Düssel­dorf — Herbert Smith Freeh­ills has advi­sed Luft­hansa Group on the sale of its global cate­ring divi­sion LSG Group to private equity firm Aure­lius Group. Herbert Smith Freeh­ills alre­ady advi­sed Luft­hansa Group in 2019 on the sale of LSG Group’s Euro­pean busi­ness to Swiss-based Gategroup.

The carve-out tran­sac­tion includes all tradi­tio­nal cate­ring acti­vi­ties as well as the onboard retail and food commerce busi­nesses. The LSG Group has around 19,000 employees and consists of over 100 compa­nies opera­ting more than 130 service centers in the Ameri­cas (USA and Latin America), EMMA (emer­ging markets) and Asia-Paci­fic. LSG Group also includes onboard retail specia­list Retail InMo­tion and SCIS Air Secu­rity Services.

The tran­sac­tion invol­ves the trans­fer of shares and assets in more than 30 juris­dic­tions world­wide. The closing of the tran­sac­tion is subject to the neces­sary regu­la­tory appr­ovals and is expec­ted to take place in the third quar­ter of 2023.

LSG Group is head­quar­te­red in Neu-Isen­burg near Frank­furt am Main. In the pande­mic year 2021, it gene­ra­ted conso­li­da­ted sales of EUR 1.96 billion worldwide.

The Aure­lius Group is a private equity inves­tor based in Grün­wald, Germany. The invest­ment company curr­ently opera­tes in eight diffe­rent loca­ti­ons in Europe, inclu­ding Munich, London, Amster­dam, Stock­holm, Milan, Madrid, Luxem­bourg and Düsseldorf.

Advi­sor Deut­sche Luft­hansa: Herbert Smith Freehills

Düsseldorf/Frankfurt: Dr. Sönke Becker, Photo (Lead, Corporate/M&A), Dr. Marcel Nuys (Compe­ti­tion), Dr. Marius Boewe (Regu­la­tory), Dr. Stef­fen Hoer­ner (Tax), Kai Liebrich (Finance); Coun­sel: Dr. Chris­tian Johnen, Lena von Richt­ho­fen (both Corporate/M&A), Dr. Florian Huer­kamp (Compe­ti­tion), Dr. Hannes Jacobi (Finance); Asso­cia­tes: Dr. Niko­laus Moench, Marjel Dema, Janis Rentrop, Tobias Beuker, Dr. Marius Dicke (all Corpo­rate), Mirko Gleits­mann, Anne Ecken­roth, Caro­line Wendt (all Compe­ti­tion), David Rasche, Kris­tin Kattwin­kel (both Regu­la­tory), Wladi­mir Leon­hard, Tatiana Güns­ter (both Tax), Sophia Peter (Finance), Dr. Simone Zieg­ler (Data Protec­tion), Dr. Tim Abend­schein, Justus ter Veen (both Finance).

Hong Kong: Hilary Lau (Corpo­rate)
Johan­nes­burg: Rudolph du Ples­sis (Corpo­rate)
London: Mark Bardell (Corpo­rate), Kris­ten Roberts, Gabri­elle Wong (both Finance), Rachel Pinto (Pensi­ons)
New York: James Robin­son (Corpo­rate), Joseph Falcone, Jona­than Cross (both Regulatory)
Milan: Pietro Pouche (Dispu­tes)
Beijing: Nanda Lau (Corpo­rate)