Ardian announces the acquisition, through a preemptive approach, of Syclef, a French leader in professional refrigeration

Paris, October 8th, 2020 - Ardian, a world leading private investment house, today announces the acquisition of a majority stake, alongside the management team, in Syclef, from Latour Capital.

Founded in 2003 near Aix-en-Provence, Syclef is a leading French company specializing in the installation and maintenance of industrial and commercial refrigeration systems. Today, Syclef employs a workforce of nearly 800 people, following both significant organic and external growth in recent years. Since 2015, Syclef has accelerated its buy-and-build strategy with the acquisition of 15 companies. Together with Ardian, the group intends to continue this ambitious consolidation process in a market still very fragmented. 

Syclef's customer base, which is primarily composed of large and medium-size food retailers as well as companies in the food & beverage industry, relies on Syclef to manage its complex and critical refrigeration systems. The group has a direct sales approach which enables it to customize its offer and provide a bespoke service to its customers. Syclef operates a decentralized organization structure with a network of 30 independent companies throughout the country. 

The group’s commercial strategy is supported by a focus on environmentally friendly innovation such as natural refrigeration fluids. This is part of its overall objective of reducing its customers' energy consumption and environmental impact.

Marie Arnaud Battandier, Managing Director within the Ardian Expansion team, said: "Syclef’s management team has done a stellar job to put it in leadership position in the French market. In the coming years, we want to further catalyze the company’s growth by taking advantage of its expert positioning, its local strategy and its approach towards environmentally friendly innovation in this growing market.”

Hervé Lohéac, Chairman of Syclef, added: "We are very proud of the progress we have made with Latour Capital, which has allowed us to structure our external growth strategy over the last five years. Now, we are pleased to continue our journey with Ardian at our side, forming a partnership that will provide us with the right tools to further grow and develop both organically and externally. Our decentralized organization model and employee ownership are both key factors of our success, thanks to the involvement of our colleagues. This dynamism, combined with our ambitious training policy ensure our reactivity, our high maintenance standards and our ability to deliver high quality services to our clients.”

Philippe Leoni and Maxime Gutton, Partners at Latour Capital concluded: “We want to express our heartfelt thanks to the Syclef team. We are thrilled to have supported the strong development and transformation of the group with, among others, the introduction of a new senior management team and the structuration of support functions. This new organization allowed the group to triple its size in five years thanks to the acceleration of organic growth and the implementation of an active external growth strategy, with 15 acquisitions.”