A long-term investor
Wendel is a hands-on investor and shareholder that assists sector-leading companies in their long-term development. Wendel's business model combines the entrepreneurial passion born of a long family tradition with a culture of performance and accountability.
Our expertise
WENDEL LONG-TERM INVESTOR
Long-term investing requires being a committed shareholder inspiring trust, with constant attention to innovation, sustainable development and promising opportunities for diversification. Wendel’s know-how consists in selecting leading companies, making a long-term investment and helping to define ambitious strategies, while implementing a clear, explicit shareholder approach. Wendel is represented on the Boards of Directors and committees–Strategy, Audit, Appointments and Compensation–of these companies in proportion to its equity stake. Together, they discuss all issues key to long-term growth, such as acquisitions, capital expenditures, research and development, human resources, participation of managers in the value they help create, and sustainable development. Wendel can therefore contribute to the most important decisions made by each company, without taking the place of its management, but always with the companies’ long-term interests in mind.
SEEKING DIVERSIFIED INVESTMENTS
In the medium term, Wendel will accelerate the Group’s development by:
• Continuing to strengthen our financial structure, to ensure that Wendel can gain lasting access to long-term financing at favorable terms;
• Developing our existing assets over the long term to create value;
• Building and holding a diversified portfolio of around ten companies, mainly unlisted, by making larger acquisitions of €200-500 million
in equity and by pursuing the diversification and innovation strategy of Oranje-Nassau Développement.
Investment profile
Wendel invests for the long term as the majority or leading shareholder in listed or unlisted companies that are leaders in their markets, in order to boost their growth and development. The Wendel Group has an investment model chiefly focused on companies with a majority of the following characteristics:
• Based in countries where Wendel has experience, such as France, Germany and the Benelux countries;
• Having strong international exposure;
• Led by high-quality management teams;
• First or second in its market;
• Operating in a sector with high barriers to entry;
• Solid fundamentals;
• Predictable, recurrent cash flow;
• Offering high potential for long-term profitable growth, through both organic growth and accretive acquisitions;
• Significant exposure to markets undergoing rapid growth and/or major, long-term economic trends.
As a long-term shareholder, Wendel particularly favors certain circumstances, such as:
• Control or joint control immediately or in phases;
• A need for a long-term, principal shareholder;
• Opportunities for further reinvestment over time to accompany organic or external growth.
Moreover, Wendel does not invest in sectors whose reputation would be detrimental to the Company’s image or its values.
Oranje-Nassau Développement
In early 2011 Wendel created Oranje-Nassau Développement to seize opportunities for growth, diversification or innovation. The amounts invested through this structure will be smaller than the investments made directly by Wendel. Oranje-Nassau Développement was very active in the year it was created; for a total invested equity of 270 million, it acquired:
• Parcours, an independent specialist in long-term vehicle leasing to corporate customers;
• exceet, the European leader in embedded electronics and security systems;
• and the Mecatherm group, the world leader in equipment for industrial bakeries
Acquisitions by Group companies
Acquisitive growth is an integral part of the development model of Group companies. Our companies made 31 acquisitions in 2011, and all of them plan to achieve a nonnegligible share of their growth through acquisitions, focusing on small or medium purchases, which create the most value.
