Houlihan Lokey Advises Gilde Buy Out Partners and Exponent Private Equity

Houlihan Lokey is pleased to announce that it has successfully arranged a fully committed debt financing package in support of the merger between albelli, a Gilde Buy Out Partners (Gilde) portfolio company, and The Photobox Group (Photobox), an Exponent Private Equity (Exponent) portfolio company. The combination of both companies will create the market-leading pan-European online photo products and gifting business. The transaction closed in January 2022.

The newly-combined company will serve a pan-European customer base of over 7 million customers, supported by 1,150 employees across the United Kingdom, Netherlands, France, Germany, Spain, Norway and Sweden. albelli and Photobox enjoy complementary business strategies and a shared focus on customer satisfaction and employee engagement. The combined business will benefit from sharing best practice knowledge, streamlining procurement and supply chain processes, and the scale of a larger group. In addition, the merger will allow both businesses to accelerate strategic initiatives to better serve customers, including its focus on mobile app.

The existing consumer brands, including Photobox and albelli, will remain, given their strength in their respective markets. Over time, customers will enjoy an increased product portfolio and improved customer experience.

albelli, headquartered in Amsterdam (the Netherlands) and employing c. 450 FTE, produces and supplies photo books and other related photo print products including wall décor, cards, calendars and prints. The company has strong market positions across Benelux, Scandinavia as well as other European countries where it has highly recognized local brands (including albelli, bonusprint, monalbumphoto, fotoknudsen and önskefoto) and supplies high-quality photo products to millions of customers across Europe. albelli operates a vertically integrated business model, combining e-commerce with in-house printing as well as proprietary developed photo creation software.

Photobox, headquartered in London (United Kingdom) and employing c. 700 FTE offers a wide range of photo gifting products including photo books, calendars, canvases and wall-art, mugs, gifts, jigsaws, prints and magnets. The company has strong market positions in United Kingdom, France, Spain and Germany as well as other European markets. Photobox serves its key geographical markets through three online brands: Photobox, Hofmann and PosterXXL. The company is vertically integrated, but also collaborates with networked external factories.

Gilde is a leading mid-market private equity house in the Benelux and DACH regions and targets sizeable businesses with strong, often leading market positions, growth potential and predictable positive cash flow. Gilde has raised over €4.5bn across 6 funds and aims to acquire Benelux/DACH headquartered businesses with enterprise values between €100 and €250m.

Exponent is a London-based private equity firm focused on transformational investments in multiple sectors including Media, Consumer & Leisure, Financial Services and Business Services. Exponent has raised over £2.9bn to date across 4 funds and aims to acquire companies headquartered across Europe with enterprise values between £100 and £400m.

Houlihan Lokey acted as the exclusive financing advisor to the sponsors and arranged, structured, and negotiated the financing for the resulting merger.

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