Stella Group acquired by VKR Holding

VKR Holding offered on 6 November 2026 to acquire the whole of StellaGroup from PAI Partners and ICG, at an enterprise value of €1–10bn. Completion remained subject to consultation with employee representatives and to regulatory approvals. Chief executive Frank Schaedlich and his management team, who also held shares, continued to lead the business, which was to retain its name and autonomy within the acquiring group. Headquartered at Annecy, StellaGroup designs, manufactures and sells the products that close and shade building openings: roller shutters, external venetian blinds, insect screens, awnings and pergolas, together with garage doors, gates, fencing and steel security grilles. It operates through thirteen specialist brands and seventeen plants across France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. The brands are kept separate deliberately. An installer in Bavaria specifies the manufacturer he has used for twenty years, not a group he has never heard of, and the recognition those names carry within their own markets is what the acquisitions purchased. Manufacturing, procurement and development are shared behind them. PAI Partners acquired the majority in 2018 from ICG, which retained around 20%, in the company’s fifth leveraged transaction, and revenue more than doubled over the holding period through acquisitions that took a French manufacturer into four other European markets. PAI had attempted to sell twice before, and negotiations with VKR Holding ran for close to a year. For VKR Holding, which owns VELUX and DOVISTA, the purchase establishes a third division and extends its range from the windows it already makes to the shutters and blinds fitted around them.