New shareholders for UNIPEX
News : transaction services
Aca Nexia performed the accounting and tax due diligence of UNIPEX on the occasion of the entry into the capital of BNP Paribas Développement.
“Distributor of specialty ingredients with high added value for over 50 years, which regained its independence in 2015, the company UNIPEX changed its shareholding in September 2019. BNP Paribas Développement and the five Directors of the company’s Business Units have thus entered the capital of its holding company, joining the four existing shareholders. The objective of this capital restructuring is to place the company in continuity, a desire to keep ““the particular spirit of the house”” and to keep its independence.
In 2015, Unipex’s business in France, Benelux and North Africa left the eponymous group controlled by IK Investment Partners to stand on its own two feet. Four years later, this perimeter of the specialty ingredients distributor revamped its shareholding to include BNP Paribas Développement with a minority part. On the occasion of this MBO, the three leaders led by President Patrice Barthelmes, retain two-thirds of the capital of Unipex and grant some 5% of the shares to ten executives. Through a refinancing operation carried out in 2017, the management had taken over the entire capital by organizing the exit from LGT Private Debt, the fund had indeed supported the gaining of independence. Unipex today distributes some 1,700 ingredients to 1,600 customers from the pharmaceutical, chemical, cosmetic and food industries, for a turnover of € 92 million in 2018. Over three to five years, the the group has already planned to rely on a majority fund to organize the exit of its leaders. A comeback fully assumed in the world of private equity.”
Link(s)