ElaN Languages, Belgium’s leading tech-enabled Language Service Provider, majority-owned by Andera Expansion 3, is to carry out a transforming operation in Germany by acquiring the Lingua-World group.
ElaN Languages, which has a turnover of around €20m, has built up a solid reputation over the past 30 years for the high quality of its services to a highly demanding clientele, including the Belgian national and regional governments, the European Commission, and many private European companies of all sizes for whom translation is a critical issue.
Translation services are the group’s main offering, covering a wide range of fields (financial, legal, medical, commercial, administrative, etc.) for a variety of documents (websites, legal documents, annual reports, technical and commercial communications, etc.), based on unique expertise combining human intervention and the integration of cutting-edge technologies (Artificial Intelligence / Natural Language Processing) on a proprietary technological platform.
Founded in 2007 and owned by the family holding company GeTraNet Holding GmbH, the Lingua-World group, which employs 45 people and has a turnover of €9m, is one of the largest providers of translation and interpreting services in Germany, offering its services to public and private clients through 6 entities and 11 offices in the main German cities.
Robrecht Beliën and Geert De Blende, co-CEOs of ElaN Group, comment: ‘We are very excited about the prospect of welcoming Lingua-World to the ElaN group, and thus penetrating the German market, a particularly attractive market for us, and one in which we will now benefit from a strong position. ElaN and Lingua-World are highly complementary, and we are delighted that Tom-Jordi Ruesch, the head of the enterprise, has decided to continue his adventure with us to benefit from the many commercial and operational synergies to come.’
Tom-Jordi Ruesch, CEO of Lingua-World GmbH, states: ‘The Lingua-World Group is a major player in the German translation and interpreting market, which has been growing rapidly for several years. ElaN is an extremely dynamic company with a quality and culture that are very similar to those that my family and I have built up at Lingua-World for over more than 15 years. It’s the ideal partner for me.’
Olivier Le Gall and Mayeul Caron, Partners, and Nicolas Debonneuil, Investment Director of Andera Partners: ‘The acquisition of the Lingua-World group is a strategic move for ElaN, as it gives us a significant foothold in the German market and completes our geographical coverage of Europe. At the time of our investment in ElaN, we set ourselves the target of doubling in size in five years: the acquisition of Lingua-World means that we have reached half of our objective just one year after acquiring a stake in the company. With this acquisition, we welcome two new minority shareholders, BNP Fortis and Caisse d’Epargne Hauts de France, who will help us to take advantage of the next acquisitions that are in the pipeline.’
As a majority shareholder in ElaN Languages since April 2022, Andera Partners is supporting the management team led by Robrecht Beliën and Geert De Blende in accelerating the group’s development. With three acquisitions in the Netherlands (PassworD in 2020), Poland (Translavic in 2021) and Germany (Lingua-World in 2023), ElaN generates sales of almost €30m, has 130 employees in 15 offices, serves around 3,500 clients, and has the operational efficiency to play an active role in consolidating its market in Europe.
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