Proventis Partners advises H.I.G. Europe in its acquisition of Lagardère Sports

Hamburg, 21 February 2020 – H.I.G. acquires the leading global sports marketing firm from Groupe Lagardère.

The Transaction

H.I.G. Europe, an affiliate of H.I.G. Capital, LLC (“H.I.G.”), a leading global private equity investment firm, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Lagardère Sports (the “Company”) from Groupe Lagardère, a multinational media group, which will retain a minority shareholding of 24.9%. The transaction is subject to clearance by the relevant antitrust authorities.

“The global sports marketing segment is a multibillion Euro industry with attractive long-term growth prospects fueled by the continuously increasing popularity of sports and the digitization of sports marketing services. H.I.G. is looking forward to drive the business to the next level together with a truly global management team,” commented Christian Kraul-von Renner, Managing Director at H.I.G.

The Role of Proventis Partners

Based on its longstanding experience in advising on transactions in the sports marketing sector and a strong network of industry experts, Proventis Partners initiated the transaction for H.I.G. and supported the investment team throughout the acquisition process.

About Lagardère Sports

Lagardère Sports is a leading global sports marketing firm providing sponsorship, media, brand consulting, as well as event management, and athlete management services. It employs approximately 1,300 full-time employees and generates annual sales of more than EUR 450 million. The Company, which will be rebranded following the completion of the sale, has long-standing relationships with major brands and rightsholders in the sports market and leverages a truly global network of partners and customers.

About H.I.G. Capital

H.I.G. is a leading global private equity and alternative assets investment firm with over €31 billion of equity capital under management. Based in Miami, and with offices in New York, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Atlanta in the U.S., as well as international affiliate offices in London, Hamburg, Madrid, Milan, Paris, Bogotá, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, H.I.G. specializes in providing both debt and equity capital to small and mid-sized companies, utilizing a flexible and operationally focused / value-added approach. Since its founding in 1993, H.I.G. has invested in and managed more than 300 companies worldwide. The firm’s current portfolio includes more than 100 companies with combined sales in excess of €27 billion.

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 Hamburg, 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 Eu-rope, North America, Latin America, Asia and Africa.