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I agreeEnd of June 2018, AF Eigenkapitalfonds für deutschen Mittelstand GmbH & Co. KG, advised by Afinum Management GmbH, has sold its shares in ORWO Net AG (www.orwonet.de) to the holding companies of the majority shareholders, Dr. Gerhard Köhler and Hans Dieter Lindemeyer.
Afinum took a minority stake in ORWO Net AG back in October 2011. Expanding the B2B customer base of ORWO Net AG with the support of Afinum, re-juvenating the product portfolio with future-proof and user-friendly digital photo product solutions and arranging a smooth succession for the managing director Dr. Gerhard Köhler, who intented to leave the company for age reasons, were key targets of the Fund’s investment into the market leading photo finisher.
While the more than 100 year-old company history was successfully continued during the shareholdership of Afinum, ORWO Net AG could increase its market share. At present, ORWO Net AG has captured a clear number 2 position in the German market for photo products and expanded the installed base of its photo software suite to roughly 6.000.000 German households (approx. 15% market share). At the company site in Bitterfeld-Wolfen in Saxony Anhalt, more than 300 employees manufacture photo books, calenders, digital and analogue photo prints, wallpaper, gift cards and numerous other innovative printing products for the decoration and gift markets. Now, as a white label full service partner, ORWO Net AG always keeps the brands of its retail partners in core focus and concentrates on the development of photo product software
solutions enabling easy-to-use design and swift ordering processes for the end consumers. Furthermore, Afinum supported the smooth and frictionless transition from a firm, traditionally managed by the entrepreneur, to a company with highly motivated and professional third-party management.
Afinum’s investment was designed as an interim shareholding right from the beginning and, following the investment strategy of AF Eigenkapitalfonds für deutschen Mittelstand GmbH & Co. KG, envisaged as exit route a possible sale to a third party, but also a buy-back option for the majority shareholders. With the mentioned transaction, Afinum’s shares were eventually repurchased as planned.