Author: Tatjana Anderer

Munich — ARQIS advi­sed Liberta Part­ners, a Munich-based multi-family holding company, on its new invest­ment struc­ture as well as on the first closing of its second fund. Behind the capi­tal commit­ments tota­ling more than EUR 50 million are prima­rily entre­pre­neurs and wealthy private individuals.

Dr. Peter Franke, foun­ding part­ner of Liberta Part­ners: “We are proud of the strong recep­tion from exis­ting and new inves­tors who support our stra­tegy. Our core compe­tence remains the active, entre­pre­neu­rial and inno­va­tive deve­lo­p­ment of our port­fo­lio compa­nies, espe­ci­ally with the diverse digi­tal oppor­tu­ni­ties our world offers today.”

Liberta Part­ners was foun­ded in 2016 and invests in compa­nies in German-spea­king count­ries with clear opera­tio­nal deve­lo­p­ment poten­tial, espe­ci­ally in group spin-offs and succes­sion situa­tions. These are actively deve­lo­ped and bene­fit from the inno­va­tive entre­pre­neu­rial under­stan­ding of Liberta Part­ners. The Liberta Part­ners team curr­ently consists of nine profes­sio­nals from the areas of M&A, opera­ti­ons and legal

Advi­sors to Liberta Part­ners: ARQIS Rechts­an­wälte (Munich)
Mauritz von Einem, Photo (Lead; Corporate/Tax), Prof. Dr. Chris­toph von Einem, Dr. Chris­tof Schnei­der, Elisa­beth Falte­rer (all Corporate)

Flick Gocke Schaum­burg (Munich): Chris­tian Schatz (Regu­la­tion)

Frank­furt a. M. — Funds mana­ged by Ardian have acqui­red shares of UniCre­dit Bank AG and the management’s invest­ment company in Swan­Cap Part­ners GmbH. Ardian had prevai­led in the bidding process. Management’s affi­liate reta­ins a mino­rity inte­rest and a control­ling inte­rest with respect to Swan­Cap. P+P Pöllath + Part­ners advi­sed the Swan­Cap manage­ment on both tran­sac­tional and fund law issues. Curr­ently, Swan­Cap mana­ges appro­xi­m­ately EUR 3 billion in private equity investments.

UniCre­dit Bank AG had sold part of its private equity port­fo­lio in 2013 to funds advi­sed by Swan­Cap with its own back-invest­ment in Swan­Cap and with the parti­ci­pa­tion of the then senior manage­ment of UniCredit’s private equity divi­sion. P+P was also active in this sale as well as in the launch of the Swan­Cap funds.

Swan­Cap is an inde­pen­dent invest­ment manage­ment and advi­sory plat­form with offices in Munich, Luxem­bourg, Milan and New York. Swan­Cap specia­li­zes in private equity buyouts and has predo­mi­nantly insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors. Curr­ently, Swan­Cap mana­ges appro­xi­m­ately EUR 3 billion in private equity investments.

Ardian is a private invest­ment house with appro­xi­m­ately USD 90 billion in assets under manage­ment or advi­sory across Europe, the Ameri­cas and Asia. Ardian intends to further expand SwanCap’s market posi­tion with its proven Swan­Cap Management.

Advi­sors to Swan­Cap Part­ners: P+P Pöllath + Partners 
Dr. Eva Nase (Part­ner, Lead Part­ner, Corporate/M&A, Munich)
Jens Hörmann (Part­ner, M&A/Private Equity, Munich)
Dr. Peter Bujot­zek, LL.M. (Part­ner, Private Funds, Frank­furt am Main)
Jasmin Wagner (Senior Asso­ciate, Corporate/M&A, Munich)
Thies Jacob, LL.M. (Auck­land) (Asso­ciate, M&A/Private Equity, Munich)
André Blischke (Asso­ciate, Private Funds, Frank­furt am Main)

Munich — SCHEMA, a port­fo­lio company of IK Invest­ment Part­ners has acqui­red 73% of the shares in TID Infor­ma­tik GmbH. The SCHEMA Group thus expands its previous 27% share in TID Infor­ma­tik to 100%.

As a new wholly owned subsi­diary of the SCHEMA Group, TID Infor­ma­tik will conti­nue to operate on the market as an inde­pen­dent company along­side SCHEMA Consul­ting and SCHEMA Systems. The current mana­ging direc­tors Robert Schä­fer and Rafi Boud­jakdjian will conti­nue to lead TID Infor­ma­tik GmbH as mana­ging directors.

TID Infor­ma­tik GmbH was foun­ded in 1992 by Robert Schä­fer as a service provi­der in the field of tech­ni­cal docu­men­ta­tion. Today, TID Infor­ma­tik is a successful and fast-growing soft­ware company offe­ring CATA­LOG­crea­tor®, the market-leading soft­ware plat­form for elec­tro­nic spare parts busi­ness, service infor­ma­tion systems and portals. The head­quar­ters of TID Infor­ma­tik GmbH is in Inning am Ammer­see, further­more the company has a branch office in Amberg. TID Infor­ma­tik employs 50 people at both loca­ti­ons and plans to grow further in the coming years.
SCHEMA and TID, as well as the respec­tive manage­ment, are convin­ced that an even more inten­sive stra­te­gic coope­ra­tion can addi­tio­nally streng­then the alre­ady curr­ently impres­sive growth of both companies.

IK Invest­ment Part­ners is a Euro­pean private equity firm with an invest­ment focus on the Nordic count­ries, the DACH region and France/Benelux. Since 1989, IK has laun­ched funds with a cumu­la­tive equity volume of almost €10 billion and inves­ted in more than 125 Euro­pean compa­nies. The IK Funds support compa­nies with signi­fi­cant growth poten­tial and their manage­ment teams in deve­lo­ping busi­ness models for the future, streng­thening the compa­nies’ market posi­tion and thus crea­ting outstan­ding long-term deve­lo­p­ment potential.

Advi­sor TID: Concen­tro Manage­ment AG 
Michael Raab (Part­ner), Sebas­tian Mink (Prin­ci­pal), Julia Albert (Consul­tant), Julian Schie­ner (Consul­tant)

Advi­sors to IK Invest­ment Part­ners: Shear­man & Sterling
Shear­man & Ster­ling previously advi­sed on the finan­cing of the 2018 acqui­si­tion of SCHEMA Group. The Shear­man & Ster­ling team included Part­ner Winfried M. Carli and Asso­ciate Andreas Breu (both Germany-Finance).

About Concen­tro AG
Concen­tro Manage­ment AG is a medium-sized consul­ting company with a focus on M&A consul­ting, mainly in tran­si­tion situa­tions, restruc­tu­ring consul­ting and corpo­rate manage­ment. With 35 employees at four loca­ti­ons in Germany, Concen­tro works in an imple­men­ta­tion and success-orien­ted manner. The aim is to gene­rate added value for the custo­mer through an indi­vi­dual consul­ting service.

About Shear­man & Sterling
Shear­man & Ster­ling is an inter­na­tio­nal law firm with 23 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.

Munich — DPE Deut­sche Private Equity (DPE) has sold its mino­rity stake in Webtrekk GmbH to US-based Mapp Digi­tal US, LLC, San Diego. Mapp is one of the world’s largest provi­ders of marke­ting tech­no­logy. With now more than 140 employees, Webtrekk has estab­lished itself as one of the market-leading premium custo­mer analy­tics plat­forms in Europe since DPE parti­ci­pa­ted with growth finan­cing in 2014. Webtrekk supports its custo­mers in under­stan­ding and analy­zing the beha­vior of their website and app users across devices and apply­ing it speci­fi­cally to marke­ting measu­res. Webtrekk’s custo­mers include, for exam­ple, ProSiebenSat1 Media AG, Flix­Bus, Porsche and ING. The tran­sac­tion is still subject to the usual reser­va­tions — inclu­ding appr­oval by the compe­ti­tion authorities.

Mapp provi­des digi­tal marke­ting solu­ti­ons that combine custo­mer acqui­si­tion and reten­tion on a simple plat­form with inte­gra­ted cross-chan­nel capa­bi­li­ties. Head­quar­te­red in San Diego with global offices in eight count­ries, Mapp is a port­fo­lio company of Marlin Equity Part­ners, a global invest­ment firm with over $6.7 billion in assets under management.

Advi­sors to Mapp Digi­tal US/ Marlin Equity Part­ners: Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek
A team led by Dr. Marc Scheu­ne­mann advi­sed U.S. marke­ting tech­no­logy company Mapp Digi­tal US, LLC on its acqui­si­tion of Webtrekk, the German market leader for marke­ting analy­tics and custo­mer intel­li­gence. The seller is DPE Deut­sche Private Equity and other co-inves­tors. The tran­sac­tion is expec­ted to close in the second quar­ter of 2019. The closing of the tran­sac­tion is still subject to appr­oval by the rele­vant anti­trust authorities.

Infra­struc­ture inves­tor 3i buys rail vehicle leasing company Disa Assets from Dutch state rail opera­tor Neder­lands Spoor­we­gen. Disa owns 54 diesel trains, which it leases to Abel­lio on a long-term basis. Follo­wing the purchase of the company, 3i has refi­nan­ced the Disa busi­ness with money from insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors. Nothing is known about the value of the transaction.

The acqui­si­tion of Disa in the bidding process was closely tied to the successful refi­nan­cing of the leasing company. The new inves­tors include Meag Munich Ergo Asset Manage­ment, the joint asset mana­ger of Munich Re and the Ergo Group, and Sumitomo Mitui Banking Corpo­ra­tion (SMBC). The latter contri­bu­tes to the finan­cing mix with a tradi­tio­nal bank loan, while Meag invests in bonds issued by Disa. The refi­nan­cing replaces a Kfw-Ipex loan finan­cing at an early stage.

The asset mana­ger is looking for alter­na­tive long-term invest­ments in view of the low inte­rest rates that can be reali­zed on the capi­tal market. This is the second time that the subsi­diary of the two insu­r­ers has inves­ted in rail vehic­les. The risk-rela­ted higher inte­rest rates on these assets result from the fact that the vehic­les can run for 24 years, but the public trans­port contracts that guaran­tee their use only run for 12 years. So the inves­tors are specu­la­ting that the vehic­les will be used again afterwards.

Abel­lio was awarded the conces­sion to operate the network in Central Germany in 2015 and has been opera­ting it since the end of 2018. With nine million train kilo­me­ters, the contract is one of the largest in German local rail passen­ger trans­port (SPNV). Abel­lio is also a subsi­diary of the Dutch state railroads.

Advi­ses 3i Euro­pean Opera­tio­nal Projects Funds: Ashurst (Frank­furt)
Dr. Bene­dikt von Schor­le­mer (Corporate/M&A), Derk Opitz (Finan­cing; both lead), Dr. Maxi­mi­lian Uibe­lei­sen (Infrastructure/M&A), Holger Mlynek (Infrastructure/Public Commer­cial Law), Dr. Philip Cavail­lès; Asso­cia­tes: Jan van Kisfeld, Jan Ischreyt (all Corporate/M&A)

Advi­sor Neder­landse Spoorwegen/NS Finan­cial Services
Clif­ford Chance (Munich): Markus Muhs (Lead; Corporate/Private Equity), Dr. Chris­tof Häfner (Banking), Thors­ten Sauer­he­ring, Dr. Domi­nik Engl (both Tax; the latter three Frank­furt); Asso­cia­tes: Dr. Wenzel Rich­ter, Konstan­tin Heil­mann (both Corporate/Private Equity)

Inhouse Law (Utrecht): Bart van Hors­sen, Michel Hoogen­dorn, Ronald Klein Wassink, Osman Aksoycan

Munich — AFINUM Fünfte Betei­li­gungs­ge­sell­schaft mbH & Co KG, advi­sed by AFINUM Manage­ment GmbH, has sold its stake in Sinnex Group to the French Groupe Méri­guet, a leading provi­der of reno­va­tion services for high-end real estate and luxury properties.

Sinnex (www.sinnex.com) is a company specia­li­zing in the highest quality inte­rior finis­hes for luxury yachts, private resi­den­ces as well as private aircraft. The main focus of the busi­ness is luxury yachts for private owners, espe­ci­ally super luxury yachts with a length of more than 40 meters. AFINUM took over the majo­rity of the shares from the foun­ders in April 2010 and arran­ged their entre­pre­neu­rial succes­sion in the period there­af­ter. During the holding period, the company’s perfor­mance more than doubled and today Sinnex is one of the top suppli­ers in this segment.

Within the Méri­guet Group, Sinnex is also expec­ted to contri­bute his profes­sio­nal skills to projects outside his tradi­tio­nal areas, parti­cu­larly in the resi­den­tial sector. Sinnex opera­tes a plant in Griffen/Austria for produc­tion purpo­ses and has an effi­ci­ent network of supplier opera­ti­ons, espe­ci­ally in Southe­as­tern Europe.

AFINUM is an inde­pen­dent manage­ment-owned invest­ment company with offices in Munich, Zurich and Hong Kong, specia­li­zing in invest­ments in successful medium-sized compa­nies in German-spea­king Europe. Photo: Dr. Thomas Bühler, Part­ner and Dr. Gernot Eisin­ger, Part­ner (left)

Frank­furt a. M. — VR Equi­typ­art­ner GmbH has acqui­red a mino­rity stake in Infor­ma­tik Consul­ting Systems AG (ICS). The acqui­si­tion is part of a succes­sion plan and is aimed at conti­nuing the successful growth of ICS. VR Equi­typ­art­ner GmbH was advi­sed by Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek with a team led by Dr. Rainer Hersch­lein and Bene­dikt Raisch.

The manage­ment of the company is in the hands of the previous board member and share­hol­der Cid Kiefer, who will in future hold a majo­rity stake in the company toge­ther with two other share­hol­ders. The previous passive family share­hol­ders, the Winkel and Hämer fami­lies, are leaving the company. Toge­ther, the share­hol­ders intend to expand the range of services as well as explore the opening of new loca­ti­ons and the acqui­si­tion of compa­nies. In this context, addi­tio­nal specia­lists are to be recrui­ted and the orga­niza­tio­nal struc­ture adapted to the incre­asing size of the company.

Stutt­gart-based ICS AG is a family-run IT consul­ting and engi­nee­ring company that has been deve­lo­ping solu­ti­ons for complex IT envi­ron­ments for more than 50 years. The company employs around 120 people at four loca­ti­ons in Germany and a subsi­diary in Switz­er­land. ICS is active in the fields of “Trans­por­ta­tion” (control and safety tech­no­logy for rail infra­struc­ture), “Indus­trial Engi­nee­ring” (main­ten­ance of IT systems in logi­stics and produc­tion) and “Infor­ma­tion Secu­rity” (deve­lo­p­ment, certi­fi­ca­tion and opera­tion of infor­ma­tion secu­rity systems).

VR Equi­typ­art­ner GmbH
VR Equi­typ­art­ner GmbH is one of the leading equity finan­ciers in the DACH region. VR Equi­typ­art­ner supports medium-sized family busi­nesses in a goal-orien­ted manner and with deca­des of expe­ri­ence in the stra­te­gic solu­tion of complex finan­cing issues. In doing so, VR Equi­typ­art­ner consis­t­ently puts the sustaina­bi­lity of company deve­lo­p­ments before short-term exit thin­king. VR Equitypartner’s port­fo­lio curr­ently compri­ses around 100 commit­ments with an invest­ment volume of EUR 500 million.

Advi­sors to VR Equi­typ­art­ner GmbH: Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek
Dr. Rainer Hersch­lein, LL.M. (lead manage­ment, M&A),
Bene­dikt Raisch (Lead Part­ner, M&A),
Corne­lia Schwiz­ler (Corpo­rate / M&A),
Dr. Markus Klin­ger (IT/IP),
Dr. Felix Drefs (IT/IP),
Dr. Anne de Boer LL.M. (Funding),
Andreas Lutz (Real Estate Law),
Dr. Anto­nia Stein (Labor Law),
Dr. Nicole Armin­geon (Public Law), all Stuttgart
Fabian G. Gaffron (Tax Law), Hamburg
Dr. Ruth Schnei­der (Commer­cial), Munich

Hano­ver — NORD Holding Unter­neh­mens­be­tei­li­gungs­ge­sell­schaft mbH, Hano­ver, has sold its mino­rity share­hol­ding in AVISTA OIL AG, one of the leading compa­nies in used oil proces­sing in Europe and the USA, to Bitbur­ger Holding GmbH and SKion GmbH.

The mino­rity invest­ment by NORD Holding was made as part of a growth finan­cing to imple­ment AVISTA OIL’s long-term stra­tegy of further inter­na­tio­na­li­zing its busi­ness and expan­ding its product port­fo­lio. “We are plea­sed to have been able to guide AVISTA OIL’s outstan­ding manage­ment team through key stra­te­gic decis­i­ons in recent years, inclu­ding their move into the U.S. The new share­hol­der struc­ture now allows AVISTA OIL to take the next step in its growth,” says Andreas Bösen­berg, Mana­ging Direc­tor of NORD Holding. “We have more than achie­ved our common goals in the coope­ra­tion with NORD Holding. The perso­nal and very trus­ting rela­ti­onship will certainly conti­nue beyond his reti­re­ment as a share­hol­der of AVISTA OIL,” adds Marc Verfürth, member of the board of AVISTA OIL AG.

About AVISTA OIL AG
AVISTA OIL AG is one of the leading compa­nies in used oil rege­ne­ra­tion in Europe and the USA with an annual rege­ne­ra­tion capa­city of almost 500,000 tons today. In the oil upcy­cling segment, AVISTA OIL has a current capa­city of more than 300,000 tons, with another 100,000 tons under cons­truc­tion, and is one of the tech­no­logy leaders in the produc­tion of high-quality base oils and lubri­cants from used oils. A number of subsi­dia­ries and asso­cia­ted compa­nies are bund­led under the umbrella of AVISTA OIL AG, which performs all func­tions from coll­ec­tion & logi­stics, re-refi­ning and lubri­cant produc­tion to inter­na­tio­nal distri­bu­tion. AVISTA OIL employs around 700 people at seve­ral refi­nery sites in Europe and the USA.

About NORD Holding
With its 50-year history and assets under manage­ment of € 2 billion, NORD Holding is one of the leading private equity asset manage­ment compa­nies in Germany. The focus is on the busi­ness areas of direct invest­ments and fund of funds invest­ments. The focus of the direct busi­ness is on the struc­tu­ring and finan­cing of corpo­rate succes­sion models, the acqui­si­tion of group parts/subsidiaries and the expan­sion finan­cing of medium-sized compa­nies. In contrast to most other finan­cial inves­tors, who only manage time-limi­ted funds, NORD Holding acts as a so-called “ever­green fund” with no time limit and invests from its own balance sheet. The company is curr­ently invol­ved with more than 15 compa­nies in Germany and other German-spea­king count­ries. The Fund Invest­ments busi­ness unit targets the small- and mid-cap segment of the Euro­pean private equity market and focu­ses on primary, secon­dary and co-invest­ments. NORD Holding focu­ses stron­gly on buyout mana­gers newly estab­lished on the market, opera­tio­nal invest­ment stra­te­gies and also regu­larly acts as an anchor inves­tor. The fund of funds divi­sion curr­ently mana­ges € 1.3 billion and is one of the most successful fund of funds compa­nies in Europe.

Munich, London, Paris — Silver­fleet Capi­tal, a pan-Euro­pean private equity firm, has acqui­red a majo­rity stake in CARE Ferti­lity Holdings Limi­ted (“CARE”). Head­quar­te­red in Notting­ham, England, the company is a leading opera­tor of ferti­lity clinics in the United King­dom. CARE’s above-average success rates are based on a strong scien­ti­fic and clini­cal approach. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose details of the transaction.

Foun­ded in 1997, the company opera­tes nine clinics and 13 offices in the United King­dom and Ireland. Since its incep­tion, CARE has helped launch the birth of more than 30,000 babies. The company’s success rate across all key metrics is among the highest in the UK. With exten­sive rese­arch and deve­lo­p­ment acti­vi­ties, CARE is an inno­va­tion driver in the indus­try. The company lever­a­ges data and clini­cal exper­tise to pioneer cutting-edge treat­ments and proce­du­res to market.

The invest­ment in CARE is based on Silverfleet’s exten­sive expe­ri­ence in health­care and its stra­tegy of inves­t­ing in high-growth markets — in this case, ferti­lity services — and helping compa­nies expand dome­sti­cally and inter­na­tio­nally. With the help of Silver­fleet, CARE will conti­nue its strong, diver­si­fied growth trajec­tory. This includes expan­ding the clinic network in the UK, deve­lo­ping new products and services to improve pati­ent success rates, and making further acqui­si­ti­ons to conso­li­date the highly frag­men­ted market in order to build an inter­na­tio­nal plat­form in the ferti­lity clinic sector.

The invest­ment in CARE is Silverfleet’s ninth over­all from the current fund and comple­ments a port­fo­lio that includes compa­nies in the UK, France, Scan­di­na­via and Germany.

Alfa Chan (photo), Part­ner at Silver­fleet and respon­si­ble for health­care invest­ments, says: “CARE is the clear market leader in a sector that shows high growth poten­tial as the demand for ferti­lity services conti­nues to increase. The CARE brand has a strong repu­ta­tion and treat­ment outco­mes are leading the market. We look forward to working closely with the manage­ment team and employees to further deve­lop the business.”

David Burford, CEO of CARE, adds, “Silver­fleet is the ideal part­ner to take our company to the next level of its growth. Silverfleet’s impres­sive track record of helping compa­nies execute their growth plans, as well as their exten­sive invest­ment expe­ri­ence in the health­care sector, will be very valuable. I’ve known the Silver­fleet team for a long time and look forward to imple­men­ting our plans together.”

The Silver­fleet team for this tran­sac­tion includes Alfa Chan, Sumit Dheir, Peter Kise­nyi and Domi­nic Mitchell, based in Silver­fleet Capital’s London office.

Consul­tant Silverfleet:
Lincoln (M&A), PwC (Finan­cial, Commer­cial & Tax), Ropes & Gray (Legal, Corpo­rate), Deloitte (Debt Advi­sory), WA Commu­ni­ca­ti­ons (Poli­ti­cal), Intui­tus (IT) and AJ Gallag­her (Insu­rance).
Apollo provi­ded the debt capi­tal.

About CARE Fertility
Foun­ded in 1997, CARE Ferti­lity is the leading ferti­lity service provi­der in the United King­dom, having successfully laun­ched the birth of more than 30,0000 babies since its incep­tion. CARE is an inter­na­tio­nally reco­gni­zed brand and is synony­mous with inno­va­tion with leading ferti­lity success rates driven by clini­cal excel­lence and conti­nuous improvement.

Today, CARE Ferti­lity opera­tes nine CARE clinics and 13 offices, provi­ding compre­hen­sive coverage in the United King­dom and Ireland.

About Silver­fleet Capital
Silver­fleet Capi­tal has been active as a private equity inves­tor in the Euro­pean mid-market for more than 30 years. The 30-strong invest­ment team works from Munich, London, Paris, Stock­holm and Amsterdam.

Eight invest­ments have alre­ady been made from the second inde­pen­dent fund closed in 2015 with a volume of 870 million euros: The Masai Clot­hing Company, a women’s fashion whole­sa­ler and retailer head­quar­te­red in Denmark; Coven­tya, a French deve­lo­per of specialty chemi­cals; Sigma Compon­ents, a UK-based manu­fac­tu­rer of precis­ion compon­ents for civil avia­tion; Life­time Trai­ning, a UK-based provi­der of trai­ning programs; Pumpen­fa­brik Wangen, a manu­fac­tu­rer of specialty pumps based in Germany; Riviera Travel, an opera­tor of escor­ted group tours and crui­ses based in the United King­dom; 7days, a German supplier of medi­cal work­wear; and Prefere Resins, a leading phen­o­lic and amino resin manu­fac­tu­rer in Europe.

Silver­fleet achie­ves value growth by inves­t­ing in compa­nies in its core sectors that bene­fit from speci­fic, long-term trends. Silver­fleet supports these compa­nies in their future growth stra­te­gies. As part of these stra­te­gies, invest­ments are made in orga­nic growth drivers, inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion, stra­te­gic acqui­si­ti­ons or opera­tio­nal impro­ve­ment proces­ses. Since 2004, Silver­fleet Capi­tal has inves­ted €1.9 billion in 28 companies.

Silver­fleet specia­li­zes in four indus­try focus areas:
Busi­ness and finan­cial services, health­care, manu­fac­tu­ring, and retail and consu­mer goods. Its exten­sive expe­ri­ence in the health­care sector is based on seve­ral successful previous invest­ments — inclu­ding Aesica (phar­maceu­ti­cal contract deve­lo­p­ment and manu­fac­tu­ring) and Steri­ge­nics (contract steri­liza­tion services), which gene­ra­ted returns of 3.3x and 3.6x, respectively.

Since 2004, the private equity inves­tor has inves­ted 33 percent of its assets in compa­nies head­quar­te­red in the DACH region, 31 percent in the U.K. and Ireland, 19 percent in Scan­di­na­via and 17 percent mainly in France and the Bene­lux count­ries (includes an invest­ment head­quar­te­red in the U.S. and sourcing in Belgium).

Hamburg/ Oberhausen/ Munich — BDO Legal advi­sed DMB Deut­sche Motor­sport Betei­li­gungs­ge­sell­schaft on the sale of NetRange MMH GmbH, the leading provi­der of cloud-based info­tain­ment solu­ti­ons for smart TVs and connec­ted cars. The acqui­rer is ACCESS Europe GmbH, a provi­der of connec­ted enter­tain­ment and also a German subsi­diary of the listed Japa­nese company ACCESS CO., LTD.

Hamburg-based NetRange MMH GmbH was foun­ded in 2009 by Jan Wendt and quickly became a pioneer in smart TV solu­ti­ons. With an inter­na­tio­nal network of curr­ently over 4,000 part­ners in more than 100 count­ries, the company has become the leading content provi­der and serves major custo­mers such as Grun­dig, Loewe and Voda­fone. Mean­while, NetRange has also expan­ded its offe­ring to include info­tain­ment for cars. DMB is an invest­ment holding of Jan Wendt.

Ober­hau­sen-based ACCESS Europe GmbH, which reports to Tokyo-based ACCESS CO. LTD., has been a provi­der of forward-looking IT solu­ti­ons around mobile commu­ni­ca­ti­ons and network soft­ware tech­no­lo­gies for a wide range of play­ers around the world since the 1980s. Mean­while, its soft­ware solu­ti­ons have been instal­led on more than 1.5 billion devices world­wide — inclu­ding cars, TVs, smart­phones, tablets, game conso­les and more. With this acqui­si­tion, ACCESS Europe GmbH aims to become the market leader in the field of soft­ware-based info­tain­ment solutions.

Jan Wendt on the tran­sac­tion: “I am deligh­ted to have found a buyer that is an excel­lent stra­te­gic fit for NetRange. The acqui­si­tion has set a mile­stone for the connec­ted car indus­try. At the same time, it is a strong response to the growing colla­bo­ra­tion between the auto­mo­tive and enter­tain­ment indus­tries. ACCESS will successfully deve­lop NetRange’s busi­ness as a global, publicly traded company. In the dive­st­ment process, the fast and profes­sio­nal advice provi­ded by BDO Legal contri­bu­ted to the success of this very ambi­tious tran­sac­tion in terms of time.”

Advi­sor DMB Deut­sche Motor­sport Betei­li­gungs­ge­sell­schaft mbH:
Legal Advi­sory: BDO Legal Rechts­an­walts­ge­sell­schaft mbH
The advi­sory services of BDO Legal Rechts­an­walts­ge­sell­schaft mbH compri­sed the entire legal advice to DMB: Dr. Daniel Wied (lead, M&A/Munich), Dr. Konstan­tin Michel­sen (M&A/Hamburg), Peter Klumpp (Tax/Hamburg), Hans-Gerd Hunfeld (Tax/Hamburg), Peter Bellen­dorf (M&A/Hamburg), Yana Krause (M&A/Hamburg), Luisa Reimitz (M&A/Hamburg)

M&A Advi­sory: Clip­per­ton

Advi­sor ACCESS CO, LTD: Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP