PAI Enters Agreement for Sale of IPH

A cross-border, multidisciplinary Willkie deal team represents PAI Partners in its pending deal to sell IPH, a European industrial supplies distributor, to Advent International.

It was recently announced that Advent International has agreed to acquire IPH, a European industrial supplies distributor, from Willkie client PAI Partners. The pending transaction would combine IPH with Brammer Limited, its British competitor, which Advent took private from the London Stock Exchange earlier this year.

Advent intends to create a leading European distributor of industrial supplies, with over €2.1 billion in revenue.  The transaction is subject to the completion of the customary consultation process with the workers’ councils, and the approval of the relevant antitrust authorities.

IPH, which was acquired by PAI in 2013, offers power transmission products, machining solutions, industrial supply solutions and product-related services. It serves a range of industries, including chemical, pharmaceutical, food-processing, energy, transport, automotive, petrochemicals and mechanical engineering industries. The group’s revenue has grown from €895 million to €1.3 billion between 2013 and 2016, and the number of its employees increased from 3,280 to 4,350 over the same period.

With offices in Paris, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, Milan, Munich, New York and Stockholm, PAI Partners is a leading pan-European private equity firm that manages €8.3 billion of dedicated buyout funds.

The cross-border, multidisciplinary Willkie deal team was led by Paris partner Christophe Garaud, and included Paris: partner David Tayar, national partner Grégoire Finance, special European counsel Jeffrey Fouts and associates David Lambert, Thomas Saint-Loubert-Bié, Grégoire Dumazy, Camille Lautier, Louis Jambu-Merlin and Mathilde Vannson; Frankfurt: partner Mario Schmidt and associates Stefan Buehrle and Lukas Nein; Brussels: associate David Kupka and Milan: Luca Leonardi, Elena Meloni and Federica Pecorini.