Morning, Nina Lindholm here with the Europe Wire from the London newsroom.
This week fell in between two Formula 1 races: the Italian Grand Prix last weekend, and the upcoming Spanish GP on Sunday. While we don’t have deals involving F1 teams – something we have seen before – we did see a couple of transactions in automotive in the past couple of days.
HOF Capital completed the acquisition of Porsche’s equity interest in hypercar company Bugatti Rimac and Rimac Group through an HOF-led consortium, in a deal valuing Porsche’s combined stakes at approximately €1 billion.
Away from sports cars, Main Capital agreed to acquire a majority stake in in VWE Automotive, a provider of software, data and transaction services for the automotive sector.
PE Hub published a flurry of exclusives this week. In today’s They Said It, we revisit one of them, a story exploring Hudson Hill’s single-asset CV for InXpress, an international and domestic parcel and freight services provider.
Need for speed
Let’s start today’s automotive coverage on the luxury end. Earlier this week, HOF Capital completed the acquisition of Porsche’s equity interests in Bugatti Rimac and Rimac Group through an HOF-led consortium, in a deal valuing Porsche’s combined stakes at approximately €1 billion.
Bugatti Rimac is a hypercar company headquartered in Kerestinec, Croatia. It combines Rimac Automobili and Bugatti Automobiles.
HOF Capital originated and led the transaction, assembling a consortium of institutional investors from the US and Europe. Following completion, HOF holds a 23.5 percent stake in Rimac Group – becoming its largest shareholder – while Rimac Group retains its 55 percent controlling interest in Bugatti Rimac. HOF and its consortium also acquired Porsche’s direct 45 percent interest in Bugatti Rimac.
“Bugatti’s position at the apex of personal luxury and bespoke craftsmanship is especially compelling as we enter an era defined by abundance,” said Hisham Elhaddad, co-founder and managing partner of HOF Capital, in a statement.
Combining connectivity
Next, we step away from sports cars to look at software for car dealerships. Main Capital Partners announced this week that it has agreed to acquire a majority stake in VWE Automotive, a provider of software, data and transaction services for the automotive sector.
The deal is intended to launch a new phase of growth for VWE, with additional investment in AI-enabled product and data offerings alongside a selective buy-and-build strategy.
Founded in 1993 and headquartered in Heerhugowaard, VWE employs approximately 150 full-time staff and serves more than 10,000 customers in the Netherlands, including universal and independent dealers, leasing companies, insurers, workshops and fleet operators. Its core platform, MijnVWE, automates processes across the vehicle lifecycle, including purchasing, registration, administration, valuation, sales and ownership transfer.
VWE has built its position within the Dutch automotive ecosystem as a long-standing information and application provider for RDW – the organization handling vehicle registrations in the Netherlands – combining regulated connectivity with proprietary vehicle, transaction and customer data.
They Said It
We stay on the road for They Said It as we focus on logistics. Among several exclusive stories published by PE Hub this week, my colleague Obey Martin Manayiti revealed that Hudson Hill Capital closed a single-asset continuation vehicle for InXpress, an international and domestic parcel and freight services provider based in Sandy, Utah.
I was interested in the part of the story that talked about how pent-up consumer demand during the covid-19 pandemic boosted InXpress’ business:
“It pulled an enormous number of small and mid-sized businesses into e-commerce almost overnight, which meant they suddenly had to ship – and transportation and logistics is not typically their core focus. Meanwhile, carrier capacity tightened, and the environment grew more volatile amid pricing fluctuations, making access and expertise genuinely valuable. That is precisely the problem InXpress was built to solve.” – Eric Rosen, founder and managing partner, Hudson Hill
That’s all from me. John R Fischer will be with you later today with the US edition. I’ll be back with you on Monday.
Cheers,
Nina