ANNUAL REPORT 2007 | 2008 - Gimv

BUY-OUTS
AND GROWTH
CAPITAL
Corporate Investment Netherlands
Corporate Investment Netherlands can look back on a very active year. With eleven investments and
divestments, the business unit was one of the most active venture capital providers on the Dutch market. Two
new investments, Numac Groep and TerStal, were added to the Dutch Gimv portfolio. With the buy-out of
the newspaper publishers, Gimv’s 15 percent shareholding in press agency ANP has grown into a substantial
minority interest.
The investment team took advantage of the attractive climate
for exits to sell various holdings, including Holonite, Bever
Zwerfsport, Geveke and HEBU, at attractive returns. Finally, two
sales took place from the Halder Investments IV portfolio.
The market was marked by rising prices. The importance of
auctions, which increase competition and place upward pressure
on prices, has increased. Gimv remains very cautious in
this price spiral and focuses on attractive niche companies with
growth potential and strong management teams.
Whereas in 2007 very strong results were still available, prospects
for 2008 are somewhat more subdued. The transaction
fl ow may still be large enough, but with the somewhat more
diffi cult economic circumstances investors will be very apprehensive
of paying too high prices. The cost of bank fi nancing
rose a bit in the course of 2007, with slightly lower levels of
fi nancing in certain sectors.
28 | Gimv Annual Report 2007-2008 | Operating and fi nancial report
Investment focus
Corporate Investment Netherlands targets small and mediumsized
niche companies. The company also pays attention to
growth companies.
One feature which stands out is the signifi cant number of add-on
acquisitions made by companies in the portfolio. In 2007-2008,
for example, BMC acquired research and consultancy bureau
SGBO, and Borgers Groothandel in Groenten en Fruit was acquired
by De Groot International. LowLand Fashion and TerStal
also went actively on the acquisition path.
In 2007-2008, Corporate Investment Netherlands invested
EUR 19.5 million, of which 14.3 million in two new
shareholdings.