Houlihan Lokey Advises Equity Capital Management (ECM)-Managed fund

Houlihan Lokey is pleased to announce that ECM-managed fund German Equity Partners V has entered into a partnership investment with ONE HIRING (1H), a German tech-enabled talent acquisition platform. Houlihan Lokey acted as debt advisor on the acquisition financing.

Based in Duesseldorf, Germany, 1H focuses on permanent placements in the verticals of tech and finance and has recently expanded into legal. Starting as a traditional recruitment firm more than a decade ago, 1H has successfully digitized its business model. Today, the company follows a differentiated “hybrid” recruitment model, combining elements of digital-only platforms with the personal human touch of traditional recruiting firms. Services are supported by a self-developed tech platform that partially automates processes, thereby increasing scalability and operational efficiency. 1H counts many well-known IT and accounting firms among its customer base. The group employs more than 160 people and operates across Germany, the UK, and the US. Together with its new partner, the 1H team, headed by co-founder and CEO Julian Schubert, plans to continue its success story and to further strengthen its position in a fragmented market.

ECM is a trusted growth partner for mid-sized enterprises and entrepreneurs in German-speaking Europe. Since 1995, ECM has raised the private equity funds GEP I-V with aggregate equity commitments of more than €1 billion and currently invests out of the fifth fund, GEP V (€325 million). The funds invest primarily in leading middle-market companies with attractive growth potential in the context of ownership successions, partnership transactions, and corporate spin-offs.

Houlihan Lokey acted as financing advisor to ECM-managed fund GEP V and provided debt advice on all commercial aspects of the financing transaction. This advice secured an attractive and well-balanced financing package to support the company’s future growth strategies.