BrazilConsultants advise on Plugit’s acquisition by infrastructure investor
Plugit, an electrical vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure company in Finland, has been acquired by infrastructure investment manager DIF Capital Partners. The deal was advised on by M&A teams of several leading professional services firms.
DIF Capital Partners has acquired a 71% stake in Plugit for an undisclosed amount, at a time when the EV charging market is maturing at a rapid pace.
“We believe that the electrification of transportation will play a critical role in the future of mobility. We are therefore excited to invest in such a well-established EV charging company to speed up the rollout of charging infrastructure across Finland and the region, said Willem Jansonius, a partner at DIF Capital Partners.
The Dutch investor (which currently controls over €9 billion worth of assets) worked on the deal together with consultants from Improved Corporate Finance, which served as the exclusive financial advisor. The Amsterdam-based M&A consultancy is a boutique, but a well-known name in the world of electrical mobility having previously brokered over a dozen deals in the domain over the past years.
The financial advisor was flanked by a team of transaction experts from Boston Consulting Group (commercial due diligence), Deloitte (financial advisory), DNV (technical services) and Avance (legal support).
Founded in 2012, Plugit is with an installed base of circa 4k charge points one of Finland’s largest EV charging infrastructure companies. The company supports the full lifecycle, from design, hardware provision and operations to maintenance and end-to-end software. Plugit also offers a so-called Charging-as-a-Service product, where the firm leases its EV charging infrastructure to entrepreneurs / customers.
On teaming up with the investor, Tommi Saarela, the CEO of Plugit, said: “Partnering with DIF Capital Partners will enable us to meet our strategic objective of ten folding our business by 2025. They will provide us the backing to scale our services in Finland and other markets.”
Plugit’s shareholders were advised by PwC, which provided M&A advisory services, and Krogerus, which delivered the legal support.
Commenting on the deal, Frank Verbeek, the Managing Partner of Improved Corporate Finance, said: “Advising the DIF Capital Partners team in working with the Plugit team was a huge pleasure also due to the combined sheer dedication in creating a deal with winners only.”
Jan Johanson, a partner at Finnish law firm Krogerus, remarked: “We are delighted to have worked with Plugit on this cross-border transaction.”
