Investment in Cleanpart Group sold

• Successful family succession via management buyout
• Strategic investor from Japan for industrial services company with market-leading position in Germany and the USA
• Positive value contribution in the fourth quarter – forecast unchanged

Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 21 August 2018. Deutsche Beteiligungs AG (DBAG) has successfully concluded its investment in Cleanpart Group GmbH (Cleanpart). Its shares have been sold to Mitsubishi Chemicals Corporation (MCC), a Japanese chemical conglomerate which is also engaged in services for the semiconductor industry through its subsidiary Shinryo Corporation (Shinryo). The shares owned by DBAG Fund VI, which is advised by DBAG, and by the Cleanpart management are also being sold. Contracts were signed in August, with closing still subject to approval from the competition authorities. The transaction is expected to be closed within the next three months. The contracting parties have agreed not to disclose the purchase price.

DBAG’s share of the agreed sales proceeds is higher than the carrying amount reported for the investment in its IFRS interim financial statements as of 30 June 2018. The sale will therefore result in another unplanned contribution to net income in the fourth quarter 2017/2018, which ends on 30 September 2018. The contribution was considered in the forecast for net income 2017/2018 for Deutsche Beteiligungs AG, which, given the remaining uncertainty of other variables, remains unchanged.

Cleanpart (www.cleanpart.com) is a services company for the semiconductor industry. The company maintains process-critical components in machines that are primarily used in the production of logic chips, memory chips and comparable components. These components must therefore be regularly decontaminated, cleaned and given a new coating, to ensure that they meet the extreme purity and performance requirements in the production processes of chip manufacturers. The components are serviced at the company’s own facilities, which are located near major customers in Germany, France and the US. The company has 420 employees, and Cleanpart generated revenues of nearly 50 million euros in 2017.

DBAG and DBAG Fund VI invested in Cleanpart in April 2015 as part of a succession solution for the company, which was managed by the founding family. As well as arranging the succession issue, the aims of the investment were continued technological development and focusing on its business in the semiconductor industry. For this purpose, the company’s former second business segment, Healthcare, was sold to a strategic investor last year, after a highly successful performance. Sales and staff numbers are significantly higher today than at the time the investment was made, despite the disposal of the healthcare segment.

“Cleanpart is better positioned today than in 2015, partly thanks to the investments in recent years in new technology to serve clients with particularly high standards,” said Thorsten Grede, Spokesman of the DBAG Board of Management; “the company is in ideal condition to develop well under a new owner.”

Dr Udo Nothelfer, Chairman of the Cleanpart Board of Management, commented on the change of shareholder, “MCC is the ideal partner for us and a sound harbour, since the two companies are a good technological and geographic fit.” Like Cleanpart, Shinryo is a service provider for the semiconductor industry, with a similar portfolio. Shinryo mostly supplies its services for other process stages in the semiconductor industry, however. In addition, the company only operates in Japan, Taiwan and China – precisely those regions that Cleanpart does not supply. Cleanpart, in turn, contributes its European business and its US sites to the collaboration and will also be able to use Shinryo’s strong market presence in Asia going forward. Together, Cleanpart and Shinryo will be able to benefit from an expanded service portfolio through Cleanpart’s materials engineering services and its supply of individual components for its customers’ machines.

The sale of the investment in Cleanpart is the second realisation of a portfolio company from DBAG Fund VI. The fund structured eleven management buyouts between 2013 and 2016.