During this transaction to restructure Nexeya's capital, Activa Capital and Bpifrance sold their stakes in Nexeya, a group specialised in designing critical electronic products for the aerospace, space, defence, energy and rail sectors. Having reinvested significantly, Nexeya's management is now the Group's majority shareholder.
The transaction, led by Jean-Yves Rivière, Philippe Gautier and Jérôme Giraud, with the support of the group's managers, enables the management team to hold more than 75% of Nexeya's share capital. The management team's ambition is to speed up the Group's development through product innovation and international deployment.
The group was created in 1997 and works with major French and international customers such as Airbus, CEA, Comac/Avic, CNES, Naval Group, DGA, Safran and Thales, providing high added value products and services in the areas of testing, energy conversion, mission management and space facilities. The group was recently chosen by CNES to set up the French sector that makes it possible to develop and manufacture nano-satellites.
The group, which has operations in Germany, Canada, China, Morocco and Singapore, currently employs more than 800 people. In 2015/2016, it generated revenue of €132 million and has a current operating income of €8.7 million.
In 2013, Activa Capital and Bpifrance joined the management to support it in launching a takeover bid for Nexeya, followed one year later by a delisting. They then supported the Group's refocusing on its core business, its reorganisation by business line, and the strengthening of its international presence through targeted developments. In four years, the Group's scope has changed significantly with the completion of two external growth transactions abroad (Cabletest in Canada acquired in January 2015, then Techsat in Germany acquired in November 2015) and two sales of non-strategic subsidiaries.
Jean-Yves Rivière, Chairman of Nexeya's Supervisory Committee, declared "The restructuring of the capital that we have just carried out is part of the project begun in 2013, consisting of speeding up our development in foreign markets and strengthening our own product offering. This transaction makes it possible to continue associating the key managers who are making and will make the company successful with Nexeya's capital".
Delphine Larrandaburu, Director of Participation in BNP Paribas Développement explains "We are very pleased to support management in this acquisition and to contribute to this new phase of Nexeya's development".
Bruno Bonnin, Director at Capzanine, adds "We are delighted to be able to continue to support Nexeya, which we have been supporting since the 2013 takeover bid. We have been able to put in place unitranche financing that has made it possible to refinance the existing debt as part of the acquisition of a majority stake by the Management. In addition, we have structured a financing line for future external growth transactions, enabling the Group to speed up its development in its target markets".
Christophe Parier, Partner at Activa Capital, and Luc Heinrich, Deputy Director Equity Mid Cap at Bpifrance, state "We are very pleased with what has been done with Nexeya and its teams since we Page 2 sur 2 took an equity stake in 2013. The group now has recognised know-how in various technological niche markets and can therefore continue to capitalise on its experience and customer portfolio to develop its business in new geographic regions".
