H.I.G. Capital Acquires Majority Stake in Office People

HAMBURG, Germany–(BUSINESS WIRE)– H.I.G. Capital, LLC (“H.I.G.”), a leading global alternative investment firm with $55 billion of equity capital under management, is pleased to announce that an affiliate has acquired a majority stake in Office People GmbH (“Office People”) establishing a partnership with founder Olaf Hansen and the management team. Office People is one of the leading companies for personnel management and temporary staffing in Germany. The company specializes in personnel leasing, personnel placement, and master vendor management and offers additional solutions such as on-site management and EU recruiting. The transaction is subject to regulatory approval. Terms were not disclosed.

Founded in 2005 by Olaf Hansen, Office People has demonstrated strong, purely organic growth for almost two decades. Employing over 9,000 external staff across some 100 locations, the company focuses on sectors with structurally high workforce demand including aviation, e-commerce, logistics and mobility / automotive.

The management of Office People, led by CEO Mahmut Akköse, will remain in place and drive the company’s future development. Office People benefits from strong underlying growth trends in combination with an effective and well-elaborated regulation of temporary work in the EU and Germany in particular. Flexible workforces are essential to help companies overcome the structural shortage of labor across the EU, production peaks and periods of high business activity.

Mahmut Akköse, CEO of Office People, commented: “After years of significant growth, we are ready to open a new chapter in our firm’s history together with H.I.G. Demographic changes will require an increase of temporary workforce – a trend that will accelerate in the upcoming years as the baby boomer generation retires. Office People offers its clients prompt, reliable and tailor-made solutions to fill both temporary and medium-term staffing gaps. We are delighted to partner with H.I.G. to continue our long-term growth plans while seizing additional opportunities in Germany and Europe.”

Holger Kleingarn, Managing Director of H.I.G., added: “The temporary labor market offers compelling opportunities based on secular growth trends. We are excited to build upon these trends together with Office People’s highly experienced founder and management team, leveraging organic growth, add-on acquisitions and a selective internationalization strategy. With our deep knowledge and comprehensive experience in the industry, we are perfectly positioned to support Office People’s next growth phase and look forward to working with Mr. Akköse and the entire team.”

About Office People

The foundation of Office People’s corporate history was laid with the establishment of the first branch office in Cologne in 2005. The focus on administrative personnel at that time was the reason for choosing the name “Office People”. Purely driven by organic growth, further subsidiaries followed in Ahlen, Oldenburg, Dortmund, Münster, Gütersloh, Düren and Beckum. Today, Office People is present at over 100 locations to serve its customers. The comprehensive service portfolio ranges from personnel leasing, personnel placement and master vendor management to additional solutions such as on-site management and EU recruiting.

About H.I.G. Capital

H.I.G. is a leading global private equity and alternative assets investment firm with $55 billion of equity capital under management.* Based in Miami, and with European offices in London, Hamburg, Madrid, Milan, Paris, and U.S. and Latin American offices in New York, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Atlanta, Bogotá, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, H.I.G. specializes in providing both debt and equity capital to small and mid-sized companies, utilizing a flexible and operationally focused/ value-added approach:

1. H.I.G.’s equity funds invest in management buyouts, recapitalizations and corporate carve-outs of both profitable as well as underperforming manufacturing and service businesses.
2. H.I.G.’s debt funds invest in senior, unitranche and junior debt financing to companies across the size spectrum, both on a primary (direct origination) basis, as well as in the secondary markets. H.I.G. is also a leading CLO manager, through its WhiteHorse family of vehicles, and manages a publicly traded BDC, WhiteHorse Finance.
3. H.I.G.’s real estate funds invest in value-added properties, which can benefit from improved asset management practices.
4. H.I.G. Infrastructure focuses on making value-add and core plus investments in the infrastructure sector.

Since its founding in 1993, H.I.G. has invested in and managed more than 400 companies worldwide. The firm’s current portfolio includes more than 100 companies with combined sales in excess of $30 billion. For more information, please refer to the H.I.G. website at www.higcapital.com.

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Contacts

Holger Kleingarn
Managing Director
hkleingarn@higcapital.com