Proventis Partners presents Market Insights “EV Charging Infrastructure in Europe”

Munich, February 19, 2020 – After a period of hesitation and uncertainty – both in politics and in many companies in the automotive industry – it has become clear that both the distribution of electric vehicles (“EVs”) and the development of the corresponding charging infrastructure are not progressing fast enough. At the same time, the market for charging infrastructure for EVs is facing a boom: it is expected that the number of public charging points will increase 17-fold from 175,000 at the end of 2019 to up to 3 million by 2030 across the EU, with an estimated market volume of EUR 60 billion. Currently, Norway and the Netherlands have the densest network, but Germany and France are catching up strongly. Three-quarters of this investment is expected to be made in the private charging infrastructure market, i.e. at home or at work, one quarter in public charging. Despite this rapid increase based on the expansion currently planned by both public authorities and companies, it is expected that the ratio between EVs and charging points of max. 10:1 (currently 7.4:1) set as a target by the EU cannot be met (15:1 by 2030). The reason for this is that the number of EVs is expected to grow by a factor of 25 to around 34 million vehicles in the same period. Traditional players from the automotive, utilities, energy as well as oil and gas sector are pushing into the market for charging infrastructure through M&A, and in an emerging market they have to develop new business models, new structures and products. These are the main findings of the current Market Insights “EV Charging Infrastructure in Europe” of the M&A advisory firm Proventis Partners.

According to the research of the experts of Proventis Partners, in this still young and dynamic market the activity in the area of M&A and private placements has increased from 17 transactions in 2014 to 50 transactions in 2019. This is mainly due to the growing importance of the market for electric vehicles, not least driven by the support of politicians in the struggle for climate-friendly solutions in transport. Due to the risks, imponderables and the high need for innovation, the market for charging infrastructure attracts mainly strategic buyers (92%), Proventis Partners continues in its analysis. 55% of all acquisition targets between 2014 and 2019 were manufacturers (charging stations and their components), 19% software and 17% network operators. Two thirds of the transactions took place within national borders, which can only partly be explained by the regionality of the market, i.e. the lack of uniform international regulatory standards for charging infrastructure. In terms of the number of transactions, the most active markets for electric vehicle charging infrastructure are the USA and China, followed by the UK, France and Germany. 20% of the target markets and 16% of buyers are located in the US, one in seven targets and one in seven buyers are located in China. With 29 buyers and 28 targets, Europe is twice as active in M&A transactions as Asia with 14 buyers and 14 targets. According to the Proventis experts, the European M&A market looks more than promising. This is mainly due to the currently still very fragmented market – both among hardware manufacturers and network operators, as can be seen in the example of Germany: The top 15 operators of charging stations account for only 40% of the market. If a large part of the financing has so far taken place via private placements, Proventis believes that M&A activity in this segment will increase significantly worldwide, with strategic transactions continuing to dominate initially. Not all traditional players from the automotive, energy and utility industries have yet found their role in this growth market.

The Proventis Partners-Market Insights “EV Charging Infrastructure in Europe” analyses in an ag- gregated format current trends in the charging infrastructure industry for electric vehicles and exam- ines the following topics in particular: Current status, technological overview, charging structure and organization, charging infrastructure operators, market overview, core markets in Europe, market segments, value chain and business models, market outlook 2030 – what are the drivers of develop- ment, investments in public and private charging infrastructure, overview of M&A activities in the field of charging infrastructure and their potential in Europe.

About Proventis Partners

Proventis Partners is a partner-managed M&A advisory firm whose clients include mainly corporate groups, medium-sized family businesses and private equity funds. With 30 M&A consultants, Proventis Partners is one of the largest independent M&A consultancies in the DACH region with offices in Ham- burg, Cologne, Munich and Zurich. The industry focus of the partners includes Industrials, Business Services, Consumer & Retail, TMT, Healthcare as well as Energy, where the partners can look back on more than 300 successfully completed transactions with a cumulative transaction value of 10 billion Euros. Through its exclusive membership in Mergers Alliance – the leading international partnership of M&A specialists who have realized more than 800 transactions worldwide with a total value of around 40 billion US dollars since 2010 – Proventis Partners offers market coverage in the world’s leading business centers. Through the 20 members of the Mergers Alliance, with over 200 M&A professionals in 40 offices, Proventis Partners has direct access to local decision makers in Europe, North America, Latin America, Asia and Africa.