European Trenchless Rehab Technology Companies Join Forces

With financial backing by Apheon – IMS Group, resinnovation, Polypipe, Amex Sanivar, Hurricane Trenchless Technologie, Kardiam, as well as 11 affiliate companies – join forces. The new company combines the complementary strengths of each partner. As a result, it establishes a leading group for high-quality, holistic and innovative product solutions.

“After having monitored the sector for a long time, we are very pleased to have facilitated this partnership and created a strong nucleus company in the highly attractive trenchless pipe rehabilitation market. All companies are characterised by unique technical capabilities and high market shares in their respective fields of expertise. In addition, they are characterised by strong organic growth,” say Nils Lüssem, partner at Apheon, and Sebastian Walter, director at Apheon. “We are excited to combine forces with such entrepreneurial founders, and capitalise on this fantastic opportunity to create a global business in a niche market.”

Apheon is a pan-European mid-market private equity investment company. It manages ~€4.5 billion of assets from select global institutional investors and families.

Establishing a Market Leader

The market segment for in-house and house connection pipe rehabilitation has seen significant growth, a trend which is expected to further accelerate in the coming years. This is driven by the general aging of residential and business infrastructure and increasing usage of trenchless technologies. With its formation, the company intends to establish itself as the market leader in the global pipe rehabilitation manufacturing market. It targets this leadership through a buy-and-build approach.

As long-standing leaders in their respective product categories, each partner company shares a strong commitment to engineering excellence, deep technical expertise and continuous innovation.

“I am confident that this partnership will secure a stable, long-term future for our business and allow us to place even greater emphasis on product development and on strengthening our core IMS values of outstanding quality, service, and customer focus,” says Ljubisa Zlatkovic, founder of IMS. “I am also delighted to entrust the leadership of all IMS group companies to my daughter, Jelena Heinrich, and my son-in-law, Andreas Heinrich, under the roof of the IMS Trenchless, ensuring that the future of IMS is carried forward into the next generation.”

The founders and entrepreneurs of the partner companies have significantly reinvested into the company. Furthermore, they will remain onboard to drive the project forward.

Through this combination, the company can more efficiently match-up machines and materials. Under a united management structure, led by the existing entrepreneurs and supported by Jürgen Baumgartner as CFO, the company is positioned to unlock meaningful synergies. Therefore, it can offer its customers comprehensive system solutions that set a new benchmark in the industry.

Broad Portfolio

The company’s joint product portfolio spans a broad range of equipment and materials for the trenchless industry. This includes robotic systems, curing technologies, spray coating systems, resins, liners, seals, inversion equipment and accessories. In addition, it provides turnkey solutions such as fully equipped vehicle systems. The company is actively evaluating several additional add-on opportunities to further expand its product scope.

“As one of the initiators of this partnership, we have established an innovative group of manufacturers specialising in trenchless rehabilitation. Resinnovation has been a recognised player in the synthetic resin sector for over 20 years,” say Mirko and Dino Heuser, co-founders of resinnovation and Innoquip. “Through our initial collaboration with Polypipe, Innoquip, and Amex Sanivar, and now also IMS Trenchless, we are strengthening all our positions in the market and securing the future of all companies involved.”

Accelerating Growth

With Apheon leading the investment, the company aims to accelerate its global growth and expand its local service footprint with additional local service points. Meanwhile, it will continue to add value-add products to its portfolio range and harmonise its product offerings across the platform. Sustainability will be a core pillar of the company’s strategy. This is underpinned by its product portfolio that helps prevent water loss and significantly reduces emissions compared to conventional pipe replacement methods.

“This combination makes us unique in the market and strengthens our position as a system provider in the trenchless pipe and sewer rehabilitation industry, with focus on small and medium pipe diameters. Our customers now benefit from in-house manufactured milling robots, high-pressure water robots, UV systems, reactive resins, CIPP liner systems, custom machine engineering, as well as our own coating systems,” says Jens Becker, founder of Polypipe. “Furthermore, we are in discussions to further expand our product portfolio through selected acquisitions. Together, we will work to further enhance the quality of our products and to share our expertise with our customers. We look forward to a strong and sustainable collaboration.”

KPMG acted as financial advisor to Apheon. Renzenbrink & Partner acted as lead legal advisors to Apheon. Electa Italia acted as advisor on deal structuring and execution.

About the Companies

IMS Group

IMS Group, founded by Zlatkovic, is a technology-leading developer and manufacturer of advanced robotic systems and light-curing equipment for trenchless pipe rehabilitation. With its global network and local affiliated offices, IMS brings strong market expertise around the world. IMS’s customer focus is characterized by worldwide service locations, including a modern and practical service concept, and more than 300 rental park devices. Diversified production sites and a team of more than 30 developers ensure the highest levels of quality and flexibility.

Resinnovation

Resinnovation, co-founded by the Heusers, specialises in developing and manufacturing high-performance synthetic resins for durable pipe repair applications.

PolyPipe

Polypipe, founded by Becker, is the leading distributor of its proprietary spray coating system – the RabbitCoater – specifically designed for in-house pipe rehabilitation.

Amex Sanivar

Amex Sanivar, led by Dr. Oliver Terhoeven, is a specialist provider of liners for pressure pipe rehabilitation as well as repair seals for both pressure and non-pressure pipes.

Hurricane Trenchless

Hurricane Trenchless Technologie provides turnkey solutions for liner curing systems. It also designs and manufactures customized vehicle fit outs and specialized products for trenchless sewer rehabilitation, such as steam units, inversion equipment and impregnation equipment, tailored to the specific needs of our customers.

Kardiam

Kardiam produces high-quality diamond milling and cutting tools.

SOURCE – Apheon 

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