After 17 years, YellowFox identified a strategic partner that enabled continued strong growth.

YellowFox GmbH
Telematics
Hendrik Scherf
Managing Director

Relevant facts

Year of foundation

2003

Size of the company

70 employees

Project duration

1.5 years

Sales year

2020

Initial situation

YellowFox GmbH, managed by the holding company HM3T, was founded in 2003 with headquarters in Kesselsdorf near Dresden and employed around 70 people at the time of sale (2020). YellowFox serves a wide range of industries, from transport and logistics to construction. Hendrik Scherf, one of the five owners and the managing director of YellowFox GmbH, cared a lot about his company. He could imagine remaining employed there even after the company was sold. Before Scherf had his consultation with CARL, he was not sure whether his specific requirements would be met by the new owners. It was important to him that both the brand and the corporate culture were preserved. The safeguarding of the location and the retention of the employees were to be guaranteed on the part of the new owners. After the initial meeting, CARL's experienced team was able to ease Mr Scherf's initial uncertainty by explaining CARL Connect's innovative matchmaking technology to him in detail. When Scherf came to CARL, the five owners already had an offer to buy. However, from their point of view and also from the point of view of our Advisers , this clearly did not correspond to the value of YellowFox GmbH. The owners wanted a sales price that reflected the true value of their life's work.

Procedure

In addition to the minimum sale price, Scherf had some non-monetary conditions for the buyer. The special thing about this sales process was that the CARL team had to take into account the requirements and wishes not only of one managing director, but of five shareholders at once. This made the task considerably more complex, as the circumstances had a major influence on the search for investors. In addition, Mr. Scherf preferred a local successor due to the firmly anchored corporate culture. Initially, there was a limited investor approach because of disagreements between the five shareholders. After intensive discussions, the consulting team was able to clear this up and an extensive investor approach could be carried out. Numerous interested parties were identified on the innovative platform, CARL Connect. Among the interested parties there were both strategic and financial investors, between whom a bidding competition arose. The specific wishes of the owners, especially those of Scherf, played a decisive role in the selection of the buyer and the contract negotiations.

Result

The holding company H3MT has chosen the financial investor "Frankfurter Investor ECM". The former owners were confident that the investor would continue the company's vision and drive its development. The minimum expectation for the sale price was increased by 30%. Due to his strong ties to YellowFox GmbH, Scherf will remain in the company as CEO with a significant backstory. The other former four owners also held shares in the company. In the end, CARL managed to fulfil the individual wishes of the five shareholders equally and to carry out a successful company sale.

"The transaction team competently and confidently took into account the different interests of the shareholders throughout the entire transaction. The structured process and the know-how in the telematics market made it possible to find a suitable strategic partner in ECM."
Hendrik Scherf
Managing Director

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