Palamon sells majority stake in DS Produkte GmbH

Palamon Capital Partners (“Palamon”), one of Europe’s leading mid market private equity firms, has sold its majority shareholding in DS Produkte (“the Company”) in a management backed buy-out. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

DS Produkte is one of Germany’s largest distributors of innovative and fast moving consumer goods in the German non-food market. It primarily sells small electrical appliances, fitness products, shoes and home improvement products to most leading German blue-chip retailers, mail-order companies and over the internet. Palamon invested in the Company in November 2008 recognising the growth potential of the platform. Since then, the Company expanded its sales channels and during Palamon’s ownership, DS Produkte achieved annual top-line growth of almost 20%.

Palamon returned the majority of its initial investment to investors following a dividend recapitalisation of the business in December 2010 and the recently completed sale delivered a strong outcome to the fund.

Following the sale, the Company will continue to be led by the present management Ralf Dümmel, Hanno Hagemann and Andreas Schneider.

Holger Kleingarn, Partner at Palamon, commented “We are pleased with our investment in DS Produkte, which has performed well and delivered a very good outcome for the fund. It has been a pleasure working with the management team at DS Produkte and we are certain that they will enjoy great success in the future.”

This exit marks Palamon’s thirteenth liquidity event since January 2009. These realisations have crystallised strong returns and totalled €713 million in cash proceeds; the equivalent of 74% of total capital invested. The Firm has a strong track record in investing in service sector businesses across Europe, generating strong returns through growth. Since inception in 1999 the Palamon portfolio has grown revenue on average by 20% per annum.