British Medical Auctions (BMA) was acquired by TBAuctions, an online auction company established by the merger between Dutch online auction houses Troostwijk Auctions (B2B) and BVA Auctions (B2C). TBAuctions was recently acquired by Funds managed by Castik Capital. TBAuctions also recently acquired Vavato in Belgium, further expanding the European brand portfolio. Jointly with its new shareholder, TBAuctions aims at consolidating the European market for online auctions. In recent years, TBAuctions has significantly invested in developing a state-of-the-art and scalable IT platform called ATLAS, with which the company can seamlessly scale up and integrate the takeover of BMA.

Completely new market segment

The growth ambition of TBAuctions - which is currently active in eight European countries - is underlined by the BMA acquisition. Herberth Samsom, CEO of TBAuctions comments: “BMA is a wonderful company that we are very pleased to integrate into our online auction platform. In the coming year, we will see additional acquisitions of this type. One of the major reasons for integrating BMA into the group is its outstanding position in the medical world. We want to deploy the specific knowledge of BMA throughout the continent, which will open up a completely new and profitable vertical. There is high demand for used medical equipment throughout the region.”

Just like Troostwijk Auctions, BVA Auctions, and Vavato, BMA will continue to operate its own brand and online storefront. This fits with TBAuctions’ overall online auction strategy, offering everything from small consumer goods to complete industrial stocks and real estate. With more than 20 years of experience in auctions and medical equipment, BMA contributes to greater diversity and availability of equipment in the healthcare market. This market is known for its closed character. BMA has branches in the United Kingdom and France and has more than 10,000 registered online buyers from all over the world.

Markus Grad, CEO of BMA, said “We are delighted to be joining the TBAuctions family, the benefits of joining forces are multiple.  Most significantly for us, it provides the ability to access new European countries more efficiently and cost effectively, leveraging TBAuctions’ European reach and technology platform whilst building on our deep knowledge in medical equipment. I’m excited about the opportunity this creates for BMA’s new vision – to be the leading European marketplace for medical equipment.”

Big step ahead due to an auction platform

Incorporating BMA, the ATLAS auction platform will provide synergies and further stimulate the growth of the online auction market in the UK and France. “We see that other auction houses can only facilitate their move from physical auctions to online auctions by investing immensely in their IT,” continues Samsom. “We are a step ahead of these local auction house, and thanks to the support of Castik Capital, we are well on track to be one of the leading European online auction platforms shortly. The online auction market in Europe will show huge growth figures and with our IT lead, we will play a prominent role this year.”

Acquired companies are integrated quickly and efficiently in the IT backbone and can immediately profit from scale and efficiency as well as online marketing and back-office support. For sellers, this means unmatched service and a larger market. For buyers, this provides an even wider diversity of available products.

Pan-European market consolidation

The European online auction market is very fragmented and consists largely of ‘local champions’ with strong regional focus and limited international scale. Castik Capital views the pan-European market to be at a start of a consolidation period with TBAuctions being uniquely positioned due to its modern ATLAS platform.  

Samsom said: “​​​​​​​If you look at the digitalisation of e-commerce in general, then it is worth noting that the world of ‘second-hand and second time-around' falls behind in terms of digitalisation. That offers us even more opportunities in the market.”

About British Medical Auctions

BMA auctions end-of-line medical equipment that is surplus to requirements by the healthcare sector. It holds weekly and monthly live and timed online auctions for buyers worldwide. In these events, it offers a large variety of medical equipment, such as equipment for operating theatres, dialysis, radiology, artificial respiration, patient monitoring, anaesthesia, endoscopy as well as ambulance facilities and complete installations for labs. All the services offered by BMA are tailored to buyers from hospitals and health institutions as well as to real estate agents and financial institutions. It concerns more than just online auction sales, although the latter is its core activity. BMA provides a full suite of services, including valuations, certified erasing of patient data present in the equipment, taking over liability of equipment, de-installation and on-site collection.

For more information about BMA, see: www.britishmedicalauctions.co.uk.

About TBAuctions

TBAuctions is a leading online auction platform and marketplace for second hand and second chance goods, operating through the brands Troostwijk Auctions (B2B) and BVA Auctions (B2C) and since November 2021 also the Belgian brand Vavato. TBAuctions auctions movable and immovable goods on behalf of third parties through ATLAS, its proprietary IT platform for intelligent auctioning (IA). With over 13,000 auctions/2.75 million lots per year and over 10 million website visitors per month, TBAuctions is one of the largest online auctioneers in Europe. For more information about TBAuctions, see: www.tbauctions.com.

About Castik Capital

Castik Capital manages private equity investments. Castik Capital is a European Private Equity firm that acquires majority stakes in private and public companies, where long-term value can be generated through active partnerships with management teams­. Founded in 2014, Castik Capital is based in Luxembourg and focuses on identifying and developing investment opportunities across Europe. Castik Capital's advisor is Castik Capital Partners GmbH, based in Munich, Germany. Investments are made by the Luxembourg-based fund, EPIC II, the second fund managed by Castik, which had its final fund close of €1.25bn in October 2020. For more information on Castik, please visit www.castik.com.