Kurt Salmon and KPMG advise on Boards & More deal

End-November, private equity company EMERAM acquired Boards & More, one of the largest producers of Kitesurfing and Windsurfing products in the world. The investors paid approximately €39 million for the Austrian company. EMERAM was assisted by, among others, consulting firms KPMG and Kurt Salmon during the transaction.

Boards & More has four well-known brands in the Kitesurfing and Windsurfing market: North Kiteboarding, North Sails, ION and Fanatic. The company is based in Molln, Austria, and has revenues of €45 million (FY2012).

EMERAM is a private equity company that focuses on purchasing promising SMES companies in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.

During the transaction, EMERAM hired Kurt Salmon to perform a commercial due diligence. Big 4 company KPMG executed both a financial due diligence and supported the PE-company with tax services.

“The experience and the network of EMERAM will not only enable us to significantly grow our existing business, but also expand into new segments, thus taking Boards & More to the next stage of its development”, says Till Eberle, CEO of Boards & More. The company recently entered the market for high performance bike wear and with the capital injection it aims at boosting its presence in the market.

Legal advice came from bpv Hügel (one of Austria's top law firms), Wenger & Vieli (a German law firm) and Watson, Farley & Williams (an international law firm).