HgCapital Buys Germany's Teufel Speakers In GBP60M Deal

30th Jun 2010 14:46

By Marietta Cauchi Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES LONDON (Dow Jones)--HgCapital Wednesday said it has bought Teufel Speakers GmbH from U.S. private equity firm The Riverside Company in a deal worth approximately GBP60 million. Teufel designs and retails loudspeaker systems in the mid to high-end part of the market selling its own brand audio speaker systems directly through its online platform teufelaudio.com. Based in Berlin with 72 employees, the company has recently started selling outside Germany to other European countries including the U.K. HgCapital's cash will be used to fund further product and geographic expansion capitalizing on a market growing at some 15% a year as a result of increasing household loudspeaker penetration and customer preference for online shopping. HgCapital was particularly attracted by Teufel's business model, with no offline retailing and outsourced production, which enables it to undercut competitors. "Teufel has used its technological expertise and online infrastructure to give it a unique competitive edge," Justin von Simson of HgCapital said. "Teufel's business model is based on a high quality, attractively priced product offering with strong distribution and an outsourced production, which will provide an excellent platform to drive future growth," he added. This is the second acquisition by London-based buyout firm HgCapital this year following its purchase of SimonsVoss Technologies AG in May. Its listed investor, HG Capital Trust PLC (HGT.LN), will contribute around GBP8.8 million, or 15%, to the deal. -By Marietta Cauchi, Dow Jones Newswires; +44 207 842 9241; [email protected] (END) Dow Jones Newswires June 30, 2010 09:46 ET (13:46 GMT)