TRACK RECORD 02 |
Private Equity
Georgian Co-Investment Fund
Georgia | Netherlands | Luxembourg
Heidelberg Cement Georgia: Multi-Party Private Equity
Key Metrics
EBITDA Growth:5.4x
IRR29.6%
5.9X
MOIC$45 Million Total ($22.5 Million GCF)
Equity InvestedThe Situation
Heidelberg Materials held a cement manufacturing operation in Georgia through a Dutch corporate structure, with a 25% minority interest held by a local Georgian businessman across fragmented asset-level positions. GCF entered alongside Hunnewell Group, investing $45 million across a three-jurisdiction structure spanning Georgia, the Netherlands and Luxembourg – partly as investors and partly as mediators of a situation neither existing party could resolve bilaterally.
My Role
The deal turned on a single structural move: converting the local shareholder's fragmented 25% interest, spread across individual assets, into a 10% non-voting position at consolidated level. From there my work was the structuring that followed: the inter-party arrangements governing the minority position through multiple restructurings, the IFI debt at the investment stage, and the post-shootout leveraged buyout that doubled the effective stake from 22.5% to 45% at 2.2x realized on incremental capital. GCF and Hunnewell read Heidelberg's institutional behaviour correctly and exercised an embedded Texas shootout at the Netherlands holding level; we then ran the Rothschild-led sale process which drew five strategic bidders across five countries.
The Result
EBITDA grew 5.4 times across the holding period, driven by a wet-to-dry kiln conversion, pricing optimisation and distribution reform.
GCF achieved a 5.9x MOIC and 29.6% IRR on its commitment based on received offers.
The sale process validated the asset transformation independently, with bidder interest and valuations exceeding expectations.
“We held the shootout mechanism and could have triggered it at any point. We chose not to because the more powerful position was knowing when not to use it. Heidelberg was already withdrawing from the region: Russia, Kazakhstan, no strategic interest in a market the size of Georgia. They had stopped seeing the upside we could see clearly. We negotiated, structured and built the value they had walked away from. Knowing you hold the mechanism and choosing how to use it – that is the decision that determines the outcome.”
Track Record
Four transaction examples: Each one different in sector, structure and conditions.
Together they represent the range of work I have done and the standard I hold myself to.