Luxembourg, 3 November 2022 – L-GAM announced today that it has signed an agreement to acquire an equity stake in the COTTA Group (“COTTA”), a leading manufacturer of upholstered furniture. L-GAM’s investment enables COTTA’s founder, Peter Gschwend, to re-acquire control of the company he founded in 1990 and is the latest example of L-GAM’s differentiated approach to provide longer-term, flexible capital to leading companies in the pan-European middle-market. COTTA is also the first investment for L-GAM’s Strategic Value Fund, a new dedicated investment strategy that offers bespoke, non-control capital solutions.
Headquartered in Bendern, Liechtenstein, COTTA is one of Europe’s leading manufacturers of made-to-order upholstered furniture and related products, such as box spring beds. The Company is the only market player with a truly pan-European sales footprint. Out of its state-of-the-art manufacturing footprint in Europe with 14 production plants fully ESG compliant across the value chain, COTTA serves a loyal, global customer base consisting of the foremost offline and online furniture retailers.
Peter Gschwend, Founder and majority shareholder of COTTA commented: “I have chosen L-GAM as my partner to support COTTA in the next phase of its development as L-GAM is able to offer a unique combination of all the expertise and professionalism of a long-term investor together with the mind-set and investment horizon of entrepreneurs and business-owners. This is exactly what COTTA needs in the coming years and the COTTA management and I therefore very much look forward to working with the L-GAM team.”
Matthias Hieber and Dominik Simler, Partners at L-GAM added: “Over the past three decades, Peter Gschwend, together with Patrick Poltera and Walter Schlegel have established COTTA as one of the leading and most innovative players in its industry. The global market for upholstered furniture is currently at a crossroads and we see great opportunities for innovative European manufacturers with a sizeable, highly efficient, and ESG-focussed operational set-up like COTTA. We are thus delighted to support COTTA in its next development phase. This marks the first investment in our Strategic Value Fund, a new and unique investment strategy providing flexible capital solutions to strong entrepreneurs and managers in the European middle-market, targeted specifically at situations like COTTA’s. Lastly, this investment underpins L-GAM’s strong commitment to the German-speaking countries where we believe that L-GAM with its more patient, more flexible, and more entrepreneurial approach is particularly well-suited to support successful Mittelstand companies who are seeking the right partner for the next stage of their strategic development.
The parties have agreed not to disclose details of the transaction.
About L-GAM
L-GAM (www.l-gam.com) is a long-term oriented investment company with capital commitments in excess of €1 billion. L-GAM was established in 2013 with the backing of the Liechtenstein Princely Family and several families from Europe, Asia and the USA. Its unique and differentiated business model is based on a long-term, industrial-like investment focus and a flexible mandate to provide investment solutions throughout the capital structure. L-GAM focuses on partnering with small and medium sized companies across Europe.
L-GAM has invested among others in Jardiland (France), Faist ChemTec (Germany), Grupo BC (Spain), Cyber Group Studios (France), Woolrich (Italy and US), Amplitude Laser Group (France), Centro Medico Santagostino (Italy) and Vinventions (Belgium).