Joint Venture Waysis & Parkeon

Yuno Advisors advised the Dutch company Waysis in the realization of the international joint venture “Yellowbrick International” together with the French company Parkeon, world market leader in on-street parking. Moreover, Yuno Advisors assisted Waysis in the corporate finance advisory in relation with Waysis’ existing entities focused on digital parking solutions, Yellowbrick and Brick Parking Enforcement.

Waysis is an Amsterdam based company owned by the Staartjes family that boasts a 90 year old history and market leadership position in the Netherlands in the field of parking solutions and enforcement. Also, the company is active in off-street parking solutions and city access. In addition to its operating companies Taxameter Centrale for ‘traditional’ parking solutions and Brick Parking Enforcement for enforcement, Waysis founded Yellowbrick in 2006, a specialized company aimed at supplying mobile parking solutions (‘real time parking’). Meanwhile, Yellowbrick and ‘bricken’ have been widely accepted by consumers in the Netherlands, and the company launched Yellowbrick in Belgium last year.

Parkeon is a French private company with its head office in Paris, and can pride itself as world market leader in parking management and public transport ticketing solutions. As a former division of Schlumberger, Parkeon was split-off through a management buy-out backed by Apax Partners. In 2007 Parkeon was sold to Barclays Private Equity in a secondary buy-out, and since last year Parkeon has Intermediate Capital Group (ICG) as its major shareholder. With activities in more than 4,000 cities in no less than 60 countries, €185 million net sales in 2013 and over 1,000 employees, Parkeon has built a strong international position over the last 40 years. Last year Parkeon introduced a proprietary mobile parking solution Whoosh!, and through the joint venture with Waysis underlines its ambitions in the domain of real time parking.

In view of the vast development of digitalization of payment solutions, and opportunities on the international markets of paid parking, Waysis and Parkeon have decided to join forces to accelerate the introduction of real time parking across the globe, and become the leading international player in this domain. With Yellowbrick, Waysis has the knowledge, experience and platform in-house, whereas Parkeon is a worldwide leader in on-street parking solutions with a global footprint in thousands of cities. By joining forces through creating Yellowbrick International, these parties create a unique  and worldwide platform for mobile parking payments.

Yellowbrick International is located in Amsterdam, and will focus on further development and international roll-out of mobile parking payment solutions  with an own management team, systems and a team of specialized staff members. Yellowbrick International will be able to use the existing platforms as well as the international network of Parkeon and its worldwide distributor network. The existing brand names Yellowbrick and Whoosh! will also be used in new markets.

Yuno Advisors has advised Waysis on this transaction from the early start of the discussions with Parkeon. Our advisory spanned all aspects of the M&A project between Waysis and Parkeon, including deal structuring, financial modelling and valuation, letter of intent, drafting of the business plan of the JV, due diligence co-ordination, legal demerger and creation of the JV, transaction documentation, deal negotiations and various other activities. Furthermore, Yuno Advisors assisted Waysis in financing topics and advised with regard to the Yellowbrick and Brick Parking Enforcement entities.

Click here to view the original press release by Waysis (in Dutch), and here for Parkeon’s press release (in English).