The Riverside Company has sold Vokes-Air Group to MANN+HUMMEL GmbH, a filtration company headquartered in Germany. Vokes-Air Group was acquired by Riverside in July 2008 though a corporate care-out with SPX Corporation.
Vokes-Air Group is a provider of air filtration products for a variety of commercial and industrial applications, ranging from HVAC to power plants and hospitals. The company has manufacturing plants in Sweden, Germany and the UK, and sales operations in 10 countries. Vokes is based in Svenljunga, Sweden (www.vokesair.com).
“Riverside took a fragmented corporate division with untapped potential and carefully built a strong standalone company,” said Riverside Partner Thomas Blomqvist. “We then helped Vokes thrive by investing in R&D, improving production efficiency, reducing overhead, and ultimately significantly increasing profitability of the company.”
Working with Mr. Blomqvist on the transaction for Riverside were Senior Operating Partner Fabio Pesiri, Vice President Björn Larsson, Vice President Marcin Goszyk and Associate Martin Gustavsson.
“Riverside’s contribution to Vokes has been substantial, greatly supporting it in a variety of ways throughout its period of ownership to ensure that Vokes delivered significant operational improvements and strong earnings growth,” said Vokes’ CEO George Black. “Vokes has a strong position in the attractive European air filtration market with significant opportunities ahead for continued growth.”
The Riverside Company is focused on the smaller end of the middle market and invests in businesses valued at up to $250 million (€200 million in Europe). Since 1988, the firm has invested in more than 330 transactions with a total enterprise value of more than $6 billion. The firm’s current portfolio includes more than 70 companies. The Riverside Company is headquartered in New York with additional offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and London (www.riversidecompany.com).
Mannheimer Swartling (www.mannheimerswartling.se/en) provided legal advice and KPMG advised Riverside on the sale of Vokes.
© 2014 PEPD • Private Equity’s Leading News Magazine • 2-18-14