Frankfurt/Göttelborn/Lindenberg — Nano­gate SE is expan­ding its engi­nee­ring exper­tise through a stra­te­gic part­ner­ship with the ERBIWA Group and plans to acquire a stake in ERBIWA. This was announ­ced by the tech­no­logy company for design-orien­ted, multi­func­tional compon­ents and surfaces.

Nano­gate SE is thus streng­thening its engi­nee­ring exper­tise and expan­ding its port­fo­lio through a stra­te­gic coope­ra­tion with ERBIWA. The company specia­li­zes in the deve­lo­p­ment of complex plas­tic compon­ents and sophisti­ca­ted manu­fac­tu­ring proces­ses. With this stra­te­gic part­ner­ship, Nano­gate is expan­ding its tech­no­logy port­fo­lio to include addi­tio­nal appli­ca­ti­ons, such as the inte­gra­tion of stain­less steel, carbon fibers or natu­ral mate­ri­als into plas­tics. As part of the stra­te­gic coope­ra­tion, Nano­gate plans to initi­ally acquire 50 % of the shares in ERBIWA Group.

The ERBIWA Group, based in Linden­berg, Germany, was foun­ded in 2005. Custo­mers include well-known addres­ses from the mobi­lity segment and other indus­tries. In addi­tion to the engi­nee­ring of compon­ents, ERBIWA also covers the deve­lo­p­ment, design and procu­re­ment of important produc­tion equip­ment and tools and under­ta­kes the produc­tion of proto­ty­pes, small series and special series parts. In addi­tion to its head­quar­ters, the company also has a site in China, which focu­ses prima­rily on the cons­truc­tion of high-quality produc­tion equip­ment. The company gene­ra­ted sales of more than EUR 15 million in 2018 and gene­ra­ted an attrac­tive return on investment.

Nano­gate and ERBIWA began their opera­tio­nal colla­bo­ra­tion back in 2017. Against this back­drop, Nano­gate now wants to acquire a 50 % stake in a first step, which will subse­quently be further expan­ded. The closing is still subject to the successful imple­men­ta­tion of various frame­work condi­ti­ons. As part of the tran­sac­tion, the previous owner of ERBIWA would like to acquire shares in Nano­gate in addi­tion to a cash compo­nent. If neces­sary, a capi­tal increase in kind will be carried out for this purpose, which would be in the lower single-digit percen­tage range of the current capi­tal stock. ERBIWA is initi­ally to be included at equity in the conso­li­da­ted finan­cial state­ments of Nano­gate SE. Further details of the agree­ment were not disclosed.

Advi­sors to ERBIWA Group and its share­hol­der Ernst Wagner: Fried­rich Graf von West­pha­len & Part­ner, Freiburg
Dr. Hendrik Thies, Part­ner, Photo (Lead Corpo­rate, M&A)
Dr. Stefan Lammel, Part­ner (Corpo­rate Finance, M&A)
Dr. Morton Douglas, Part­ner (IP)
Dr. Till Bött­cher, Senior Asso­ciate (Real Estate)
Stepha­nie von Riegen, Senior Asso­ciate (Corpo­rate, M&A)

Advi­sors to Nano­gate SE: CMS Hasche Sigle Part­ner­schaft von Rechts­an­wäl­ten und Steu­er­be­ra­tern mbB, Frankfurt
Katja Pohl, Part­ner (Lead Part­ner Corpo­rate, M&A)
Johanna Hofmann, Part­ner (Real Estate)
Dr. Elena Chertkova, Senior Asso­ciate (Corpo­rate, M&A)
Sandra Scheib, Senior Asso­ciate (Real Estate)

Nano­gate SE also recei­ved tax advice from Ernst & Young GmbH Wirt­schafts­prü­fungs­ge­sell­schaft (EY).
The share­hol­der was also advi­sed on M&A tran­sac­tions by MNI Part­ners (lead: Domi­nik Lutz).
In addi­tion, ERBIWA and its share­hol­ders were advi­sed by the tax advi­sors and audi­tors of HÄNLE & PARTNER, based in Tett­nang (lead: Daniel Hein­zel­mann, Partner).

About Fried­rich Graf von West­pha­len & Partner
Fried­rich Graf von West­pha­len & Part­ner is one of the leading inde­pen­dent German commer­cial law firms. The firm’s appro­xi­m­ately 85 lawy­ers, inclu­ding 31 part­ners, advise compa­nies world­wide from offices in Colo­gne, Frei­burg, Frank­furt am Main, Alicante and Brussels, as well as from coope­ra­tion offices in Shang­hai, São Paulo and Istan­bul. In total, the firm has around 200 employees. For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.fgvw.de.