In October 2021, the investment company Waterland bought half of the Swiss communications agency Farner in Zurich. This marked the beginning of the European expansion, which has now also arrived in Germany. In February of this year, Farner, under the leadership of CEO Roman Geiser, acquired the communications consultancies Komm-Passion in Düsseldorf and Kirchhoff in Hamburg. Now, according to information from the F.A.Z., the four managing directors of GFD Finanzkommunikation have also sold their agency, which was founded in Frankfurt in 1995, to Farner.
Hanno Mußler
Editor in business.
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GFD started advising on IPOs and today focuses on investor relations for its clients, most of whom come from the fund and banking world, and has recently grown with sustainability reports and training. After the sale, the four GFD managing directors Joachim Althof, Jasmin Dentz, Peter Dietz and Uwe Lill will now participate in the Farner Group Zurich, just like the managing directors of Komm-Passion and Kirchhof before them. These re-participation models are intended to ensure that everyone thinks European in the future, but continues to think entrepreneurially.
Possibilities of succession
At the same time, the sale to Farner is also an opportunity to resolve the company's succession in the medium term. Hubertus Väth has chosen a different path for long-term company succession with his communications agency Newmark, which was founded in Frankfurt in 1996. As a first step, Väth recently sold 10 percent of the shares to four partners. In the coming years, further profit-sharing schemes are to be exchanged for shares so that Väth's companions can continue to run this agency as owners.
Those who sell to Farner, on the other hand, are no longer in charge of all decisions. From Germany, for example, only Alexander Güttler, partner of Komm-Passion, joins Farner's seven-member inner circle of leaders. Güttler is now to bring Farner among the three largest communications agencies in Germany, displacing agencies such as Fischer-Appelt, Brunswick or American networks. The main target group are globally active (family) companies with a need for advice on European topics, from corporate strategy to advertising and public relations (PR) to political communication. The aim is to convince these companies, unlike large Anglo-Saxon agencies such as Edelman, BCW, Hill & Knowlton or Ketchum, not to be a network with possibly quite different quality of advice, but to act quickly, with the same standard and entrepreneurially everywhere in Europe.
Expansion to continue
The US investment company KKR, which is known in Germany as co-owner of the Axel Springer publishing house, the market researcher GFK and the payment service provider Unzer (Heidelpay), apparently has a different view of the communications industry. KKR bought 29 percent of the shares in FGS Global in April this year for a three-digit million amount. This agency, of which KKR has been a client for a long time, emerged in 2020 from the merger of the four consulting firms Finsbury, Hering Schuppener, The Glover Park and Sard Verbinnen, is now under a single management and, with a turnover of 430 million euros in the 2022 financial year, is primarily aimed at stock corporations with US business as consulting clients. The Farner Group, on the other hand, is much smaller with a turnover of around 100 million euros, but is growing strongly not only in Germany through acquisitions.
In Germany, the investment company Waterland, which manages a total of 14 billion euros in assets and is largely financing Farner's expansion, is best known for its investments in the rehabilitation clinic operator Median, the management consultancy Horn & Company and the IT service provider Netgo. However, Waterland has also held a stake in the Dutch digital agency Dept since 2015, which, after being acquired a majority stake by the investment company Carlyle in 2021, increased its sales by 50 percent the following year, also thanks to acquisitions. Dept is apparently something of a role model for Farner from Waterland's point of view.
Almost twenty owner-managed agencies now belong to Farner, including KTHE (formerly Kobza Media) in Austria. The number of partners who have sold their agencies in exchange for a stake in Farner has grown to around fifty. And the expansion is set to continue. In Great Britain and Portugal, further acquisitions are reportedly imminent. Agencies are to be added in Italy next year, as well as in France, Spain and Sweden. The Farner Group's turnover is expected to at least double to 2025 million euros by 200. In doing so, it aims to become one of the five communications agencies with the highest turnover in Europe. With a turnover of around 100 million euros, it is currently between fifth and tenth place.