MML and Metric Capital Partners invest in GPS, a global leader in the circular logistics market, delivering reusable packaging solutions.
GPS provides crates that form the backbone of its clients’ finished good logistics systems, on an entirely outsourced basis. This includes ensuring availability of clean, fit for purpose crates whenever a client needs them, requiring both a significant fleet and a complex logistics program to collect the crates from the end customer, clean and repair as necessary, and manage its network closely, to ensure stocks of crates are balanced with need.
Henry-Louis Merieux, Managing Partner at MML, explains:
“In GPS we see a business that offers a sustainable and essential service as a critical element of clients’ supply chains. GPS plays an exciting role in the ever-growing circular economy, providing the infrastructure to allow clients to reuse its metal crates, rather than disposable wooden crates. Each metal crate will save an estimated 14 trees over its life, totalling more than 19 million trees for the current fleet. We are delighted to be investing alongside our co-investor, Metric Capital Partners, to accelerate the growth in GPS’ stock of crates and its global expansion. The alignment between value to clients and value to society as a whole makes this a very exciting growth story.”
Andrew Honan, Head of Infrastructure at MML, adds:
“We are very excited to combine MML’s successful partnership investment approach with our value-added infrastructure strategy and help accelerate GPS’ already hugely impressive growth trajectory. Investing alongside founding Chairman, Benoit Arnaud, and CEO, Jean-Francois Baus, we see significant opportunity to apply our combination of private equity and infrastructure playbooks to deliver the next phase of growth in this now well-established distributed infrastructure business.”
Benoit Arnaud, Founder and CEO of GPS, comments:
“MML clearly appreciated the quality of our team, the high degree of efficiency and the growth potential of the GPS Group. As a result of this partnership, GPS now has the means to achieve its ambitions, in full.”
GPS was advised by Edmond de Rothschild, Mazars, Advention, Altair and Ingefin.
Edmond de Rothschild Corporate Finance team:
M&A team: Arnaud Petit, Paul Badaro, Etienne Ceccaldi
Debt Advisory team: Paul Assael, Laurent Neubauer
ABOUT THE EDMOND DE ROTHSCHILD GROUP
As a conviction-driven investment house founded upon the belief that wealth should be used to build the world of tomorrow, Edmond de Rothschild specialises in Private Banking and Asset Management and serves an international clientele of families, entrepreneurs and institutional investors. The group is also active in Corporate Finance, Private Equity, Real Estate and Fund Services.
With a resolutely family-run nature, Edmond de Rothschild has the independence necessary to propose bold strategies and long-term investments, rooted in the real economy.
Founded in 1953, the Group had nearly CHF 178 billion in assets under management at the end of December 2021, 2,500 employees, and 29 locations worldwide.
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