Madrid, January 18th 2023. - 2023 is behind us and we have recharged our batteries during the Christmas holidays. Now we are back to work and want to share a short summary of the third year of Henko Partners!
This is what the year 2023 was like for us...
New investments
- Link: Leading IT consulting company in Portugal that provides state-of-the-art technology solutions to help organisations in their digital transformation. Henko will support Link's international growth and further develop the service portfolio with a strong focus on innovation.
- Quadrant: International buy & build project to create a leading engineering company focused on sustainability. Quadrante, based in Lisbon, aims to strengthen its position as an integrated global player in the environmental engineering and consulting sector.
Portfolio development
Despite macroeconomic uncertainty in 2023, our portfolio companies have returned to double-digit organic growth, complemented by new acquisitions. Many thanks to our fantastic management teams!
- Voltan doubles its size by entering into substation and transmission line services: Voltan acquired Garoc to enter the market for maintenance and installation services for infrastructures associated with electricity transmission and distribution. This integration makes Voltan one of the leading Iberian technical services companies in the energy sector, with a turnover of approximately 90 million euros.
- Defeder is growing inorganically in France: Defeder has acquired Calcisol, a distributor of organic fertilisers in France. In addition to its strong presence in Iberia, this acquisition positions Defeder as a key player in the French market.
- Revergy maintains its high growth rate: 2023 has been another stellar year of organic growth at Revergy, thanks to strong demand from existing and new customers for its solar and wind farm O&M services across Europe and Latin America.
- A new star emerges, Astrum: During 2023, we invested in CROs in France (PopsiCube), Germany (Pharmalog) and Portugal (BlueClinical), renaming the new pan-European group Astrum. In parallel, BioClever, our initial 2022 acquisition in Spain, continued to deliver high growth and excellent clinical trial services.
- Link and Quadrante: joined the Henko family as new investment platforms, and we look forward to working with them in 2024.
Talent attraction
- Strong reinforcement of the portfolio: In 2023, we continue to be able to attract top professionals to our portfolio companies. We have recruited 10 new managers, as well as 5 new members of the Boards of our investees. They will play a key role in the development of our companies.
....and this is what we expect for 2024
Key initiatives for the development of our portfolio
- Link intends to acquire several add-ons in 2024 with a focus on Spanish IT companies in cybersecurity, data, AI and front-end development.
- Quadrante will continue to grow organically while advancing its inorganic growth strategy, with a focus on Spain by 2024. The company also intends to increase its exposure to the energy market.
- Astrum will show strong organic growth by executing its order book, and the company will start to exploit commercial synergies between the group's sister companies. In terms of inorganic growth, we will continue to pursue further complementary acquisitions in Europe.
- Revergy will grow significantly, driven by a portfolio of multi-year contracts. We will also consider selective add-on acquisitions of specialised wind turbine and photovoltaic service companies, as well as asset management companies.
- Defeder expand the product portfolio with new high quality products and enter more international markets through acquisitions.
- Voltan will continue to grow organically thanks to a solid portfolio of international contracts already signed. We will also continue our buy & build strategy. In addition to acquisitions in Iberia, we will look for attractive companies across Europe to strengthen Voltan's presence in substations and high and medium voltage lines.
Maintaining the pace of investment
We expect to continue to partner with new companies and large management teams in 2024. For new investments, we focus on companies in the following sectors in Spain and Portugal: energy and sustainability, industrial automation, technology and healthcare/pharmaceuticals.
