Houlihan Lokey Advises Kanalservice Gruppe, a Portfolio Company of Funds Advised by Ufenau Capital Partners

Houlihan Lokey is pleased to announce that funds advised by Ufenau Capital Partners (Ufenau) have completed their refinancing of Kanalservice Gruppe (KSG), a leading group of companies in the field of underground infrastructure maintenance, to enable the rollover of the asset into their newly established continuation fund.

KSG, headquartered in Frauenfeld, Switzerland, is a leading and rapidly growing service provider for underground infrastructure maintenance (UIM) in Switzerland, Germany, and the U.K., operating across more than 35 locations. KSG has over 1,000 employees, providing services to over 25,000 customers every year. KSG’s service portfolio comprises UIM services such as sewer cleaning, inspection, and rehabilitation as well as other adjacent critical infrastructure services, which are mainly road services such as marking and signage as well as surface cleaning.

Ufenau is a privately owned investment company headquartered in Switzerland that advises private investors, family offices, and institutional investors on private equity transactions with a focus on majority buyouts of owner-managed companies within asset-light industries. Since 2011, Ufenau has completed more than 325 transactions across Europe, underpinning the strong track record of buy-and-build strategies and consolidation of fragmented markets.

KSG was founded in 2017 by the acquisition of Ufenau and since then has successfully integrated 18 additional add-on acquisitions. Through the rollover of the asset into the continuation vehicle, Ufenau would like to continue the success story via organic and inorganic growth, especially by tapping into new geographies. The goal going forward is to optimize the underground infrastructure of clients in a resource-efficient manner as the leading critical infrastructure maintenance provider.

Houlihan Lokey provided debt advice on all commercial aspects of the financing transaction and secured a highly attractive, tailor-made, and flexible financing structure that will support KSG’s growth and further execution of the platform strategy.