About the deal

Acquired in October 2016 by Andera Partners, alongside its CEO Gilles Rigon, ACB Group (Advanced Circuit Boards) is a European leader in the manufacturing of high reliability printed circuit boards for harsh environment. ACB Group provides long-term support to major OEMs active in strategic industries such as aerospace, defense, medical. Generating more than €40m in revenues, ACB Group employs 300 people spread over 6 production sites in France, Belgium and Tunisia.

After a secondary LBO backed by Andera Partners in 2016, Gilles Rigon & his team wanted to join forces with a new financial investor to back the next growth chapter of the group. Further to a competitive process organized by Capitalmind Investec, management completed a deal with a pool of three French financial investors: Arkéa Capital (who had already backed the ACB Group management buy-in led by Gilles Rigon in 2012), BNP Paribas Développement and Société Générale Capital Partenaires. The deal enables the exit of Andera Partners while the management strengthens its shareholding position.

The arrival of the new partners will allow ACB Group to enter a new phase of its development and consolidate its leadership position in the European market. Benefiting from an excellent order book due to the strong dynamics of its underlying markets, the group wishes to pursue the consolidation of the European players in PCBs for harsh environment.

What we did

Capitalmind Investec has assisted Andera Partners throughout the sale process: shaping equity story, qualifying counterparts most likely to value ACB Group’s positioning & growth profile, defining the transaction strategy and go-to-market timing, preparing marketing material, setting up a competitive process to maximize transaction terms & conditions, assisting in the negotiation phase.