Baker Tilly advises on the sale of digital agency Bikkelhart

Description

Digital agency Bikkelhart has taken an important step toward the future with the onboarding of digital service agency 4NG. With the acquisition of Bikkelhart, 4NG aims to realize its growth plans and achieve a top-five spot among Dutch digital agencies. Bikkelhart's services fit perfectly with 4NG's existing services, making them even better positioned to offer a full-service to its clients. Baker Tilly's Corporate Finance team assisted Bikkelhart in the sales process.

Amsterdam-based digital agency Bikkelhart is a top specialist in designing, optimizing and automating the digital customer journey. Combining design and optimization, Bikkelhart takes a unique position of its own in the digital services market. The company was founded in 2009 and currently has 40 employees.

'Bikkelhart stands for bickering with heart,' says co-founder Laurens Hutten. Together with co-founder Eric van Diemen, they have seen Bikkelhart and also its customers and employees grow tremendously. Bikkelhart has its origins in financial services, but now offers online sales advice to a wide range of top brands in various industries, including Hema, Pathé, KPN, Metro and Yarden. By joining 4NG and in combination with the broad network of Conclusion, Bikkelhart is able to serve its clients even better and more complete, without giving up its unique position in the market of digital growth.

4NG is a full-service digital agency consisting of seven different labels with a common ambition to grow businesses digitally. Since 2021, 4NG has been part of the Conclusion ecosystem. Through a buy-and-build strategy, 4NG has grown into a full digital service agency. Previous acquisitions of the digital group include Netvlies and Arlanet, through which it mainly strengthened and broadened its offering and experience at the "back end" of digital processes. Before the acquisition of Bikkelhart, 4NG employed over 200 people.

Acquisition by 4NG

'With this acquisition we join the top five digital agencies in the Netherlands,' says Ton Renes, M&A Director of 4NG. 'With Bikkelhart joining, we are bringing an incredibly creative and experienced group of people on board. It makes us at once thought leaders in the field of UX, UI and conversion optimization. In addition, it fits perfectly with the existing services we already offer, allowing us to serve our clients from start to finish. We now have in our agency group 250 digital experts who work every day to develop and optimize complete digital solutions for local heroes.

According to Bert Jan de Jongh, Director Business Transformation at Conclusion, the acquisition of Bikkelhart means that 4NG is now able to offer its clients digital consultancy on the 'front end' of digital growth as well. 'Since 2021, Conclusion has participated in 4NG, enabling us to offer our clients extensive expertise in the field of digital experience. Now that Bikkelhart has joined 4NG, we can also offer our clients expertise on the 'front end' of digital growth: UX research, digital design, conversion optimization, copywriting and marketing automation.'

Guidance provided by Baker Tilly

Bikkelhart has been guided by Baker Tilly's Corporate Finance team consisting of Lorijn van Leersum and Tijmen Bloom. Marcel Ploegsma and Peter Polman also advised in the sales process. Bikkelhart has been assisted by Baker Tilly with drafting the sales documentation, negotiations, due diligence, tax advice and effectuation of the transaction.