Perusa_MBN-PROLED invests in Uni-Bright

Friedberg / Antwerp / Munich, 4 October 2018 – MBN GmbH ("MBN-PROLED"), a company specialized in the development, manufacturing and distribution of LED lighting, has acquired a majority stake in Universal Imports BVBA with effect from 18 September 2018. Universal – renamed "Uni-Bright" in the course of the transaction – is a specialist for indoor and outdoor lighting based in Antwerp, Belgium. MBN-PROLED, a portfolio company of Perusa Partners Fund 2, LP, is thus pursuing its strategy to achieve a leading position in Europe through organic growth and acquisitions.
Under its own label UNI-BRIGHT® as well as under third-party brands, Uni-Bright offers service-intensive LED solutions for indoor and outdoor lighting. The company serves the Belgian, Dutch and Luxembourg markets. The product and service range includes lighting and installation planning, lighting control systems and intelligent networking as part of the "Internet of Things". The PROLED® brand was already a successful part of the Uni-Bright portfolio prior to the purchase.
Uni-Bright remains under the lead of Managing Director Hulselmans the founder and previous owner of Uni-Bright, Luc Hulselmans, will continue to lead the company as Managing Director. In the course of the transaction he acquired a stake in Light Management GmbH, the joint parent company of Uni-Bright and MBN-PROLED. Together with Bernd Menrad, Managing Director of MBN-PROLED, Anna Fischer-Molnar and Dr. Andreas Spiegel, he will form the board of Light Management GmbH.
Hulselmans: "I am very excited to take my company to the next level. I am convinced that the cooperation in a larger network will bring even more attractive development opportunities".
MBN-PROLED wants to grow further internationally. For Bernd Menrad, the investment represents a milestone: "After further professionalization and expansion of MBN-PROLED's activities in the past twelve months, we have taken an important step with the acquisition of Uni-Bright to become a leading European player".
"The acquisition of Uni-Bright by MBN-PROLED is a good example that cross-border acquisition strategies can successfully lead to growth in selected industries", explains Dr. Christian Hollenberg, founding partner of Perusa. "Light Management GmbH will be interested in suitable acquisitions in the future, but will also focus on organic growth".
Dr. Christian Hollenberg and Dr. Stephan Beller were responsible for the transaction at Perusa GmbH. The Perusa funds and the management of MBN-PROLED were advised by KPMG, Guett Olk Feldhaus, Contrast Law, McDermott, Will & Emery and Codex. 2aspire served as M&A advisor to Luc Hulselmans. Legal support was provided by Greenfort.


About Perusa

Perusa is an independent capital holding company, which currently has two funds with 350 million euro equity investing in medium-sized companies and Group divisions in the German or Scandinavian area. Perusa is pursuing a strong operational approach to increase the efficiency and thus the long-term value as well as the potential of the portfolio companies. Strategic acquisitions (buy and build strategy) are also striving to strengthen the growth of the portfolio companies.

Press contact

Perusa GmbH
Dr. Hanno Schmidt-Gothan
Theatinerstraße 40
D-80333 München
Telefon: +49 89 2388789-0
E-Mail: schmidt-gothan@perusa.de

VOCATO public relations
Jessica Auweiler
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D-50859 Köln
Telefon: +49 2234 60198 17
E-Mail: jauweiler@vocato.com

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