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Ergon-backed Looping acquires Fort Fun

Brussels, 26 April 2017 – The Looping Group (“Looping”), backed by Ergon Capital Partners III S.A. (“Ergon”), announces that it has reached an agreement with Compagnie des Alpes for the acquisition of Fort Fun Adventureland (“Fort Fun”), subject to the approval of the relevant competition authorities. Located in North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany), Fort Fun is a regional attraction park which recorded sales of approximately

€6 million and attracted around 300,000 visitors in 2016. Fort Fun will represent the twelfth park within the Looping Group.

Commenting on the first add-on acquisition since Ergon entered as the new anchor investor, Laurent Bruloy, CEO of Looping, said: “We are very pleased to welcome Fort Fun in our portfolio and its team in our group. Its specific geographical location and original offer make Fort Fun a quite unique park, very complementary to our current footprint.”

Nicolas Teboul, Partner at Ergon Capital Advisors in France, commented: “We are excited to see Fort Fun join the Looping family, thereby expanding its presence in a sixth European country and providing a proof of concept of the contemplated buy-and-build strategy identified by Ergon as one of the key growth pillars for Looping.”

Wolfgang de Limburg, Managing Partner of Ergon, added: “Ergon is enthusiastic about this add-on acquisition by Looping. We remain keen to further build Looping, through further selective market consolidation, into a Pan-European leader in the regional attraction parks market.”

***

About Looping

Created in 2011, Looping is a leading operator of amusement parks in Europe. The Group consists of 12 parks located in France, Switzerland, Netherlands, UK, Spain and Germany. Proforma for the acquisition of Fort Fun, Looping welcomes around 3 million visitors per annum for a turnover of approximately €65 million.

For more information on Looping, please visit www.looping-group.com.

About Fort Fun

Located in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, Fort Fun is a regional attraction park which recorded sales of approximately €6 million and attracted around 300,000 visitors in 2016.

For more information on Fort Fun, please visit www.fortfun.de.

About Ergon

Ergon is a mid-market private equity investment company with ~€500 million under management backed by family-controlled Groupe Bruxelles Lambert, through its fully- owned subsidiary Sienna Capital, as cornerstone investor, and selected European institutional investors. Ergon is a disciplined and discreet value investor, which provides “patient and friendly capital” to entrepreneurs and managers, who need capital and industrial solutions to accelerate the development of their companies. Ergon makes equity investments from €20 million up to €70 million in leading companies with asustainable competitive position in attractive niche markets located in the Benelux, France, Germany, Italy, Iberia and Switzerland. Ergon is advised by Ergon Capital Advisors which has offices in Brussels, Paris, Munich, Milan and Madrid.

Since its inception in 2005, Ergon, together with its preceding investment programs, invested in 16 companies (of which 4 in the Benelux, 7 in Italy, 2 in France, 1 in Spain and 2 in Germany) and has completed 21 add-on acquisitions for a total aggregate transaction value in excess of €3 billion. Ergon’s current portfolio consist of 7 companies in various sectors encompassing luxury, specialty retail, industrial manufacturing, healthcare, leisure and gastronomy.

For more information on Ergon, please visit www.ergoncapital.com.

 

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