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Swiss staffing and training giant Adecco is putting 2 billion on the table for technology company Akka Technologies. The Frère holding company NPM has a good laugh: it doubles its investment in less than a year.
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The French company Akka Technologie, also listed on Euronext Brussels, is a supplier of engineering services to industrial companies. Adecco wants to combine Akka with its own Modis, which provides similar services. The reasoning goes that supplying specialized personnel and services is less cyclical than general staffing activities.
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Adecco digs deep into the pouch. It offers 49 euros per share for the company. That is more than double the last rate at which Akka closed, 24.6 euros.
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Adecco has already secured 60 percent of the shares by negotiating deals with the founding family Ricci and with the major shareholder Swilux, a subsidiary of Gérald Frère’s Brussels investment company NPM.
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Along the checkout
The latter does a very good thing about the deal. NPM stepped in as emergency financing in October of last year. Akka then tanked 200 million euros in capital, because it wanted to boost its greatly weakened balance sheet due to the corona crisis. NPM/CNP accounted for 150 of that 200 million euros, against 22.5 euros per share. It thus acquired 21.4 percent of the shares.
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For that 21.4 percent, NPM now receives 325 million euros in the bank account, more than double the original investment. Not a bad return on ten months.
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AKKA Technologies
- Supplier of engineering services to industrial companies
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- Turnover (2020): 1.5 billion euros
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- Gross operating profit (EBITDA): 142 million euros
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- Operating profit (EBIT): 20 million euros
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- Number of employees: 21,080
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- Shareholding (before takeover): Ricci family (39%), NPM/CNP (21%), stock market (40%).
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NPM enters German digital bank
The German digital bank Solarisbank topped up 190 million in fresh capital at the beginning of this week, at a valuation of 1.4 billion euros.
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One of the new investors is the Brussels NPM, the investment vehicle around Gérald Frère. The round was led by Decisive Capital Management.
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It is not immediately clear how many funds NPM gives to the Germans. What the money should be used for, however: expansion. Solarisbank makes an immediate entry into the United Kingdom with the funds, with the acquisition of its peer Contis.
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