Weinberg Capital Partners’ WCP Impact Dev #1 fund orchestrates the carve-out of the Marcel Villette Group, a leading player in the maintenance and creation of green spaces in Île-de-France, in partnership with its CEO, Armand Joyeux, and key executives.
Founded in 1929 by Marcel Villette, the Marcel Villette company has established itself as a regional leader in landscaping and green space maintenance. Integrated into the Financière Joyeux holding company since 1985, which is also involved in the building and public works sectors, Marcel Villette has experienced rapid expansion under the leadership of Armand Joyeux, its CEO since 2008, particularly accomplishing 9 acquisitions. Today, the Marcel Villette Group achieves a consolidated turnover of 43 million euros.
With its historical expertise, Marcel Villette executes complex projects for local authorities and private clients, including the National Library of France, the headquarters of the Île-de-France region in Saint-Ouen, the Jardin d’Acclimatation in Paris, and more recently the redevelopment of Porte-Maillot and the surroundings of the Champs-Élysées.
Operating under different brands, namely Marcel Villette, Design Parcs, and Vertige for landscaping and maintenance, the group has diversified into pruning with the brands UrbanElag and Jard’Eco as well as the installation of playgrounds and sports fields through the IFR brand. Based in Gennevilliers, the group now has more than 300 employees spread across 7 branches in Île-de-France, and holds numerous environmental certifications.
With the entry of the WCP Impact Dev #1 fund, which marks its seventh investment, the Marcel Villette Group, whose activities contribute to adapting to climate change particularly through the renaturalization of urban and peri-urban areas, aims to accelerate its external growth to incorporate new trades and strengthen its territorial network. An impact plan will be developed with key pillars focusing on creating an ecological engineering offering and the development of social practices promoting training and inclusion.
Founded in 2005, Weinberg Capital Partners is an independent investment company historically active in buy-out capital, which expanded its field of intervention to real estate assets in 2008, and has been investing since 2015 in the capital of listed French SMEs/mid-caps as a minority shareholder with an active, friendly and long-term approach. In 2020, Weinberg Capital Partners added its capacity to invest in SMEs/mid-caps with a minority strategy focused on sustainable development issues, which offers extra-financial support known as impact, to better prepare companies for environmental and societal challenges. In 2023, Weinberg Capital Partners created a new fund, Eiréné, dedicated to the development of SMEs/mid-caps in the security and defense sector. In 2024, the company continued its growth in private equity with the launch of a co-investment fund, WCP Co-Invest.
With €1,6 billion of assets under management, Weinberg Capital Partners is a significant player in the mid-market equity segment in France.
Weinberg Capital Partners is a signatory of the PRI, a member of the International Climate Initiative and an active responsible investor.
Weinberg Capital Partners supports Télémaque, an association for equal opportunities in education.
For more information: weinbergcapital.com.
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Founded in 1929, the Marcel Villette company has been contributing to the landscaping and renaturalization of urban green spaces for nearly a century. In the 1990s, it developed the André Citroën Park in Paris and the gardens of the National Library of France.
In the 2000s, the company restored the gardens of the Villarceaux estate, created the Courson Golf Club, and landscaped the gardens of the Petit Palais and the Vendôme Pavilion. During this period, it became the first green space company to be ISO 9001 certified.
Under the leadership of Armand Joyeux since 2008, the company has accumulated numerous landmark projects and awards (7 Landscape Victories), such as the Orange eco-campus in Châtillon, Freudenstat Park in Courbevoie, and the Terra Botanica theme park in Angers.
The group has consolidated its expertise by acquiring 9 subsidiaries over the past 10 years in the fields of green spaces, pruning, playgrounds, and sports fields.
In 2024, the Marcel Villette Group will strengthen its CSR strategy with the implementation of an environmental charter and the execution of its own carbon footprint assessment to sustainably reduce its CO2 emissions.
For more information: marcel-villette.com.
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Bérengère Beaujean
Head of Communications
berengere.beaujean@weinbergcapital.com
+ 33 7 85 58 29 73
Alain Biquard
Development and Investor Relations Manager
alain.biquard@weinbergcapital.com
+ 33 7 86 36 90 79
