Last word

Deutsche Beteiligungs (DBAG) has initiated an additional private equity fund. DBAG Fund V is set to raise €375m over the coming months and a private placement memorandum has been distributed to potential investors. Investors holding a stake in DBAG’s current fourth fund have indicated that they will underwrite part of the volume of the new fund.

“We are looking to leverage the new fund to expand our investor base, with a particular emphasis on international private equity investors,” said Wilken von Hodenberg of DBAG’s board of management. In recent years, the firm had co-invested with the fund, acquiring eight enterprises. The fourth fund closed in September 2003, with investment commitments totalling €228m, three-quarters of which was attributable to German investors.

Harsco, a New York-listed industrial services and products company, has completed its acquisition of Hunnebeck Group, Europe’s third-largest provider of highly engineered construction formwork and scaffolding services for the construction industry. Harsco paid Sun European Partners, a Paris-based subsidiary of buyout firm Sun Capital, €140m for Hunnebeck.

About 75% of Hunnebeck’s annual revenues of nearly US$170m are generated from Western Europe, including Germany, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Austria, and Hungary, with the balance coming from export sales and emerging markets in Eastern Europe and the Middle East.

The acquisition is expected to be accretive to Harsco’s earnings in 2006 and will fit within its Access Services segment, which generates annual revenues of more than US$900m. The deal is Sun’s first exit from a European portfolio company. Last week, it bought Sara Lee’s European branded apparel business.