NextStage to Participate in the Development of Luxemburg-Based Steel Shed Solutions Group, Leading Digital Platform for the Sale of Steel Building Kits

PARIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Regulatory News:

NextStage (Paris:NEXTS), the long-term investment platform listed on the Euronext Paris exchange is joining the family of entrepreneurs behind Steel Shed Solutions to boost growth of their sales platform for building kits.
The digital platform is eager to accelerate its development in Europe and beyond, especially in Africa, and position itself as the leading international platform for the sale of building kits and related products.

Headed by Dominique and Vincent Lyonnet, the Luxemburg-based Steel Shed Solutions group is a digital platform specialising in the design and online sale of ready-to-assemble steel building kits with the best value for money. For over 16 years, the group has sold their structures via their own websites with a simple philosophy: to supply sturdy, functional steel buildings that are easy to assemble, 100% ‘DIY’ and low-cost. These constructions are varied: storage or livestock hangars, industrial buildings, agricultural structures, equestrian facilities and more. The firm’s clientele consists of private sector companies and public authorities (municipalities, ministries…).

In additional to digital marketing campaigns, the group participates at many well-known international trade fairs serving the agricultural and Industrial sectors, and is committed to developing a close-knit community of users. Thanks to this supportive customer base, Steel Shed Solutions boasts model buildings in every one of France’s departments, and more broadly, in every country where a structure has been purchased.

‘The ambition we share with NextStage is to make Steel Shed Solutions the leading international platform for building kits. Strengthening the brand and improving user experience through reinforced digital marketing are especially important for the group’s development,’ pointed out Vincent Lyonnet, Head of Sales and Marketing at Steel Shed Solutions.

‘With NextStage a new era is ushering for Steel Shed Solutions. We have an ambitious plan for development that will allow the group to invest significantly in expansion abroad, particularly by leveraging the contacts and network of NextStage AM,’ explained Dominique Lyonnet, co-founder and Technical Operations & Administrative Director at Steel Shed Solutions.

NextStage will accompany the two entrepreneurs—Dominique and Vincent Lyonnet—over the long term, investing €11.5 million, which will allow them to pursue expansion of the group, particularly abroad, while retaining control of their enterprise

‘The market served by Steel Shed Solutions is vast and highly diversified. This equity investment by NextStage will allow the group to adopt a structure best suited to succeeding in the next phases of rapid growth,’ added Michaël Strauss-Kahn, Investment Director at NextStage AM.

‘This investment makes perfect sense in terms of the underlying trends that NextStage AM focuses on, particularly the on-demand economy accessed via digital platforms. E-commerce offers an unequalled growth pool on a global scale, an opportunity the Steel Shed Solutions group is perfectly poised to take advantage of thanks to its online sales model for building kits,’ declared Nicolas de Saint-Etienne, Managing Partner at NextStage AM.

About Steel Shed Solutions

The Luxembourg-based group Steel Shed Solutions, created in 2001, is a digital platform for the sale of steel kit buildings. Steel Shed Solutions sells functional, low-cost, easy-to-assemble buildings suitable for various purposes: storage or livestock hangars, industrial buildings, agricultural structures, equestrian facilities, etc. Today the group sells nearly 1,000 buildings yearly in 48 zones and countries, with around ten languages spoken by its 35 employees. Steel Shed Solutions proposes its product offering across different websites adapted to the group’s international clientele with, in particular, the batimentsmoinschers.com website available in several languages: guenstigehallen.de (German version) and easysteelsheds.com (English version). Some of the group’s other sites focus on specific types of products, such as elfratech.fr (with ultra-discount positioning, the site offers pared down buildings to be used as simple shelters for storage) and tolesmoinscheres.com (sale of sheet metal and accessories). The digital platform is available on the web and mobile. These websites target a broad customer base, including entrepreneurs, SMEs and multinationals such as Renault, Lafarge and Eiffage, as well as institutional customers such as city councils and government ministries. The group also works with private customers via a range of kit shelters (garden sheds, carports, etc., with an area of less than 150m²). The group offers free, instant quotes online, and remains committed to maintaining low prices while ensuring first-rate quality, thanks to systematic quality control and products made with galvanized, high-strength steel and in strict compliance with European standards. http://www.group-3s.com/.

About NextStage

NextStage is an investment platform created in March 2015 and listed on the Euronext Paris market (Compartment C) since December 2016. At March 31, 2017, it had an Net Asset Value of €156.8 million. NextStage specialises in Medium-Sized Companies (MSCs), which allows access to an unlisted and often inaccessible class of asset that drives growth and performance. The investments it makes are equity investments with little or no leverage over an unlimited time frame to provide funding for the growth of MSCs that work alongside visionary entrepreneurs. NextStage is backed by the know-how and stablity of the asset management firm NextStage AM, which was founded in 2002. NextStage has already closed eleven investment transactions since its inception. It is governed by the tax laws for SCR. Its capital is held by prominent shareholders such as Artemis, Téthys, AXA, Ardian and Amundi. NextStage has built a novel and ambitious approach whose aim is to accelerate the growth of top-flight MSCs around four long-term trends of the 3rd industrial revolution: the emotion-driven economy and the quality of the customer experience, the on-demand and sharing economy, the industrial internet and the positive economy (or green growth).

NextStage is listed on the Euronext Paris Compartiment C regulated exchange (ISIN: FR0012789386: Ticker NEXTS). www.nextstage.com/sca

Participants:

Entrepreneurs:
Dominique Lyonnet, Vincent Lyonnet

Investors:
NextStage AM Nicolas de Saint-Etienne, Michaël Strauss-Kahn, Nahema Lemarchand

Advisors to Entrepreneurs:
Carmin Finance (Dominique Tréchot)
Legal: Cabinet AMMC Law (Christophe Maillard, Arnaud Arrecgros)

Advisors to NextStage AM:
Finance and Accounting Cabinet Mazars (Pierre Tchertoff, Baptiste Faye, Constance Ghesquiere-Dierick)
Legal NextStage AM Cabinet CMS Bureau Francis Lefebvre (Arnaud Hugot, Solène Gilles)

NextStage AM entities involved:
Société d’investissement NextStage (NEXTS)
NextStage is listed on the Euronext Paris Compartiment C regulated exchange (ISIN: FR0012789386: Ticker NEXTS)
Additional information available at [e-mail]