AEQUITA acquires the Mercedes-Benz minibus business from Daimler Buses

Munich/Dortmund - AEQUITA acquires the Mercedes-Benz Minibus GmbH from Daimler Buses. The responsible parties signed the corresponding purchase agreement on November 22, 2021. The Mercedes-Benz Minibus GmbH employs around 240 people at its headquarters in Dortmund. Based on the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter, the company produces minibuses from 3.5 to 6.8 tons for the public transport and the individual travel business. The production process is characterized by deep expertise and know-how along the entire value chain, from R&D to industrial production. In particular the newly developed generation of Mercedes-Benz minibuses provides great growth opportunities. As part of the transaction, AEQUITA and Daimler entered into a close partnership in the areas of procurement, sales and after-sales. This will provide a strong basis for future growth and sustainable employment. The transaction will be completed on January 01, 2022.

Till Oberwörder, Head of Daimler Buses and Managing Director of EvoBus GmbH: "In light of the considerable future investments regards the transformation towards a CO₂-neutral mobility and the digitalization of services and processes, we want to concentrate on our core business. This is based on chassis and complete buses over 8 tons. The sale of our Mercedes-Benz minibus business in Dortmund takes us an important step towards that direction. Our focus was on maintaining jobs at the site and providing the plant promising prospects for the future. We are therefore very pleased that we have found a very good solution in AEQUITA as a buyer. Between Daimler and AEQUITA, there exists a long-term relationship of trust established on several supply businesses, that closely connects us beyond the minibus business."

Dr.-Ing. Axel Geuer, Managing Partner of AEQUITA: "We are very pleased to welcome all employees of Mercedes-Benz Minibus GmbH to our group. The minibus business has very good growth opportunities, which we will tackle together in a long-term partnership with Daimler. Daimler is already AEQUITA's largest customer, accounting for more than 25 percent of our sales. We thank Daimler for the trust in us and aim to further strengthen this close partnership."

Mirko Sgodda, Head of Sales, Marketing and Aftersales Daimler Buses: "Since 2008 we have been producing high-quality minibuses at the site in Dortmund for use in public transport, among other applications. The highly competent team has used the past few years to renew this product range and bring the new generation of Sprinters to the market. Our goals in selling Mercedes-Benz Minibus GmbH were to secure employment at the facility and to continue production of minibuses. We are very pleased to have succeeded in doing so with the AEQUITA Group. My big thanks go to the employees at the site, who have made a significant contribution to the success of the Mercedes-Benz minibuses with their commitment and know-how over the past few years."

About AEQUITA

AEQUITA is a Munich-based family office investing in special situations including corporate carve-outs, successions, and recovery situations across Europe. With a strong capital base, entrepreneurial expertise and a partnership approach, the team focuses on the acquisition and long-term value enhancement of companies that can benefit from an operational engagement. AEQUITA brings a fresh and sound view to all areas of the business, such as sales development, production optimization and efficiency measures, which can help management to drive sustainable growth. AEQUITA contributes not only the capital, but also the vision, inspiration and operational impetus needed to reach the next stage in the development of its companies and their success stories.

About Daimler Truck

The Daimler Truck AG is one of the worldʼs largest commercial vehicle manufacturers, with more than 35 primary locations around the world and approximately 100,000 employees. The company brings together seven vehicle brands under one roof: Mercedes-Benz (light, medium and heavy trucks as well as city, intercity and touring coaches) and Setra (intercity, long-distance and premium coaches) are our traditional European brands; our U.S. brands Freightliner Trucks (trucks in weight classes 5 to 8 for a wide range of commercial vehicle applications), Western Star (heavy trucks for specialized and long-haul transports) and Thomas Built Buses (light to medium-duty buses); and our Asian brands Bharat Benz, based in Chennai, India (trucks in the weight classes 10 to 55 t and medium and heavy-duty buses) and FUSO with its headquarters in Japan (trucks and buses for Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe and Latin America). This allows the Daimler Truck AG to offer its customers around the globe a broad spectrum of commercial vehicles, ranging from minibuses to heavy-duty trucks for special-purpose transport applications - in short: products and solutions for everyone who keeps the world moving. Gottlieb Daimler and Carl Benz laid the foundation for the modern transport industry 125 years ago. Over the past decades, Daimlerʼs truck and bus divisions have consistently set standards for the entire transportation industry - in terms of safety, fuel efficiency and driver and passenger comfort. It is now time for the next evolutionary step: emission-free, automated and connected driving. Daimler Trucks & Buses is working to bring these important technologies to high-volume series production, across brands, divisions and regions. In this way the company intends to take a major step closer to realizing its vision of CO2-neutral transport and accident-free driving whilst also contributing to the sustainability of global goods and passenger transport. In 2020, a total of 378,500 trucks and buses were delivered. In 2020 the revenue of the individual areas of business amounted to € 35 billion for the Daimler Truck AG. The adjusted EBIT was € 678 million for the Daimler Truck AG.

For further information please contact:

Simon Schulz 
Partner
AEQUITA SE & Co. KGaA
Gabrielenstr. 9, 80636 Munich
T. +49 89 2620 4840-0 
E. contact@aequita.com