Vista Capital Advisors is pleased to announce it has successfully assisted Christine De Dijcker and Marc Lanckriet in taking full ownership of ECS by acquiring shares held by Kelly De Dijcker and Pieter Balcaen.
Building on its long-standing debt advisory expertise and international reach Vista Capital Advisors advised the acquiring shareholders in this transaction and assisted in establishing a flexible financing solution provided by Kartesia. The deal structure realizes the goal of the acquiring shareholders to keep ECS a fully family-owned company and is aligned with the Company’s growth ambitions. The deal team consisted of Werner Poot and Cédric Van Damme.
Christine De Dijcker, co-Founder and family shareholder of ECS: “The business that was started in 1985 by my father, my husband and me is like my fifth child. In all those years I have passionately worked for and nurtured ECS. In time, we intend to pass on the family business to our four children, who make up the third generation, and who will support the future growth and development of the group. While our family and ECS are growing, the foundational DNA remains in place. We would like to thank Vista for its support in making this possible together.”
About ECS
ECS, headquartered in Zeebrugge (Belgium) and Venlo (the Netherlands), was created more than 35 years ago, and has grown from a transportation business into an intermodal logistics operator that provides creative, durable and reliable intermodal and supply chain solutions throughout Europe and the UK. ECS manages a fleet of 10,000 containers and places emphasize on creating sustainable and reliable logistics in keeping with its ESG commitments.
In 2021 ECS achieved a total revenue of €440 million, more than doubling its topline over the past decade, which has been driven by the acquisition of 2XL in 2017 and sustained organic revenue growth. ECS aims to continue its strategic growth plan over the coming years, amongst others by significantly increasing its warehousing capacity in the first half of 2023 through the opening of its second fully automated High Bay warehouse in Zeebrugge.
Read the company press release
Vista Capital Advisors was mandated by Vermec to find a new partner for troubled Belgian bike retailer Fiets! On 20th of March 2019 Colruyt Group entered the company's capital for a 75% stake. Please find the press release here.
"As from the the first contact with Vista, the collaboration went very smoothly. I especially appreciated that Vista thought along with us in our search for an investor. The positive attitude and perseverance of Kristof Van Haver was the icing on the cake: "Failure is not an option" with Vista!" Michel Verhaeren, Vermec.
Marc Hofman, COO Retail of Colruyt Group: "This investment fits in with our long-term vision: we want to offer the consumer added value in the various phases of his life and further invest in sustainable mobility."
Vista assisted the shareholders of Fiets! in the entire process, from identifying potential investors to closing.
HRbuilders is the Belgian market leader in HR interim management with expanding presence in Europe. HRbuilders was founded in 2008 by Katrien Devos with a mission to revalue freelancers in HR. It creates value by connecting HR freelancers with companies looking for a temporary HR manager.
By acquiring the VALUEbuilders group House of Talents re-affirms its growth ambition and European expansion plans.
"I would like to sincerely thank Vista for their support and guidance throughout the entire process. They really went the extra mile." Katrien Devos, founder VALUEbuilders.
Vista assisted the shareholder of VALUEbuilders group in the entire sales process, from identifying potential buyers to closing.
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Gigue, the leading Belgian womenswear brand, was sold to Duror NV, the company behind fashion brand Terre Bleue. Gigue and Terre Bleue will combine their expertise to reinforce their competitive position in Belgium as well as abroad and realise further growth ambitions.
Dirk Perquy, CEO of Terre Bleue. "Like Terre Bleue, Gigue has a history as a family business. There is a corporate culture in which the same family values are central: respect, honesty and customer orientation. We also share the same passion for creativity and quality. By doing this we want to emphasise our belief in the Belgian fashion market. "
Vista assisted the shareholders of Gigue all along the sales process, from identifying potential buyers to closing.
Belgian entrepreneur Philip Cracco has acquired Montebi Group, the watches and jewelry company behind the well-known brand Rodania, from BV Capital Partners. Montebi Group distributes its portfolio of brands worldwide with a focus on the Benelux, France and Canada and a strong presence in Russia. Read all about the transaction in the following articles by Belgian financial newspaper "De Tijd” (in Dutch):
Vista Capital Advisors facilitated the transaction on behalf of BV Capital Partners.
Hans Vanoorbeek (BV Capital Partners): “We are very satisfied by the role of Vista Capital Advisors in this transaction. By finding the right person for this deal, we were able to conclude the transaction in a very short time period”.
Vista has assisted 4C Consulting in successfully securing a mezzanine loan facility with a French specialist investment fund. This transaction demonstrates Vista’s debt advisory expertise as well as its broad international network of non-bank debt providers
“We are happy that we could help 4C secure an attractive junior debt financing, without a dilutive effect to the shareholders”, says Werner Poot, Partner at Vista Capital Advisors.
4C Consulting , headquartered in Mechelen (Belgium), is a consulting firm which helps medium and large corporate clients to build customer-focused companies, by improving their CRM processes through the cloud-based Salesforce.com platform. It provides management consulting, implementation and data analytics services. Since 2014 4C is recognised as Platinum Partner of Salesforce.com, the leading cloud-based CRM-platform.
Through this growth-finance, which was tailor-made to suit the profile of 4C’s growth plan, the company was able to acquire CloudSocius, one of the leading Salesforce consultancy firms in the UK. This acquisition makes 4C the largest independent Salesforce Consultancy in Europe with over 180 Salesforce Consultants across offices in London, Paris, Brussels, Mechelen, Lille, Dubai, Casablanca and Warsaw.
"Thanks to the professional and pro-active involvement of Vista Capital Advisors we could find the right partner to boost our ambitious growth plan", says Johan Van Genechten, executive Chairman 4C Consulting
Vista Capital Advisors was mandated by the shareholders of Elektro Groothandel Meetjesland (EGM) to find a strategic buyer for EGM's assets. EGM is a wholesaler for electronical appliances for independent technicians, companies’ technical departments and DIYs.
Cebeo, a Sonepar company in Belgium, took over the distribution activity of Elektro Groothandel Meetjesland (EGM) as of April 1, 2020. Cebeo is market leader in Belgium. Read the press release here.
Vista’s team assisted the shareholders of EGM in the entire process: from strategic buyer search to closing.
Vista Capital Advisors was mandated by a private investor for a buy-side assistance on Carax Group (Ateliers Geens Metanax), a company specialised in heat exchangers and related products for the chemical, petrochemical and food industry.
The transaction was successfully closed in March 2020 and Vista’s team assisted and advised the investor from A to Z: analysis and valuation, due diligence review, negotiations and financing.
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Vedelec is a specialised distributor of household appliances spare parts and accessories for the professional trader. Vista Capital Advisors assisted Vedelec's shareholders with the sale of their company to Industries et Finances Partenaires, a French Private Equity group. The acquisition took place in the context of a buy-and-build strategy of IFP's portfolio company SDS Group, a leading French peer in spare parts distribution.
Vista Capital Advisors was mandated by Tangent Works in their search for growth capital to expand both geographically and horizontally. The company has developed an AI-based proprietary technology to automate forecasts based on time series data.
In February 2020 the transaction was successfully closed with Force Over Mass, a UK venture capital firm focused on early stage technology investments across UK and Europe. Out of 250 Belgian investment opportunities recently evaluated by Force Over Mass, Tangent Works was the most interesting one, as mentioned by Wouter Volckaert, CIO of Force Over Mass.
Vista’s team assisted Tangent Works in the entire process: from pitching documents, over contacting potential investors to closing of the transaction.
Vialegis, the Belgian market leader in legal recruitment services, has been acquired by The House of HR, a European HR group with Belgian roots.
With over 13 years of experience, Vialegis contributes to the success of law and legal firms and legal departments of companies by finding the best legal talents. Thanks to the House of HR platform, Vialegis will now have the means to implement its international ambitions while at the same time being able to retain its entrepreneurial character.
“Being part of House of HR will enable us to grow more quickly internationally. After all, this will put us in a better position to make acquisitions in our niche market and to create synergies with the other members of the group already present in these countries.” Philippe Jadoul, CEO Vialegis
Vista advised the shareholders of Vialegis in the sales process.
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