HLD Europe enters into exclusive negotiations with IK Investment Partners to acquire Exxelia

HLD Europe has entered into exclusive negotiations with IK Investment Partners (“IK”), a leading Pan-European private equity firm to become the majority shareholder of Exxelia Group (“the Group”), the European leader in the manufacturing of high reliability passive components and electromechanical systems. Exxelia’s management will reinvest alongside HLD Europe.

The completion of the transaction is subject to the consultation of employee representative bodies and the approval of the competition authorities as well as the French and American administrations.

Exxelia develops and manufactures complex passive components and electromechanical solutions for niche industrial markets such as aeronautics, space, defence, medical and rail, where product reliability and performance are essential. The Group serves institutional clients, systems and equipment manufacturers. Exxelia offers a complete and custom product range (capacitors, inductors, resistors, filters, position sensors and rotary joints) embedded into a large number of programs including: the Airbus A350 and Boeing 787 Dreamliner, the Ariane 6 launcher, satellite constellations (such as Galileo and Oneweb), the Rafale and F-35, subway coaches and high-speed trains and medical equipment such as MRI machines and defibrillators.

With an expected proforma revenue of around €170 million for 2019 and around 2,000 employees, Exxelia is present today in more than 30 countries operating in Europe, the US, Morocco and Vietnam through production sites, design centres and networks of sales partners.

With the support of its new shareholder, Exxelia will be able to intensify its operational excellence and innovation efforts, pursue its international growth strategy through entering high-growth markets such as India or China, and accelerate its development in the US.

Paul Maisonnier, CEO of Exxelia:

“I am delighted to embark on a new stage of development with our new shareholders, with whom we share the same vision. Together, we aim to strengthen Exxelia’s unique “one-stop-shop” by offering high-reliability custom products combined with a strong capacity for innovation. We will pursue our continuous improvement approach and internationalisation strategy to make Exxelia a world leader in our niche markets. In that regard, HLD's experience in international business development is invaluable to us. We thank IK Investment Partners for their support over the past five years which has enabled us to set up a solid platform capable of supporting our ambitions for global growth, which we are delighted to continue with HLD.”

Dan Soudry, Managing Partner at IK Investment Partners and advisor to the IK VII Fund:

“As shareholders of Exxelia since 2015, we are very pleased to have supported the various stages of transformation and growth of the Group, through a deep structuring phase led by the management team and an ambitious growth strategy. This has strengthened the Group's presence in the US, in particular with the acquisition of Raf Tabtronics, Deyoung, and Micropen, and diversified its expertise on new product lines.”

Jean-Bernard Lafonta, Founding Partner of HLD Europe and Jean-Hubert Vial, Partner:

“HLD supports successful companies with no restrictions on duration. We believe this specificity was important in the choice of Exxelia’s new shareholder: it is essential to achieve the ambition of growth while considering the long-term nature of Exxelia clients’ programs. We are delighted to be associated with the group's project, whose entrepreneurial culture echoes the entrepreneurial spirit that drives HLD. We are convinced that we can help Exxelia's teams by giving them the means to meet their ambitions.”

Parties involved in the transaction

Buyside

HLD Europe: Jean-Bernard Lafonta, Jean-Hubert Vial, Salim Helou, Maxence Gailliot, Christophe Bernardini, Julie Le Goff

M&A advisor: DC Advisory (David Benin), Canaccord Genuity (Olivier Dardel, Denis Vidalinc)

Legal advisor: Bredin Prat (Olivier Assant, Clémence Fallet, Florence Haas)

Financial advisor: Deloitte (Cyril Stivala, Renaud Adam)

Tax advisor: Arsène Taxand (Denis Andrès, Yoann Chemama, Vincent Briand)

Strategic advisor: BCG (Benjamin Entraygues, Florian Kahn, Florent Berthod, Vincent Benoist)

Sellside

IK Investment Partners: Dan Soudry, Remi Buttiaux, Diki Korniloff, Thibaut Richard, Deborah Collignon, Mathieu Carton

M&A advisor: Rothschild (Laurent Baril, Nicolas Perianin), HSBC (Emilie Bauvillard), Lincoln (Guillaume Suizdak, Charles de Fels)

Legal advisor: Willkie Farr & Gallagher (Eduardo Fernandez, Cédric Hajage, Hugo Nocerino)

Financial advisor: 8Advisory (Justin Welstead, Mathieu Morisot)

Strategic advisor: Kearney (Jerome Souied, Nicholas Veg)

Management team advisors

Oloryn Partners (Eric Lesieur, Frédéric Jannin)

Hoche (Grine Lahreche, Audrey Szultz)

Jeausserand-Audouard (Tristan Audouard)

For further questions, please contact:

IK Investment Partners

France:

CTCom

Sibylle Descamps

+33 (0)6 82 097 007

sibylle.descamps@ct-com.com

International:

Maitland

James McFarlane

+44 (0) 207 379 5151

jmcfarlane@maitland.co.uk

About Exxelia

Exxelia was born from the merger of five long-established companies with complementary know-how (Eurofarad, Firadec, Sic Safco, Microspire et Astema) then joined by Temex, Dearborn, N’Ergy, Raf Tabtronics, DeYoung and Micropen. Exxelia is a manufacturer of complex passive components and innovative subsystems, designed to withstand severe environments. Exxelia’s products (capacitors, filters, slip rings, magnetic components and precision mechanical parts) are mainly used in power electronics, energy generation and storage, filtering and signal processing. Exxelia operates in advanced industrial markets such as defence, space, aviation, energy, transport, medical and telecommunications.

Exxelia is recognised for its ability to meet complex technical specifications and to design standard and custom products meeting the most demanding qualification procedures: MIL, QPL, etc.

Exxelia generated around €170 million in pro forma revenue in 2019 and employs around 2,000 employees in 13 sites in four countries (France, the US, Morocco and Vietnam).

About HLD Europe

Founded in 2019 by Jean-Philippe Hecketsweiler, Jean-Bernard Lafonta and Philippe Donnet, HLD has experienced remarkable growth in the private equity world. The investment holding company currently has 12 companies in France and in Europe (including Tessi, Kiloutou, Coyote, Santé Cie or Rafaut, etc.), representing a combined revenue of almost 2 billion euros and 17,000 employees. True to the will of its shareholders, that brings together many European entrepreneurs, including the Decaux and Dentressangle families as well as Claude Bébéar, HLD invests with no restrictions on duration. This particularity has enabled to create strong links with the managers of the companies in the portfolio, and to foster the development of companies over the long term, in Europe and internationally.

Today, the group is active in Luxembourg, Paris, Milan and Zurich.

About IK Investment Partners

IK Investment Partners (“IK”) is a Pan-European private equity firm focused on investments in the Nordics, DACH region, France, and Benelux. Since 1989, IK has raised more than €10 billion of capital and invested in over 130 European companies. IK funds support companies with strong underlying potential, partnering with management teams and investors to create robust, well-positioned businesses with excellent long-term prospects.