Dutch family office Strikwerda Investments, via DomiLinq, has acquired a majority stake in Belgian property management company Gerantis.
The acquisition marks M80 Partners’ exit from Gerantis, five years and 20 acquisitions later – including the development of dobby, its proprietary technology platform. “M80 helped nurture what Gerantis is today: a market leader in the making, with the people, the technology and the ambition to reshape the HOA management profession,” shares Pieter Vermeersch, partner at M80. “We transfer our stake with the certainty that Gerantis is placing the next phase of its growth in the best possible hands.”
Strikwerda’s combination of financial firepower, technological expertise and sector knowledge will contribute significantly towards accelerating Gerantis’s international growth strategy.
The firm intends to combine Gerantis with DomiLinq as part of the same group of property managers, strengthening each other in scale and expertise. “Both organisations have professional and driven teams who want to take the sector to its next phase,” explains Tom Verschuren, investment director at Strikwerda. “Together, we can more swiftly respond to the growing complexity and demands of the market.”
According to a statement by Strikwerda Investments, the strategic rationale of both companies is closely intertwined with the broader reality in property management: apartment living is picking up; technical, legal and sustainability requirements are becoming more complex; and scale is becoming a crucial part of making investments profitable.
Gerantis and DomiLinq’s collaboration enables the platforms to combine their technological expertise, apply shared quality standards and increase their purchasing power with suppliers. “The scale advantages of this collaboration are real and concrete,” reveals Gerantis CEO Jelle Geerits. “We can integrate our Value Added Services ecosystems and together negotiate stronger terms with suppliers.”
With this scale, DomiLinq also takes an important step in its ambition of becoming the leading European player in the field of property management. “We are building a knowledge-driven organisation that knows how to combine the advantages of scale with local involvement, in which entrepreneurs continue to play a central role. In this way, we create sustainable value for our clients, employees and partners,” concludes DomiLinq CEO André de Winter.
