Kalle goes to Silverfleet

London headquartered Silverfleet Capital, the former buyout arm of Prudential, is to acquire German sausage casings maker Kalle in a €212.5m deal from Montagu Private Equity.

The deal is Silverfleet’s first from its €655m fund, which closed in June, and was backed by a Bank of Ireland-led syndicate with Lloyds, NIBC, GE Capital, Rabobank and DZ Bank providing €133m of debt, split between €113m of term debt and a €20m revolving credit facility.

Despite the continuing challenges of raising debt, it is there for strong businesses in strong sectors.

Ralph Betz, head of acquisition finance Germany at Bank of Ireland, said: “In the current environment raising leveraged finance in the German market is not straightforward even for a high quality, defensive business such as Kalle. However we worked closely with our colleagues in transaction management and syndicated finance to provide a seamless coordination process for Silverfleet, enabling them to complete the transaction despite the difficult market conditions. We are very pleased to have generated such strong interest in the Kalle financing – the end result is an over-subscription of the debt facilities and a very strong syndicate of leading German and international banks.”

Montagu acquired Kalle in 2004 from CVC Capital Partners in 2004 for an undisclosed sum and has invested close to €50m in the business. Of that total, €28m was spent on modernising the business, and a further €20m in R&D. Under Montagu’s watch, Kalle has increased sales by 22%, reaching €200m.