Deal Announcement - Business Services - House of Performace

House of Performance, a leading Dutch management consultancy and performance improvement company, and its interim management division, Managed By House of Performance, have partnered with the Highberg Group: a brand-new consulting collective comprising BlinkLane Consulting, Gladwell Academy, and Verdonck, Klooster & Associates, backed by German investor AUCTUS Capital Partners AG.

The Highberg Group is looking to strengthen its position by partnering with a specialist in the (large-scale) change management, agile transformations and data-driven working field. It aims to become the European market leader in the field of organizational and digital transformations, providing guidance on organizational transformation issues in digitalization, agility and sustainability. Through its offering of complementary services; advice, implementation and training, the consultancy collective helps large national and international organizations and A-brands to remain relevant, agile and competitive in a rapidly changing, digital world. It has more than 300 specialized professionals in the Netherlands, France, Germany and India and an annual turnover of approximately €55 million.

Based in Utrecht, House of Performance specializes in performance improvement, scalable transformation, and sales and operational excellence projects. It also has a scalable SaaS platform which enables scalable transformation and performance improvement projects with a strong customer lock-in. The company serves large and renowned clients in the (semi-)public industries or private-sector industries including Finance, Retail, Healthcare, Mobility and Energy. For more than 35 years, Verdonck, Klooster & Associates (VKA) has been helping companies and governments with digital transformations and strategic ICT and organizational issues. It is a leading strategic firm in the public sector and is the preferred supplier to 100+ government organizations.

BlinkLane Consulting, together with Gladwell Academy (both part of BlinkLane Group), helps companies worldwide to stay relevant and competitive in a rapidly changing and digitizing environment and have become one of the leading players in consulting and training in organizational transformation and innovation management.

Auctus Capital Partners AG is a private equity firm based in Munich. The company has more than €500+ million under management, spread over 27 investments in different industries and geographical markets. Auctus is one of the most active funds in Europe with over 240 investmentsin recent years.Market Outlook


Market Outlook

• House of Performance is an active player in the robust Dutch business and management consultancy services market, which is expected to grow to $21.6 billion by 2025. Highly fragmented, the market has over 13,000 consulting companieslocated in the Netherlands (including self-employed professionals)
• The increasing demand for digitalization, along with the third wave of digital business development, are the principal drivers of the (IT) consulting business. The impact of COVID-19 has accelerated the need for industries to embrace digital transformation, giving rise to strong transaction appetite from strategic buyers - as well as strategic players backed by financial investors - engaging in buy-and-build strategies, driving the M&A wave in the consultancy market.

IMAP Approach

IMAP Netherlands has ample experience and an unrivaled track-record in the consultancy market, bringing knowledge of the most recent trends and developments in the sector. The IMAP Netherlands team, led by Guillaume Petit, Abel Spohr and Steven Klaren, exclusively advised the shareholders of House of Performance and Managed by House of Performance, supporting them in preparing, negotiating and successfully closing the transaction.

Client Comment

Heiko van Eldijk and Ralph van den Bosch, partners at House of Performance, commented: "We very much appreciate the cooperation with and assistance of IMAP in our transaction. IMAP is highly professional and has the right expertise, experience and ability to deliver high quality services. IMAP brings to the table the personal touch, creativity in transaction structure and solutions, and a willingness to go the extra mile. Last, but not least, IMAP also brings a healthy dose of much-needed reflection and sense of humor to the relationship."