DDA & Company advises Wellcom shareholders, a leading influence communication agency, in a recapitalization deal, supported by Crédit Mutuel Equity.
Following an auction process led by DDA & Company, Thierry Wellhoff, founder of Wellcom, hands over to Philippe Lucas, new Chairman and now majority shareholder, accompanied by his historical partners. This MBO (“Management Buy-Out”) operation is supported by Crédit Mutuel Equity, and involves the founder.
With 120 employees and a turnover of €15m, Wellcom is the leading independent corporate communication and public relations agency in France. The company offers high level consulting services – strategic consulting, digital strategy, strategic planning, data – covering the entire field of influence communication. This wide range of expertise has convinced companies and institutions of all sizes to entrust Wellcom with the management of their image, reputation and influence issues and challenges, both in France and internationally: Total, Engie, Adidas, Google, Nivea, Logitec, Randstad, etc.
“I would like to thank Thierry Wellhoff for giving us the opportunity to continue the Wellcom adventure and Crédit Mutuel Equity for supporting us in this process. The agency is a fine model of integration of the various communication businesses, but also of employees from all backgrounds. For us, there is no longer any boundary between brand and influence, there is no longer any barrier between internal and external, there is no longer any difference between consumer and citizen. Our approach consists of a global understanding of the issues and a global capacity to deal with them,” explains Philippe Lucas.
“In nearly 20 years, with Philippe Lucas, we have transformed Wellcom to adapt it to the new demands of communication and, in particular, to its new positioning, by investing in the Observatoire du sens, which is already a recognized reference. I have great faith in Philippe Lucas to continue what we have built together, and to consolidate our role as market leader,” Thierry Wellhoff adds.
Senior debt is provided by BNP Paribas and CIC.
Parties & Advisors to the Transaction :
Funding : Senior Debt: BNP (Sebastien Cao, Delphine Jeandat-Costet), CIC (Sophie Guiraudou, Jérémy Sonthonnax), BNP SME Fund (Cyril Loiry)