Disclaimer: Unless noted otherwise, views and analysis expressed here are the author's own and based on public sources. The article is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional for investment decisions.

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You may have heard of Antwerp, Belgium in context of its giant port. Or perhaps the world famous Royal Academy of Fine Arts (Class of ‘06: Demna Gvasalia of the Balenciaga fame). But Antwerp is so much more than a fashionista heaven. Over the last couple of years, the city - and the country as a whole have emerged as Europe’s mid market PE & Independent Sponsor hotspot. Strada. Gimv. AMAVI. Maxus Capital. 

Also Around Partners: an Independent Sponsor / Family Office that has quietly built up 7 platforms with combined revenues exceeding €700M (c.$810M). Around’s two largest and oldest investments - Sereni (funeral services) and Dentius (dentistry) - each produce close to €40M in EBITDA. 5 others are coming along nicely: Parte (property management); Falcon (car washes); Acont (accountancies); OnIT (MSP); and Nesto (vet practices).     

After succumbing to wanderlust and curiosity, a few weeks ago I hopped on the plane to Belgium, to sit down with Amaury Hendrickx (middle) and Pieter Lathouwers (right). The third partner, David Vancoillie joined us over video.

 Over an hour-long conversation, we discussed:  

The point of this article? To raise awareness of new, differentiated sources of capital to support Europe’s Acquisition Entrepreneurs. Both Strada and Around operate EIR programmes. If you have a Buy & Build idea you’re passionate about, get in touch today with Nicholas at Strada or David at Around Partners!  

Speaking of which: if you haven’t heard yet, we’re bring the Serial Acquirers Summit to Munich on April 21st. Thank you to Tengelmann Growth Partners and Aven Capital Partners for co-hosting the event. We have very few seats left, so get your ticket today!

Dentius is Around’s first platform. Today, with 140 dentistry practices across Benelux and Germany, it’s producing c.€250M in revenue and c.€40M in EBITDA. 

As an expat Bain consultant in New York City almost 20 years ago, Pieter had witnessed the rampant growth in US outpatient rollups in ophthalmology and dermatology. Once back in Belgium, he started calling up dentists… however, only a few would pick up. It took almost 2 years to close the first acquisition. Another 2 years later, Dentius was off to the races with 10 practices. 

Meanwhile Amaury, through stints in Private Equity (Merrill Lynch and later ADIC), arrived at the same conclusion: Buy & Builds are the future! As he put it: “One of my portfolio companies at MLGPE was IDH, the largest dental group in the UK. Gradually I put together a list of sectors that I believed could work in Continental Europe.”

By 2019, Dentius had become big enough for Pieter to step down from the CEO position and for Amaury to quit his job and join Pieter. Thus, Around Partners was born. 

According to David, who joined Amaury and Pieter in 2020 after stints in strategy and corporate development: 

“In Europe there are still a lot of very fragmented sectors, often under-professionalised, struggling to make decent margins, in need for investment in people, digitalization etc.,  medium customer quality. Compared to typical PE, we have a longer term horizon. Why is that? Because it takes 3-4 years to build the base platform. If you’re not pressed to sell, you create a lot of value thereafter”.  

Picking the wrong industry can be a costly mistake since Around’s investment horizon is 10-15 years and the initial funding comes straight out of the partners’ pockets.

What does the industry evaluation process look like? According to Amaury:

“We look at factors such as: TAM, international potential, the potential to reach €50-100M in EBITDA, competitive landscape, margins in the sector, and of course PE activity internationally.  Since we focus on a limited number of platforms, every investment needs to be a success. This provides a lot of comfort to the people that we team up with including our entrepreneurs-in-residence. Since we are risk averse, we need to build stable companies that can grow over a long period of time”. 

The logic is this: at 10-20% margins, to get to €50-100M EBITDA, each platform needs to have scope to grow to €500M+ in revenue. 

Where in Europe?

According to David:  

“In principle every EU country could be of interest, however we typically focus on the Benelux, Germany, France, Italy and Spain”. Preference is given to countries where Around is already present to take advantage of shared office, advisor relationships, etc.”

Around are VERY hands-on. 

Pieter and David have run platforms as CEOs - and will happily do so again. It’s quality over quantity, with 1-2 new platform launches per year. Some ideas are straight off Amaury’s spreadsheet, and Around recruits a management team to execute. Some are developed by Entrepreneurs-in-Residence. Unlike search funds though, Around “does not take a portfolio approach of supporting several people with the view that only a few will make it”. 

Amaury, Pieter and David fund each platform up to €10-15M EBITDA. At that point they bring in a strong partner…