M&A Deal Summary

Lion Capital Acquires Alain Afflelou

On April 30, 2012, private equity firm Lion Capital acquired franchising company Alain Afflelou from Bridgepoint and Apax for 780M EUR

Acquisition Highlights
  • This is Lion Capital’s 1st transaction in the Franchising sector.
  • This is Lion Capital’s 4th largest (disclosed) transaction.
  • This is Lion Capital’s 3rd transaction in France.

M&A Deal Summary
Date 2012-04-30
Target Alain Afflelou
Sector Franchising
Buyer(s) Lion Capital
Sellers(s) Bridgepoint
Apax
Deal Type Secondary Buyout
Deal Value 780M EUR

Target

Alain Afflelou

Aubervilliers, France
Alain Afflelou is a franchisor of over 800 optical retail stores in France and Spain, operating under two brands Alain Afflelou, its core offering, and Plurielles d'Afflelou, its 'all-inclusive' concept. Alain Afflelou was founded in 1972 and is based in Aubervilliers, France.

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Buyer(S) 1

Buyer

Lion Capital

London, United Kingdom

Investor Investor Investor Investor Investor

Category Private Equity Firm
Founded 2004
PE ASSETS 4.3B EUR
Size Mega
Type Sector Focused
DESCRIPTION

Lion Capital LLP is a specialist private equity firm focused on consumer-oriented opportunities throughout Europe and North America. Specific areas of interest include apparel, accessories, luxury goods, food, and specialty retail. Lion Capital LLP was formed in 2004 and is based in London. The Firm has an additional office in New York City.

DEAL STATS #
Overall 25 of 42
Sector (Franchising) 1 of 2
Type (Secondary Buyout) 11 of 20
Country (France) 3 of 4
Year (2012) 2 of 2
Size (of disclosed) 4 of 15
PREVIOUS DEAL
DATE TARGET DEAL TYPE VALUE
2012-04-30 John Varvatos

New York, New York, United States

John Varvatos is a men's clothing brand that includes footwear, bags, belts, eyewear, limited edition watches, and men’s fragrances. John Varvatos was founded in 2000 and is based in New York.

Buy -
FOLLOWING DEAL
DATE TARGET DEAL TYPE VALUE
2013-02-10 ghd

West Yorkshire, United Kingdom

ghd is a provider of premium hair styling irons, comlpementary wet products and other hair styling accessories. ghd is based in West Yorkshire, United kingdom.

Buy £300M

Seller(S) 2

SELLER

Bridgepoint

London, United Kingdom

Investor Investor Investor Investor Investor

Category Private Equity Firm
Founded 1984
PE ASSETS 28.2B EUR
Size Mega
Type Sector Agnostic
DESCRIPTION

Bridgepoint is a large European private equity firm that invests in middle-market companies across a broad range of industries with an enterprise value of €200 - €1000 million. Prospective transaction situations include buyouts, buy-ins, growth financings, consolidations, and take privates. The firms invest in the range of €75 - €400 million transaction. Bridgepoint Development Capital specializes in investments in businesses valued up to a €150 million, taking equity stakes of between €10 million and €75 million. General sectors of interest include consumer products and services, retail, financial services, healthcare, media, technology, industrials, and business services. Bridgepoint was formed in 1984 and has offices in London, Frankfurt, Luxembourg, Madrid, Milan, Paris, Stockholm and Warsaw.

DEAL STATS #
Overall 31 of 109
Sector (Franchising) 1 of 1
Type (Secondary Buyout) 21 of 65
Country (France) 5 of 23
Year (2012) 1 of 4
Size (of disclosed) 11 of 35
PREVIOUS DEAL
DATE TARGET DEAL TYPE VALUE
2012-01-24 Quilter

London, United Kingdom

Quilter is a UK private wealth management group with £7.6 billion of assets under management. Its clients group includes private individuals, charities and trusts, pension funds, corporate bodies and life companies.

Buy £175M
FOLLOWING DEAL
DATE TARGET DEAL TYPE VALUE
2012-05-21 BigHand

London, United Kingdom

BigHand provides the workflow software, including integrated speech recognition technology, that makes the creation, distribution and processing of voice files more efficient and secure. BigHand was founded in 1995 and is based in London, United Kingdom.

Buy £49M
SELLER

Apax

London, United Kingdom

Investor Investor Investor Investor Investor

Category Private Equity Firm
Founded 1981
PE ASSETS 77.0B USD
Size Mega
Type Sector Agnostic
DESCRIPTION

Apax Partners is a mega-sized private equity investment group, operating across the United States, Europe, Israel and Asia. Broad industry sectors of interest include tech & telecom, media, retail & consumer, healthcare, financial services, and business services. Apax will consider both minority and majority investment positions and prefers companies with strong market positions and growth potential. The Firm generally pursues platform acquisitions valued from $1 to $5 billion. Apax Partners was formed in 1981 and is based in London.

DEAL STATS #
Overall 74 of 171
Sector (Franchising) 1 of 1
Type (Secondary Buyout) 19 of 61
Country (France) 10 of 18
Year (2012) 4 of 9
Size (of disclosed) 25 of 50
PREVIOUS DEAL
DATE TARGET DEAL TYPE VALUE
2012-04-03 Wisair

Tel Aviv, Israel

Wisair, Inc. is a developer of a chipset solution for high-performance wireless communication based on Ultra Wide Band technology.

Sell -
FOLLOWING DEAL
DATE TARGET DEAL TYPE VALUE
2012-06-06 Plex Systems

Auburn Hills, Michigan, United States

Plex Systems is the developer of Plex Online, a Cloud ERP solution for the manufacturing enterprise. Plex Online offers industry-leading features for virtually every department within a manufacturer, including Manufacturing Execution System (MES) and Quality Management System (QMS) for the shop floor, Supply Chain Management (SCM) for procurement, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) for finance and management, and Business Intelligence (BI) for executive management. Plex Online’s comprehensive functional coverage delivers a “shop floor to top floor” view of a manufacturer’s operations, enabling management to run its business at maximum efficiency.

Sell -
Mergr

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