Wendel’s investment in Deutsch Group opens the first chapter of the Group’s American adventure.
Wendel acquired a stake in Deutsch Group (“Deutsch”), a global specialist in high-performance connectors, in 2006 at the invitation of the founding family.
The business is complex with five sister companies scattered around the world and all with a common shareholder. After one year of negotiations with its founder, Wendel won a long auction in three stages. Wendel then joined the management team in building a truly unified global group. Entities were merged, activities far removed from the core business (electronic relays) were sold, the Group was reorganized into two worldwide divisions (industry and aeronautics) to better serve its customers, the distribution business was given a major boost with the acquisition of Servo and then LADD Industries, a head office was created in New York, and the management team was strengthened. All this while managing the economic crisis of 2008-2010.
From 2006 to 2012, Wendel invested €388 million to support Deutsch Group’s growth in cutting-edge segments such as aeronautics and space.
Thanks to Wendel, Deutsch has been able to accelerate the development of its products, which are characterized by a high degree of innovation, exceptional performance and high resistance to severe stress in very harsh operating environments.
Together, Deutsch and Wendel came through the 2009 crisis in the best possible shape, thanks to Wendel’s support, and without having sacrificed its prospects for the sake of the short term.
In 2012, after six years of ownership, Wendel sold Deutsch to the industrial group TE Connectivity. The enterprise value of this transaction was approximately $2.1 billion and the net proceeds from the sale amounted, for Wendel, to €959 million. The IRR on this transaction was 22% per year.