GED Capital, a Private Equity firm operating in the lower/mid-market segment in Spain, has successfully closed the fifth investment from its Private Equity fund GED VI Spain, after acquiring a majority stake in Cinelux from the Private Equity firm Nazca, which invested in the company in 2019.
This divestment represents the first exit from the fund Nazca V (raised in the first half of 2019) and comes after the completion of a successful project of organic and inorganic growth as well as the development of new business lines, which has resulted in a 60% growth in turnover in the period 2018-22. For this year, Cinelux expects to reach €20 million turnover.
Founded in 1988, and with headquarters in Madrid, 2 subsidiaries in Barcelona and 1 subsidiary in Galicia, the Cinelux Group is the Spanish leader in lighting services for the audiovisual sector. Since Nazca’s investment in July 2019, the Cinelux Group has consolidated its leading position, significantly increasing its presence in the fiction segment. The company has the largest lighting park in Spain, with a constant commitment to investment in technology and innovation, and state-of-the-art equipment.
David García, son of Cinelux's founder, will continue to lead the management of the company in the future, also maintaining his stake in the business. GED will support David in this next stage of growth, with the objective of developing Cinelux's industrial growth plan, both organically and inorganically.
There are currently favourable market trends for the audiovisual sector in Spain, mainly driven by (i) the increase in audiovisual consumption, especially after the pandemic, (ii) the increase of outsourcing of entertainment content production and (iii) the growth of OTT streaming platforms with a high-end content profile and which favour internationalisation due to their global distribution. This is supported by Spain's current positioning as an international audiovisual hub, with private investments to establish production centres (e.g. Netflix and Madrid Content City), a favourable regulatory framework with incentives and direct public aid, as well as a €1,600m government-approved plan to boost the sector.
Cinelux currently has a workforce of 60 employees and expects to reach a turnover of €20m in 2022, thanks to its lighting assets, the largest in Spain, spread over 5 warehouses and with a total aggregate area of 10,500m2. It also owns the first virtual set in Spain, a new technology for productions that has recently been implemented in productions such as Disney+'s Mandalorian. Additioally, Cinelux is committed to sustainable initiatives such as the replacement of traditional lighting with LEDs and the incorporation of elements with less environmental impact.
Cinelux's main business is lighting in TV entertainment programmes, where it participates in most of the national prime time productions of the Main Spanish TV channels Mediaset, A3Media, Movistar+ or TVE (the Spanish editions of Got Talent, Survivor, the Voice or Big Brother). It has also been increasing its presence in fiction productions, recently participating in both series (La Casa de Papel, El Cid, Madres, LOL or Elite) and films (Superlópez and Odio, by Dani Rovira) which are then broadcasted on platforms such as Netflix, Amazon, HBO or Disney+.
In 2021, and with the support of Nazca, Cinelux acquired Galician lighting services company Filamento Iluminación (which participated in the filming of the popular Spanish TV series Fariña). It has also recently announced a strategic agreement with Secuoya whereby Cinelux becomes a preferred supplier to provide lighting services for Secuoya's productions (administrator of Madrid Content City) and, in addition, will market all the services of its subsidiary Drago Broadcast Services to its clients.
With this investment, GED will support David García and the entire Cinelux management team in the execution of an industrial plan, with the aim of continuing the growth path of recent years, consolidating Cinelux's leadership at the Spanish level and integrating potential future add-ons with complementary activities, both in Spain as well as in other regions of Southern Europe.
Celia Pérez-Beato, Partner at Nazca, comments: "Grupo Cinelux represents our first divestment from the fund Nazca V. Together with David García and the Cinelux team, we have developed a project that has combined inorganic growth, the improvement of the company's positioning in fiction productions and the development of new business lines. We are convinced that GED is the ideal partner to continue developing the company's leading position in the long term".
Enrique Centelles Satrústegui, Managing Partner of GED Private Equity, said: "We are very grateful to be able to support Cinelux at a key moment for the audiovisual sector in Spain, which has great growth expectations. We are confident that, together with David Garcia at the helm, we can take Cinelux to the next level and position the company as one of the leading players in Southern Europe.”
David García, CEO of Cinelux, said: "We are very grateful for these three years, in which we have been able to count with Nazca's experience, which has helped us to further strengthen our position in the audiovisual market. We are also very excited to be able to count with GED and their support in this new stage of growth. We are sure that they will be a fundamental pillar in the development of our future industrial plan".
Advisors of the transaction for Nazca and David García
Financial: Santander Corporate & Investment Banking
Legal: Perez Llorca and Sanz Arribas & Cid Abogados
Tax: José Casado Lacort
Advisors of the transaction for GED
To finance part of the acquisition, a sustainable syndicated loan has been arranged by Banca March. This is the second sustainable loan made available to GED for its acquisitions. In July 2021, GED obtained another sustainable loan for its portfolio company Evidenze Group Europe to partially finance the bolt-on acquisitions of High Research in Italy and 3ways and BCNScience in Spain.
Legal: KWM (legal and financial)
DD: KPMG (financial/tax/labour/legal/environmental) and PwC (commercial)
Sustainable syndicated loan: G-Advisory (expert in sustainable financing) and Jones Day (financial for Banca March)
About Nazca
Nazca is a Private Equity firm specialized in the Spanish mid-market. Nazca leads its market segment, both by volume of deals and profitability. Since 2001 Nazca has invested completely Funds I, II and III with a respective size of €100, €150, and €230 million, having accomplished 86 transactions: 37 direct investments in companies, 25 additional acquisitions through portfolio companies and 24 divestments.
During the last 12 months, Nazca has made a total of 12 transactions: 3 direct investments in companies, 6 bolt-on acquisitions and 3 divestments.
Nazca currently manages simultaneously Nazca Fund IV with a total commitment of €300 million and Nazca Fund V of €150 million for investments in smaller SMEs, both funds mainly sponsored by international institutional investors. Nazca’s portfolio is composed of 14 companies: FoodBox (retail food), Phibo (dental implantology and prostheses), Herbex (fresh aromatic herbs), Terratest (geotechnical and tunnelling solutions), Diater (biopharmaceutical company), One Shot Hotels (hotels), Cinelux (audiovisual equipment rental), IDP (BIM-based engineering services), Filmin (VOD -video on demand- platform), Eurocebollas (food processing), Laboratorios Almond (vegan and organic food), Zunibal (fishing technology), Nutris (nutraceutical ingredients and functional gummies) and SeproTec-SHIP Global IP (interpretation, translation and IP services). For more information, please visit www.nazca.es
About GED (www.gedcapital.com)
GED is an independent fund manager founded in 1996 that operates in the lower/mid-market segment. It currently manages more than 1,000 million euros through different Private Equity, Infrastructure and Venture Capital vehicles.
GED has a universe of more than 50 national and foreign investors, mainly pension funds, fund of funds, insurance companies, family offices and financial institutions.
GED currently manages three funds within its Private Equity activity, with a total of €375m.
GED VI Spain, through which the investment into Cinelux has been structured, currently has 4 portfolio companies: (i) AIRE (aeronautical maintenance), (ii) Araven Group (equipment for foodservice/retail), (iii) Evidenze Group Europe (service provider for the health sector) and (iv) Comess Group (master franchisee of restaurants and bakeries).
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