EQS-News: va-Q-tec: Shareholders pave way for strategic partnership with EQT Private Equity and support takeover offer

Dr. Joachim Kuhn, founder and CEO of va-Q-tec AG, comments: The Management Board and the founding families, who remain invested, are very pleased that the plans for the future with EQT have received such broad support from the shareholders by accepting the takeover offer. In EQT we gain a financially strong and entrepreneurial partner which shares our vision and supports the companys long-term development and growth. This is very good news for va-Q-tec as a company, for our workforce, for the regions of both Würzburg and Kölleda in Thuringia, as well as for our ten subsidiaries all over the world.

Matthias Wittkowski, Partner at EQT Private Equity Advisory Team, notes: We are excited to be partnering with va-Q-tecs management team to support the Company on achieving its full potential as a private company. Together, we aim on establishing a global force in high-performance thermal insulation and, via a combination with our portfolio company Envirotainer, a one-stop-shop offering for customers needing mission critical pharma transport services. We are pleased that this growth strategy has received the support of va-Q-tecs shareholders and look forward to working with the Companys management team and our co-investors to support va-Q-tec on delivering accelerated, sustainable growth.

va-Q-tec, together with EQT Private Equity, plans to merge va-Q-tecs service and systems business for the pharmaceutical sector (va-Q-tec Pharma Business) with Envirotainer AB (Envirotainer), in which EQT Private Equity already holds an indirect majority interest. At the same time, with strategic and financial support from EQT Private Equity, va-Q-tecs remaining business in the thermal energy efficiency and thermal boxes area is to be further developed in the long term within an independent, new company (va-Q-tec 2.0) and is to be expanded to include new application possibilities for vacuum insulation technology. The planned investment in va-Q-tec by EQT Private Equity as part of an approximately EUR 35 million capital increase and the planned merger between the va-Q-tec pharmaceutical business and Envirotainer are in accordance with the vision of creating two independent groups of companies, each of which will assume an internationally leading role in their business area.

Subject to the requisite merger control clearances, the Takeover Offer is expected to be completed not later than in the second quarter of 2023. Following closing of the Takeover Offer, the Bidder intends to enter into a domination and profit and loss transfer agreement with va-Q-tec and to pursue a delisting of the Company.

Investment bank ParkView Partners is acting as exclusive financial advisor, law firm Hogan Lovells as legal advisor and cometis AG as communications advisor on behalf of va-Q-tec.

Important note

This press release does not constitute an opinion or an amendment to the opinion of the Management Board or the Supervisory Board in relation to the Offer. The Bidders offer document is solely binding for the Offer itself.

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About va-Q-tec  

va-Q-tec is a pioneer in highly efficient products and solutions in the area of thermal insulation and TempChain logistics. The company develops, produces and markets highly efficient and consequently thin vacuum insulation panels (VIPs), as well as phase change materials (PCMs) for reliable and energy-efficient temperature controlling. va-Q-tec deploys this key thermal technology in order to produce passive thermal packaging systems (containers and boxes) that maintain constant temperatures, depending on type, for up to 200 hours without external energy input. In order to implement temperature-sensitive logistics chains, va-Q-tec within a global partner network operates a fleet of rental containers and boxes meeting demanding thermal protection standards. Along with Healthcare & Logistics as the main market, va-Q-tec addresses the following further markets: Appliances & Food, Technics & Industry, Building, and Mobility. The high-growth company, which was founded in 2001, is based in Würzburg, Germany.