Frank­furt — Baker McKen­zie advi­ses the French indus­trial gases group Air Liquide on the plan­ned sale of the Schülke Group to the Swedish finan­cial inves­tor EQT. In a bidding process for the sale of Schülke, EQT prevai­led as the bidder. The sale is subject to labor consul­ta­ti­ons and regu­la­tory appr­ovals. In addi­tion to EQT, inves­tors Ardian, PAI and Plati­num were also among the inte­res­ted parties. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the tran­sac­tion volume.

Foun­ded in 1889 in Hamburg, Schülke & Mayr GmbH (today: Schülke) is an inter­na­tio­nal leader in the fields of hygiene infec­tion preven­tion(photo: products to prevent conta­mi­na­tion and infec­tion, among others). It supplies disin­fec­tants, anti­sep­tics, preser­va­ti­ves, bioci­des, medi­cal skin care products, deodo­rants and system clea­ners. Schülke employs more than 1,250 people world­wide, distri­bu­tes its products in more than 100 count­ries and, in addi­tion to Germany, also manu­fac­tures in France and Brazil. Schülke’s sales in 2019 were around 335 million euros.

Air Liquide is the global market leader in gases, tech­no­lo­gies and services for indus­try and health­care. With more than 50,000 employees in 80 count­ries, Air Liquide supplies oxygen, nitro­gen, hydro­gen and other gases to more than 2 million custo­mers and patients.

An inter­na­tio­nal team of Baker McKen­zie lawy­ers is advi­sing Air Liquide on the legal aspects of the tran­sac­tion. The advice included the prepa­ra­tion and support of the bidding process and the draf­ting of contracts and nego­tia­ti­ons with seve­ral bidders as well as the carve-out of Schülke from the Air Liquide Group. — In 2019, Baker McKen­zie alre­ady advi­sed Schülke on the sale of its Tech­ni­cal Bioci­des divi­sion to Vink Chemicals.

Legal advi­sor Air Liquide: Baker McKenzie
Lead: Corporate/M&A: Dr. Florian Kästle (Part­ner, Frank­furt), Ulrich Weide­mann (Coun­sel, Frankfurt)

Advi­sors to EQT: Fresh­fields Bruck­haus Derin­ger (Munich)
Dr. Wessel Heukamp (Lead; Corporate/M&A), Dr. Juliane Hilf (Düssel­dorf), Dr. Michael Ramb (Berlin; both Public Commer­cial Law), Dr. Uta Itzen (Anti­trust Law; Düssel­dorf), Dr. Michael Josen­hans (Finance Law; Frank­furt), Dr. David Beutel (Tax), Dr. René Döring (Labor Law; Frank­furt), Juliane Ziebarth (Anti­trust Law; Düsseldorf).

Latham & Watkins: Domi­nic Newcomb (London), Thomas Weit­kamp (Munich), William Lam (London).