German Startups Group takes aim at two new operative business fields
(PresseBox) (Berlin, )Subject to approval by the Annual General Meeting, German Startups Group plans the creation of a secondary market platform for unquoted shares in startups, presumably together with partners. While such platforms, e.g. SharesPost, have established themselves long since in the US and other countries, Germany is a developing nation in this respect. The creation of liquidity for so-called secondary shares is in the interest of all parties involved – the founder, business angels, and employees of startups as well as the startups themselves and their investors – and therefore offers lucrative business opportunities. Even today, German Startups Group has established a reputation as a buyer of secondary shares and receives many unsolicited purchase offers, but can itself only seize a fraction of these opportunities.
Additionally, German Startups Group intends to issue participation rights in the future for the increase in value of individual portfolio companies, subject to approval by the respective portfolio company. It has been shown in recent years that many private investors have an interest in direct investments in portfolio companies of German Startups Group that are not accessible to them. By issuing participation rights, German Startups Group intends to enable these investors to directly participate in the value creation of individual startups in the growth stage. The issuance of participation rights would lead to a capital inflow that would be used to acquire shares in the respective portfolio companies so that a so-called balance sheet extension occurs and German Startups Group increases in size. The goal is a generation of a so-called “carry”, i.e. a profit-share in the increase in value.
A capital increase is unchangedly not planned. German Startups Group is sufficiently equipped with capital and liquidity. In this respect, the management will only propose to the Annual General Meeting to raise the authorised capital by 492 TEUR.