Direct Investments

NORD Holding sells Rhodius to Equistone

15.05.2015

NORD Holding Hannover and the investment company BayBG Bayerische have sold their portfolio company Rhodius Holding GmbH, Weißenburg to the private equity investor Equistone Partners Europe.

Rhodius was founded in 1925. The company founder Max Rhodius became famous for wire mesh pot scourers. NORD Holding took over the majority of the shares in 2006 as part of a business succession. The seller at that time was the family-run Bürger AG in Hildesheim. In recent years the company has developed into a leading global manufacturer of components and modules for the automotive industry as well as environmental and process engineering. Core products include wire meshes for airbag production and industrial filter plants. With 450 employees at four production sites in Weißenburg (Bavaria), Laage (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern), Hungary and China, Rhodius has achieved sales of over € 40 million.

Together with a strong management team, Rhodius has successfully expanded into new lines of business in recent years and built up an international distribution and production structure. As a result, the group turnover and the number of employees has almost doubled in the past five years. "It was important for the existing shareholders and the management that with Equistone an international investor was found to further support the successful expansion of the company", commented Rainer Effinger, CEO of NORD Holding.

Equistone will continue with Rhodius' successful international growth strategy.

CEO Dr. Robert Kopetzky, who has been largely responsible for the current growth at Rhodius, remains at the helm with the new owner. "After a strong growth phase with the previous shareholders NORD Holding and BayBG, who supported the company and management superbly in the difficult 2008/09 period, we look forward to a successful future with Equistone", said Dr. Robert Kopetzky.

The company will continue to be at the forefront when it comes to innovation in vehicle safety and environmental systems. Rhodius is a company with significant potential that we primarily want to use to continue expansion into countries like China and USA.

Dr. Peter Hammermann
Equistone, Senior Partner.

About NORD Holding

With its 50-year history and over € 2.0 billion assets under management, NORD Holding is one of the leading private equity asset managers in Germany with a focus on direct and fund investments.

The fund investments division targets the small- and mid-cap segment of the European private equity market through primaries, secondaries and co-investments.

NORD Holding has a strong focus on emerging buyout managers, hands-on investment strategies and regularly acts as an anchor investor. The division manages € 1.3 billion and ranks among the top decile fund investment groups in Europe.

The direct investments division of NORD Holding focuses on structuring and financing company succession models, acquiring parts of larger groups/subsidiaries as well as on expansion financing of medium-sized companies. In contrast to most other financial investors, who only manage closed-end funds, NORD Holding acts as a so-called "evergreen fund", thereby investing from its own balance sheet with no maturity restrictions. Currently, the fund has interests in more than 15 companies in the DACH region.

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