Author: Tatjana Anderer

Berlin — Mobile bank N26 announ­ced that it has raised $300 million in its Series D funding round led by New York-based venture capi­tal firm Insight Venture Part­ners. This brings N26’s valua­tion to $2.7 billion. GIC, an invest­ment fund of the state of Singa­pore, is also parti­ci­pa­ting in the round. Accor­ding to N26, this brings its valua­tion to USD 2.7 billion. N26 origi­nally emer­ged from the AS PnP Acce­le­ra­tor program.

The $300 million invest­ment repres­ents the largest private equity finan­cing round for a fintech company in Europe in recent years. To date, N26 has raised more than $500 million from the world’s most estab­lished inves­tors, inclu­ding Tencent, Alli­anz X, Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures, Li Ka-Shing’s Hori­zons Ventures, Early­bird Venture Capi­tal, Redal­pine Ventures, Axel Sprin­ger Plug and Play and Grey­hound Capi­tal.

N26’s goal is to become the first global mobile bank. The company curr­ently opera­tes in 24 markets across Europe and has tripled its custo­mer base in the last 12 months to more than 2.3 million custo­mers. N26 is using the invest­ment for global expan­sion, start­ing with the launch of its app in the U.S. in the first half of 2019. In the coming years, the company aims to reach over 100 million custo­mers worldwide.

Valen­tin Stalf, CEO and co-foun­der of N26 (photo), says: “Globally, too many people are still using bad digi­tal banking products and paying too high fees. With Insight Venture Part­ners and GIC, we are joined by other renow­ned inves­tors and now more than ever we have the chance to turn around one of the biggest indus­tries with the best inves­tors in the world.”

Harley Miller, Prin­ci­pal at Insight Venture Part­ners, said, “It’s incre­asingly rare these days to see an indus­try this large not yet revo­lu­tio­ni­zed by tech­no­logy. N26 is the clear market leader in mobile banking in Europe; the company is well poised to expand into the U.S. market this year and build one of the leading digi­tal brands globally.”

N26 makes banking flexi­ble and trans­pa­rent. Features such as real-time noti­fi­ca­ti­ons, sub-accounts with savings goals and world­wide fee-free card payments set the product apart. Future product features include, for exam­ple, easy one-click account sharing. N26 will conti­nue to work on the best banking product for digi­tal customers.

Since the launch of its first product in Janu­ary 2015, N26 has acqui­red more than 2.3 million custo­mers in 24 Euro­pean markets and has proces­sed more than EUR 20 billion in tran­sac­tion volume to date. Custo­mers curr­ently hold over 1 billion euros in N26 accounts. www.n26.com.

Advi­sor to Axel Sprin­ger: Vogel Heerma Waitz
Dr. Clemens Waitz of the law firm Vogel Heerma Waitz advi­sed Axel Sprin­ger Plug and Play (AS PnP) on a EUR 260 million finan­cing of N26.

About N26
N26 is the first bank you’ll love. It offers a mobile bank account with no hidden fees. Valen­tin Stalf and Maxi­mi­lian Tayen­thal foun­ded N26 in 2013 and laun­ched their product in Germany and Austria in 2015. N26 has over 2.3 million custo­mers in 24 count­ries with money depo­sits of over 1 billion euros and a monthly tran­sac­tion volume of over 1.5 billion euros. N26 curr­ently has more than 700 employees in Berlin, Barce­lona and New York. With its Euro­pean banking license, bench­mark-setting tech­no­logy and no expen­sive branch network, N26 is signi­fi­cantly chan­ging 21st century banking and is available for Android, iOS and via the web app. To date, N26 has raised more than $500 million from renow­ned inves­tors, inclu­ding Insight Venture Part­ners, GIC, Tencent, Alli­anz X, Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures, Li Ka-Shing’s Hori­zons Ventures, Early­bird Venture Capi­tal, Grey­hound Capi­tal, Battery Ventures, as well as members of the Zalando board and Redal­pine Ventures. Curr­ently, N26 is active in the follo­wing count­ries: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Esto­nia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liech­ten­stein, Lithua­nia, Luxem­bourg, the Nether­lands, Norway, Poland, Portu­gal, Slove­nia, Slova­kia, Spain, Sweden and the United King­dom. In 2019, N26 will also enter the US market. In New York, N26 opera­tes through its wholly owned subsi­diary N26 Inc.

About Insight Venture Partner

Insight Venture Part­ners is a leading global venture capi­tal and private equity firm inves­t­ing in high-growth tech­no­logy and soft­ware compa­nies that are driving change in their indus­tries. Foun­ded in 1995, Insight curr­ently mana­ges over $20 billion in assets and has cumu­la­tively inves­ted in more than 300 compa­nies world­wide. Our mission is to find, fund and successfully part­ner with visio­nary leaders and provide them with prac­ti­cal, hands-on growth skills to drive long-term success. In all our employees and our port­fo­lio, we foster a culture based on one core idea: Growth means oppor­tu­ni­ties. For more infor­ma­tion about Insight and all of its invest­ments, visit www.insightpartners.com or follow us on Twit­ter @insightpartners.

About GIC

GIC is a leading global invest­ment company estab­lished in 1981 to manage Singapore’s foreign exch­ange reser­ves. As a long-term value inves­tor, GIC is uniquely posi­tio­ned to invest in a broad range of asset clas­ses, inclu­ding equi­ties, fixed income, private equity, real estate and infra­struc­ture. In private equity, GIC invests in compa­nies both through funds and directly, working with fund mana­gers and manage­ment teams to help world-class compa­nies achieve their goals. GIC invests in over 40 count­ries and has been inves­t­ing in emer­ging markets for more than two deca­des. GIC is head­quar­te­red in Singa­pore and employs over 1,500 people in ten offices in the world’s major finan­cial centers. For more infor­ma­tion about GIC, visit www.gic.com.sg.

Luxem­bourg — SunFire has successfully closed a EUR 25 million Series C finan­cing round. The new lead inves­tor is the Luxem­bourg tech­no­logy company Paul Wurth S.A. . LUTZ | ABEL advi­sed Paul Wurth in the context of the transaction.

SunFire GmbH, foun­ded in 2010, is a deve­lo­per and manu­fac­tu­rer of highly effi­ci­ent elec­tro­ly­zers and fuel cells. With its tech­no­lo­gies, the company produ­ces climate-neutral fuels and gases for sectors that curr­ently can hardly do without fossil fuels, e.g. heavy-duty trans­port, avia­tion, steel produc­tion or chemicals.

The new lead inves­tor, Luxem­bourg-based tech­no­logy company Paul Wurth S.A., is part of the SMS group, the world’s leading machi­nery and plant manu­fac­tu­rer for the metals indus­try. With the fresh capi­tal and the renow­ned tech­no­logy part­ner, SunFire plans to imple­ment multi-mega­watt projects. For Paul Wurth, this invest­ment offers the oppor­tu­nity to enter the growing market for e‑fuels. In addi­tion to Paul Wurth, previous inves­tors INVEN Capi­tal, Idin­vest Part­ners, Total Energy Ventures and a group of private inves­tors also parti­ci­pa­ted in the finan­cing round.

LUTZ | ABEL advi­sed the lead inves­tor Paul Wurth under the leader­ship of venture capi­tal expert Dr. Marco Eick­mann. — With around 60 lawy­ers and offices in Munich, Hamburg and Stutt­gart, the commer­cial law firm LUTZ | ABEL provi­des advice on all aspects of commer­cial law.

Berlin — The invest­ment company Odewald KMU II (board of direc­tors from left: Oliver Schön­knecht, Heiko Arnold, Joachim von Ribben­trop) acqui­res a majo­rity stake in GIATA GmbH. Since 1996, GIATA has been support­ing its custo­mers in the tourism indus­try as a leading provi­der of “non-booka­ble content”, conti­nuously setting new stan­dards in hotel content proces­sing and distri­bu­tion. The foun­ding share­hol­ders have taken a signi­fi­cant stake in the company and will remain at the company’s dispo­sal for the long term. Odewald KMU II was advi­sed by Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek.

Its modu­lar product range enables GIATA to offer complete solu­ti­ons tail­o­red to the indi­vi­dual custo­mer. In doing so, GIATA combi­nes inno­va­tive tech­no­lo­gies such as Arti­fi­cial Intel­li­gence and Digi­tal Finger­prin­ting with careful, manual rese­arch. Custo­mers from over 70 count­ries include almost all inter­na­tio­nally known tour opera­tors and travel agency chains, online travel agen­cies, the global travel distri­bu­tion systems and inter­na­tio­nally known travel portals. GIATA has thus estab­lished itself as the market leader in the market segments served by the company in the rapidly growing global tourism market.

To support further growth, the foun­ding share­hol­ders have ente­red into a part­ner­ship with Odewald KMU, Berlin, an invest­ment company specia­li­zing in high-growth medium-sized compa­nies. To this end, Odewald KMU has acqui­red a majo­rity stake in GIATA. The foun­ding share­hol­ders have taken a signi­fi­cant stake in the company and will remain at the company’s dispo­sal for the long term. The common goal of the share­hol­ders is to conti­nue to grow sustain­ably in the coming years with the exis­ting product range and to successfully posi­tion the product inno­va­tions curr­ently being laun­ched on the market. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the amount of the invest­ment or further details of the shareholding.

The Odewald KMU II Fund has a volume of 200 million euros and invests in high-growth medium-sized compa­nies. The focus is on compa­nies in the fields of “German engi­nee­ring”, intel­li­gent services and health. Most recently, Odewald KMU II inves­ted in Langer & Laumann Inge­nieur­büro GmbH and heiz­ku­rier GmbH in Janu­ary 2018 with the support of Pär Johansson’s team. Kris­tina Schnei­der has also just successfully comple­ted the first add-on acqui­si­tion for heiz­ku­rier GmbH.

Advi­sor Odewald KMU II: Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek
Dr. Pär Johans­son (Lead), Kris­tina Schnei­der, LL.M., Dr. Chris­toph Schork, LL.M., Tim Remmel, LL.M. (all Private Equity, Corporate/M&A), all Colo­gne Dr. Sascha Sche­wiola (Labor Law), Dr. Verena Hoene, LL.M. (IP), both Colo­gne, Dr. Philip Kemper­mann, LL.M., Michael Kuska, LL.M., LL.M. (IT) both Düsseldorf.

Düsseldorf/Munich, Germany, Decem­ber 20, 2018 — ARQIS has appoin­ted Kozo Keikaku Engi­nee­ring Inc. (KKE) on its invest­ment in NavVis GmbH as part of a Series C finan­cing round with a total volume of around EUR 31.2 million, in which exis­ting inves­tors MIG, Target Part­ners, BayBG and Digi­tal+ Part­ners also participated.

NavVis is a leading global plat­form provi­der of intel­li­gent indoor posi­tio­ning tech­no­logy. Its revo­lu­tio­nary digi­tal twin plat­form is used by the world’s leading auto­mo­tive, cons­truc­tion, real estate and insu­rance compa­nies. NavVis was foun­ded in 2013 as a spin-off of the Tech­ni­cal Univer­sity of Munich and today has over 100 part­ners in more than 30 count­ries and employs more than 165 people world­wide. NavVis is head­quar­te­red in Munich and has offices in New York and Shanghai.

Kozo Keikaku Engi­nee­ring Inc. is a profes­sio­nal design and engi­nee­ring company in Japan enga­ged in a wide range of busi­ness acti­vi­ties, inclu­ding struc­tu­ral design of buil­dings (man-made struc­tures), analy­sis and simu­la­tion of natu­ral and envi­ron­men­tal pheno­mena (earth­qua­kes, tsuna­mis, wind, etc.), and problem solving of society and commu­ni­ties. Since 2015, KKE has alre­ady coope­ra­ted with NavVis and intro­du­ced its products to the Japa­nese market. Both compa­nies now intend to inten­sify their coope­ra­tion through the finan­cial parti­ci­pa­tion of KKE.

Advi­sors to Kozo Keikaku Engi­nee­ring: ARQIS Rechts­an­wälte (Düsseldorf/Munich)
Prof. Dr. Chris­toph von Einem (photo), Dr. Meiko Dill­mann (both lead; Corporate/M&A; Munich), Dr. Shigeo Yama­guchi (Corporate/M&A; Düssel­dorf); Asso­cia­tes: Florian Kotman (Corporate/M&A; Düsseldorf)

About ARQIS
ARQIS is an inde­pen­dent busi­ness law firm opera­ting in Germany and Japan. The firm was foun­ded in 2006 at its current offices in Düssel­dorf, Munich and Tokyo. Around 45 profes­sio­nals advise dome­stic and foreign compa­nies at the highest level on the core issues of German and Japa­nese busi­ness law. The focus is on M&A, corpo­rate law, private equity, venture capi­tal, employ­ment law, private clients, intellec­tual property, liti­ga­tion as well as real estate law and tax law. For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.arqis.com.

Berlin/ Kufstein — The Tyro­lean company Green­storm can be plea­sed about a multi-million invest­ment: the Euro­pean private equity firm Bregal Mile­stone invests a double-digit million amount. Green­storm is a fast-growing provi­der in the field of e‑mobility and alre­ady coope­ra­tes with nearly 1,000 hotels, retail­ers and busi­nesses in seve­ral Euro­pean count­ries. The company opera­tes a large fleet of e‑bikes and makes it possi­ble to offer e‑bikes and e‑cars to its custo­mers, guests and employees. Hotel busi­nesses in parti­cu­lar bene­fit from this by incre­asing their occu­p­ancy rates and gene­ra­ting addi­tio­nal reve­nue. Follo­wing the rental, the bikes that have been used by the custo­mers are compre­hen­si­vely serviced and resold to the specia­li­zed trade and private indi­vi­du­als. The inno­va­tive combi­na­tion of trends in e‑mobility and tourism ensu­res Green­strom a market-leading posi­tion and makes it one of the fastest growing compa­nies in Austria.

Coope­ra­tion to acce­le­rate development
Greenstorm’s mana­ging direc­tors Richard Hirsch­hu­ber and Phil­ipp Zimmer­mann (photo) want to use the coope­ra­tion with Bregal Mile­stone to once again acce­le­rate the company’s growth, drive expan­sion and further deve­lop the e‑commerce offe­ring. With the networ­king of e‑mobility and tourism, the company wants to be a leader in Europe. Green­storm has recei­ved seve­ral awards for its deve­lo­p­ment in its still young past — such as the German Inno­va­tion Award and the Tyro­lean Inno­va­tion Award. The team has been active in the mobi­lity sector since 2009, and Green­storm is curr­ently repre­sen­ted in Austria, Germany, Switz­er­land, Italy, Croa­tia and Slovenia.

“Bregal Milestone’s invest­ment and hands-on support will help us achieve our ambi­tious growth targets. We are plea­sed to have found an entre­pre­neu­rial part­ner with a broad inter­na­tio­nal network. In the coming years, we will expand the successful Green­storm model to addi­tio­nal custo­mers and new regi­ons, extend our leader­ship in the field of elec­tro­mo­bi­lity, and build a strong cross-natio­nal e‑commerce presence,” empha­size Greenstorm’s mana­ging direc­tors Richard Hirsch­hu­ber and Phil­ipp Zimmermann.

“We are exci­ted to work with the Green­storm team to launch the next phase of growth. Green­storm offers a unique e‑mobility propo­si­tion to its custo­mers and the team’s stra­tegy will drive strong growth in the coming years. Greenstorm’s e‑commerce presence in the mobi­lity and travel space is parti­cu­larly promi­sing. We look forward to working toge­ther to further deve­lop this aspect of the busi­ness and deli­ver profi­ta­ble growth,” commen­ted Jan Bruenn­ler, Mana­ging Part­ner at Bregal Mile­stone. The capi­tal comes from Bregal Milestone’s €400 million fund dedi­ca­ted to invest­ments in high-growth Euro­pean compa­nies. The invest­ment volume is usually between 20 and 60 million euros.

About Green­storm
Green­storm Mobi­lity GmbH from Kufstein, Austria, provi­des its custo­mers with e‑bikes, elec­tric cars as well as char­ging stati­ons with an inno­va­tive rental concept. Greenstorm’s custo­mers include hotels, compa­nies and retail­ers in Austria, Italy, Germany, Switz­er­land, Croa­tia and Slove­nia. The hotel indus­try gene­ra­tes addi­tio­nal reve­nue and achie­ves higher occu­p­ancy rates by working with Green­storm. At the end of the rental period, the company services the used top-of-the-line e‑bikes and offers them for sale. Here, Green­storm has set itself the goal of beco­ming Europe’s largest dealer network for used top e‑bikes. With this concept, Green­storm addres­ses not only B2B custo­mers such as hote­liers and sports retail­ers, but also end customers.

Curr­ently, the company employs 59 people. In 2017, it achie­ved fourth place in the growth ranking of Austrian compa­nies. This year, Green­storm not only recei­ved the Tyro­lean Inno­va­tion Award, but was also hono­red with the German Inno­va­tion Award. In addi­tion, Green­storm was among the fina­lists of the EY Entre­pre­neur Of The Year compe­ti­tion in the “Start-ups” cate­gory. Inter­na­tio­nally, the company is on an expan­sion course and, in addi­tion to Austria, Germany, Switz­er­land and Italy, has also been active in Croa­tia and Slove­nia since 2018. www.greenstorm.eu

Consul­tant Greenstorm: 
Reed Smith and Eisen­ber­ger & Herzog as legal counsel.

Consul­tant Bregal Milestone:
Shear­man & Ster­ling, Dorda Attor­neys at Law, EY, Deloitte and OC&C Stra­tegy Consul­tants supported.

Munich, London, Paris — Follo­wing its invest­ment in the West­pha­lian company 7days at the begin­ning of the year, the Euro­pean private equity firm Silver­fleet Capi­tal is start­ing to imple­ment its buy & build stra­tegy: With the support of Silver­fleet Capi­tal, the specia­list for work­wear in the health­care sector is taking over the Danish company Praxis Herning A/S, thus opening up addi­tio­nal sales markets. The private sellers of the majo­rity shares also include the two mana­ging direc­tors Jesper Rasmus­sen and Søren Wort­mann, who will conti­nue to remain on board in their func­tions and take a retroac­tive stake. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the purchase price.

Praxis was foun­ded in 1995 and is based in the Danish textile capi­tal Herning. The company specia­li­zes in the design, produc­tion and distri­bu­tion of clot­hing for health­care profes­sio­nals. The product port­fo­lio includes tops such as t‑shirts or polo shirts, pants and shoes. Praxis prima­rily serves custo­mers from the Scan­di­na­vian region (Sweden, Norway, Finland) in addi­tion to Denmark.

Foun­ded in 1999, 7days from Lotte near Osna­brück is one of Europe’s leading specia­lists in medi­cal work­wear. A parti­cu­lar focus of the product range, which compri­ses more than 2,000 artic­les, is on furnis­hing medi­cal and dental prac­ti­ces in Germany, Austria, Switz­er­land, France, Belgium and the Nether­lands. Simi­lar to Praxis, 7days markets its items online via webshop and news­let­ter as well as via catalog.

Joachim Braun, Part­ner at Silver­fleet Capi­tal and respon­si­ble for 7days, says: “7days and Praxis are ideal part­ners based on their focus, stra­tegy and busi­ness philo­so­phy. Both stand for high-quality mate­ri­als and work­man­ship as well as opti­mal comfort at an attrac­tive price-perfor­mance ratio. The tie-up is the first step in our growth stra­tegy for 7days, which aims to streng­then our dome­stic market posi­tion as well as tap into other regi­ons and addi­tio­nal custo­mer segments.”

“With Praxis, we have found the perfect part­ner for ente­ring the Scan­di­na­vian market,” say Cars­ten Meyer and Ulrich Dölken, the mana­ging direc­tors of 7days. “We are now a big step closer to our goal of further expan­ding our market leader­ship in Europe. We are very plea­sed to bring Jesper and Søren on board, as both our busi­ness model and our busi­ness culture are a perfect fit.”

Jesper Rasmus­sen, Mana­ging Direc­tor of Praxis: “It is great to now become part of the 7days Group with our company Praxis. 7days is a strong part­ner with whom we want to leverage many more market and sales poten­ti­als from now on.”

The Silver­fleet team entrus­ted with the tran­sac­tion includes Munich-based invest­ment experts Joachim Braun, Benja­min Hubner and Jan Kux.
7days was advi­sed by McDer­mott (Legal Corpo­rate, Germany), Moalem Weitemeyer Bendt­sen (Legal Corpo­rate, Denmark), Latham & Watkins (Legal Tax), Shear­man & Ster­ling (Legal Finan­cing) and Deloitte (Finan­cial & Tax Denmark).

About Silver­fleet Capital
Silver­fleet Capi­tal has been active as a private equity inves­tor in the Euro­pean mid-market for more than 30 years and curr­ently mana­ges around €1.2 billion with its 30-strong invest­ment team in 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 U.K. manu­fac­tu­rer of precis­ion compon­ents for civil avia­tion; Life­time Trai­ning, a U.K. provi­der of trai­ning programs; Pumpen­fa­brik Wangen, a manu­fac­tu­rer of specialty pumps based in Germany; Riviera Travel, a British opera­tor of escor­ted group tours and crui­ses; 7days, a West­pha­lian supplier of medi­cal work­wear; and Prefere Resins, a leading phen­o­lic and amino resin manu­fac­tu­rer in Europe.

Silver­fleet achie­ves value growth through its “buy to build” invest­ment stra­tegy. As part of this stra­tegy, Silver­fleet is acce­le­ra­ting the growth of its subsi­dia­ries by inves­t­ing in new products, produc­tion capa­city and employees, instal­ling successful retail formats or making follow-up acqui­si­ti­ons. Since 2004, Silver­fleet Capi­tal has inves­ted €1.9 billion in 28 companies.

Silver­fleet specia­li­zes in four key indus­tries: Busi­ness and Finan­cial Services, Health­care, Manu­fac­tu­ring, and Retail and Consu­mer Goods. Since 2004, the private equity inves­tor has inves­ted 33 percent of its assets in compa­nies head­quar­te­red in the DACH region, 31 percent in the UK and Ireland, 19 percent in Scan­di­na­via and 17 percent mainly in France and the Bene­lux count­ries (1).

Aachen — S‑UBG AG, Unter­neh­mens­be­tei­li­gungs-Gesell­schaft für die Regio­nen Aachen, Krefeld und Mönchen­glad­bach, toge­ther with its new mana­ging direc­tor Ralph Bauer, acqui­res 100 percent of the shares in Schif­fer Service GmbH as part of a manage­ment buy-in. As his succes­sor, Ralph Bauer will take over the sole manage­ment of the logi­stics company from foun­der Rolf Schif­fer as of 01.01.2019. In the future share­hol­der struc­ture, S‑UBG will hold 25 percent of the company’s shares.

Busi­ness areas with strong sales
Rolf Schif­fer foun­ded Schif­fer Service GmbH in 1995, from which today’s core busi­ness emer­ged. This is divi­ded into the three areas of logi­stics, pack­a­ging and fulfill­ment (order proces­sing in e‑commerce). Fulfill­ment employees take care of accep­ting orders, picking, pack­ing goods and products, as well as ship­ping to the end custo­mer and subse­quent returns manage­ment. More than half of the company’s sales are gene­ra­ted here.

“Online trade — and with it the mail-order busi­ness — has been growing steadily for years,” says Ralph Bauer. “Howe­ver, many retail­ers do not see their core compe­tence in logi­stics, but in bran­ding as well as marke­ting and shy away from corre­spon­ding invest­ments. Here, the fulfill­ment we offer is a suita­ble solution.”

After the take­over, Rolf Schif­fer will be available as a consul­tant for another three months, ensu­ring a tran­si­tion without loss of know-how and know­ledge. His succes­sor, Ralph Bauer, gained years of expe­ri­ence in sales and marke­ting after gradua­ting with a degree in busi­ness admi­nis­tra­tion. The 50-year-old took on person­nel manage­ment tasks at an early stage in both family-owned compa­nies and multi­na­tio­nal corpo­ra­ti­ons, was a member of the manage­ment board and is thus ideally prepared for his new task.

Deputy remains on board
“Due to the product and service diver­si­fi­ca­tion in recent years, Schif­fer Service GmbH is very well posi­tio­ned,” says Bern­hard Kugel (photo), CEO of the S‑UBG Group. “High flexi­bi­lity, relia­bi­lity and long-stan­ding custo­mer rela­ti­onships help the company to build a good repu­ta­tion that gene­ra­tes many custo­mer inqui­ries. In addi­tion, Schif­fer is active in growth markets with all three busi­ness units, and so we expect the busi­ness to conti­nue to deve­lop healt­hily and successfully in the future,” adds Günther Bogen­rie­der, who closely accom­pa­nied the take­over as S‑UBG’s project manager.

“Thanks to the strong network of my succes­sor Ralph Bauer, the company will conti­nue to grow and streng­then its core compe­ten­cies in the future,” Rolf Schif­fer is certain. “In addi­tion, we are also solidly posi­tio­ned at the manage­ment level with Michael Pauly, Deputy Mana­ging Direc­tor and entrus­ted with the busi­ness for more than 15 years.”

About S‑UBG Group:
The S‑UBG Group, Aachen, has been the leading part­ner in the provi­sion of equity capi­tal for estab­lished medium-sized compa­nies (S‑UBG AG) and young, tech­no­logy-orien­ted start-ups (S‑VC GmbH) in the econo­mic regi­ons of Aachen, Krefeld and Mönchen­glad­bach for over 30 years. S‑UBG AG invests in growth sectors; high quality of corpo­rate manage­ment is a key invest­ment criter­ion for the invest­ment company. In 1997, the share­hol­der savings banks estab­lished an early-stage fund under S‑VC GmbH to finance startups.

In 2018, toge­ther with Spar­kasse Aachen, Kreis­spar­kasse Heins­berg, Stadt­spar­kasse Mönchen­glad­bach, NRW.BANK and DSA Invest GmbH, Seed Fonds III für die Region Aachen & Mönchen­glad­bach GmbH & Co. KG was laun­ched, provi­ding around 21.5 million euros in seed capi­tal for the start-up scene in the region. As the succes­sor to the two fully finan­ced seed funds, it stimu­la­tes the deve­lo­p­ment of future-orien­ted tech­no­lo­gies in the Aachen econo­mic region and was exten­ded to the Mönchen­glad­bach region in 2018. The S‑UBG Group curr­ently holds stakes in over 40 compa­nies in the region, giving it a top posi­tion in the Spar­kas­sen-Finanz Group. Further infor­ma­tion: www.s‑ubg.de; www.seedfonds-aachen.de

Solingen/ Munich — AFINUM Achte Betei­li­gungs­ge­sell­schaft mbH & Co. KG, advi­sed by Munich-based AFINUM Manage­ment GmbH, acqui­res as lead inves­tor and majo­rity share­hol­der toge­ther with INVISION and the manage­ment team Ledlen­ser GmbH & Co. KG (“Ledlen­ser”) from Leather­man Tool Group, Inc. (“Leather­man”). The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the volume of the transaction.

Head­quar­te­red in Solin­gen, Germany, with produc­tion faci­li­ties in Yanjiang, China, Ledlen­ser (www.ledlenser.com) is one of the world’s leading manu­fac­tu­r­ers of high-quality LED flash­lights and head­lamps for profes­sio­nal, outdoor and ever­y­day appli­ca­ti­ons. The company was foun­ded in 1994 and is conside­red the inven­tor of the LED flash­light. The products are charac­te­ri­zed by a high degree of inno­va­tion, by outstan­ding quality and by an appe­al­ing design. The company secu­res its compre­hen­sive know-how with a strong rese­arch and deve­lo­p­ment depart­ment and more than 100 patents. End custo­mers include indus­trial compa­nies, public orga­niza­ti­ons — such as police or fire depart­ments — and outdoor enthu­si­asts. The company holds a strong market posi­tion in nume­rous count­ries in Europe and Asia.

Toge­ther with the manage­ment team, AFINUM and INVISION plan to push ahead with inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion in the coming years. Like­wise, conti­nuous product inno­va­tions are inten­ded to win addi­tio­nal custo­mers in the various end markets. The invest­ment in Ledlen­ser repres­ents the fourth plat­form invest­ment of AFINUM Achte Betei­li­gungs­ge­sell­schaft mbH & Co KG. AFINUM is an inde­pen­dent manage­ment-owned invest­ment company with offices in Munich, Zurich, Vienna and Hong Kong, specia­li­zing in invest­ments in successful medium-sized compa­nies in German-spea­king Europe.

Advi­sor to seller Kloft Leather­man: Taylor Wessing
Inter­na­tio­nal law firm Taylor Wessing, led by Hamburg-based part­ner Bern­hard Kloft, provi­ded legal advice to Leather­man on the sale as part of a struc­tu­red bidding process.

Munich — Golding Capi­tal Part­ners (Golding) has alre­ady recei­ved € 215 million in capi­tal commit­ments for its infra­struc­ture invest­ment program Golding Infra­struc­ture 2018 at first closing. With the third gene­ra­tion of the invest­ment stra­tegy deve­lo­ped in 2012 and proven in two prede­ces­sor funds, Golding under­lines its posi­tion as one of the leading inde­pen­dent provi­ders of infra­struc­ture invest­ments in Europe.

The Golding Infra­struc­ture 2018 invest­ment program follows a conser­va­tive invest­ment stra­tegy and offers early ongo­ing distri­bu­ti­ons with an attrac­tive total port­fo­lio yield of 7% to 8% p.a. Net IRR. The fund plans to build up a broadly diver­si­fied port­fo­lio of around 200 infra­struc­ture projects in the Euro­pean and North Ameri­can markets. At the same time, important sectors such as energy, trans­por­ta­tion, utili­ties and social infra­struc­ture are to be covered by the port­fo­lio. Invest­ments are plan­ned in around 15 infra­struc­ture funds (prima­ries and secon­da­ries) with a focus on conser­va­tive core / core plus invest­ments and brown­field projects as well as selec­tive co-invest­ments. Co-invest­ments in parti­cu­lar offer insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors the oppor­tu­nity to achieve a targe­ted geogra­phic or secto­ral focus and thus support a rapid port­fo­lio build-up.

Golding was able to attract a total of 20 insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors for the current invest­ment program at the first closing. Inves­tors include insu­rance compa­nies, pension funds, banks and savings banks. Almost 80 percent of the volume was subscri­bed by exis­ting inves­tors in the two infra­struc­ture prede­ces­sor funds. “We are plea­sed with the strong recep­tion and contin­ued confi­dence of our inves­tors. We have main­tai­ned our conser­va­tive stra­te­gic approach and have high-performing and distri­bu­tion-orien­ted port­fo­lios,” said Huber­tus Theile-Ochel, Mana­ging Direc­tor at Golding. “Long-stan­ding port­fo­lio rela­ti­onships and substan­tial subscrip­tion levels make us a rele­vant part­ner even for mana­gers who are in high demand. From this, we gene­rate signi­fi­cant advan­ta­ges for our inves­tors. We have alre­ady been able to subscribe to three high-cali­ber target funds for the current program,” adds Dr. Matthias Reicher­ter, Chief Invest­ment Offi­cer at Golding. Further invest­ments for the coming months are alre­ady under review. Over­all, the port­fo­lio is to be built up over around three years with broad diversification.

The attrac­ti­ve­ness of the infra­struc­ture asset class has led to an increase in compe­ti­tion. This is why infra­struc­ture funds must also incre­asingly engage in complex tran­sac­tions and correctly assess project risks in order to achieve the returns and distri­bu­tion levels expec­ted by inves­tors. Deal sourcing is beco­ming the defi­ning issue. “Only expe­ri­en­ced teams can handle comple­xity respon­si­bly and achieve an attrac­tive risk-adequate return,” Reicher­ter explains. Against this back­drop, Golding’s infra­struc­ture team focu­ses on specia­list fund mana­gers with diffe­ren­tia­ted stra­tegy, in-depth market know­ledge and estab­lished network, who are able to execute complex tran­sac­tions and thus iden­tify attrac­tive deals even in an increased compe­ti­tive environment.

“The current envi­ron­ment requi­res a lot of exper­tise and strong market access. Despite fierce compe­ti­tion and the huge volume of invest­ments gathe­ring in capi­tal markets world­wide, Golding was able to secure attrac­tive invest­ments — both prima­ries and complex struc­tu­red secon­da­ries as well as co-invest­ments. As a result, we have alre­ady succee­ded in inves­t­ing around 800 million euros in the infra­struc­ture asset class alone since the begin­ning of the year,” comm­ents Jeremy Golding (photo), foun­der and CEO of Golding.

About Golding Capi­tal Partners
Golding Capi­tal Part­ners GmbH is one of the leading inde­pen­dent asset mana­gers for private equity, private debt and infra­struc­ture in Europe. With a team of around 90 employees in Munich, Luxem­bourg, New York and Tokyo, Golding Capi­tal Part­ners supports insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors in buil­ding their invest­ment stra­tegy and mana­ges assets of more than €7 billion. The more than 160 insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors include insu­rance compa­nies, pension funds, foun­da­ti­ons as well as banks, savings banks and coope­ra­tive banks.

Munich — FSN Capi­tal V (“FSN”) acqui­res the majo­rity shares in the Rame­der Group. A corre­spon­ding purchase agree­ment was signed with the previous share­hol­ders. Rame­der has been active since 1996 and, with 200 employees, is one of the leading B2B and B2C dealers in the areas of trai­ler hitches, bicy­cle racks and roof boxes in Europe. The two mana­ging direc­tors Dirk Schö­ler and Stefan Bertels­ho­fer remain share­hol­ders in the Rame­der Group as part of a reverse shareholding.

FSN is one of the leading private equity inves­tors in Scan­di­na­via with a focus on medium-sized compa­nies. In addi­tion to offices in Oslo, Stock­holm and Copen­ha­gen, FSN has had an office in Munich since spring 2018. The acqui­si­tion of a majo­rity stake in Rame­der is FSN’s first tran­sac­tion in Germany.

Advi­sor FSN Capi­tal: Henge­ler Muel­ler provi­ded compre­hen­sive advice to FSN on the transaction.
The part­ners Dr. Daniel Wiegand (lead), Dr. Daniel Möritz (both Corporate/M&A, Munich), Daniela Böning (Finan­cing), Hendrik Bocken­hei­mer (Labor Law) (both Frank­furt) and Dr. Thors­ten Mäger (Anti­trust, Düssel­dorf), Coun­sel Dr. Gunther Wagner (Tax, Munich) as well as asso­cia­tes Dr. Achim Speng­ler, Dr. Vero­nika Wimmer, Dr. Sebas­tian Siller, Dr. Johan­nes Baumann (all Corporate/M&A, Munich), Till Hiemenz-Muel­ler, Fran­ziska Dechamps (both Finan­cing, Frank­furt), Dr. Marius Mayer (Frank­furt), Vicki Treib­mann (Düssel­dorf) (both Labor Law), Dr. Anja Balitzki, Laura Delgado Pazos (both Anti­trust, Düssel­dorf), Dr. Matthias Roth­kopf (Intellec­tual Property/IT) and Dr. Norman Koschmie­der (Public Commer­cial Law) (both Düsseldorf).

Hamburg — Fiel­mann Ventures GmbH, a wholly owned subsi­diary of Fiel­mann A, has acqui­red around 20 per cent of the shares in augmen­ted reality specia­list Fitting­Box S.A. as part of a capi­tal increase. The stra­te­gic invest­ment in the French tech­no­logy company is a consis­tent step in Fielmann’s digi­tiza­tion stra­tegy. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the exact purchase price.

Marc Fiel­mann (photo), Chair­man of the Manage­ment Board of Fiel­mann AG: “With 13 patents, Fitting­Box is the world leader in the field of 3D fitting of glas­ses and sunglas­ses. With this invest­ment, we are deepe­ning our stra­te­gic coope­ra­tion. Toge­ther we are working on the online purchase of glas­ses in Fiel­mann quality. This requi­res inno­va­tive tech­no­lo­gies such as
the 3D try-on, but also the milli­me­ter-precise 3D fitting of glas­ses. This is how Fiel­mann is digi­tiz­ing the opti­cal indus­try to the bene­fit of custo­mers without compro­mi­sing on quality.”

Thomas Rützel, Mana­ging Direc­tor of Fiel­mann Ventures GmbH: “Our invest­ment in Fitting­Box is the result of a detailed analy­sis. Fitting­Box has deve­lo­ped a 3D fitting tech­no­logy that is clearly supe­rior to all rele­vant alter­na­ti­ves. This tech­no­logy is a key compo­nent in the digi­tal plat­form that Fiel­mann Ventures is deve­lo­ping with part­ners for the opti­cal industry.”

Benja­min Hakoun, Mana­ging Direc­tor and co-foun­der Fitting­Box S.A.: “We are thril­led to have Fiel­mann, one of the world’s leading opti­cal compa­nies, as our stra­te­gic part­ner. Thanks to the invest­ment, we can deve­lop our tech­no­logy solu­ti­ons even faster and open up new sales markets.
Our two compa­nies are united by a strictly custo­mer-orien­ted corpo­rate culture. Toge­ther, we will further expand FittingBox’s posi­tion as the leading tech­no­logy solu­tion for omnich­an­nel eyewear purcha­sing, accom­pany­ing the wearer throug­hout the entire custo­mer jour­ney, online and in-store. We are very plea­sed to have Squair Law as our legal advi­sor and CapM Advi­sors as our finan­cial advi­sor in closing this investment.
have supported.”

Ariel Chou­kroun, CTO and co-foun­der Fitting­Box S.A.: “Fiel­mann has deca­des of expe­ri­ence, knows the needs of spec­ta­cle wearers like no other company. This puts Fitting­Box in a posi­tion to align our tech­no­logy solu­ti­ons even better with the wishes of the custo­mers. On the one hand, spec­ta­cle wearers bene­fit from this, and on the other hand, of course, our custo­mers, i.e. retail­ers and manu­fac­tu­r­ers, also bene­fit. Kreaxi and LBO France remain share­hol­ders in Fitting­Box. They have enab­led the growth of our company with their early investments.”

In the next few weeks, Fiel­mann will inte­grate the 3D fitting into the new omnich­an­nel consul­ting process
in the test market Austria, is test­ing the solu­tion both in its bran­ches and online. The roll­out of the new system in Germany will follow in 2019.

About Fiel­mann Ventures GmbH
Fiel­mann Ventures GmbH was foun­ded in August 2012 as an inde­pen­dent subsi­diary of Fiel­mann AG based in Hamburg. Fiel­mann Ventures deve­lops and promo­tes products, tech­no­lo­gies and sustainable busi­ness models for the future of the opti­cal industry.

About Fiel­mann AG
Fiel­mann stands for eyewear fashion at a fair price, opera­tes over 700 bran­ches across Europe. 24 million people wear glas­ses from Fiel­mann; in Germany, the listed family company sells every second pair of glas­ses. Fiel­mann covers all levels of value crea­tion in optics, is a desi­gner, manu­fac­tu­rer and optician.

About Fitting­Box S.A.
Foun­ded in 2006, Fitting­Box (www.fittingbox.com) is the world’s leading provi­der of augmen­ted reality tech­no­logy such as 3D try-on for eyeglas­ses and sunglas­ses. The company is head­quar­te­red in Toulouse, France, and also opera­tes a sales company in Miami, USA. Fitting­Box deve­lops inno­va­tive tech­no­logy solu­ti­ons and digi­tal content for the opti­cal indus­try, has the world’s largest data­base of frame photos and 3D models. In the more than 10-year history of the company, Fitting­Box has alre­ady recei­ved nume­rous awards and prizes in the field of rese­arch and innovation.

Stutt­gart — Stutt­gart-based invest­ment company Finexx has star­ted inves­t­ing from its first fund closed in mid-Novem­ber 2018. In 2017, Finexx had alre­ady acqui­red mino­rity shares in the welding specia­list WIDOSas a co-part­ner of the Hanno­ver Finanz Group, and now the first majo­rity share­hol­ding has been reali­zed with GSE Vertrieb Biolo­gi­sche Nahrungs­er­gän­zung & Heil­mit­tel GmbH from Saar­brü­cken. The tran­sac­tion, which has alre­ady been comple­ted, took place as part of a succes­sion plan: The seller of the shares is foun­der and mana­ging direc­tor Michael Gracher; the two other mana­ging direc­tors remain on board and conti­nue to be among the share­hol­ders. GSE has been on the market since 1994 and deve­lops and distri­bu­tes food supple­ments on an orga­nic certi­fied basis through natu­ral food retailers.

The volume of Finexx Fund I is 35 million euros, most of which comes from insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors such as insu­rance compa­nies and pension funds. Invest­ments are made across all sectors in small and medium-sized enter­pri­ses (SMEs) with sales of 10 million euros or more. Further prere­qui­si­tes are sustainable earning power and cash flow based on a successful busi­ness model as well as a quali­fied manage­ment team. Finexx commits five to 20 million euros of equity capi­tal in each case.

Finexx Mana­ging Direc­tor Matthias Heining: “GSE is excel­lently posi­tio­ned in the market. Toge­ther with the accom­plished manage­ment and dedi­ca­ted employees, we now want to move to the next stage of deve­lo­p­ment — this includes an expan­sion of product deve­lo­p­ment, sales, inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion and online busi­ness. We see excel­lent future pros­pects for GSE in view of incre­asingly health-conscious and orga­nic-orien­ted consumers.”

Such a growth stra­tegy is in line with Finexx’s invest­ment philo­so­phy: “In addi­tion to long-term orien­ted, relia­ble busi­ness models, we are prima­rily concer­ned with profes­sio­nal further deve­lo­p­ment,” explains Dr. Markus Seiler, also Mana­ging Direc­tor of Finexx. “We see oursel­ves as an insti­tu­tio­nal family share­hol­der who speaks the language of family-run compa­nies and who brings indus­try expe­ri­ence, user know­ledge and an excel­lent network to the table without inter­fe­ring in day-to-day opera­ti­ons.” Dr. Seiler, for exam­ple, has many years of expe­ri­ence as a mana­ging direc­tor in family-owned and group compa­nies in the indus­trial and tech­no­logy sectors (inclu­ding GEA Group and Brand Group); Heining was mana­ging direc­tor of the renow­ned invest­ment company BWK in Stutt­gart and in various family-owned compa­nies for seve­ral years. Toge­ther, they combine 30 years of tech­ni­cal and commer­cial exper­tise and can point to signi­fi­cant succes­ses. “In the current envi­ron­ment, we still see a lot of poten­tial and need to support exci­ting compa­nies and successful entre­pre­neurs with drive — we expect to see more tran­sac­tions,” Heining said.

About Finexx
Finexx GmbH Unter­neh­mens­be­tei­li­gun­gen, based in Stutt­gart, is a consul­ting company foun­ded in 2013 that specia­li­zes in estab­lished medium-sized compa­nies. Typi­cal fields of acti­vity are growth and acqui­si­tion finan­cing as well as the support of chan­ges in the share­hol­der struc­ture and succes­sion planning.

Finexx invests long-term funds (equity capi­tal of between 5 and 50 million euros), mainly in the form of majo­rity share­hol­dings, in compa­nies from the German-spea­king region, inclu­ding insu­rance compa­nies and pension funds. These have sales of EUR 10 million or more, a quali­fied manage­ment team, and can demons­trate sustainable earnings power and cash flow based on a successful busi­ness model.

The team has many years of indus­trial and manage­ment expe­ri­ence as well as profound know-how in the invest­ment sector — both are brought to bear for the successful further deve­lo­p­ment of compa­nies and in the asso­cia­ted change proces­ses. Finexx supports manage­ment by provi­ding active commer­cial and tech­ni­cal advice without inter­fe­ring with day-to-day opera­ti­ons, as well as a cross-indus­try network. www.finexx.de