New investment firm Ibex, which is backed by several prominent Munich families, is focused on business succession. Jan Dreesen and Paul Randlkofer will handle the operational aspects of Ibex, as they recently explained on „Betting Billions“, the private markets podcast from Börsen-Zeitung.

They have teamed up with consultant Christian Grosselfinger. The fourth member, Konstantin Khadjavi, is a silent partner and chairs the advisory board.

Ibex is a next generation private equity project that combines banking and entrepreneurial expertise. Jan Dreesen comes from a banking family. His father, Jan-Christian Dreesen, has a long history with HypoVereinsbank, and is currently the CEO of FC Bayern Munich. Jan Dreesen, however, embarked on an investment career early on, working with Aurelius and Pictet, and brings a private equity perspective to Ibex.

The Randlkofers are a Munich-based entrepreneurial family behind the Dallmayr coffee empire, where the succession issue has recently been addressed. Wolfgang Wille has stepped down after 46 years, handing the reins over to Johannes Dengler, who now leads the company with Florian Randlkofer. Konstantin Khadjavi is a partner at Munich technology company Rohde & Schwarz. Christian Grosselfinger previously worked for Bain & Company and Ommax.

Ibex is not a family office but an owner-managed investment firm. „Konstantin and I act as private individuals and do not invest family wealth – we are not an extension of families or family offices“, says Randlkofer. Nor does Ibex fit the typical private equity investor mold. „We are not a fund. We invest our own money“, Dreesen emphasises.

External money will not be managed, but for suitable deals, co-investors from the network may be involved, investing on their own account. The firm has close connections to German family capital, but is not dependent on co-investors. „We are interested in finding the right companies“ states Dreesen. „This will allow us to provide an attractive capital structure.“

Ibex focuses on succession situations and majority acquisitions of growth companies headquartered in Germany, targeting firms with an operational result of over 2.5 million euros (EBIT) and a profit margin of at least 15%. The sectors of interest include business services, IT & software, and electronic security solutions.

Family offices have become increasingly important in private markets in recent years. According to research by data provider Preqin, the number of family offices in the German-speaking region has nearly quintupled from just over 100 to nearly 500 in the past five years. Family offices are now the largest investor group in private markets, surpassing other institutional investors like pension funds, insurers, or asset managers.

Not all family offices are active in direct investment, purchasing companies, or issuing direct loans like Ibex. Many prefer to invest through external fund managers or fund-of-funds. Preqin’s report does not provide details on the financial strength of family offices. Michael Jäger, Head of Private Assets at Natixis IM for Central and Eastern Europe, recently stated that global wealth is roughly equally divided between institutional and private investors.

The exact amount of capital held by family offices is hard to determine, according to Randlkofer. However the wealth managed by family offices is likely underestimated. Private assets of many German family businesses have only recently been managed through family offices, but the family wealth itself has existed for 20, 50, or 100 years. „This is a large, accumulated wealth that has never been published or will be“, says Randlkofer.