ARX Equity Partners won the Central and Eastern Europe Deal of the Year Award for VUES at the 2019 Real Deals Private Equity Awards ceremony, held in London on 24 April. 

The widely-renowned ceremony gathered more than 700 industry practitioners for its 18th edition to award symbols of recognition across the private equity sector. Finalists are established through research undertaken by Real Deals and Cass Business School, with support from Preqin data, then a panel of judges reviews the finalists and selects a winner.

ARX acquired a majority shareholding in VUES from retiring managers in 2006, then succeeded in capitalizing on the company’s inherent technical strengths and capabilities in order to significantly grow and internationalize the business over a long-term holding period. Over the past several years VUES expanded its profit margins considerably, while simultaneously growing sales and increasing headcount. The success of VUES confirms the know-how of local engineers and competitiveness of Czech R&D, which were prerequisites for the company’s expansion into increasingly demanding precision applications.

The ARX investment in VUES was exited via a sale of the company to NYSE listed Moog in early 2018.