Ten finalists for Hessen Champions 2017 – The winners will be announced on November 7 at the Hessischer Unternehmertag

Ten Hessian companies have reached the final of the competition „Hessen-Champions 2017“, one of them in two categories. This was announced by the Hessian Ministry of Economic Affairs, Energy, Transport and Regional Development (HMWEVL), the Association of Hessian Entrepreneur Associations (VhU) and the Mittelständische Beteiligungsgesellschaft Hessen (MBG H) on Friday in Wiesbaden. The jury had selected the finalists from a total of 65 candidates. „All 65 participants have a story to tell. They are already a winner just because they have prevailed in a tough competitive environment of excellent entrepreneurs, „said the Hessian Minister of Economics Tarek Al-Wazir, VhU President Wolf Matthias Mang and Jürgen Zabel, Managing Director of MBG H.“ We are pleased about the multitude of innovative and dedicated entrepreneurs who ensure that Hessen is also at the very top of the international competition. „The Hessen State Innovation and Growth Prize encompasses the categories world market leader, job engine and innovation.

The winners in the three categories were selected by a prominent jury of representatives from business, politics and the media. Prime Minister Volker Bouffier, Economics Minister Tarek Al-Wazir and VhU President Wolf Matthias Mang honor the winners in front of more than 1000 guests during the Hessian Entrepreneurs Day on November 7 at the Kurhaus in Wiesbaden. With the „Hessen Champions“, the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the VhU and the MBG H pay tribute to their entrepreneurial achievements. The award will be presented for the 17th time. Hessen Trade & Invest GmbH (HTAI) is responsible for the organization of the competition.

The finalists in the category world market leader

EppsteinFoils GmbH & Co KG, Eppstein
For 165 years, the Eppstein-based company has been synonymous with technical films made from the metals lead and tin and their alloys. In addition to the small thickness, the films are characterized by a variety of product properties such as oxygen impermeability, electrical conductivity, corrosion resistance and a low melting range. The precision films are currently used in materials testing, medical technology, electronics, the packaging industry and photovoltaics. With the existing product range in the mentioned fields of application, EppsteinFOILS is today market leader worldwide. The Eppstein location employs around 100 people. Approximately 80 percent of the films are exported abroad.

Nord-Micro GmbH & Co. OHG, Frankfurt am Main
The Nord-Micro is an independent air carrier of the UTC Aerospace Systems Group based in Frankfurt / Bergen-Enkheim. 481 employees develop, produce and maintain so-called cabin printing systems on site. With the aid of these control systems, passengers in the aircraft cabin can breathe safely and comfortably. Nord-Micro entered the market in 1988 and is now the world leader. More than 80 percent of all wide-bodied aircraft today are equipped with systems and components from Hesse.

PRÄWEMA Antriebstechnik GmbH, Eschwege
PRÄWEMA Antriebstechnik GmbH, headquartered in Eschwege in northern Hesse, Germany, is a manufacturer of precision machine tools with currently 280 employees and a turnover of 85 million euros in 2017. The core competence of PRÄWEMA is the gearing, i. The company offers a wide range of special machines to machine gears, shafts or synchronous powertrain components. The main customers of PRÄWEMA are the worldwide automotive industry (OEMs and suppliers).

In October 2017, we successfully sold our stake in ACTech Holding GmbH (Freiberg / Germany). The buyer is Materialize NV (www.materialise.com, NASDAQ: MTLS), a publicly traded and leading provider of additive manufacturing software solutions. We are confident that both Materialize and ACTech will benefit from this strategic acquisition and will be able to expand their already strong market position by adding their expertise and market access.

In June 2012, CornerstoneCapital and Premium Equity Partners acquired a majority stake in ACTech. The company is a global market and technology leader for rapid prototyping in the automotive, aerospace and mechanical and plant engineering sectors. ACTech is a pioneer in the use of 3D printing technologies and a leader in the time-critical production of fully ready-to-install, test-ready prototype castings from a 3D dataset.

The growth of ACTech was underpinned by the development of new technologies in the field of 3D metal printing that enhanced global technology leadership and increased profitability through surgical intervention such as a significant improvement in throughput times. As a result, the EBITDA margin increased to approx. 24% on sales of EUR 34.3 million in 2016. On October 4, CornerstoneCapital sold its shares to Materialize and quadrupled thereby its capitalization.

Headquartered in Belgium with offices worldwide, Materialize combines the industry’s largest group of software developers with the world’s top 3D printing facilities. With the acquisition of ACTech Materialize expands its position in software and manufacturing know-how in 3D printing.

At the end of July 2017, we successfully sold our stake in Infoniqa SQL AG (Baar / Zug, Switzerland)

In January 2012, CornerstoneCapital acquired a majority stake in Infoniqa as part of a leveraged buyout and grew its business from approx. CHF 20 million to approx. CHF 45 million. During our investment phase, we worked with the management team on two add-on acquisitions that strategically complement Infoniqa’s product and service offerings, accounting for about half of its growth.

New website documents the company’s vision to service new market segments

Embedded specialist ELTEC Elektronik has realigned its product and technology strategy. The latest product portfolio focuses, in particular, on the stringent requirements of the transportation segment (railway, overland trucking, air freight and ocean vessels), industrial applications (Industry 4.0, IoT), mobile automation (agricultural implements and construction machinery) as well as medical applications (computer systems, image processing). The typical parameters for these applications are increased network linkage and powerful computers that have to work in rough environments. ELTEC’s new product philosophy is now also reflected on its new website www.eltec.com wider.

ELTEC’s business divisions – Network Solutions, Industrial Imaging as well as Embedded Boards and Systems – support its customers in everything from product specification and development to product verification and certification in compliance with market specific standards.

Wi-Fi in local and long-distance public transportation
Every day, innumerable passengers who use local and long-distance public transportation services simultaneously take advantage of Internet-based services: Hence, the hallmarks of the installed Wi-Fi systems are powerful performance and high levels of availability. This is evident in their daily deployment, even under the rough environmental conditions of mobile operations.

For instance, ELTEC offers wireless access points for Wi-Fi solutions on trains and buses, for passenger infotainment or for operating data sharing and storage via train-land connections. Even retrofitting programs, Wi-Fi access points provide a cost-effective alternative for the replacement of lacking cable connections – also beyond the train coupling – and support the establishment of a broadband, wireless backbone between the cars of trains.

The electronic components with expanded temperature ranges that are used in conjunction with these applications permanently withstand the extreme temperature fluctuations. Moreover, the components are particularly stressresistant

when it comes to shock, vibration and humidity. These products meet common industrial standard specifications and have been certified, e.g. EN 50155 compliant, by accredited test laboratories.

Robust systems for construction machinery and agricultural implements
Construction sites and agricultural applications impose extremely high standards as far as the robustness of electronic systems is concerned. The computers and control systems used in these applications have to perform safely and maintenance-free at all times – even under extreme environmental conditions, such as exposure to shock and vibrations as well as changing weather conditions. The networking of operational process, efficiency increases and risk prevention are just some of the typical challenges the electronic systems have to cope with. ELTEC delivers robust computer, network and camera systems (up to IP69K) for these applications in compliance with the latest industry and EN standards.

Once again, our portfolio company, Infoniqa HR Group, continued to grow impressively in 2016. Sales rose by 28 percent to 18 million euros. The number of customers increased by 12% over the same period to more than 2,800 and the number of employees increased by 18% to over 130 employees.

In recent years, Infoniqa has developed to one of the most successful full-service providers for HR management and payroll in the DACH-region and is one of the TOP providers in many sectors. CornerstoneCapital is supporting Infoniqa Group through significant investments in product portfolio expansion and add-on acquisitions. In the spring of 2016, for example, the time management solutions Infoniqa TIME and ZEIT + were acquired.

In December 2016, Sebastian Eckert joined CornerstoneCapital as partner.

In his 15-year experience as M&A professional he was responsible for a number of transactions transactions including sell-side, buy-side and financing situations in a variety of different industries, however with a focus on technology. He advised family offices, listed corporations and private equity companies in the German midcap market.

Prior to joining CornerstoneCapital, Sebastian held various positions at national and international banks, most recently at the Oetker Group`s Bankhaus Lampe KG. Previously he worked for VR Corporate Finance, the U.S. investment bank Jefferies International Ltd., and the British Close Brother Group.

Sebastian holds a degree in business administration from the European Business School (EBS) in Oestrich-Winkel as well as a MBA from the Katz Graduate School of Business (University of Pittsburgh).