Vier­sen / Munich — As part of a succes­sion plan, funds advi­sed by Bregal Unter­neh­mer­ka­pi­tal have acqui­red a majo­rity stake in the hidden cham­pion EA Elek­tro-Auto­ma­tik. The goal of the long-term part­ner­ship is to conti­nue EA’s successful history and further growth. Shear­man & Ster­ling advi­sed the banks on acqui­si­tion finan­cing of EA Elek­tro-Auto­ma­tik by Bregal.

EA-Elek­tro-Auto­ma­tik GmbH & Co KG is Germany’s leading manu­fac­tu­rer in labo­ra­tory power supply, high perfor­mance power supplies and elec­tro­nic loads. In 1974, Helmut Nolden foun­ded the company with the vision of deve­lo­ping highly quali­fied power supply systems for all appli­ca­ti­ons. Today, EA-Elek­tro-Auto­ma­tik is a globally active, medium-sized company.

What began in 1974 in a base­ment work­shop with the first deve­lo­p­ment of fixed-voltage power supplies for the labo­ra­tory and hobby sector has quickly deve­lo­ped into one of the most sought-after suppli­ers of highly complex solu­ti­ons. Today, EA produ­ces on 10,000m² at its main site in Vier­sen, has subsi­dia­ries in China as well as in the USA and employs about 250 people. Foun­ded by Mana­ging Direc­tor Helmut Nolden, the company has been growing stron­gly for years, supp­ly­ing custo­mers in the indus­trial, alter­na­tive energy, elec­tro­che­mi­cal, process tech­no­logy and tele­com­mu­ni­ca­ti­ons sectors. EA devices for test­ing high-perfor­mance elec­tri­cal compon­ents also make an important contri­bu­tion to the global deve­lo­p­ment of electromobility.

EA opera­tes in a market that is expe­ri­en­cing high growth and bene­fiting from long-term macro trends such as incre­asing elec­tri­fi­ca­tion, rising connec­ti­vity (smart home, IoT and Indus­try 4.0), shorter product life cycles and grea­ter battery usage. Bregal comm­ents: “We are looking forward to working toge­ther in this promi­sing envi­ron­ment and expect EA to conti­nue on its path of sustainable success through its high level of inno­va­tion, excel­lent custo­mer rela­ti­onships and broad product diver­sity. Toge­ther with the manage­ment and employees, we also want to open up new growth paths and future pros­pects, such as by further streng­thening EA’s presence in the USA and Asia, laun­ching new inno­va­tive products, and making further invest­ments in the Vier­sen site, inclu­ding a signi­fi­cant expan­sion of produc­tion capacity.”

Shear­man & Ster­ling advi­sed a consor­tium of banks led by Commerz­bank on the finan­cing of the acqui­si­tion of a majo­rity stake in EA Elek­tro-Auto­ma­tik, a leading supplier of power elec­tro­nics, by Bregal Unter­neh­mer­ka­pi­tal advi­sed funds as part of a succes­sion plan.

The Shear­man & Ster­ling team led by part­ner Winfried M. Carli (Germany-Finance) included Sven Opper­mann (Germany‑M&A/Finance).

About Bregal Entre­pre­neu­rial Capital
Bregal Unter­neh­mer­ka­pi­tal curr­ently mana­ges around 2.5 billion euros (assets under manage­ment), of which 1.2 billion euros are available for new invest­ments. — Bregal Unter­neh­mer­ka­pi­tal is part of a family busi­ness that has grown over gene­ra­ti­ons. The focus is on majo­rity or mino­rity share­hol­dings, prima­rily in medium-sized compa­nies in Germany, Austria and Switz­er­land. These invest­ments are inde­pen­dent of deve­lo­p­ments on the finan­cial markets. With pati­ent capi­tal, an entre­pre­neu­rial approach and a spirit of part­ner­ship, we can focus on the success of our invest­ments and help them create sustainable value. Parti­cu­larly important are finan­cial stabi­lity, a high degree of flexi­bi­lity, short decis­ion-making paths and a high degree of entre­pre­neu­rial free­dom for the companies.

About Shear­man & Sterling
Shear­man & Ster­ling is an inter­na­tio­nal law firm with 24 offices in 13 count­ries and appro­xi­m­ately 850 lawy­ers. In Germany, Shear­man & Ster­ling is repre­sen­ted at the Frank­furt office. The firm is one of the inter­na­tio­nal market leaders in advi­sing on complex cross-border tran­sac­tions. World­wide, Shear­man & Ster­ling prima­rily advi­ses inter­na­tio­nal corpo­ra­ti­ons and large natio­nal compa­nies, finan­cial insti­tu­ti­ons, and large mid-sized compa­nies. For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.shearman.com.