Houlihan Lokey Advises CVC Capital Partners

Houlihan Lokey is pleased to announce that CVC Capital Partners VIII (CVC Fund VIII) has acquired a majority stake in The Quality Group GmbH (TQG). The transaction closed on 28 July 2022.

Established in 2020 through the merger of More Nutrition and ESN, TQG is a manufacturer of innovative sports performance nutrition products and healthy, low-sugar food alternatives primarily in the DACH region. The company sells products under the two key brands, “ESN” and “More Nutrition”, and reaches five million followers daily through its web shops and partnerships with 300 influencers. TQG’s headquarters and production facilities are based in Elmshorn near Hamburg and it employs 360 people.

Established in 1981, CVC is a leading private equity and credit firm with a network of 25 offices across the EMEA, Americas, and Asia Pacific regions. Since its founding, CVC has secured commitments in excess of €155 billion from over 300 investors and has approximately €123 billion of assets under management. CVC has been active in the German market for more than 30 years and successfully works with numerous large and medium-sized companies.

This deal highlights Houlihan Lokey’s deep expertise in the VMHS/Nutrition and D2C sectors, following the recent acquisition of Healthspan by Orkla Health and sales of Arcadia Consumer Healthcare to Bansk, Dikey Vitamin Group and Nuun to Nestlé Health Science, foodspring to Mars, SmartyPants Vitamins to Unilever, Care/of to Bayer, and Scitec Nutrition to BioTech.