Compleo and wallbe to merge

Merger accelerates growth ambitions of both companies | Technologies and products complement each other and create access to new markets | Goal is to establish a leading position in Europe

Dortmund, 26 March 2021 - Compleo Charging Solutions AG and enercity AG as well as Weidmüller Mobility Concepts GmbH & Co. KG signed an agreement yesterday under which the companies Compleo Charging Solutions AG and wallbe GmbH will merge. The merger was notarized yesterday. The closing of the transaction as well as the consolidation of the operational business of Compleo and wallbe are expected to take place in April. The merger of the companies that complement each other in terms of their products and services is expected to create a large provider of charging solutions in Europe. The merger will strengthen Compleo's and wallbe's leading position in the German market and in Europe.

Compleo has set itself the goal of growing, expanding its range of products and services, and further developing its European sales to be able to participate optimally in the dynamic market for electromobility. The Dortmund-based company is taking over 100 percent of the shares in wallbe in exchange for approximately one third of Compleo shares; approximately 2/3 will be paid in cash from available liquidity. The two previous and largest owners of wallbe, enercity AG (around 50 percent) and Weidmüller Mobility Concepts GmbH & Co. KG (around 26 percent), as well as Dr. Dominik Freund, will continue to be investors in Compleo as new shareholders.

"A comprehensive and reliable charging infrastructure is a core prerequisite for consumers to buy an e-car. Furthermore, the simplest, most intuitive and most reliable access to charging options is crucial. As a strong company in these two areas, we are decisively driving the final breakthrough of e-mobility in Europe and are pleased that enercity and Weidmüller will continue to support our growth strategy," said Georg Griesemann, Co-CEO of Compleo AG. "Ultimately, the key to success will not be compartmentalization, but rather opening up and companies cooperating with one another, as well as the resulting benefits for customers."

"Electromobility will continue to grow rapidly. We will also see the market consolidate because price pressure will also increase. The new company created by the merger will be ahead of these developments. The new set-up brings together two companies that complement each other perfectly and creates a new driving force in the e-mobility market," explained Dr. Susanna Zapreva, Executive Board Chairwoman of enercity AG. By investing in wallbe in 2017, enercity has taken on the strategic driving role in the further development of the business and strongly supported wallbe in the development of its own cloud-based backend system for installation companies as well as a customer-friendly payment system. As a result of the inclusion of Weidmüller Mobility Concepts GmbH & Co. KG from Paderborn in the group of shareholders in 2019, the foundations for industrial mass production have also been laid. Subsequently, enercity started the search for a partner in 2020 to support the further growth and strategic development of the company. This has now been achieved with Compleo. "The merger with Compleo is the logical further development of the e-mobility strategy that we have adopted. Both companies together have a brighter future ahead of them than either one individually," said Zapreva. "We see a provider for e-mobility solutions that can optimally serve customer needs by joining forces."

For the time being, both companies will remain on the market under their own names and with their current set-ups. "Together, we are taking this next big step into the highly dynamic future markets of e-mobility in a consistent and strengthened manner," said Dr. Dominik Freund, Managing Partner of wallbe GmbH. "The wallbe team is looking forward to working with Compleo. Today's announcement once again proves the strength of our team and our portfolio." Over the coming period, the future shape of the company will be announced, as well as the associated timeline. Compleo's management team will remain unchanged. As wallbe's Managing Director, Dr. Dominik Freund will shape the future path to success together with Compleo. wallbe founder Lars Ulbricht will resign from his position as Managing Director after 21 years in office. He will work for both companies as an external consultant. "We are particularly pleased that Lars Ulbricht will be contributing his extensive expertise and visionary thinking, with which he founded wallbe and led it for 21 years, to both companies as an external consultant in order to continue to drive our joint growth with us," explained Dr. Dominik Freund on the planned line-up. The teams and thus the jobs in both companies will be retained in their entirety. Joint growth will require profound expertise and extensive manpower: research and development as well as production will continue to be greatly expanded. The wallbe sites in Schlangen in Eastern Westphalia and in the Zukunftsmeile in Paderborn will be retained. Compleo is anchored at its site in Dortmund, an hour and a half away, and just expanded its production capacities there.

"We see many advantages in contributing our shares in wallbe to enable the merger of the companies into one of the European market leaders for charging infrastructure. Besides the joint growth in the area of innovative charging technology and the billing systems, the next logical step now follows, which will strengthen all companies involved and increase the speed of innovation," commented Volker Bibelhausen, Chief Technology Officer and Spokesman of the Executive Board of the Weidmüller Group. As a strategic partner, Weidmüller will contribute its expertise in the fields of charging and installation technology, industrial connectivity and connection technology in the future. "We are pleased to be able to help develop innovative and attractive solution offerings for the charging infrastructure in Europe through this strategic partnership in the future," added Bibelhausen.

Both partners intend to use the merger to create strong synergies in developing the market, their technologies and their know-how, and to make optimal use of these to achieve further growth. Compleo contributes a technology platform for charging stations and embedded software for both AC and DC charging and was the first player on the German market to establish charging stations that comply with calibration regulations in the DC sector with the Cito series. In the AC sector, for example, the Duo for employee and fleet charging and the Duo IMS series for charging in public areas are extremely popular. The Dortmund-based company has been a technology leader for more than 11 years based on a strong R&D focus. Compleo has delivered over 30,000 charging points across Europe so far. Despite the corona pandemic, Compleo managed to more than double its turnover to EUR 30 million in 2020 compared to 2019. In Europe, Compleo was already actively expanding beforehand and formed sales partnerships in Poland, Austria and Switzerland.

Wallbe's portfolio includes, among other products, leading billing and management systems for charging infrastructures that are particularly tailored to the needs of electrical installation companies. The company is strongly committed to future topics such as solar-optimized charging and grid integration. wallbe also offers intelligent ad-hoc payment and billing functions with giro and credit cards. The latter is increasingly requested by customers and consumers. With 15,000 charging points delivered across Europe, the company has a wide-ranging charging network. wallbe is based in Malmö, Sweden, and has its own team there.


About Compleo | Compleo is a leading supplier of charging solutions for electric vehicles. The company supports complete solution providers with its charging stations and, if required, also with the planning, installation, maintenance, service or backend of the charging infrastructure. Compleo's offering includes both AC and DC charging stations. Compleo's DC charging stations are the first DC charging stations on the market that comply with German calibration law (Eichrecht). The company develops and manufactures all products at its Dortmund site. The manufacturer focuses on innovation, safety, consumer-friendliness and economy. Its customers include Allego, E.ON, EWE Go, Deutsche Post DHL Group, Deutsche Telekom, Siemens and over 150 public utilities in Germany. Compleo started production of the first charging stations in 2009. The fast-growing company currently employs around 250 people. Compleo is listed in the Prime Standard segment of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange since October 2020 (ISIN: DE000A2QDNX9). More information is available at: www.compleo-cs.de/

wallbe | driving eMobility
At wallbe, we are convinced that charging networks will determine the future of e-mobility. That's why we not only develop charging stations, but also solutions that can be used to control entire networks and infrastructures. In a committed and motivated team, we face this challenge with a high level of expertise, technical expertise and a lot of passion. The wallbe concept is based on a perfectly coordinated collaboration between wallbe(R) hardware (wallbox, charging station), wallbe HUB and wallbe services. In this way, we offer our customers a sustainable and holistic range of solutions for all aspects of the charging infrastructure. The economic operation and high availability of the individual charging points is important to us. The addition of further charging stations is particularly easy and creates maximum scalability for the optimal use of the charging network in the future. wallbe(R) already guarantees its customers a high level of investment security. Thanks to our many years of expertise and high level of innovation, wallbe(R) is one of the drivers of e-mobility in the future.

enercity - driving force behind tomorrow's energy world
Hanover-based enercity AG is a provider of sustainable and intelligent energy solutions. With turnover of over EUR 3.7 billion and around 3,000 employees, the Group is one of the largest municipal energy service providers in Germany. The company supplies around one million people with electricity, heat, natural gas and drinking water. In addition, enercity offers energy-related services for electromobility, energy efficiency, decentralized customer solutions, telecommunications and smart infrastructure. enercity's motivation is to improve the quality of life of its customers. Further information: www.enercity.de, www.enercity.de/presse, www.twitter.com/enercity_presse

Weidmüller - Partner of Industrial Connectivity.
The Weidmüller Group has production facilities, sales companies and representatives in more than 80 countries. Together with its customers, it is shaping the digital transformation - with products, solutions and services for Smart Industrial Connectivity and the Industrial Internet of Things. In fiscal year 2019, Weidmüller achieved sales of EUR 830 million with around 5,000 employees. Further information: www.weidmueller.de