metal hardening and heat treatment services for a variety of end markets, and that manufactures complex steel dies for the aluminum extrusion industry.

Sven Killmer, Roberto Lucato and Timo Röskes, the central management team of Halex, comment: “We would like to thank H2 for their contribution and support during the past 4.5 years and are excited to pursue Halex’ organic and external growth plan.”

Gert Jan van der Hoeven, Managing Partner of H2, comments: “During H2’s ownership period, Halex has benefited from the turnaround of the central support functions, strong organic growth and performance improvement of the individual sites supported by growth enhancing investments, and several attractive add-on acquisitions. The company has transformed itself into a market leading player with strong management and best-in-class systems and processes. The company’s profits have increased fourfold in the past five years. We are confident that Bencis is the right partner for Halex in terms of supporting further development and growth.”

Cedric De Dycker, Investment Manager at H2, comments: “Halex has witnessed an impressive development and we look back on a number of intense and fun years with the Company. We would like to express our gratitude to the central management team and to the local managing directors for their commitment and for the fruitful collaboration. With its innovative technologies, leadership in quality, strategically located footprint and strong entrepreneurial culture, Halex is well positioned to capture further organic growth and continue its buy-and-build program.”

H2 has been advised by Lincoln International (corporate finance), Morrison & Foerster (legal), Houthoff (legal), Loyens & Loeff (tax), PWC (commercial, financial and tax), and ERM (environmental).

About Halex
Halex is a German industrial group comprising of two businesses:
Härtha Hardening – a metal hardening and heat treatment business, with a comprehensive portfolio of highly value-added services for mission critical components used in various end markets such as automotive, machine tooling, construction, aerospace and medicine.
Halex Extrusion Dies – the development and manufacturing of complex steel dies for the aluminum extrusion industry.
The Company operates 12 sites in Germany, Italy, The Netherlands and Romania and employs a staff of circa 460 FTEs.

H2 Equity Partners is pleased to announce its third investment of 2017: the investment in BA Components, alongside the founders of the business.

BA Components was established in 1990 by its current owners, Brian and Kieran McCracken. BA is one of the UK’s leading designer and specialist manufacturer of made-to-order kitchen and bedroom doors and easy-to-assemble kitchen cabinets with BA ClicBox. The business is headquartered in Cookstown, Northern Ireland and has three well-invested manufacturing sites (Cookstown, Doncaster and Rotherham). The company generated sales of £32 million in its most recent financial year to March 2017, and employs c.260 FTE.
BA has grown significantly in recent years, driven by its market leading brands, high quality products, excellent customer service and some of the most advanced manufacturing facilities in the UK and Ireland. BA ClicBox’s unique offering (“no tools – no screws”) has quickly gained traction in the market and has successfully unlocked new channels – such as the new build market – through the BA Complete proposition which combines BA’s doors with BA ClicBox cabinets.

H2 will work closely with the management team and the founders, who will remain involved as significant shareholders. The growth plan aims to consolidate BA’s position as the largest manufacturer in the UK and leading specialist of made-to-order doors for retailers. BA will continue to invest in its manufacturing facilities, introduce new product ranges and open up new sales channels such as property developers, merchants and export.

Brian McCracken, CEO of BA, said “We chose to partner with H2 based on their good knowledge of our sector and excellent track record built up over 26 years of working with family-owned businesses. Both Kieran and myself will remain actively involved in the business and we look forward to working with H2 to build on the core drivers of BA’s success: a broad range of high quality products and excellent customer service.”

For further information on BA Components please refer to www.byba.co.uk and www.baclicbox.com.

H2 Equity Partners Fund V is pleased to announce that it has completed the acquisition of Search Consultancy Group Limited (“Search”), together with the management of Search.

Search, founded in 1987, is a leading UK recruitment business with 13 offices across the UK. It is headquartered in Glasgow and has a strong presence in Scotland and the North of England. Search employs a total of c.660 FTE of which c.460 are fee-earning. The company generated sales of c.£180 million during FY16 and has grown significantly in recent years. Please refer to www.search.co.uk for further information.

H2 Equity Partners plans to work closely with Search’s management to continue to build on Search’s strong market position and to deepen and expand the range of services and specialisms it provides to its 3,300+ client base. The ambitious growth plan focuses on a combination of expanding the number of consultants, further improving the already wide geographic coverage and selected bolt-on acquisitions.

H2’s investment will allow Search to continue to deliver excellent service to its clients and successfully realise its ambitious growth strategy.

H2 Equity Partners (“H2”) is pleased to announce that it has signed and completed the sale of Hancocks Holdings (“Hancocks”), the leading UK confectionery specialist, to Innovative Bites.

Hancocks is the UK’s leading confectionery specialist and generates over £145 million sales from 5,000 branded and own label products. Hancocks sells to all retailers of confectionery, including independents, symbol groups, convenience chains, larger retailers, discounters and leisure, via its 20 cash and carries, direct distribution, online sales and van sales fleet. The latter was added to Hancocks with the purchase of Bobby’s Foods in October 2016.

H2 acquired Hancocks in an MBO from the Hancocks family in November 2012 and the business has almost doubled profitability over H2’s ownership, having professionalised the business, focused on own-brand product and differentiation, as well as the acquisition of further confectionery companies to develop routes-to-market.

Innovative Bites is a growing UK confectionery importer and wholesaler founded by Vishal Madhu in 2008. Innovative Bites acquired Bonds of London 12 months ago and the combined group will have sales of c£200 million and the combined Group will have a sales team of over 150, sell to over 40,000 customers and offer more than 7,000 confectionery products. Vishal Madhu will be Chairman of the combined Group and Hancocks CEO (Wayne Beedle) and CFO/COO (Steve Foster) will maintain those roles for the combined Group.

The sale of Hancocks represents another successful exit from H2 Fund IV, which commenced investing in 2011 and continues to deliver market leading returns.