Deal Announcement 07/23: Energy & Automotive

The Deal

The PwC M&A team is pleased to announce the successful sale of Compleo Charging Solutions AG and its subsidiaries (“Compleo”) to Leopold Kostal GmbH & Co. KG (“KOSTAL”) via a combined share & asset deal as part of a successful insolvency proceeding in self-administration.

Compleo is one of the leading full-service providers of charging technology for electric vehicles in Europe. KOSTAL is a family business with a strong reputation in automotive and industrial electrics, solar inverters, in the future field of bidirectional charging, and further areas of applications. The transaction brings together KOSTAL’s experience as an automotive supplier – including in-depth knowledge of power electronics and experience in the industrialisation of complex electronic products – and Compleo’s expertise in charging solutions and backend software. The backend software developed by Compleo is a meaningful addition to KOSTAL’s portfolio, offering a platform for new business models, especially in combination with the expected future spread of bidirectional charging. Compleo, on the other hand, benefits from the global presence of KOSTAL and their production capacities, enabling the company to reach new markets with its products and becoming the market leader in the field of semi-public and public charging infrastructure in Europe.

The PwC Distressed M&A team initiated a fast-track international M&A process. The team approached a three-digit number of potential investors around the globe. The entire process from kick-off to signing took less than 4 months. During the process, different transaction structures and investor concepts were evaluated in parallel, increasing the complexity further. However, this swift and condensed process allowed for a maximum competition. The purchase agreement was signed in April 2023 and was closed in July 2023.

Compleo

Compleo is a pioneer and full-range technology provider in the EV charging market. The company develops and produces AC and DC chargers and is planning the market launch of a high-performance charger of up to 200kw later this year. Compleo is also a market leader in back-end and COP aggregator software solutions which can be operated across hardware from different providers.

The company is headquartered in Dortmund, Germany and has >300 employees including >100 developers and engineers.

Compleo had to file for insolvency in December 2022 as a consequence of rapid organic and inorganic growth resulting in increased complexity of operations (especially a lack of post-merger integration of acquired companies).

KOSTAL

KOSTAL is an international family-owned Group headquartered in Lüdenscheid, Germany and has annual sales of approx. € 3.3bn and approx. 19,000 employees. The company is active in the fields of automotive electronics, industrial photovoltaics and drive technology, connectors and connector systems, solar electrics and inverters, and testing and automation technologies. The KOSTAL Group's global production presence and technological expertise enables it to develop innovative solutions for the future of a wide range of customer industries.

PwC

The global PricewaterhouseCoopers network is a worldwide association of independent auditing and consulting companies which together employ almost 328,000 people in 152 countries. Our global network comprises over 2,900 M&A professionals all over the world, realising approx. 400 successful transactions per year. We specialise in a wide range of independent M&A services including advice on acquisitions and disposals, mergers, public takeovers, privatisations as well as structured financing. Our Distressed M&A team led by Timo Klees (Partner) is market leading in Germany and has successfully advised on more than 70 transactions out of special situations and insolvency situations in recent years.

PwC M&A Germany acted as exclusive M&A advisor to the insolvency administration and Compleo on this transaction. The transaction was led by Timo Klees (Partner Distressed M&A) and Steffen Apfel (Partner Energy M&A). The M&A-team included Marco Minnerup (Senior Manager), Reinhard Rümler (Senior Manager), Sebastian Fettig (Manager), Maximilian Pfirrmann (Associate), Stella Victoria Danko (Associate) and Tomislav Ćurić (Associate).