KALORIMETA takes majority stake in QUNDIS

A German investment group formed around KALORIMETA agreed in April 2017 to acquire QUNDIS from HgCapital, at an enterprise value of €400m. HgCapital kept a minority position in the combined group, and the sale returned 3.5 times its investment and a gross internal rate of return of around 30%, five years after it had bought the company in May 2012 through its sixth fund. Created in 2008 from the merger of QVEDIS, formerly part of Siemens, and KUNDO SystemTechnik, QUNDIS manufactures sub-metering devices. These are the meters fitted to individual radiators and water pipes within an apartment building, which record what each household actually consumes so that heating and water costs can be divided accordingly rather than shared by floor area. It also supplies the gateways and software that read those meters remotely and transmit the data, removing the need for an annual visit to each flat. Its customers are the independent metering service companies that install and read the devices on behalf of landlords, and building technology suppliers. It employed more than 250 people and sold in over 30 countries, with Germany and Italy its largest markets. Demand rests on European energy legislation, which requires that heating costs be billed on actual consumption rather than estimated, obliging landlords across the continent to fit devices of this kind. Under HgCapital’s ownership the company had consolidated its manufacturing into a single new plant in 2013 and developed the remote reading technology that moved it from selling meters to selling the data they produce. For KALORIMETA, which provides metering and energy services to building owners, the purchase brought the hardware its own service business reads, allowing it to cover the whole chain from device to billing across Europe.

Previously, QUNDIS had been acquired in an LBO by HG Capital in 2012.