AURELIUS subsidiary Office Depot Europe completes sale of its central and eastern European business to strategic buyer PBS Holding

- Part of the successful, ongoing transformation program of Office Depot Europe

- Other transactions expected in the coming months

Munich/Venlo, November 7, 2019 - Office Depot Europe, a portfolio company of AURELIUS Equity Opportunities SE & Co. KGaA (ISIN: DE000A0JK2A8), completed the sale of its subsidiaries in the Czech Republic and Slovakia to PBS Holding AG on the closing date of November 6, 2019. The PBS Group is a leading distributor of office supplies, paper and stationary headquartered in Wels/Austria. The PBS Group supplies customers in Austria, Germany, Poland, Hungary, Italy, Slovenia, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Sale of CEE business as part of ongoing transformation of Office Depot Europe

Office Depot Europe has made major progress in enhancing the efficiency thanks to process optimisations and system enhancements. Significant investments and organisational changes with respect to the Group's e-commerce capabilities are being rewarded with favourable development of the online business. In this respect, a customer-centric strategy also entails further actions to extent the assortment. The divestment of the CEE business will be accompanied by the group further focusing its resources continuing the existing path in a dynamic market environment.

Other transactions expected in the coming months

In addition to this partial sale of a group subsidiary, AURELIUS successfully completed the sale of Solidus Solutions in early September. With this transaction, which is the biggest exit in the history of AURELIUS to date, AURELIUS achieved a multiple of 16.7 times capital employed. In October, AURELIUS also signed an agreement to sell its platform investment Scandinavian Cosmetics. This transaction should be closed in the fourth quarter of 2019 and will make a substantially positive contribution to earnings in the current fourth quarter.

"We are working intensively on other transactions, including both acquisitions and sales," said Dr. Dirk Markus, CEO of the AURELIUS Group. "Companies like the GHOTEL Group and HanseYachts AG, which we have successfully restructured and put on a course of profitable growth in the last few years, are particularly attractive exit candidates. But we are also active on the acquisition side and will expand the AURELIUS Group further by means of platform investments and strategic add-on acquisitions for existing portfolio companies."

 

About PBS

The PBS Group is a leading distributor of office supplies, paper and stationary headquartered in Wels/Austria. The PBS Group supplies customers in Austria, Germany, Poland, Hungary, Italy Slovenia, the Czech Republic and the Slovakian Republic. With more than 1,000 employees, the company generates annual revenues of EUR 280 million.

ABOUT AURELIUS

AURELIUS Group is a pan-European investment group with offices in Munich, London, Stockholm, Madrid and Amsterdam. Since it was founded in 2006, AURELIUS has grown from a local turnaround investor to an international multi-asset manager.

AURELIUS Equity Opportunities SE & Co. KGaA (ISIN: DE000A0JK2A8, ticker symbol: AR4) is the listed entity within AURELIUS Group and focuses on investing in mid-market corporate carve-outs and platform build-ups in a broad range of industries. With a team of more than 80 in-house operations experts, AURELIUS actively supports its portfolio companies in their long-term development. AURELIUS Equity Opportunities currently has 22 portfolio companies located across Europe which employ around 13,000 people and generate annual revenues of approx. EUR 3.5 billion. The shares of AURELIUS Equity Opportunities are traded on all German stock exchanges. The company's market capitalisation is approx. EUR 1.1 billion (as of October 2019).

AURELIUS Group also operates in the areas of growth capital, real estate opportunities and debt. AURELIUS Growth Capital invests in leveraged buyouts usually in succession or corporate spin-off situations. AURELIUS Real Estate Opportunities focuses on real estate investments, the value of which can be increased in the long-term by means of active management. AURELIUS Finance Company is an alternative direct lender, focused on providing flexible debt solutions to small and mid-market firms across Europe.

With its group charity AURELIUS Refugee Initiative e.V., AURELIUS provides comprehensive support for refugees on their way towards a better life.

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AURELIUS Group
Anke Banaschewski
Investor Relations & Corporate Communications
Phone: +49 (89) 544799 - 0
Fax: +49 (89) 544799 - 55
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