Author: Tatjana Anderer

Berlin (ots) — The tech­no­logy-supported real estate broker Home­day, one of the fastest-growing inter­me­dia­ries in the German real estate market, announ­ces the conclu­sion of a new finan­cing round. Project A, Axel Sprin­ger and Purple­bricks, a British real estate plat­form, are inves­t­ing 20 million euros in Home­day . With the funding provi­ded, Home­day intends to invest in the further scaling of its busi­ness model. The closing of the tran­sac­tion is still subject to anti­trust clearance.

Since its foun­ding in 2015, the Berlin-based company has successfully broke­red real estate worth more than one billion euros across Germany. As one of the leading real estate brokers in Germany, Home­day relies on expe­ri­en­ced local agents who are supported tech­no­lo­gi­cally and orga­niza­tio­nally by a central team of experts, allo­wing them to spend more time on perso­nal custo­mer cont­act. Home­day offers this service both exclu­si­vely and non-exclu­si­vely to brokers.

With Purple­bricks, the leading UK tran­sac­tion-based digi­tal real estate plat­form, which is also active in the USA, Canada and Austra­lia, will also invest in the further deve­lo­p­ment of Home­day. Through the coope­ra­tion, Home­day will bene­fit from the know­ledge and expe­ri­ence of the British market leader in the expan­sion of its own busi­ness model.

Stef­fen Wicker, foun­der and CEO of Home­day (photo from left: Phil­ipp Reichle (CTO), Frie­de­rike Hesse (COO), Stef­fen Wicker (CEO) and Dmitri Uvarov­ski (CMO): “Through our strong growth in recent years, Home­day has estab­lished a leading posi­tion in the real estate market. We are very plea­sed with the inves­tors’ confi­dence in our model and our work. The finan­cing round and the exch­ange of expe­ri­ence with Purple­bricks put us in a posi­tion to acce­le­rate our growth once again. Our goal is to make Home­day the first stop for owners looking to sell their property.”

Uwe Horst­mann, Gene­ral Part­ner at Project A: “We are deligh­ted about the commit­ment of Axel Sprin­ger and Purple­bricks, and at the same time the invest­ment round for further scaling is a logi­cal step for us. Home­day has proven that brin­ging toge­ther inno­va­tive tech­no­logy with perso­nal on-site service by expe­ri­en­ced brokers provi­des grea­ter trans­pa­rency and trust for all parties invol­ved. With Homeday’s support, brokers, buyers and sellers can achieve the desi­red result quickly and conve­ni­ently. This win-win-win scena­rio of Home­day has estab­lished itself in the market and we conti­nue to see great poten­tial for growth.”

Home­day will invest the fresh capi­tal in further staff expan­sion, marke­ting as well as further deve­lo­p­ment of the product, combi­ned with the goal of crea­ting a unique custo­mer expe­ri­ence throug­hout the entire real estate tran­sac­tion process.

About Home­day
Home­day is a tech­no­logy-enab­led brokerage crea­ting an unpre­ce­den­ted custo­mer expe­ri­ence for sellers and buyers. Home­day agents assist real estate sellers and buyers nati­on­wide. Home­day combi­nes inno­va­tive tech­no­logy with effi­ci­ent proces­ses and expe­ri­en­ced local brokers. In 2015 Home­day was foun­ded by Stef­fen Wicker, Dmitri Uvarov­ski and Phil­ipp Reichle. Since its foun­ding, the brokerage firm has successfully broke­red over one billion euros in real estate volume.

About Project A
Project A is the opera­ting VC that offers not only capi­tal but also a large network and exclu­sive access to a wide range of services. The Berlin-based inves­tor mana­ges 260 million euros with which it finan­ces tech­no­logy start­ups. The core of Project A is the team of 100 expe­ri­en­ced experts who provide opera­tio­nal support to the port­fo­lio compa­nies in areas such as soft­ware engi­nee­ring, digi­tal marke­ting, design, commu­ni­ca­ti­ons, busi­ness intel­li­gence, sales and recrui­ting. The port­fo­lio includes compa­nies such as Arti­sense, Cata­wiki, Horizn Studios, KRY, LIQID, Spry­ker, uber­all and World­Re­mit. Learn more at www.project‑a.com and on the insights.project‑a.com blog.

About Purple­bricks
Purple­bricks is the UK’s leading next gene­ra­tion real estate brokerage with offices in Austra­lia, the US and Canada. Purple­bricks combi­nes expe­ri­en­ced, local real estate experts with the inno­va­tive use of tech­no­logy to make buying, selling and renting proper­ties more conve­ni­ent, trans­pa­rent and cost-effec­tive. Purple­bricks is chan­ging the way real estate agents and brokerage firms are perceived.

Frank­furt a. M./ Rohr­bach — Shear­man & Ster­ling advi­sed Deut­sche Betei­li­gungs AG (DBAG) and DBAG Fund VII, which it advi­sed, on the acqui­si­tion of a majo­rity stake in SERO Schrö­der Elek­tro­nik Rohr­bach GmbH (Sero) in a manage­ment buy-out (MBO). Sero is the sixth invest­ment of DBAG Fund VII, which focu­ses, among other things, on succes­sion plan­ning in family busi­nesses in the context of MBOs. The closing of the tran­sac­tion is still subject to the appr­oval of the rele­vant anti­trust autho­ri­ties and is expec­ted to take place in Novem­ber 2018.

Sero, head­quar­te­red in Rohr­bach, is a deve­lo­p­ment part­ner and manu­fac­tu­ring service provi­der for elec­tro­nic compon­ents. Sero’s main sales are in the auto­mo­tive indus­try, but it also opera­tes in other sectors. Sero offers its custo­mers indus­tria­liza­tion exper­tise and a high level of auto­ma­tion with machi­nery that enables inno­va­tive manu­fac­tu­ring proces­ses and deli­vers cost-effi­ci­ent products of the highest quality.

Advi­sor DBAG: Shear­man & Sterling
Lead part­ner Dr. Thomas König, photo (Frank­furt-Mergers & Acqui­si­ti­ons), part­ner Dr. Esther Jansen (Frank­furt-Finance), coun­sel Dr. Anders Kraft (Frank­furt-Tax); asso­cia­tes Dr. Aliresa Fatemi, Denise Tayler, Sven Opper­mann, Dr. Phil­ipp Jaspers, Evelin Moini (all Frank­furt-Mergers & Acqui­si­ti­ons), Marion von Grön­heim (Frank­furt-Finance) and Dr. Astrid Ruppelt (Frank­furt-Tax).

About Shear­man & Sterling
Shear­man & Ster­ling is an inter­na­tio­nal law firm with 22 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.

Paris — Ardian, one of the world’s leading inde­pen­dent invest­ment firms, today announ­ced the acqui­si­tion of a majo­rity stake in the insu­rance company Opteven, which specia­li­zes in insu­rance coverage against tech­ni­cal defects on vehic­les, main­ten­ance contracts and mobile services in the event of vehicle break­downs. Ardian Expan­sion Fund IV has acqui­red the shares of Aviva, a multi­na­tio­nal insu­rance company, and Capza­nine.

Capza­nine, a Euro­pean private invest­ment fund, is reinves­t­ing in the company toge­ther with the manage­ment, offe­ring the more than 150 employees the oppor­tu­nity to acquire shares in Opteven.

The tran­sac­tion will enable the company to conti­nue its orga­nic growth and also incre­asingly pursue an exter­nal growth strategy.

Opteven was foun­ded in 1985 and is head­quar­te­red in Lyon. The company is a leader in vehicle service and mobi­lity contracts in France and Europe. Opteven specia­li­zes in poli­cies cove­ring coverage for tech­ni­cal defects and mobile services. In addi­tion, Opteven offers services in the areas of buil­ding and busi­ness insu­rance, health­care and other services.

Over the past ten years, the company has grown stron­gly and curr­ently gene­ra­tes sales of around 150 million euros with more than 450 employees.

Opteven is known for high service quality and enjoys the trust of its custo­mers, which include compa­nies from the insu­rance and finan­cial sectors as well as commer­cial custo­mers from the auto­mo­tive indus­try such as manu­fac­tu­r­ers, dealers, rental compa­nies and fleet operators.

In order to pick up on and anti­ci­pate chan­ges in the market, the company has pushed ahead with its digi­tal trans­for­ma­tion. A dedi­ca­ted inter­nal depart­ment, Opteven Lab, iden­ti­fies and analy­zes new trends in areas such as mobi­lity, services and the envi­ron­ment. From this, Opteven deve­lops and tests inno­va­tive solu­ti­ons incor­po­ra­ting the latest tech­no­lo­gies and taking into account contem­po­rary forms of mobility.

Opteven curr­ently opera­tes in seven count­ries across Europe and has estab­lished subsi­dia­ries in Italy, the UK and Spain to conti­nue its growth across Europe.

Jean-Matthieu Biseau, CEO at Opteven, said, “Opteven’s posi­tio­ning in both the tech­ni­cal defects and mobile services segments makes the company unique. Opteven opera­tes in a growing market that is under­go­ing a conso­li­da­tion phase. That’s why it was important for us to find a part­ner who could support us in our ambi­tious growth stra­tegy in Europe, espe­ci­ally in acquisitions.”

Marie Arnaud-Batt­an­dier (photo), Mana­ging Direc­tor at Ardian Expan­sion, added: “We look forward to working with Opteven’s skil­led manage­ment team, which has an outstan­ding track record. In parti­cu­lar, we will use our Euro­pean network to help Opteven acce­le­rate growth, open new loca­ti­ons and iden­tify compa­nies for poten­tial acquisition.”

Benoit Chop­pin, Asso­ciate Direc­tor at Capza­nine, added: “The company has perfor­med extre­mely well over the past five years and we have greatly appre­cia­ted working with the excel­lent manage­ment team led by Jean-Matthieu Biseau. Opteven has all the prere­qui­si­tes to conti­nue its successful course. That’s why we deci­ded to reinvest as a mino­rity shareholder.”

The tran­sac­tion was appro­ved by ACPR, the French banking and insu­rance regulator.

About Opteven
Opteven is one of the leading provi­ders of mobi­lity poli­cies and services in France and Europe.
Opteven is an inde­pen­dent group head­quar­te­red in Lyon, opera­ting in seven count­ries in Europe and with subsi­dia­ries in Italy, the United King­dom and Spain. The company’s growth over the past ten years has shown that the quality of its services is highly appre­cia­ted by commer­cial custo­mers from the auto­mo­tive indus­try (manu­fac­tu­r­ers, dealers, lessors), insu­rance compa­nies and banks. Opteven will gene­rate sales of 150 million euros in the current year and manage nearly 500,000 claims. With a port­fo­lio of more than 1,000,000 auto­mo­tive service contracts and nearly 3,000,000 roadside assis­tance contracts, Opteven has a unique posi­tio­ning in its markets.

About Capza­nine
Capza­nine was foun­ded in 2004 and is a Euro­pean private invest­ment fund. Capza­nine supports compa­nies in their growth and contri­bu­tes to their success in growth and trans­for­ma­tion phases through its finan­cial and indus­trial exper­tise. Capza­nine offers flexi­ble long-term finan­cing solu­ti­ons for SMEs and mid-cap compa­nies. Depen­ding on the situa­tion, Capza­nine invests as a majo­rity or mino­rity share­hol­der and/or as a private debt provi­der (mezza­nine, unitran­che, senior debt) in unlis­ted small and mid-cap compa­nies with an enter­prise value of 30 to 400 million euros. While Capza­nine is flexi­bly posi­tio­ned, the company speci­fi­cally supports strong value-added compa­nies in the health­care, tech­no­logy, food and services sectors. Capza­nine is based in Paris and curr­ently mana­ges around 2.5 billion euros. Recent invest­ments include Hori­zon Soft­ware, Goiko Grill, Recom­merce, MBA and Monviso.

About Ardian
Ardian is one of the world’s leading inde­pen­dent invest­ment firms, mana­ging appro­xi­m­ately US$72 billion in assets on behalf of its inves­tors from Europe, South and North America and Asia. The company is majo­rity-owned by its employees and gene­ra­tes sustainable, attrac­tive returns for its investors.

With the objec­tive of achie­ving posi­tive results for all stake­hol­ders, Ardian’s acti­vi­ties promote indi­vi­du­als, compa­nies and econo­mies world­wide. Ardian’s invest­ment philo­so­phy is aligned with the three guiding prin­ci­ples of excel­lence, loyalty and entrepreneurship.

The company has a global network of more than 530 employees and 14 offices in Europe (Frank­furt, Jersey, London, Luxem­bourg, Madrid, Milan, Paris and Zurich), South America (Sant­iago de Chile), North America (New York and San Fran­cisco) and Asia (Beijing, Singa­pore and Tokyo). Ardian mana­ges the assets of its appro­xi­m­ately 750 inves­tors in five invest­ment areas: Direct Funds, Funds of Funds, Infra­struc­ture, Private Debt and Real Estate.

Advi­sor of the transaction

Acqui­rer: Ardian Expansion
Marie Arnaud-Batt­an­dier, Maxime Séquier, Claire d’Esquerre

Advi­sors to the acqui­rer: Nati­xis Part­ners (Valé­rie Pelle­reau, Patrice Raulin), Goetz­part­ners CF (Guil­laume Piette)

Legal, Fiscal and Social Advi­sor: Weil, Gotshal & Manges (Frédé­ric Cazals, Alex­an­dra Stoicescu, Lise Laplaud, Cassandre Porges, Kalish Mullen)

Stra­te­gic Advi­sor: Oliver Wyman (Olivier De Deman­dolx, Tarik Ouahmed)

Finan­cial, Actua­rial, Fiscal, Social and Legal Advi­sor: Ernst & Young (Cyril de Beco, Pauline Fabre)

Finan­cing: BNP (Guil­laume Redaud), LCL (Emilie Bosselut)

Seller: Capza­nine
David Hoppenot, Benoit Chop­pin, Bruno Bonnin

A Plus Finance: Olivier Gillot

Advi­sors to the seller: Tran­sac­tion R — Roth­schild (Pierre Sader, Raphaël Fassier)

Manage­ment Advi­sor: Scotto (Nico­las Menard-Durand)

Legal Advi­sor: Good­win (Jérôme Jouhan­neaud, David Diamant)

Stra­te­gic VDD: Indefi (Julien Berger)

Finan­cial VDD: Deloitte (Vincent Rapiau, Cyril Chalin, Davide Artigiani)

Finan­cial, Actua­rial, Fiscal and Legal Advi­sor: Deloitte

Social Advi­sor: Aguerra et Associés

Paris — Ardian, one of the world’s leading inde­pen­dent invest­ment firms, has ente­red into an agree­ment to acquire a majo­rity stake in Inula Group with Vendis Capi­tal, Domi­ni­que Baudoux (Foun­der and Chair­man) and Sergio Calan­dri (CEO).

The Inula Group was formed from the merger of Pran­arôm and Herbal­Gem, two pioneers in the field of natu­ral thera­pies. The two labo­ra­to­ries were estab­lished in 1985 and 1986, respec­tively. Today, Inula is a leading provi­der of herbal reme­dies. With the brands Pran­arôm, Herbal­Gem and Bioflo­ral, the Group specia­li­zes in parti­cu­lar in the high-growth segments of aroma­the­rapy, gemmo­the­rapy and Bach flower reme­dies. Thanks to the company’s scien­ti­fic approach and the quality of its products, the group has seen signi­fi­cant growth in recent years. Today it opera­tes in 25 count­ries and has a leading posi­tion in the markets of France, Belgium, Spain, Italy and the USA.

As part of this tran­sac­tion, the Group’s CEO, Sergio Calan­dri, reinvests along­side Ardian. Vendis Capi­tal and Pran­arôm foun­der Domi­ni­que Baudoux may also conti­nue to support the group.

Bruno Ladrière, Mana­ging Direc­tor of Ardian Buyout, and Daniel Setton, Direc­tor, stated: “We are very much looking forward to working with Inula’s teams and thank them for the trust they have placed in us as part of this tran­sac­tion. Toge­ther we will support the contin­ued growth of the company and expand the market posi­tion of Pran­arôm, Herbal­Gem and Bioflo­ral in Europe and globally. With this tran­sac­tion, we under­line our stra­tegy to support mid-sized compa­nies in reali­zing their growth opportunities.”

For their part, Cedric Olbrechts, part­ner at Vendis Capi­tal, and Domi­ni­que Baudoux, foun­der and chair­man of Inula, said: “During the seven-year part­ner­ship between Vendis and Inula, we have been able to create a great dyna­mic for the company, combi­ning our expe­ri­ence and exper­tise. Today, the group is the leading provi­der of natu­ral reme­dies in Europe. It has signi­fi­cantly expan­ded its inter­na­tio­nal presence, added new distri­bu­tion chan­nels and deve­lo­ped new products through the Pran­arôm brand and the successful inte­gra­tion of Herbal­Gem, Bioflo­ral and Veri­di­tas. We are proud that we have been able to successfully imple­ment the objec­ti­ves set in 2011. These succes­ses are prima­rily due to the compe­tent and expe­ri­en­ced manage­ment team led by Sergio Calan­dri. We would like to express our sincere thanks here to ever­yone for their dedi­ca­tion and excel­lent work.” Domi­ni­que Baudoux added: “It was quickly clear to me that Ardian was the right part­ner for us and that the team shares our values, which have driven the success of our group since its inception.”

Sergio Calan­dri, CEO of Inula, added: “In recent years, our Group has deve­lo­ped extre­mely stron­gly. We have been able to estab­lish our brands as market leaders in seve­ral count­ries in Europe and world­wide and have successfully inte­gra­ted our acqui­si­ti­ons. Our future growth is built on the elements that charac­te­rize our approach: The quality of our products, a scien­ti­fic approach, exten­sive trai­ning and mastery of all stages of manu­fac­tu­ring. Ardian, with exten­sive expe­ri­ence in the health­care sector and its inter­na­tio­nal network, is the ideal part­ner to accom­pany Inula’s growth in the coming years.”

About Ardian
Ardian is one of the world’s leading inde­pen­dent invest­ment firms, mana­ging appro­xi­m­ately US$72 billion in assets on behalf of its inves­tors from Europe, South and North America and Asia. The company is majo­rity-owned by its employees and gene­ra­tes sustainable, attrac­tive returns for its inves­tors. With the objec­tive of achie­ving posi­tive results for all stake­hol­ders, Ardian’s acti­vi­ties promote indi­vi­du­als, compa­nies and econo­mies world­wide. Ardian’s invest­ment philo­so­phy is aligned with the three guiding prin­ci­ples of excel­lence, loyalty and entrepreneurship.

The company has a global network of more than 530 employees and 14 offices in Europe (Frank­furt, Jersey, London, Luxem­bourg, Madrid, Milan, Paris and Zurich), South America (Sant­iago de Chile), North America (New York and San Fran­cisco) and Asia (Beijing, Singa­pore and Tokyo). Ardian mana­ges the assets of its appro­xi­m­ately 750 inves­tors in five invest­ment areas: Direct Funds, Funds of Funds, Infra­struc­ture, Private Debt and Real Estate.

About Inula
The Inula Group was formed from the merger of Pran­arôm and Herbal­Gem, two pioneers in the field of natu­ral thera­pies. The two labo­ra­to­ries were estab­lished in 1985 and 1986, respec­tively. Inula deve­lops, produ­ces and distri­bu­tes phyto­the­ra­peu­tic reme­dies. Its three brands are market leaders in their respec­tive sectors: Pran­arôm in scien­ti­fic aroma­the­rapy (essen­tial oils), Herbal­Gem in concen­tra­ted gemmo­the­rapy (bud extra­cts) and Bioflo­ral in Bach flowers (flower extra­cts). Inula achie­ved conso­li­da­ted sales of 85 million euros in 2017. The Group markets its products through six sales compa­nies (based in Belgium, France, Spain, Italy, Portu­gal and North America) and distri­bu­tors in more than 20 count­ries in Europe, Asia and North America. The products are distri­bu­ted by more than 12,000 custo­mers. These include phar­macies, health food stores and health profes­sio­nals. The group opera­tes its own orga­nic plan­ta­ti­ons and four manu­fac­tu­ring labo­ra­to­ries in Belgium (Pran­arôm in Ghis­leng­hien and Herbal­Gem in Viel­salm), France (Bioflo­ral in Auver­gne) and the USA (Inula in Minnea­po­lis). www.pranarom.com — www.herbalgem.com — www.biofloral.fr

About Vendis Capital
Foun­ded in 2009, Vendis Capi­tal is an inde­pen­dent private equity firm focu­sed on the Euro­pean consu­mer goods sector. Working with expe­ri­en­ced entre­pre­neurs and mana­gers, Vendis invests in small to medium-sized bran­ded compa­nies in Europe that are well posi­tio­ned for value-crea­ting growth or trans­for­ma­tion proces­ses. Vendis invests in France, Belgium, the Nether­lands, Germany and Scan­di­na­via. www.vendiscapital.com

Compa­nies and persons invol­ved in the transaction
Sellers: Vendis Capi­tal (Cedric Olbrechts, Mathieu de Medei­ros), Domi­ni­que Baudoux (Foun­der and Chair­man), Sergio Calan­dri (CEO)
Acqui­rer: Ardian (Bruno Ladrière, Daniel Setton, Alexis Manet, Rafik Alili, Edmond Delamalle)

Vendor consul­tant
M&A: JP Morgan (Edouard Debost, Peter Hujoel, Sebas­tien Guiol)
M&A Law: Fresh­fields (Vincent Macq, Frede­ric Elens, Elliott Fosseprez)
Lawyer of the manage­ment: Laurius (David Ryckaert)
Finan­cial VDD: PwC (Phil­ippe Estas, Geoff­roy Jonck­heere, Arnaud Chan­traine, Olivier Van Crombrugge)
Tax VDD: PwC (Hugues Lamon, Koen Walbers)
Stra­te­gic VDD: Roland Berger (Grégo­ire Tondreau, Patrick Bieche­ler, Pierre-Antoine Bodin, Jean Muraire, Yaros­lav Stetsenko)
Regu­la­tory VDD: Coving­ton (Bart Van Vooren)

Advi­sor of the acquirer
M&A: BNP Pari­bas Fortis (Gabriel Engle­bert, Pieter-Jan Van de Walle, Wide Hellem­ans, Elena Coluc­celli-Guérin, Muriel Petit)
Legal advice: Latham (Olivier du Mottay, Béné­dicte Bremond, Lionel Dechmann)
Finan­cial advi­sory: EY (Yannick Lostie de Kerhor, Stéphane Seguin, Mathieu Creu­zet, Nico­las Morel)
Legal, tax, social and ESG advice: EY (Jean-Chris­to­phe Sabou­rin, Patrice Mottier, Tom Swin­nen, Lionel Benant, Anne Dupu­pet, Anne-Elisa­beth Combes, Maelle Duquoc).
Insu­rance consul­ting: Siaci St Honoré (Pierre de Rochebouet, Julie Marmara, Brigitte Lalo)
Stra­te­gic advice: EY-Parthe­non (Henri-Pierre Vacher, Vincent Czes­zyn­ski, Louis Ravier, Benja­min Ferrand, Fabien Bouskila)
Regu­la­tory consul­ting: Inno­veo­Care (Géral­dine Veuil­let, Elodie Demars)

Hamburg — Allen & Overy LLP advi­sed Kharis Capi­tal Advi­sory Belgium sprl in connec­tion with the acqui­si­tion of Nord­see Holding GmbH by KC North Sea, a Kharis Capi­tal company, from HK Food GmbH, a subsi­diary of the Theo Müller group of companies.

NORDSEE GmbH, head­quar­te­red in Bremer­ha­ven, has more than 350 loca­ti­ons and is Europe’s leading supplier of fish special­ties with its restau­rant, snack store, and seafood buffet sales chan­nels and a total of 6,000 employees.

Kharis Capi­tal is a family-funded inves­tor in the consu­mer sector, with a dedi­ca­ted focus on the Quick Service Restau­rant (QSR) market. The company curr­ently controls appro­xi­m­ately 550 Burger King, Quick and O’Ta­cos brand restau­rants in Belgium, France, Italy, Luxem­bourg and Poland through various compa­nies. This acqui­si­tion is an important mile­stone for Kharis Capi­tal on its way to beco­ming a leading player in the Euro­pean QSR market.

Advi­sor Kharis Capi­tal Advi­sory Belgium sprl: Allen & Overy LLP 
The Allen & Overy team included part­ner Dr. Nico­laus Ascher­feld, coun­sel Max Lands­hut (both lead) and Marie-Luise von Buch­waldt, senior asso­ciate Dr. Sebas­tian Remberg, asso­cia­tes Dr. Stefan Witte, Louisa Graub­ner and Dr. Moritz Meis­ter (all Hamburg), senior asso­cia­tes An-Sofie Van Hoote­gem and Stépha­nie Dalleur and asso­ciate Gabri­elle De Vlieg­her (all Corporate/M&A, all Brussels).

In addi­tion, the team included part­ner Dr. Börries Ahrens (Hamburg), coun­sel Karel Bour­geois (Brussels), senior asso­ciate Dr. Ioan­nis Thanos (Hamburg, all anti­trust); part­ner Fabian Beul­le­kens, coun­sel Jacques Graas, senior asso­ciate Matthieu De Donder and asso­ciate Victo­ria Woest­mann (all corporate/M&A, Luxem­bourg)¸ part­ner Dr. Jens Matthes (Düssel­dorf), Senior Coun­sel Geert Glas (Brussels), Asso­ciate Anna Kräling (Düssel­dorf, all IP); Part­ners Yves Van Pul, Vanessa Xu (both London), Dr. Franz Bern­hard Herding and Thomas Neubaum (both Frank­furt), Coun­sel Dr. Ilja Baudisch (Munich), Senior Asso­cia­tes Julie Vander Donckt (Brussels), Elke Funken-Hötzel and Dr. David Schmidt (both Frank­furt), Asso­ciate Dr. Rauni Aham­mer (Munich) and Tran­sac­tion Support Lawyer Anasta­siya-Evan­ge­lina Wiegand (Frank­furt, all Banking and Finance); Coun­sel Fran­cois Guil­laume de Liede­kerke (Capi­tal Markets, Luxem­bourg); Part­ners Markulf Behrendt, Coun­sel Sören Seidel (both Hamburg), Senior Asso­ciate Yukiko Hitzel­ber­ger-Kijima (Düssel­dorf) and Asso­ciate Dr. Katha­rina Fischer (Hamburg, all labor law); Coun­sel Dr. Alice Broich­mann (Dispute Reso­lu­tion, Munich) as well as Part­ner Dr. Chris­tian Hilmes, Senior Asso­ciate Dr. Marcus Grühn and Asso­ciate Dr. Daniel Bolm (all real estate law, all Hamburg).

Frank­furt am Main — Deut­sche Betei­li­gungs AG (DBAG) is inves­t­ing in Kraft & Bauer Holding GmbH (Kraft & Bauer), one of the leading suppli­ers of fire protec­tion systems for machine tools. As part of a manage­ment buyout (MBO), DBAG Fund VII, which is advi­sed by DBAG, will acquire a majo­rity stake in Kraft & Bauer. Previous share­hol­ders are the Swiss finan­cial inves­tor Invi­sion, the foun­ding Bauer family and the current CEO Frank Foddi. DBAG will invest along­side DBAG Fund VII and will in future hold a calcu­la­ted stake of around 20 percent in Kraft & Bauer. The closing of the purchase agree­ment is sche­du­led for the coming quar­ter; the rele­vant anti­trust autho­ri­ties still have to approve the tran­sac­tion. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the purchase price.

Kraft & Bauer is the fifth MBO of DBAG Fund VII since the start of the fund’s invest­ment period in Decem­ber 2016. This means that around half of the invest­ment commit­ments have now been commit­ted. With a volume of just over one billion euros, DBAG Fund VII is the largest private equity fund initia­ted and advi­sed by a German private equity firm. The current MBO is DBAG’s seventh tran­sac­tion in the 2017/2018 finan­cial year, which ends in a few days (Septem­ber 30). These seven tran­sac­tions involve equity invest­ments by DBAG of around 67 million euros.

Kraft & Bauer (www.kraft-bauer.com) deve­lops, produ­ces and installs fire protec­tion systems for around 800 diffe­rent types of machine tools. The focus here is on micro­pro­ces­sor-control­led extin­gu­is­hing systems that detect a fire based on sensors and initiate the extin­gu­is­hing process. The fire protec­tion systems are either instal­led directly on the machine by Kraft & Bauer employees or sold as a kit to the machine manu­fac­tu­rer. Kraft & Bauer employs around 80 people at its head­quar­ters in Holz­ger­lin­gen (Baden-Würt­tem­berg), at a plant in Bann­wil (Switz­er­land) and at 13 service loca­ti­ons in Germany, Switz­er­land and Italy. The company gene­ra­tes around 30 percent of its sales in the service business.

Kraft & Bauer’s systems are used in machi­nes with an increased risk of fire, such as milling, turning and grin­ding machi­nes, which operate with parti­cu­larly high precis­ion and speed. Demand for these high-perfor­mance machi­nes — and thus for corre­spon­ding fire protec­tion systems — is incre­asing. In addi­tion, with a broad instal­led base of more than 30,000 systems in Germany alone, Kraft & Bauer bene­fits from a stable service busi­ness: the fire protec­tion systems need to be inspec­ted and main­tai­ned on a regu­lar basis. Kraft & Bauer’s sales acti­vi­ties are curr­ently focu­sed on the DACH region and Italy. Here, busi­ness with exis­ting custo­mers is to be expan­ded — both on the basis of rising demand and by retro­fit­ting exis­ting systems. In addi­tion, new custo­mers are to be acqui­red and inter­na­tio­nal expan­sion beyond the markets served to date is to be driven forward.

“We are inves­t­ing in a company that has estab­lished a leading posi­tion in its niche market with products that are criti­cal to success and safety,” explai­ned Dr. Rolf Schef­fels, member of DBAG’s Manage­ment Board, at the signing cerem­ony. “Howe­ver, Kraft & Bauer bene­fits not only from its strong market posi­tion, but also from the over­all growing importance of fire protec­tion measu­res for machine tools.”

“We want to exploit the exis­ting market poten­tial and conti­nue to grow,” commen­ted Klaus Bauer, foun­der and member of the Kraft & Bauer manage­ment team. “We are all the more plea­sed to have DBAG, a part­ner with exten­sive expe­ri­ence in mecha­ni­cal engi­nee­ring, at our side in the future.”

“Kraft & Bauer has grown by more than ten percent on average every year since Invi­sion took a stake in the company, constantly streng­thening its excel­lent market posi­tion,” notes Frank Becker, Mana­ging Part­ner of Invi­sion, adding, “This is thanks to the manage­ment team with foun­der Klaus Bauer and Mana­ging Direc­tor Frank Foddi, as well as all Kraft & Bauer employees, whom we would like to thank most since­rely for their successful collaboration.”

About DBAG
Deut­sche Betei­li­gungs AG, a listed company, initia­tes closed-end private equity funds and invests along­side DBAG funds in well-posi­tio­ned medium-sized compa­nies with deve­lo­p­ment poten­tial. DBAG focu­ses on indus­trial sectors in which German SMEs are parti­cu­larly strong by inter­na­tio­nal stan­dards. With this expe­ri­ence, know-how and equity, it streng­thens the port­fo­lio compa­nies in imple­men­ting a long-term, value-enhan­cing corpo­rate stra­tegy. The entre­pre­neu­rial invest­ment approach makes DBAG a sought-after invest­ment part­ner in the German-spea­king region. The capi­tal mana­ged and advi­sed by the DBAG Group amounts to appro­xi­m­ately 1.8 billion euros.

Frank­furt am Main — IMAP advi­sed the Swiss finan­cial inves­tor Invi­sion on the sale to Deut­sche Betei­li­gungs AG (DBAG). DBAG, toge­ther with DBAG Fund VII, will hold a majo­rity stake in the leading supplier of fire protec­tion systems for machine tools; the family of foun­der Klaus Bauer and CEO Frank Foddi will conti­nue to hold stakes in the company. The closing of the purchase agree­ment is sche­du­led for the coming quar­ter; the rele­vant anti­trust autho­ri­ties still have to approve the transaction.

Kraft & Bauer deve­lops, produ­ces and installs fire protec­tion systems for around 800 diffe­rent types of machine tools. The focus here is on micro­pro­ces­sor-control­led extin­gu­is­hing systems that detect a fire based on sensors and initiate the extin­gu­is­hing process. The fire protec­tion systems are either instal­led directly on the machine by Kraft & Bauer employees or sold as a kit to the machine manu­fac­tu­rer. Kraft & Bauer employs around 80 people at its head­quar­ters in Holz­ger­lin­gen (Baden-Würt­tem­berg), at a plant in Bann­wil (Switz­er­land) and at 13 service loca­ti­ons in Germany, Switz­er­land and Italy. The company gene­ra­tes around 30 percent of its sales in the service business.

In 2013, Invi­sion acqui­red a majo­rity stake in Kraft & Bauer from its foun­der Klaus Bauer as part of a succes­sion solu­tion. With the sale, the last port­fo­lio company of the INVISION IV L.P. fund, which was laun­ched in 2008, was successfully realized.

“Kraft & Bauer has grown by an average of 10% every year since INVISION joined the company. Custo­mers appre­ciate the high product quality as well as the asso­cia­ted outstan­ding service,” explains Martin Spirig, Part­ner in Charge at INVISION. Frank Becker, Mana­ging Part­ner of INVISION, adds, “This is thanks to the manage­ment team with foun­der Klaus Bauer and Mana­ging Direc­tor Frank Foddi, as well as all Kraft & Bauer employees, whom we would like to thank for their successful cooperation.”

Deut­sche Betei­li­gungs AG, a listed company, initia­tes and advi­ses closed-end private equity funds and invests along­side DBAG funds in well-posi­tio­ned medium-sized compa­nies with deve­lo­p­ment poten­tial. The capi­tal mana­ged and advi­sed by the DBAG Group amounts to appro­xi­m­ately 1.8 billion euros.

Advi­sors Invi­sion: IMAP
Dr. Cars­ten Lehmann, Phil­ipp Noack and Atanas Petkov of IMAP exclu­si­vely advi­sed the sellers and supported them in struc­tu­ring, nego­tia­ting and closing the tran­sac­tion in a compe­ti­tive process.

About IMAP
Foun­ded in 1973, IMAP is one of the most expe­ri­en­ced and largest Mergers & Acqui­si­ti­ons orga­niza­ti­ons in the world with offices in 35 count­ries. More than 450 M&A advi­sors in inter­na­tio­nal sector teams specia­lize in corpo­rate sales, cross-border acqui­si­ti­ons and stra­te­gic finan­cing issues. Its clients are prima­rily family-owned compa­nies from the midmar­ket, but also include large natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal corpo­ra­ti­ons as well as finan­cial inves­tors, family offices and insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors. World­wide, IMAP accom­pa­nies about 200 tran­sac­tions per year with a total volume of more than USD 10 billion.

Berlin — Berlin-based digi­tal asset mana­ger LIQID has closed a finan­cing round and recei­ved 33 million euros for its further growth. This is one of the largest sums inves­ted in a German FinTech company to date. The main inves­tor is Tosca­fund Asset Manage­ment LLP, a London-based multi-asset alter­na­tive invest­ment company that mana­ges more than $4 billion. Exis­ting inves­tors, inclu­ding Project A, HQ Trust and Dieter von Holtz­brinck Ventures, also parti­ci­pa­ted in the finan­cing round.

With its invest­ment through Tosca Private Invest­ments Fund (“TPIF”), Tosca­fund beco­mes a signi­fi­cant share­hol­der in the fast growing FinTech. TPIF sees itself as a private equity inves­tor with a focus on small and medium-sized compa­nies in the Euro­pean finan­cial services sector. The tran­sac­tion is subject to appr­oval by BaFin.

LIQID was foun­ded in 2016 and posi­ti­ons itself as a digi­tal alter­na­tive to the tradi­tio­nal private bank. In close part­ner­ship with HQ Trust, the multi-family office of the Harald Quandt family, the company offers clients access to alter­na­tive asset clas­ses such as private equity in addi­tion to asset manage­ment, start­ing with a mini­mum invest­ment of EUR 100,000. Just under two years after its launch, LIQID mana­ges almost 300 million euros for its customers.

Chris­tian Schnei­der-Sickert, CEO and co-foun­der of LIQID, sees the reason for the rapid growth in a clear custo­mer focus and the active support of his inves­tors: “Our inves­tors have been decisive in support­ing the deve­lo­p­ment of LIQID and helping us to gain the trust of inves­tors. We are plea­sed to have found such a strong and inter­na­tio­nally expe­ri­en­ced part­ner in TPIF, with whose help this deve­lo­p­ment can conti­nue.” With TPIF’s active support, he said, it will be possi­ble to expand LIQID’s tech­no­logy plat­form as well as its range of services in Germany and beyond.

Fabri­zio Cesa­rio, Part­ner of Tosca­fund, is looking forward to the enga­ge­ment: “We are very happy to support the exis­ting share­hol­ders and the team of LIQID with our capi­tal and our exper­tise in the Euro­pean finan­cial services indus­try. This invest­ment fits perfectly with our long and successful history of finan­cing the growth of excep­tio­nally inno­va­tive compa­nies. Tech­no­lo­gi­cal change will funda­men­tally trans­form the finan­cial indus­try and LIQID is leading the way.”

George Koulou­ris, Part­ner at Tosca­fund, adds: “We see strong growth pros­pects in serving high net worth indi­vi­du­als across Europe. LIQID’s award-winning plat­form clearly stands out from the compe­ti­tion thanks to its unique combi­na­tion of tech­no­logy, profes­sio­nal invest­ment stra­te­gies and human exper­tise. In our view, LIQID is ideally tail­o­red to the needs of wealthy custo­mers. The busi­ness model is highly scalable and has great poten­tial for the entire Euro­pean market.”

LIQID was advi­sed by Roth­schild & Co. and TPIF by Herax Partners.

About LIQID
LIQID is an inde­pen­dent digi­tal asset mana­ger that offers its clients access to invest­ment stra­te­gies, asset clas­ses and condi­ti­ons previously reser­ved exclu­si­vely for high-net-worth indi­vi­du­als. The Berlin-based company works closely with the invest­ment team of HQ Trust, the multi-family office of the Harald Quandt family. On an intui­tive digi­tal plat­form, LIQID has digi­ta­li­zed asset manage­ment in a consis­tent and user-friendly way.

LIQID offers three diffe­rent invest­ment styles tail­o­red to indi­vi­dual client needs and based on a long-term invest­ment philo­so­phy proven over seve­ral market cycles. In addi­tion, LIQID clients gain low-cost access to leading private equity funds.

Since its launch in 2016, LIQID has recei­ved nume­rous indus­try awards. In 2017, the company was named Best German Late-Stage FinTech at the FinTech Germany Awards. The inde­pen­dent ranking insti­tute first­five awarded LIQID in 2016, 2017 and 2018 for outstan­ding perfor­mance in the manage­ment of its client port­fo­lios. In 2018, the busi­ness maga­zine brand­eins awarded LIQID the title of “Inno­va­tor of the Year” while Capi­tal put LIQID in first place in a compa­ri­son of robo-advi­sors. LIQID was also awarded the German Brand Award for outstan­ding brand manage­ment in the banking and finan­cial services sector.

About Tosca­fund Asset Management
Tosca­fund Asset Manage­ment LLP is a London-based invest­ment company specia­li­zing in alter­na­tive multi-asset invest­ments and curr­ently mana­ges over four billion US dollars. The company was foun­ded in 2000 by Martin Hughes and has estab­lished itself as one of the leading Euro­pean inves­tors in the finan­cial services sector.

In addi­tion to its main fund, Toscafund’s acti­vi­ties include equity finan­cing for small and medium-sized enter­pri­ses, private loan finan­cing and invest­ments in commer­cial real estate. Tosca­fund has many years of expe­ri­ence in growth finan­cing of fast growing compa­nies. Invest­ments in the finan­cial services sector include Alder­more Bank, Hoist, Atom Bank, OakN­orth and Esure.

TPIF, Toscafund’s latest initia­tive, targets invest­ments in Euro­pean unlis­ted finan­cial and service compa­nies. TPIF is led by Fabri­zio Cesa­rio and George Koulou­ris, who joined Tosca­fund as part­ners in 2017. After Plurimi Wealth, the invest­ment in LIQID is the second invest­ment of TPI

Berlin — DLA Piper advi­sed exceet Group AG on the sale of the Berlin-based micro- and opto­elec­tro­nics company AEMtec GmbH to Melli­fera Neun­und­zwan­zigste Betei­li­gungs­ge­sell­schaft. The buyer is control­led by capi­ton V GmbH & Co KG, a fund of the private equity company capi­ton. The execu­tion of the agree­ment is subject to appr­oval by the rele­vant anti­trust authorities.

The exceet Group is a listed invest­ment company based in Luxem­bourg that specia­li­zes in tech­no­logy compa­nies in the health­care and elec­tro­nics markets. exceet has been listed on the Frank­furt Stock Exch­ange (Prime Stan­dard) since July 2011.

Advi­sor to exceet Group AG: DLA Piper
The DLA Piper team led by part­ner Andreas Füch­sel (Corporate/Private Equity, Frank­furt) contin­ued to consist of the part­ners Dr. Konrad Rohde (Tax, Frank­furt) and Guido Kleve (Public Commer­cial Law, Colo­gne), the coun­sels Sebas­tian Kost (Munich), Dr. Raimund Behnes (both Tax), Semin O (Anti­trust), Robert Hofbauer (Finance, Projects & Restruc­tu­ring, all Frank­furt), Dr. Thilo Streit (Public Commer­cial Law, Colo­gne), Senior Asso­cia­tes Nadine Hesser (Employ­ment, Frank­furt) and Dr. Thors­ten Ammann (IPT, Colo­gne) and Asso­cia­tes Phil­ipp Groll (Corporate/Private Equity), David Klock (Anti­trust, both Frank­furt) and Hauke Tamm­ert (Public Commer­cial Law, Cologne).

Hamburg — The Hamburg-based invest­ment company CEE takes over the wind farm Aßlar in Hesse and thus further expands its wind power port­fo­lio. The six GE 2.75–120 wind turbi­nes in Asslar have a capa­city of 16.5 mega­watts (MW). The sellers are the Max Bögl Foun­da­tion and the private owner Egbert Reitz.

“With the acqui­si­tion of the Aßlar wind farm, we are successfully conti­nuing our growth stra­tegy. Toge­ther with our part­ners, we want to conti­nue to grow beyond our core markets of Germany and France in the long term,” says Detlef Schrei­ber, CEO of the CEE Group. The acqui­si­tion increa­ses the CEE Group’s rene­wa­ble energy port­fo­lio to appro­xi­m­ately 668 MW.

The CEE Group, head­quar­te­red in Hamburg, is an invest­ment company specia­li­zing in tangi­ble asset invest­ments with appro­xi­m­ately 1.4 billion euros in assets under manage­ment. Among other things, equity invest­ments are made in energy gene­ra­tion projects prima­rily in the wind and photo­vol­taic sectors as well as in corre­spon­ding tech­no­logy compa­nies. The CEE Group is part of the Lampe Equity Manage­ment (LEM) Group, a subsi­diary of Bank­haus Lampe.

Taylor Wessing’s energy team has been advi­sing inves­tors, finan­ciers and project deve­lo­pers for seve­ral years in all phases of project finance and tran­sac­tion advi­sory in the rene­wa­ble energy sector, assis­ting projects in excess of 1,000 MW in various stages of deve­lo­p­ment each year.

Advi­sor CEE Group: Taylor Wessing
Lead Part­ner Cars­ten Bartholl
The Hamburg-based part­ner specia­li­zes, inter alia, in tran­sac­tions in the field of rene­wa­ble ener­gies. This is the second time Taylor Wessing has advi­sed CEE on tran­sac­tions invol­ving rene­wa­ble energy gene­ra­tion assets.

Hamburg — Syng­roh Capi­tal has acqui­red a 35 percent stake in Hamburg-based buil­ding and branch tech­no­logy service provi­der KMLS and intends to expand its range of services. Initi­ally foun­ded in 2010 as a service provi­der for energy manage­ment and light­ing tech­no­logy, KMLS curr­ently has more than 200 employees who gene­rate annual sales of appro­xi­m­ately 20 million euros. Its range of services includes tech­ni­cal buil­ding equip­ment and light­ing design, as well as the execu­tion and main­ten­ance of all buil­ding services trades in new cons­truc­tion and reno­va­tion. The custo­mer base includes chain stores with 3,500 bran­ches as well as hospi­tals and logi­stics centers. Within a period of three years, Syng­roh may exer­cise the option to acquire a majo­rity interest.

The buyer intends to add further services to KMLS’s port­fo­lio and has its sights set on the rene­wa­ble energy and smart buil­dings trends, among others.

Syng­roh is owned by the Grohe family and mana­ged by Richard Grohe (photo). In 2017, Syng­roh Capi­tal was foun­ded, an invest­ment company of the Grohe family, known for the produc­tion of fittings (Hans­g­rohe company). The invest­ment in KMLS is to be follo­wed by further invest­ments in medium-sized produ­cers and service provi­ders in German-spea­king count­ries. The company is targe­ting compa­nies worth between EUR 10 million and EUR 50 million each.

Deloitte, Hoff­mann Liebs Frit­sch & Part­ner, Ernst & Young and Baker McKen­zieadvi­sed on the current transaction.

Tuebingen/Tuttlingen — SHS Gesell­schaft fuer Betei­li­gungs­ma­nage­ment, MBG Baden-Würt­tem­berg and VC Fonds BW announ­ced that Emer­ging Implant Tech­no­lo­gies GmbH (EIT), a manu­fac­tu­rer of 3D-prin­ted tita­nium inter­body implants for spinal fusion surgery, has been acqui­red by John­son & John­son Medi­cal GmbH. SHS became EIT’s lead inves­tor in Septem­ber 2016. Since then the Tuebin­gen based medtech specia­list has subse­quently supported the company’s growth stra­tegy. The finan­cial terms of the deal are undisclosed.

“SHS’s objec­tive was to support EIT on their path to increased growth. This includes the deve­lo­p­ment of the company’s inno­va­tive product port­fo­lio as well as ente­ring new count­ries. We’re deligh­ted to have had such a successful part­ner­ship with EIT and its employees. We look forward to see EIT’s unique products and Cellu­lar Tita­nium® tech­no­logy bene­fit from DePuy Synthes global commer­cial infra­struc­ture and products. We wish EIT all the best in their future deve­lo­p­ment and trust that the company is in good hands with its new owners”, says Dr. Bern­hard Schirm­ers, Mana­ging Part­ner of SHS, lead inves­tor with EIT.

Gunt­mar Eisen, Foun­der and Chief Execu­tive Offi­cer of EIT says: “The EIT team is passio­nate about the work we do every day to deve­lop 3D-prin­ted tita­nium spinal implants. We are proud of what we have achie­ved with the EIT cellu­lar tita­nium cages and we are exci­ted to bring this inno­va­tive tech­no­logy to DePuy Synthes, and to custo­mers around the world.”

To learn more about the announce­ment, click here: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/johnson–johnson-medical-gmbh-acquires-emerging-implant-technologies-gmbh-to-enhance-global-offering-of-interbody-spine-implants-300710822.html

About SHS Gesell­schaft für Betei­li­gungs­ma­nage­ment mbH
Germany (Tuebin­gen) based SHS Gesell­schaft für Betei­li­gungs­ma­nage­ment was foun­ded in 1993 and invests in medi­cal tech­no­logy and life science compa­nies with a focus on expan­sion finan­cing, chan­ges in share­hol­der struc­tures and succes­sor situa­tions in the DACH-region, Bene­lux-count­ries and Scan­di­na­via. Medi­cal device invest­ments made by the sector specia­list SHS include for exam­ple German company phenox, which specia­li­zes in tech­no­lo­gies for the treat­ment of neuro­vas­cu­lar dise­a­ses, Austrian reha­bi­li­ta­tion robo­tics company Tyro­mo­tion, and the Swiss manu­fac­tu­rer of cardio­logy products SIS Medi­cal. In its fifth fund’s first closing in July 2018 SHS has recei­ved capi­tal commit­ments of over €90 million. Inves­tors can invest in SHS V until final closing (target €150 million). The company invests up to 30 million euros in equity. Rein­hilde Spat­scheck, Dr. Bern­hard Schirm­ers, Huber­tus Leon­hardt and Uwe Stein­ba­cher are the Mana­ging Part­ners at SHS.