The company produces houses made of wood, among other things, for publicly subsidized housing.
(Photo: Nokera)
Zurich The German-Swiss housing start-up Nokera is entering the business with solar systems, heat pumps and building technology. To this end, Nokera has taken over the R+S Group, an air conditioning technology specialist from Fulda. Both companies announced this on Monday.
As a result of the takeover, Nokera suddenly grows by 3,000 to around 4,000 employees. Sales will increase by 365 million to around 500 million euros in the current year, as Nokera further announced. Ralph Burkhardt, previously head of the R+S Group, will become CEO of Nokera. The two companies did not comment on the purchase price.
Nokera has specialized in the industrial production of climate-neutral multi-family houses in hybrid wood construction. The company, based in Rüschlikon near Zurich, has set up a factory near Magdeburg, in which ten thousand residential units and other wall components for the renovation of 20,000 apartments can be built on an assembly line per year.
The R+S Group offers various services in the field of technical building equipment. This includes the installation and maintenance of solar systems and heat pumps, but also electrical engineering and software.
In the future, R+S is to deliver what is known as an energy center for the multi-family houses that are manufactured on the assembly line, i.e. a core in which electricity, water and electrics are bundled. Company boss Burkhardt says in an interview with the Handelsblatt: “Our strength is in networking electrical engineering, energy and control technology and ensuring efficient use of all technical devices in a house.”
The previous head of the R+S Group will become CEO of Nokera.
(Photo: press photo)
He compares the energy center with the control unit in the car, where all electrical functions come together at a central point.
Fresh capital and new shareholders at Nokera
The know-how of the R+S Group is of great importance for Nokera, explains Burkhardt: “The building technology must be taken into account in serial production right from the start.”
Norbert Ketterer, founder and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Nokera, adds that the energy center is the “heart” of the apartments. “If we were to use external suppliers, we would have to explain our system to everyone from scratch.” The takeover of the R+S Group means that a product can be offered from a single source.
In addition, Nokera secures access to thousands of sought-after specialists in the fields of building technology and renewable energies. The start-up also wants to use the structures of the medium-sized group in the future, such as central purchasing or human resources.
The production halls are 700 meters long and 150 meters wide.
(Photo: Nokera)
When setting up Nokera, the real estate entrepreneur Ketterer is pursuing the strategy of integrating all trades in the company through acquisitions. Previously, he had already taken over a specialist company for timber construction, an engineering and planning office and a factory for precast concrete parts. “With the R+S Group, Nokera is expanding its overall portfolio and reaching the next level of vertical integration,” says Ketterer.
The Fulda company acquires Ketterer from two private equity investors: Deutsche Beteiligungs AG and Haspa Beteiligungsgesellschaft für den Mittelstand, a subsidiary of Hamburger Sparkasse. In the course of the takeover, Nokera also carries out a capital increase in which the two sellers participate and thus become shareholders in Nokera. All sides have agreed not to disclose the details of the transaction.
In April, the Handelsblatt reported exclusively on a round of financing in which Nokera was valued at 1.1 billion euros. This makes the company one of the so-called unicorns – start-ups that are worth more than one billion dollars.
More: 200 million euros for houses from the assembly line