Palladian invests in Global Vehicle Group as H2 exits; Apheon-backed Haudecoeur adds two food businesses

Good morning, Nina Lindholm here with the Europe Wire from the London newsroom.

We end the week with a mix of deal announcements. Starting in the UK, we have Palladian investing in a B2B vehicle leasing business, with H2 Equity Partners selling its stake.

Next, we look at Apheon-backed Haudecoeur, a food business in France that has picked up Natur Food and Heliadis as part of its international expansion.

We return to the UK, where Charterhouse has completed the take-private of Animalcare, a veterinary pharmaceutical products and services company.

We’ll close with They Said It, where I’ll highlight a star quote from this week’s PE Hub coverage.

On the road

Palladian Investment Partners has announced an investment in Global Vehicle Group, a UK B2B leasing broker.

Co-founders Andrew Hurst and Jonathan Lewis, along with GVG’s existing management team, are reinvesting alongside Palladian and will continue to lead the business through its next phase of growth. Current minority shareholder H2 Equity Partners will exit upon completion of the transaction, ending a four-year partnership as GVG’s first private equity backer.

GVG manages assets exceeding £2.5 billion ($3.2 billion; €2.9 billion) across van leasing, fleet management, electric car salary sacrifice and car leasing.

H2 invested in GVG in 2022. In 2025, the company bolted on Fleet Alliance, an SME-focused fleet management business and leasing broker headquartered in Glasgow, as well as LCV Group, a broker specializing in light commercial vehicles. LCV is based in Swansea, Wales.

Make it two

Our next deal takes us to mainland Europe, where Haudecoeur, backed by Apheon, LFPI and the founding Haudecoeur family, has closed the acquisitions of Natur Food, a German wholesaler of Turkish food products, and Heliadis, a Belgian food product manufacturer.

The deals are Haudecoeur’s first efforts at international expansion, adding Germany and Belgium to its existing footprint in France.

Together, the acquisitions generate a combined turnover of more than €350 million, according to a press statement.

Natur Food, founded in 2006 and headquartered in Giessen, distributes products under its own Ahinur brand alongside third-party brands to retailers across Germany, giving Haudecoeur access to the country’s Turkish community. Heliadis, founded in 2005 and based in Vilvoorde, distributes its Nawhal’s-branded sauces to foodservice operators across France through a network of wholesalers.

“These two complementary acquisitions perfectly illustrate the buy-and-build strategy we are pursuing with Haudecoeur and the founding family,” said Wolfgang de Limburg, managing partner at Apheon, in a statement.

Apheon reinvested in Haudecoeur through a continuation fund led by HarbourVest in 2024. The firm first invested in the company in 2019.

Done deal

We finish our coverage of fresh deal announcements with another UK one: Charterhouse Capital Partners has completed the take-private of York-based Animalcare Group, an international veterinary pharmaceutical products and services business.

Charterhouse reached an agreement with Animalcare in April to take the company private, valuing it at around £235 million on a fully diluted basis.

The animal healthcare sector is a resilient and fragmented market supported by attractive long-term structural tailwinds, including increasing pet ownership and owner awareness, broader treatment availability and greater veterinary education, according to a press statement. With its differentiated and niche product portfolio, expanding R&D pipeline and proven ability to execute strategic acquisitions, Animalcare is well positioned for continued growth, the statement added.

They Said It

Before I sign off, let’s take a look at They Said It, where I highlight a star quote from a PE Hub story this week.

I was drawn to Craig McGlashan’s interview with Karim Tabet, senior managing director and head of Europe at Providence Equity Partners. Tabet talked about the desire to experience live entertainment and take part in live events in an era dominated by AI and digital content:

“The paradox of digitalization is that it makes physical scarcity even more important and more valuable. There is so much content available everywhere and that increases the need to go see the real, premium thing. It’s a function of digital fatigue, of desire for shared in-person experiences. That’s driven the growth of the live businesses in which we’ve been investing for the last 15 years. AI is just an amplification. Digital content is available even more freely because it can be produced and distributed for almost nothing. And therefore, there’s a desire to see the real thing.” – Karim Tabet, Providence Equity Partners

That’s all from me. Make sure to catch John R Fischer’s US Wire later today, and I’ll be back in the Europe chair on Monday.

Cheers,

Nina