Created in 2001 by Matthieu Gufflet, the EPSA Group is one of the leading French consulting firms in organisation and optimisation of purchases. Since its creation, EPSA has continually developed its service both through organic growth and acquisitions.
The Group is a single interlocutor for its customers for the optimisation of purchases, costs and processes of the company.
Mainly based in France, in Paris and Lyon, the Group aims for both a major account clientele (36 companies of the CAC 40 Index), the public sector and ETI/SMEs. Now with more than 10 billion purchases assessed every year and more than 300 annual customer references, the Group generated sales of €80 m in 2016 and now has 300 employees.
With strong growth, the EPSA Group now aims to continue its strong growth in new lines of services. Within this framework, the management team thus wanted to restructure the capital of the Group through the entry of Initiative & Finance, while allowing Capelia, its historic investor which has supported it since 2008, to reinvest at this time. The Impact Partenaires fund completed the transaction. Cabestan Capital, managed by Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners, which has backed the Group since November 2013 concluded its withdrawal on this occasion. This LBO operation relies on a bank financing arranged by BNP Paribas.
This transaction was also the occasion to include certain key managers of subsidiaries in the capital of the Group.
In this transaction, Invest Corporate Finance acted as financial adviser to the company.
Executives involved in the transaction
EPSA: Matthieu Gufflet, Arnaud Myrtil (DAF)
Purchasers: Initiative & Finance (Jean-Michel Laveu, Solenne Cheuret), Capelia (Jean-Christophe Fayard, Louis Veyret), Impact Partenaires (Thomas Delalande)
Vendor: Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners (Alexandre Foulon, Romain Ohayon, Pierre Cavalier)
Company – Legal Adviser: Albers & Albert (Suzanne Decobecq, Manuel Guinet)
Company – Investment Bank: Invest Corporate Finance (Vincent Behr, Maxime Bazin)
Purchaser Financial DD: Advance Capital (Jean-Charles Goeffroy)
Purchaser Legal, Tax and Social DD: Lamartine Conseil (Fabien Mauvais, Camille Le Foyer de Costil, Emmanuelle Prost, Stéphane Buffa, Charlotte Moreau)
Bank Debt: BNP Paribas (Arranger – Géraldine Cabel, Ariane Cohen, Sandrine Bondon) BNP Paribas European SME Debt Fund (Cyril Loiry), Banque Populaire Rives de Paris (Tony Lopes, Christian Chapelle)
