London/ Berlin — The Euro­pean family office Imker Capi­tal Part­ners from London has acqui­red a majo­rity stake in the Berlin-based company AMV. the foun­ders of AVM, provi­der of the well-known Fritz­box routers. Imker Capi­tal Part­ners is supported by promi­nent figu­res from the busi­ness world, inclu­ding Dutch­man Teun van Rappard. Van Rappard’s father, Rolly van Rappard, is a co-foun­der of the well-known private equity firm CVC.

AMV, foun­ded by four students in Berlin in 1986, is regarded as a model company in the German IT sector. It has always specia­li­zed in in-house deve­lo­p­ments and is conside­red a pearl of the German IT indus­try. The company, which specia­li­zes in in-house deve­lo­p­ments and is best known for its “Fritz­box”, gene­ra­ted reve­nue of €580 million in 2023 with its 890 employees. Indus­try experts esti­mate AVM’s enter­prise value at up to € 1 billion.

AVM has now arran­ged the gene­ra­tio­nal change for the company. The foun­ders and mana­ging part­ners Johan­nes Nill, Peter Faxel and Ulrich Müller-Albring will remain mino­rity share­hol­ders and members of the company’s advi­sory board.

The inves­tor Imker Capi­tal Part­ners acqui­res the majo­rity of the shares. The foun­ders Johan­nes Nill, Peter Faxel and Ulrich Müller-Albring remain loyal to AVM as share­hol­ders. In future, you will hold a mino­rity inte­rest of an undis­c­lo­sed amount.

The finan­cial terms of the deal have not yet been disc­lo­sed. It is known that Nill, Faxel and Müller-Albring will leave the manage­ment board on Septem­ber 1. The trio will then accom­pany the company’s further deve­lo­p­ment in a newly formed advi­sory board. Regu­la­tory appr­oval is requi­red before the tran­sac­tion can be comple­ted, but the deal is expec­ted to be fina­li­zed in the second half of the current year.

The neces­sary gene­ra­tio­nal change has been “actively and syste­ma­ti­cally approa­ched”, Nill, curr­ently still CEO and spokes­man of the manage­ment board at AVM, is quoted as saying in a press release. Imker Capi­tal Part­ners shares the foun­ders’ vision for the future of AVM.

Advi­sors to AVM foun­ders: Skad­den, Arps, Slate, Meag­her & Flom
Led by Dr. Jan Bauer and Dr. Rüdi­ger Schmidt-Bendun.
The law firm KNPZ was consul­ted for IP and IT law.

Advi­sor Imker Capi­tal Part­ners: Weil, Gotshal & Manges
Dr. Ansgar Wimber provi­des legal advice. As with the recent advice to Advent Inter­na­tio­nal in the context of the take­over of Aareon by TPG and CDPQ, this mandate was also acqui­red and mana­ged from Weil’s Frank­furt office.

Imker Capi­tal Part­ners is conside­red a well-connec­ted finan­cial investor

Imker Capi­tal Part­ners, head­quar­te­red in London, also holds a stake in SAP Fioneer via the Luxem­bourg-based company Rucio. Teun van Rappard, a promi­nent Dutch­man, is one of the share­hol­ders of Imker. His father, Rolly van Rappard, is a co-foun­der of the globally active private equity company CVC, which holds a stake in the Douglas perfu­mery chain in Germany and makes invest­ments in Europe such as the Maltese book­ma­ker Tipico. Teun van Rappard is a regu­lar guest at the World Econo­mic Forum in Davos, but remains largely with­drawn from the public eye.