3i, Europe’s leading mid-market private equity company, and funds managed by 3i have signed an agreement to back the buyout of DruckChemie, a speciality service provider to the printing industry, for €133m from SG Capital Europe and Quartus.

DruckChemie provides the printing industry with speciality chemicals, consumables and services such as regular deliveries, on site inventory management and waste collection.

With a head office in Ammerbuch, Germany, DruckChemie operates 24 outlets across 10 European countries and Brazil and serves more than 6,000 customers.  A market leader in both France and Germany, DruckChemie’s sales outlets are situated in over 50 countries with supplies covering in excess of 1,000 products.

3i has considerable experience of investing in the printing and business services sectors through its previous investments in Azelis, a pan-European company distributing speciality chemicals, and EDS Euro-DruckService, the leading web-offset printer in the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary. 3i’s investment will help DruckChemie to further pursue its successful growth strategy and develop strong market positions across all major European markets. Furthermore 3i’s global network of industry experts will provide the chemical service company with the ability to access previously untapped markets such as the US or Asia and add more technologically advanced products to its portfolio.

Ulf von Haacke, 3i Partner commented, “We are delighted to be investing in DruckChemie, a leading service provider within its sector with a strong track record of profitable growth and a high cash conversion.  We are convinced of the substantial growth potential for this business and look forward to supporting the experienced management team to achieve this.”

Jean Emter, Chief Executive of DruckChemie said, “We are very much looking forward to our partnership with 3i.  Their wealth of experience in our industry sector and their international network will be invaluable to us.  Today, DruckChemie is very much driven by our culture to deliver efficient services to the client.  It is these services, a solid and broad product portfolio, and the successful development of technologies such as Alco-free and VOC-free, which have given the company its strong reputation. 3i’s investment will help us to build on these strengths and develop into a global company with leading market positions across Europe and strong footholds in the US and Asia.”

3i advisers on the deal included BNP Paribas (M&A), PWC (financial DD), Willkie Farr and Gallagher (legal), Roland Berger (commercial DD), SJ Berwin (tax), AON (insurance DD) and ERM (environmental DD).  SG Capital Europe, Quartus and DruckChemie have been advised by FdC and Interfinanz (M&A), Pöllath + Partner (legal), E&Y (financial), Mazars (tax), SJ Berwin (legal), Bird&Bird (tax) and Tauw (environmental).