IK Investment Partners’ (IK) IK Small Cap II Fund is to acquire a majority stake in ALBA Baving Group (ALBA) from its founding family. ALBA is a provider of infrastructure cleaning and maintenance services for municipalities and B2B customers in Germany.
Financial terms of the deal, which is subject to regulatory approval, have not been disclosed.
Founded in 1964 by Albert and Hans Baving in Neuenkirchen, ALBA has developed into one of Germany’s largest service providers for municipal infrastructure services. The Company provides street sweeping, sink box cleaning, road and highway maintenance and other infrastructure services as well as winter and greenspace maintenance and swept material recycling services. ALBA sweeps more than 2,000 kilometres of road per day in over 120 German cities and municipalities, cleans over 500,000 sink boxes annually, and contributes to the maintenance, cleanliness and safety of critical infrastructure for municipalities and B2B customers. IK will be acquiring a majority stake from Dr. Jörg Baving and Claus Baving who became shareholders and took roles as Managing Partners after a generational change in 1999. Today the business is led by CEO Philipp Wernsmann, and following the transaction, Dr Jörg Baving and Claus Baving will continue to support ALBA in an advisory role.
IK will work with the management to accelerate the Company’s organic growth strategy, expand its service offering and further invest into its operations to support ALBA’s continued development into a full-service provider of infrastructure services.
Claus Baving, shareholder of ALBA, says: “ALBA has developed into a leading service provider for municipal services in Germany. We are very proud of this growth, the loyalty of our customers and our trusted and qualified employees. We look forward to embarking on a new chapter together with IK and continuing to expand our market position further.”
Jorg Baving says: “IK shares our vision for ALBA as a full-service provider of infrastructure services. Their support and experience will bring value for us and for the continuous strategic development of the Company and its service offering.”
Nils Pohlmann, Partner at IK Investment Partners and advisor to the IK SC II Fund, says: “ALBA represents more than 50 years of cleaning services for communities across Germany. We are impressed by its sustainable and successful development, its professional set-up and operational and digitalised processes. ALBA is an attractive platform investment for IK, and we look forward to actively supporting the management team and shareholders to further grow the Company.”
Philipp Wernsmann, CEO of ALBA, adds: “With IK we found the right partner to support our strategic growth ambitions. We are impressed by IK’s experience, capabilities and motivation, and look forward to developing ALBA together.”
