Perusa Partners Fund 2, an investment fund advised by Perusa, has acquired German steak house chain Maredo from GEP III, an investment fund advised by ECM Equity Capital Management.
Both companies jointly announced the transaction on 11 May. Transaction details were not disclosed.
Maredo operates 46 restaurants with about 1,500 employees. The gastronomy concept and the Maredo brand have been modernised in recent years, focusing on the positioning on steak as a core product. This new concept was piloted in Berlin’s Gendarmenmarkt flagship restaurant, which opened in April 2016, after comprehensive refurbishment and which subsequently has generated substantial sales growth.
Together with the experienced management team of Maredo, on board since 2014, Perusa intends to roll out the updated and modern concept on a nation-wide scale and to realise additional growth in the dynamic steak house segment.
Dr Hanno Schmidt-Gothan, managing director of Perusa, says: “The Maredo brand is fantastic, with a high degree of recognition and great potential. Together with management, Perusa will strengthen the market position through targeted investments and a consequent implementation of the new gastronomy concept.”
Dr Joachim Gripp, managing director of Maredo Group, says: “Perusa is the ideal partner for us to sustainably implement our focused growth strategy. Together, we will modernise our restaurants, making them even more attractive for our guests. The strongest expression of our modern interpretation of a steak restaurant is Berlin’s Gendarmenmarkt flagship restaurant, which opened in April 2016: the enormous success of this concept is our driver and mission for the coming years.”
Carsten Schemmel, partner at ECM, adds: “The Maredo brand has been modernized, and the value proposition of Maredo has been revitalised in recent years. The new flagship restaurant at Gendarmenmarkt is a convincing blueprint for further roll-out of this concept. As such, Maredo is in an excellent position to exploit the apparent growth potential together with Perusa as the new owner.”
Perusa was legally advised by Gütt Olk Feldhaus, and Deloitte supported the due diligence. At Perusa, Hanno Schmidt-Gothan and Raphael Weller led the transaction team.
The GEP III Fund was advised by the Frankfurt team of global corporate-finance adviser DC Advisory. Legal representatives for GEP III were Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy. Responsible for the transaction at ECM were Carsten Schemmel, Alexander Schönborn, and Marius Buxkämper.
