Special situations
Special situations don't arrive on schedule. We come in where the standard sale or restructuring path no longer fits, typically strategic repositioning, an operational turnaround, or a short-term liquidity squeeze.
Private equity · Frankfurt am Main · since 2008
A Frankfurt private equity firm investing in the German Mittelstand.
Tempus Capital is a partner-owned private equity firm, based in Frankfurt and active across Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The focus is on special situations, succession and carve-outs. The firm invests its own capital and is not constrained by an external investment committee.
How Tempus Capital invests
Tempus Capital is a Frankfurt-based private equity firm, owned and run by its partners. We have backed mid-market companies in Germany, Austria and Switzerland since 2008. In our experience, returns come from running companies well, not from financial engineering. We tend to hold our investments longer than the industry average.
About
2008
Founded
DACH
Region
5–50 M€
Equity cheque
Frankfurt
Office
Investment approach
Where we typically come in
Succession
When a Mittelstand family has no successor, we step in. The business carries on. The workforce, the suppliers and the customer relationships stay. What changes is the cap table.
Carve-out
We buy business units that no longer fit inside their parent group, and run them as independent companies. In our experience, a focused business outside a group structure is often considerably more profitable than the same business inside one.
Special situations are our business — even when things get difficult.
Tempus Capital was built for situations where standard processes do not work. In 2020 we acquired PostCon National GmbH from Quantum Capital Partners; in 2021 we added PostCon NRW. The two companies became DVS — Deutscher Versand Service — delivering around 500 million items per year. In February 2026, DVS filed for insolvency under self-administration. We continue to support the restructuring actively, together with management. This is exactly what we are here for: when the market turns, we stay at the table.
View investmentsSix things you can hold us to
The six things sellers, advisers and co-investors can hold us to.
A reply within two business days
Serious enquiries get a serious reply, from one of the partners. No bot, no junior.
An indicative offer in two to three weeks
After the first conversation, an indicative offer follows. Non-binding, with a price range, a structure, and the working assumptions behind both.
Own capital. Own decisions.
We invest our own money. There is no investment committee, there are no outside limited partners, and there are no fund deadlines. Decisions get made by the people who own the firm.
Confidentiality
Nothing leaves the room without your sign-off, with competitors, with the press, with the market. The undertaking holds whether or not the deal completes.
Conservative financing
We finance acquisitions at levels the company can carry through a downturn. In practice: moderate leverage, a sensible cash buffer, no earn-outs that bleed into the operating business.
Following through
Commitments to sellers, employees, banks and advisers are kept. Even when keeping them costs the firm money.
Investment criteria
Are we a fit for your situation?
A quick self-check. If most of the points below apply, a confidential conversation is worthwhile.
- Geography
- Germany, Austria, Switzerland
- Target revenue
- EUR 20m – EUR 250m
- Equity per transaction
- EUR 5m – EUR 50m
- Stake
- Majority or qualified minority
- EBITDA
- Negative EBITDA possible if the business model is sound
- Situation
- Special situation, succession, carve-out, buy-and-build
- Holding period
- Four to seven years, no fund-driven exit pressure
- Outside our focus
- Early-stage venture, regulated financial services, listed large-caps
Where we stand
Four principles we hold ourselves to
- 01
We deliver bad news first.
If a process slips, an offer comes in tighter than indicated, or an assumption no longer holds, we say so. Before the weekend, not after. Sellers and advisors hear of changes from us, not from the market.
- 02
We do not make commitments we are not prepared to sign.
Indicative offers are indicative — and are not quietly revised downward on the way to the binding offer. What is in the LOI stands, absent material findings from due diligence.
- 03
We let management run the business.
We do not occupy operating roles that the existing management can fill. We contribute through advisory boards and on strategic questions. The day-to-day stays with management — including when things do not go to plan.
- 04
We publish nothing without the company's consent.
What is communicated about a holding, its employees, customers and figures is for the portfolio company to decide. We do not share internal reporting with third parties — we have no limited partners we are obliged to brief.
‘Tempus Capital fokussiert sich ausschließlich auf Beteiligungen in mittelständische Unternehmen in Sondersituationen im deutschsprachigen Raum.’
BVK · German Private Equity and Venture Capital Association