DBAG plans gross sales: From Poll, Cartonplast and Green Datahub | EUROtoday

Deutsche Beteiligungs AG (DBAG) is in a promoting temper. It has begun negotiations over its stake in Poll’s high-end brokerage and can be making ready two different firms on the market: packaging specialist Cartonplast and information middle operator Green Datahub. This is what DBAG board spokesman Tom Alzin and his board colleague Jannick Hunecke stated in an interview with the FAZ

The best-known candidate is von Poll. The dealer makes a speciality of costly places and competes with the a lot bigger Engel & Völkers (E&V). Both are owned by personal fairness, as Permira took over round 60 p.c of E&V in 2021. DBAG has maintained its bundle of round 80 p.c of ballot since 2018.

Almost a yr in the past, the FAZ reported that DBAG was making ready to promote the bundle to the famend brokerage home with the assistance of merger consultancy William Blair. Because that was so way back, some within the personal fairness scene are questioning whether or not the plan remains to be related. DBAG says sure. After the financial institution was mandated, the process was totally ready. “We started the process in November and are now in the middle of it,” stated Alzin. “Discussions are ongoing at the moment.” It is feasible to promote the stake to a monetary investor, a household asset supervisor and a “strategist”, i.e. an organization from the business. E&V is out of the query. Conversely, the E&V proprietor Permira shouldn’t be all for a takeover, as is heard in monetary circles. Permira declined to remark when requested.

Raids at E&V have brought about unrest within the massive brokerage business: officers from the Bielefeld predominant customs workplace searched enterprise premises greater than a yr in the past. It was about allegations surrounding the suspicion of false self-employment on the a part of a licensee. The customs workplace later introduced that the suspicion {that a} system of false self-employment was being imposed or promoted at group stage had not been confirmed. Investigations on the franchisee stage are persevering with and the presumption of innocence applies.

Von Poll was not affected by such occasions and had a clear slate, stated Alzin. Nevertheless, each potential purchaser needs the subject addressed: “People ask: ‘How does it work for you?’ That’s a natural reflex that every interested party has.” We are within the strategy of discovering a remaining reply. “Before that, Poll can only be sold at a discount that we are not willing to take,” stated Alzin in gentle of the corporate’s “excellent operational performance.” Apparently the subject extends the corporate audit (due diligence): “This is simply an extended version of the due diligence that has to be done,” stated Hunecke. If vital, the gross sales plan would even be postponed: “We have no problem putting it in the freezer if the price is too low,” stated Alzin. “We are also trying to find a good partner, especially because management is a significant stakeholder and also has a say here.”

When DBAG acquired Poll in 2018, the corporate worth was set at 9 occasions earnings earlier than curiosity, taxes, depreciation and amortization (Ebitda), in accordance with info from monetary circles. For a few years, brokerage homes benefited from excessive demand for actual property in main cities; A sudden rise in rates of interest depressed the market in 2022. But lastly he put it on once more. Last yr, von Poll stated it brokered gross sales and leases of 8,200 properties and elevated complete Europe-wide gross sales by seven p.c in comparison with the earlier yr to 168 million euros. Daniel Ritter, managing companion of von Poll Immobilien GmbH, was quoted as saying in a press launch on Wednesday that the corporate had the best gross sales yr “in a market environment that continues to be challenging”. E&V studies world brokerage gross sales of greater than 1.3 billion euros for 2025, additionally a file.

Von Poll was based in Frankfurt in 2000. The firm sees itself as one of many largest actual property brokers in Europe, with a community of greater than 1,500 “real estate professionals” and greater than 400 branches (“shops”), most of them in Germany. When DBAG acquired the von Poll bundle, it was stated that the earlier shareholders remained “significantly involved”. There was additionally discuss of the corporate going public on the capital market sooner or later. At that point, Ritter spoke of the “medium-term goal of an IPO”. But that is clearly now not a possible possibility.

At DBAG, 2026 will usually be dominated by divestitures. “We expect an above-average number of exits this year,” stated Hunecke. “The ambition: five. We are happy with three,” added Alzin. As in different personal fairness homes, the common holding interval for particular person firms is at the moment unusually lengthy – additionally attributable to Corona and disrupted provide chains in recent times. The administration consultancy Bain has simply calculated that buyers are actually sitting on their investments for a median of seven years. “In the 2010s, five to six years were common,” says the newly printed “Global Private Equity Report.” This corresponds to the present scenario within the DBAG portfolio: “The average age is a little higher, on average maybe just under two years or one and a half,” stated Hunecke.

Von Poll’s finish buyer enterprise is a particular characteristic within the DBAG portfolio. Otherwise, the investor trades with firms that serve different firms (business-to-business, B2B). Cartonplast, which is able to quickly be on the market, rents out reusable plastic liners which are used within the transport of bottles and different containers. DBAG acquired the Dietzenbach-based firm in 2019; in accordance with info from the market, gross sales in 2025 have been round 110 million euros. DBAG units up the gross sales course of after curiosity from the market has been registered. “We have very, very high inquiry activity,” stated Alzin. Investment banks utilized in a small choice course of (pitch). According to the board of administrators, DBAG has already determined who will win the contract, however has not but named any names. In the case of Green Datahub, the investor is supported by a merger marketing consultant who makes a speciality of industrial actual property. Green Datahub achieved gross sales of round ten million euros in 2025 with two information facilities.