Electra Partners buys Tokheim

Electra Partners Europe, a UK-based middle-market private equity firm, has bought Tokheim from AXA Private Equity in a secondary buyout worth €360m.

At the time of the initial takeover by AXA in 2003, Tokheim was mainly active in Africa and Europe, with leading positions in France, the Benelux countries, Spain and Portugal. Over the last three years, the group has reinforced its presence in Italy, the UK, Germany and Denmark. Recently, it has also developed a distribution presence in China. Production facilities are based in France, the UK and China

Patrick Eisenchteter of Electra Partners Europe said the pressure of increasing regulation and strict servicing requirements in the petrol distribution industry play to Tokheim’s strengths.

Electra has demonstrable experience investing in and developing specialist industrial services businesses. Previous investments include Safety Kleen Europe, which was sold to JPMorgan Partners in 2004, Azelis, and recently KSM, which was acquired from the Thyssen Group.

Tokheim, based in France, offers a complete service for petrol station operators, including construction, installation and the provision of automated payment systems and service station fuel dispenser equipment.

The company has 3,200 employees and serves petrol companies, hyper/supermarket distributors and independent petrol retailers.

Electra was advised by Rothschild (M&A), KPMG (transaction services), Latham & Watkins (legal) and Advention (commercial). Tokheim was advised by BNP Paribas (M&A), PricewaterhouseCoopers (transaction services), Sokolow Carreras & Associes (legal and tax), Arthur D Little (strategy), AON (insurance) and URS (environmental).