Butler Industries acquires SeaOwl

A few weeks after its acquisition of Pierre Hermé’s macaroons, Butler Industries has signed a new deal. It is taking over the maritime services company SeaOwl, thus returning to a sector it loves. The former SNCM shareholder is taking over the entire capital, which had been shared since 2015 between Cathay Capital (around 40% of the shares) and private French and Italian shareholders. It will also associate the manager Xavier Genin and his teams, whose weight should grow. The investor will provide full equity financing, leaving only the bank loans in place (mainly related to the financing of the ships), and will pay off the mezzanine put in place by Trocadero Capital in 2017.

Founded in 2008, SeaOwl divides its activity between two main sectors: the energy sector, where it provides maintenance of offshore assets for industrial companies such as TotalEnergies, Naval Group and TechnipFMC, and the defence sector, where it assists national navies in their actions at sea, through technical support and training missions. The company has been in the news for having obtained, in 2020, the first French navigation permit for a remotely operated boat. The first contracts for the marketing of this know-how are currently being negotiated. The group, which has 1,300 employees, has a turnover of over €100 million and an EBITDA margin of around 10%. Active in 32 countries via some fifteen subsidiaries, it derives 80% of its revenues from abroad, mainly in Asia and Africa. The objective is to continue its development in these regions as well as in the Middle East, while accelerating investments in the fields of remote ship operation and marine drones.

Other business services SeaOwl Turnover: €100m Ile-de-France

Butler Industries: Walter Butler, Laurent Parquet, David Movahhedi – Buyers’ advisors: due diligence: financial: June Partners (Fabrice Keller, Baptiste Giordano); legal: KPMG Avocats (Vincent Lacombe, Florence Olivier, Albane Eglinger), strategic: Advention Business Partners (Alban Neveux, Iska Pivois); legal: BDGS (Antoine Bonnasse, Jérôme du Chazaud, Yaëlle Cohen) – Buyers’ advisors: Oddo BHF Corporate Finance (Nicolas Ecot, Xavier Lalau Keraly), Invest Corporate Finance (Christophe Marchand), Hetland Maritime (Philippe Hetland Brault, Sixte de Gastines); VDD: financial: EY (Laurent Majubert, François Estin), tax: EY Société d’Avocats (Sandrine Gobaut, Sigrid Cassagne), strategy: Archery Strategy Consulting (Rémy Bonnery); legal: Hogan Lovells (Stéphane Huten, Ali Chegra)

Source: Capital Finance