Duisburg/ Colo­gne — With a team led by Dr. Pär Johans­son, Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek advi­sed Franz Haniel & Cie. GmbH (Haniel) on the acqui­si­tion of Opti­mar, a leading supplier of auto­ma­ted fish proces­sing systems. The sellers are the Norwe­gian finan­cial inves­tors Credo Part­ners and the company’s manage­ment. The exis­ting manage­ment team around CEO Håvard Sætre will conti­nue to run Opti­mar as part of the Haniel Group. With this acqui­si­tion, Haniel is further expan­ding its port­fo­lio in an inno­va­tive busi­ness area.

Haniel, head­quar­te­red in Duis­burg, is a German family-owned company. There are curr­ently six divi­si­ons in the Haniel port­fo­lio: Bekaert­Des­lee, CWS-boco, ELG, Opti­mar, ROVEMA and TAKKT. In addi­tion, there are finan­cial invest­ments in Ceco­nomy and Metro. With over 13,800 employees, the Haniel Group gene­ra­ted €3.6 billion in reve­nue in 2016.

Opti­mar is a fast-growing Norwe­gian premium supplier of auto­ma­ted fish proces­sing systems. The company deve­lops, manu­fac­tures and installs solu­ti­ons for use on ships, on land and for aquacul­ture. Over the past two years, the company, head­quar­te­red in Ålesund on Norway’s west coast, has grown stron­gly, gene­ra­ting sales of appro­xi­m­ately €115 million in 2017.

Advi­sor Franz Haniel & Cie. GmbH: Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek
Dr. Pär Johans­son (Lead Partner),
Dr. Chris­toph Schork, LL.M.,
Tim Remmel, LL.M. (all Corporate/M&A), all Cologne
Dr. Frede­rik Wiemer (Anti­trust Law), Hamburg