ALTERNATIVE FINANCING FORMS
FOR ENTREPRENEURS AND INVESTORS

Author: Tatjana Anderer

Gründerin des FYB-Verlag
News

Stuttgart/ Düssel­dorf — BWK GmbH Unter­neh­mens­be­tei­li­gungs­ge­sell­schaft has acqui­red a mino­rity stake in Crui­se­Vi­sion GmbH. Foun­ded in 2009 by Chris­tian Paulick and Mirko Berloge, the company is one of the tech­no­lo­gi­cal leaders in photo and video products on ocean cruise ships. It curr­ently employs 14 perma­nent staff at its site in Sche­ne­feld near Hamburg and around 95 freelancers.

Crui­se­Vi­sion offers custo­mi­zed photo and film solu­ti­ons for up to 25,000 passen­gers daily on cruise ships opera­ting world­wide. Further­more, Crui­se­Vi­sion offers guided bicy­cle tours for cruise passen­gers and plans to expand the successful concept to new market segments. “CruiseVision’s indus­try-expe­ri­en­ced and inno­va­tive manage­ment as well as its profi­ta­ble and scalable busi­ness model have convin­ced us. We will cons­truc­tively support the company in the imple­men­ta­tion of its growth stra­tegy,” explains BWK Mana­ging Direc­tor Bernd Bergschneider.

BWK GmbH Unter­neh­mens­be­tei­li­gungs­ge­sell­schaft, based in Stutt­gart, is one of the oldest German private equity compa­nies and pursues a long-term invest­ment approach. ARQIS first acted for the company through a cont­act of part­ner Chris­tof Alex­an­der Schneider.

Advi­sors to BWK GmbH: ARQIS Rechts­an­wälte (Düssel­dorf)
Dr. Chris­tof Alex­an­der Schnei­der (Lead; Corporate/M&A), Dr. Andrea Panzer-Heemeier (Labor Law), Marcus Noth­hel­fer (IP & Commer­cial; Munich); Coun­sel: Saskia Kirsch­baum (Labor Law); Asso­cia­tes: Carina Engel­hard (Labor Law), Dr. Phil­ipp Maier (IP & Commer­cial; Munich), Scha­bana Alam Yar (Legal Support Specialist)

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 lawy­ers 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 as well as intellec­tual property and liti­ga­tion. For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.arqis.com.

News

Munich/Graz — Funds advi­sed by DPE Deut­sche Private Equity Manage­ment III GmbH (DPE) acquire a majo­rity stake in VTU Engi­nee­ring (“VTU” or the “Company”). The foun­ding team remains signi­fi­cantly invol­ved in the company.

VTU is a leading engi­nee­ring service provi­der for the plan­ning and opti­miza­tion of process plants up to the gene­ral plan­ning of major invest­ments in the phar­maceu­ti­cal, biotech­no­logy, chemi­cal, metall­ur­gi­cal, and oil and gas indus­tries. The company has 20 loca­ti­ons in Austria, Germany, Switz­er­land, Italy and Roma­nia and employs over 400 highly quali­fied employees.

“Since its foun­da­tion in 1990, VTU Engi­nee­ring has stood for the highest level of compe­tence, quality and relia­bi­lity in plant design. Our growth path so far proves that we have deve­lo­ped from an Austrian specia­list to a leading plant desi­gner and project mana­ger in the entire German-spea­king region and beyond through tech­ni­cal know-how and a constant expan­sion of core compe­ten­cies,” comm­ents foun­der Dr. Michael Koncar, who will support the company in the future as a member of the advi­sory board.

Since 2010, VTU has more than tripled its sales and more than doubled its work­force. Major projects with phar­maceu­ti­cal custo­mers in Germany, Austria and Switz­er­land are the main growth drivers. DPE Mana­ging Direc­tor Guido Prehn empha­si­zes: “We have been follo­wing VTU’s deve­lo­p­ment for more than two years. We are impres­sed by how the company has estab­lished long-stan­ding rela­ti­onships with the big names in the phar­maceu­ti­cal indus­try. We see signi­fi­cant growth poten­tial for VTU and will stron­gly support the manage­ment team as it conti­nues on its course.” VTU intends to leverage its strong market posi­tion and repu­ta­tion as a phar­maceu­ti­cal specia­list to drive growth with new custo­mers. “We are looking forward to tack­ling VTU’s next growth initia­ti­ves with an expe­ri­en­ced, entre­pre­neu­rial and strong part­ner behind us,” under­lines VTU CEO Dr. Fried­rich Fröschl.

About DPE Deut­sche Private Equity
DPE Deut­sche Private Equity (“DPE”), foun­ded by Volker Hichert (photo ) and Marc Thiery, is an inde­pen­dent German private equity firm and one of the largest growth capi­tal provi­ders in Germany. It focu­ses on medium-sized compa­nies in German-spea­king count­ries that operate in sectors with posi­tive long-term deve­lo­p­ment pros­pects. DPE was foun­ded in 2007 and has since inves­ted in 21 compa­nies, making 48 follow-on invest­ments and employ­ing more than 7,300 people today. DPE mana­ges total assets of around € 1.2 billion.

Advi­sor DPE: P+P Pöllath + Partners
P+P advi­sed DPE on German tax aspects of the acqui­si­tion with the follo­wing team:
— Dr. Michael Best (Part­ner, Tax Law, Munich)
— Gerald Herr­mann (Coun­sel, Tax Law Munich)

News

Grünwald/ Grün­wald — The energy group EnBW Ener­gie Baden-Würt­tem­berg AG acqui­res 100% of the shares in DEV — Deut­sche Ener­gie­ver­sor­gung GmbH. P+P advi­sed the majo­rity seller Grün­wald Equity Indus­trie GmbH. The tran­sac­tion is subject to appr­oval by the rele­vant anti­trust authorities.

DEV is a Leip­zig-based manu­fac­tu­rer of energy storage systems with around 120 employees. Foun­ded in 2009, the company deve­lops and produ­ces intel­li­gent elec­tri­city storage systems for homes and commer­cial enter­pri­ses under the brand name SENEC. Features such as the SENEC.Cloud 2.0 and the SENEC.Cloud To Go enable owners of photo­vol­taic systems and elec­tri­city storage units to consume all of the solar elec­tri­city they gene­rate them­sel­ves and to cover their energy needs for heating and elec­tro­mo­bi­lity by gene­ra­ting their own electricity.

Grün­wald Equity invests through Grün­wald Equity Indus­tries & Services GmbH and Grün­wald Equity Indus­trie GmbH in medium-sized compa­nies, espe­ci­ally in German-spea­king count­ries. Grün­wald Equity had first inves­ted in DEV in the summer of 2016.

Advi­sors Grün­wald Equity Indus­trie: P+P Pöllath + Partners 
— Phil­ipp von Braun­schweig (Part­ner, Lead Part­ner, M&A/Private Equity, Munich)
— Alex­an­der Pupe­ter (Part­ner, Tax Law, Munich)
— Tobias Jäger (Coun­sel, Corpo­rate Law, Munich)
— Daniel Wied­mann (Coun­sel, Anti­trust Law, Frankfurt)
— Dr. Sebas­tian Rosen­tritt (Asso­ciate, Corpo­rate Law, Munich)

News

Munich/Mannheim — Since March, Dr. Burk­hard Weber (photo) has streng­the­ned the six-member part­ner group of IMAP M&A Consul­tants and will from now on be jointly respon­si­ble for advi­sing clients in the capi­tal goods sector. He has parti­cu­lar exper­tise in the fields of mecha­ni­cal and plant engi­nee­ring, the cons­truc­tion and buil­ding mate­ri­als indus­try, and the paper indus­try. Burk­hard Weber joins IMAP from the US invest­ment bank Raymond James, where he was Mana­ging Direc­tor respon­si­ble for the expan­sion of consul­ting in the capi­tal goods sector in German-spea­king count­ries. Prior to that, the doctor of busi­ness admi­nis­tra­tion spent almost seven years as Mana­ging Direc­tor for the inter­na­tio­nal M&A boutique Lincoln Inter­na­tio­nal in Frank­furt and New York. There he led nume­rous cross-border tran­sac­tions of German and Ameri­can compa­nies, among others advi­sing the German Würth Group as well as Bilfin­ger on tran­sac­tions in the US.

Previously, Burk­hard Weber was Mana­ging Direc­tor and co-part­ner of the German corpo­rate finance advi­sory subsi­diary of the British invest­ment bank Close Brot­hers. He star­ted his career in the tran­sac­tion busi­ness in 1996 at KPMG Corpo­rate Finance, where he was most recently a member of the German M&A manage­ment team for a time.

“We are deligh­ted to welcome a new colle­ague with such exten­sive exper­tise and diverse expe­ri­ence in cross-border tran­sac­tions to our circle of part­ners,” empha­si­zes Karl Fesen­meyer, CEO of IMAP Germany.

About IMAP
Foun­ded in 1973, IMAP is one of the oldest and largest Mergers & Acqui­si­ti­ons orga­niza­ti­ons in the world with offices in 35 count­ries. More than 400 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 12 billion.

News

Munich, Wörnitz, Tuticorin/India — GALA Kerzen is set for expan­sion with the acqui­si­tion of a majo­rity stake in Ramesh Flowers, an Indian manu­fac­tu­rer and exporter of potpourri, air fres­he­ners, Inscense Sticks, cand­les and deco­ra­tive items. It is the first acqui­si­tion for the Bava­rian candle manu­fac­tu­rer since Equis­tone Part­ners advi­sed funds ente­red the market in 2016. With Ramesh Flowers, GALA Kerzen expands its range to include high-quality fragrance and deco­ra­tion products and opens up to non-Euro­pean markets. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose details of the tran­sac­tion. The acqui­si­tion is subject to appr­oval by the rele­vant anti­trust authorities.

With the acqui­si­tion of the Indian produ­cer, Equis­tone is stra­te­gi­cally expan­ding its port­fo­lio company GALA Cand­les. Ramesh Flowers’ assort­ment includes scen­ted potpour­ris, dried flowers, and scen­ted oils and cand­les. The company was foun­ded in 1982 in Tuti­co­rin (India) by Mahen­dra Raj Singhwi, who still heads the company today. Ramesh Flowers employs a total of almost 3,000 people in its produc­tion faci­li­ties in India and in Teme­cula (California/USA), which are BSCI‑, SMEPA- and SEDEX-certi­fied, among others. The company supplies inter­na­tio­nal retail chains in its target markets in Europe and the USA via its long-stan­ding whole­sale part­ners. The Ameri­can market alone accounts for over 43% of Ramesh Flowers’ export share. This opens up oppor­tu­ni­ties for GALA Kerzen in neigh­bor­ing segments as well as in new target markets.

“Equis­tone has alre­ady opti­mally supported GALA Kerzen in the context of the succes­sion plan­ning two years ago. Since then, we have focu­sed prima­rily on gene­ra­ting new growth momen­tum. We have mana­ged this well in a conso­li­da­ting market. Now it’s a ques­tion of conti­nuing to grow globally as a Euro­pean candle manu­fac­tu­rer. The start­ing posi­tion is not bad: nine out of ten cand­les sold in the EU come from Euro­pean produc­tion. It is ther­e­fore all the more important not to rest on such a posi­tion, but to think ahead. With Equis­tone as a part­ner, we can realize stra­te­gic oppor­tu­ni­ties and growth chan­ces — like curr­ently with the acqui­si­tion of a majo­rity of Ramesh Flowers,” says Dirk Lang­ham­mer, Mana­ging Direc­tor of the GALA Kerzen Group.

“The merger between GALA Cand­les and Ramesh Flowers brings nume­rous growth oppor­tu­ni­ties,” explains Dirk Sche­kerka, Coun­try Head DACH at Equis­tone. “GALA Kerzen is expan­ding its range into the neigh­bor­ing segment of room fragran­ces and deco­ra­ti­ons, and can now offer this to its exis­ting target custo­mers via its estab­lished trade part­ners. In addi­tion to the DACH region, another poten­tial target market for Ramesh Flowers’ products is, for exam­ple, Great Britain, where the candle manu­fac­tu­rer has its own sales office. Thanks to Ramesh Flowers’ inter­na­tio­nal presence in the USA, GALA Kerzen can addi­tio­nally gain a foot­hold in non-Euro­pean markets. And finally, the newly added produc­tion faci­li­ties will be able to absorb bott­len­ecks in the future or produce previously unpro­fi­ta­ble orders in small batches.”

About GALA Candles
The GALA Cand­les group of compa­nies is one of the largest candle manu­fac­tu­r­ers with two produc­tion sites in Germany and Hungary. For more than 40 years, cand­les have been produ­ced on state-of-the-art produc­tion lines with the highest level of quality and marke­ted prima­rily through estab­lished retail part­ners. With over 460 employees, the GALA Kerzen Group proces­ses appro­xi­m­ately 30,000 tons of kero­sene per year.

About Equis­tone Part­ners Europe
Equis­tone Part­ners Europe is one of Europe’s leading equity inves­tors with a team of more than 35 invest­ment specia­lists in six offices in Germany, Switz­er­land, France and the UK. Equis­tone prima­rily invests in estab­lished medium-sized compa­nies with a good market posi­tion, above-average growth poten­tial and an enter­prise value of between EUR 50 and 500 million. Since its foun­ding, equity has been inves­ted in more than 140 tran­sac­tions, mainly mid-market buy-outs. The port­fo­lio curr­ently compri­ses over 40 compa­nies across Europe, inclu­ding around 20 active holdings in Germany, Switz­er­land and the Netherlands.

News

Frank­furt am Main / Hamburg — Allen & Overy LLP is advi­sing US finan­cial inves­tor Cerbe­rus Capi­tal Manage­ment on the acqui­si­tion of HSH Nord­bank by inde­pen­dent inves­tors. The agree­ment provi­des for a purchase price of around one billion euros for 94.9 percent of the shares held in HSH Nord­bank. The other buyers include finan­cial inves­tors J.C. Flowers, Golden­Tree Asset Manage­ment and Centau­rus Capi­tal, as well as Austria’s BAWAG P.S.K. Bank für Arbeit und Wirt­schaft and Öster­rei­chi­sche Post­spar­kasse.

In connec­tion with the acqui­si­tion, problem loans with a nomi­nal value of seve­ral billion euros will be sold from the bank. This will enable HSH Nord­bank to compete without state aid in the future. The acqui­si­tion of HSH Nord­bank by inde­pen­dent inves­tors marks the first time that a German Landes­bank has been successfully privatized.

The tran­sac­tion will be comple­ted once the neces­sary regu­la­tory appr­ovals have been obtai­ned. These include appr­oval by the Euro­pean Commis­sion, the Euro­pean Central Bank, the parlia­ments of the states of Hamburg and Schles­wig-Holstein, and the rele­vant anti­trust authorities.

Allen & Overy is advi­sing Cerbe­rus on, among other things, the purchase agree­ment, the offloa­ding of the problem loans, on all regu­la­tory aspects (inclu­ding banking super­vi­sion law and anti­trust law) and on labor and tax issues.

The Allen & Overy team was led by part­ners Dr. Hart­mut Krause (Corporate/M&A, Frank­furt) and Dr. Nico­laus Ascher­feld (Corporate/M&A, Hamburg — both lead) and included the follo­wing addi­tio­nal team members:

Coun­sel Max Lands­hut (Corporate/M&A, Hamburg), Dr. Andre P.H. Wandt (Corpo­rate, Frank­furt), Senior Asso­ciate Alex­an­der Wüpper (Corporate/M&A, Frank­furt) and Asso­cia­tes Gregor Petric, Tatiana Marzoli, Frede­ric Wünsche (all Corporate/M&A, Frank­furt), Dr. Moritz Meis­ter and Dr. Stefan Witte (both Corporate/M&A, Hamburg), Fabian Schulze and Kai Schadtle (both Banking Regu­la­tory, Frankfurt).

Further­more, the team consis­ted of the part­ners Dr. Jan Schrö­der (Corporate/M&A, Düssel­dorf), Jürgen Schind­ler (Anti­trust, Brussels), Dr. Heike Weber (Tax, Frank­furt), John Coburn, Dr. Franz Bern­hard Herding, Wolf­gang Melzer, Dr. Norbert Wieder­holt (all Banking and Finance, Frank­furt), Dr. Walter Uebel­hoer (Banking, Munich), Dr. Stefan Henkel­mann (Capi­tal Markets, Frank­furt), Dr. Jens Matthes (IP/IT, Düssel­dorf), Markulf Behrendt (Labor Law, Hamburg), Dr. Hans-Peter Löw (Labor Law, Frank­furt), Tobias Neufeld (Labor Law, Düssel­dorf), the Coun­sel Dr. Udo Herbert Olgem­öl­ler (Public Law, Frank­furt) and Dr. Ilja Baudisch (Banking and Finance Law, Munich), the Of Coun­sel Frank Herring (Banking Super­vi­sory Law, Frank­furt) and Dr. Oliver Wald­burg (Banking and Finance Law, Frank­furt), Senior Asso­cia­tes Fatih Coskun, Chris­to­pher Jahnke, Lorenz Riehl (all Banking and Finance Law, Frank­furt), Dr. Chris­toph Börskens, Dr. Riccardo Mari­nello (both Real Estate, Frank­furt), Dr. Andreas Zieg­ler (Public Law, Frank­furt), Dr. Sebas­tian Schulz (Labor Law, Frank­furt), Karen Zöttl (Banking and Finance Law, Frank­furt), Daniela Schmitt (Inter­na­tio­nal Capi­tal Markets, Frank­furt) and Asso­cia­tes Dr. Rauni Aham­mer (Banking and Finance, Munich), Louisa Drew­niok, Dr. Anna Serwotka, Dr. Jörg Weber, Anto­nia Wolf (all Banking and Finance, Frank­furt), Dr. Anna Opel (Public Law, Frank­furt), Dr. Lisa Müller, Anja Glück (both Labor Law, Frank­furt), Catha­rina Glugla (Labor Law, Düssel­dorf) and Dr. Wolf­gang H. Wittek (Labor Law, Hamburg) as well as Tran­sac­tion Support Lawyer Ange­lika Pikulska (Corpo­rate, Munich).

 

News

Berlin — The Berlin-based AI start-up i2x, owned by tech­no­logy entre­pre­neur and angel inves­tor Michael Brehm, aims to use arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence to improve the quality of custo­mer services. The company is deve­lo­ping soft­ware to opti­mize sales and custo­mer calls via auto­ma­ted coaching in real time. An idea that HV Holtz­brinck Ventures is convin­ced of. The venture capi­ta­list led the seed finan­cing round, which included other inves­tors in addi­tion to HV Holtz­brinck Ventures. The new capi­tal will now be used prima­rily to further deve­lop the tech­no­logy and inten­sify sales.

LUTZ | ABEL regu­larly advi­ses HV Holtz­brinck Ventures on finan­cing rounds.

Advi­sor HV Holtz­brinck Ventures: LUTZ | ABEL Rechts­an­walts GmbH
Dr. Marco Eick­mann, LL.M. (Part­ner), Phil­ipp Hoene (Asso­ciate)

About LUTZ | ABEL
With more than 50 lawy­ers and offices in Munich, Hamburg, Stutt­gart and Brussels, the commer­cial law firm LUTZ | ABEL advi­ses on all aspects of commer­cial law.

News

Munich — A team led by M&A part­ner Boris Dürr has advi­sed the private equity funds advi­sed by AUCTUS Capi­tal Part­ners AG on the acqui­si­tion of GS Star Group. In the course of the tran­sac­tion, the two previous mana­ging direc­tors of GS Star GmbH, Andreas Erben and Heiko Grote, also acqui­red a stake in the newly estab­lished Gorge­ous Smiling Hotels Holding GmbH by way of a reverse share­hol­ding and will conti­nue to manage the group’s business.

The GS Star Group opera­tes hotels throug­hout Germany as well as in Austria and the Nether­lands under the Hamp­ton by Hilton, Holi­day Inn, Holi­day Inn Express and Super 8 brands and under its own ANA Art Hotels brand. In addi­tion, Gorge­ous Smiling GmbH, a subsi­diary of GS Star GmbH, acts as a service provi­der in the areas of marke­ting, yield manage­ment and purcha­sing services for third-party hotels not owned by the GS Star Group. Here, solu­ti­ons are offe­red for the opera­tion of hotels as well as for hotel real estate. In total, the current hotel port­fo­lio of the GS Star Group compri­ses over 50 hotels.

AUCTUS is one of the leading private equity inves­tors in the German-spea­king region. One focus of AUCTUS is the imple­men­ta­tion of indus­try concepts in conso­li­da­tion markets by means of a buy & build stra­tegy. Such a concept also under­lies AUCTUS’ invest­ment in the GS Star Group. For the future, GS Star Group toge­ther with AUCTUS plans to conso­li­date the opera­tor market of hotels. To this end, further hotels and hotel opera­ting compa­nies are to be acqui­red and the company’s own hotel real estate divi­sion expan­ded. Expan­sion into Italy and Spain is also planned.

The finan­cing, on which Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek also advi­sed, was provi­ded in the form of a unitran­che by IDIn­vest Partners.

On the part of Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek, the tran­sac­tion was lead-mana­ged by Munich part­ner Boris Dürr. Boris Dürr’s team regu­larly advi­ses funds advi­sed by AUCTUS on transactions.

Advi­sors to AUCTUS (tran­sac­tion and finan­cing): Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek
Boris Dürr (Lead, M&A), Daniela Szczesny (Corporate/M&A), Dr. Arnold Büsse­ma­ker (Finan­cing), Chris­tian Schild, LL.M., (Corporate/M&A), Ricarda Marschall, LL.M. (Corporate/M&A), Stef­fen Wilberg (Real Estate), Dr. Philip Wennin­ger (Labor Law), all Munich, Astrid Lued­tke (Trade­mark), Düsseldorf

News

Frank­furt a.M. — King & Wood Malle­sons (KWM) advi­sed the bank consor­tium, led by Bank of China, ICBC, China Cons­truc­tion Bank and Export-Import Bank of China, on the EUR 3.7 billion refi­nan­cing of Midea Group regar­ding the acqui­si­tion finan­cing provi­ded for the acqui­si­tion of KUKA AG.

KUKA AG, one of the world’s leading suppli­ers of intel­li­gent auto­ma­tion solu­ti­ons, was acqui­red by the Chinese Midea Group in 2016. For this purpose, Midea initi­ally raised short-term acqui­si­tion finan­cing, which has now been repla­ced by longer-term financing.

The new loan, arran­ged by a consor­tium of banks led by Bank of China, Indus­trial and Commer­cial Bank of China, China Cons­truc­tion Bank and Export-Import Bank of China, has a volume of appro­xi­m­ately EUR 3.7 billion and a matu­rity of up to 5 years.

This refi­nan­cing was led in Germany by Rudolf Haas (photo), part­ner at King & Wood Malle­sons in Frank­furt. The advice to the clients was provi­ded in close coope­ra­tion with a KWM team from China led by Lv Ying­hao and Yang Xiao­quan and again illus­tra­tes the strength in corpo­rate finance tran­sac­tions, also with an Asian connection.

About KWM
KWM Europe Rechts­an­walts­ge­sell­schaft mbH is a law firm foun­ded in 2017 and based in Frank­furt am Main. We advise our clients — natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal compa­nies, entre­pre­neurs, mana­gers, banks and private equity houses — at the highest level on all legal issues rela­ted to invest­ment acqui­si­ti­ons (M&A) and other corpo­rate finance tran­sac­tions, inclu­ding the rele­vant tax and capi­tal markets law aspects. We provide prag­ma­tic answers to our clients’ legal chal­lenges. Our multi­di­sci­pli­nary, inte­gra­ted advi­sory approach and the seam­less inte­gra­tion into one of the largest commer­cial law firms world­wide, King & Wood Malle­sons, with its well over 2,000 lawy­ers working in 27 offices, allow us to advise medium-sized clients, finan­cial inves­tors or inter­na­tio­nal groups on cross-border as well as purely natio­nal tran­sac­tions or finan­cing. Profes­sio­nal excel­lence, a friendly and coope­ra­tive approach and a commer­cial consul­ting approach charac­te­rize our work.

News

Berlin/ Zurich — Capi­ton (Berlin) acqui­res a majo­rity stake in ISPIN AG (Zurich). In addi­tion to capi­ton and the foun­ding members of ISPIN, Marco Marchesi and Stefan Näpf­lin, the entire manage­ment of ISPIN is now invol­ved in the new group. Tom Koeh­ler (photo ) will also be part of the Execu­tive Board. Tom Koeh­ler has many years of expe­ri­ence in stra­tegy and port­fo­lio deve­lo­p­ment in the cyber secu­rity industry.

ISPIN is a leading Swiss cyber secu­rity services company based in Zurich. Through its Consul­ting, Solu­ti­ons and Mana­ged Services busi­ness units, ISPIN covers a wide range of rele­vant services rela­ted to cyber secu­rity, from initial consul­ting to imple­men­ta­tion and outsour­cing of entire custo­mer IT secu­rity infrastructures.

ISPIN is the first acqui­si­tion within capiton’s plan­ned “Buy & Build” concept for the cyber secu­rity market in the DACH region. About the tran­sac­tion ISPIN is a proprie­tary tran­sac­tion iden­ti­fied in capiton’s sector analy­sis in the field of “Cyber Secu­rity” and reali­zed in an exclu­sive sales process.

ISPIN has grown rapidly in recent years and is ready for the next phase of deve­lo­p­ment. The cyber secu­rity market in Europe is very frag­men­ted and is in a phase of conso­li­da­tion. The market outlook is excel­lent given further digi­tiza­tion, the advance of Inter­net of Things, Big Data and other data-driven tech­no­lo­gies. capi­ton and ISPIN ther­e­fore see great poten­tial to grow further by crea­ting addi­tio­nal capa­ci­ties and comple­men­tary competencies.

About capi­ton AG
capi­ton AG capi­ton is an inde­pen­dent, owner-mana­ged private equity company mana­ging a total fund volume of € 1.1 billion. At present, 10 medium-sized compa­nies are in capi­ton AG’s invest­ment port­fo­lio. capi­ton accom­pa­nies manage­ment buy-outs and growth finan­cing for estab­lished medium-sized compa­nies as an equity partner.

News

Zurich/ Berlin - Capi­ton (Berlin) acqui­res majo­rity stake in ISPIN AG (Zurich). In addi­tion to capi­ton and the foun­ding members of ISPIN, Marco Marchesi and Stefan Näpf­lin, the entire manage­ment of ISPIN is now invol­ved in the new group. Tom Koeh­ler will also be part of the Execu­tive Board. Tom Koeh­ler has many years of expe­ri­ence in stra­tegy and port­fo­lio deve­lo­p­ment in the cy- ber secu­rity industry.

ISPIN is a leading Swiss cyber secu­rity services company based in Zurich. Through its Consul­ting, Solu­ti­ons and Mana­ged Services busi­ness units, ISPIN covers a wide range of rele­vant services rela­ted to cyber secu­rity, from initial consul­ting to imple­men­ta­tion and outsour­cing of entire custo­mer IT secu­rity infra­struc­tures. ISPIN is the first acqui­si­tion within capiton’s plan­ned “Buy & Build” concept for the cyber secu­rity market in the DACH region.

ISPIN is a proprie­tary tran­sac­tion iden­ti­fied through capiton’s sector analy­sis in the “Cyber Secu­rity” sector and re- alized through an exclu­sive sales process.

ISPIN has grown rapidly in recent years and is ready for the next phase of deve­lo­p­ment. The cyber secu­rity market in Europe is very frag­men­ted and is in a phase of conso­li­da­tion. The market outlook is excel­lent in view of further digi­ta­liza­tion, the advance of the Inter­net of Things, Big Data and other data-driven tech­no­lo­gies. capi­ton and ISPIN ther­e­fore see great poten­tial to grow further by crea­ting addi­tio­nal capa­ci­ties and comple­men­tary competencies.

About capi­ton AG
capi­ton is an inde­pen­dent, owner-mana­ged private equity company mana­ging a total fund volume of € 1.1 billion. At present, 10 medium-sized compa­nies are in capi­ton AG’s invest­ment portfolio.
capi­ton accom­pa­nies manage­ment buy-outs and growth finan­cing for estab­lished medium-sized compa­nies as an equity partner.

News
Munich/Plettenberg, Febru­ary 21, 2018 — Funds advi­sed by Equis­tone Part­ners Europe (“Equis­tone”) are selling shares in Plet­ten­berg-based auto­mo­tive supplier E. WINKEMANN. The majo­rity of the shares will be acqui­red by Cathay Capi­tal MidCap Fund, which is advi­sed by Cathay Capi­tal Private Equity. Equis­tone and the mana­ging direc­tors of E. WINKEMANN will remain invol­ved. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the purchase price or further details of the tran­sac­tion. The sale is subject to appr­oval by the rele­vant anti­trust autho­ri­ties.
In its now 80-year company history, E. WINKEMANN GmbH has become a major manu­fac­tu­rer of precis­ion metal stam­pings and today employs 380 people. From its loca­tion in the Märki­scher Kreis region, the company prima­rily supplies well-known German and inter­na­tio­nal auto­mo­tive suppli­ers and manu­fac­tu­r­ers world­wide. Equis­tone had inves­ted in the company in May 2012. Since then, E. WINKEMANN has deve­lo­ped convin­cin­gly. Sales increased from appro­xi­m­ately 66 million euros in 2012 to around 91 million euros in 2017. Last year alone, there was an increase of more than ten percent.
Over the past six years, Equis­tone has accom­pa­nied E. WINKEMANN on its way from a family-owned company to a conti­nuing successful medium-sized enter­prise with parti­ci­pa­ting manage­ment. This made it possi­ble to support the company’s flexi­ble busi­ness model with rapid decis­ion-making proces­ses and a high degree of free­dom on site, which ensu­res short product and deve­lo­p­ment cycles, espe­ci­ally in the dyna­mic envi­ron­ment of the auto­mo­tive indus­try. At the same time, Equis­tone enab­led the neces­sary invest­ments to further expand the company. As a result, E. WINKEMANN was able to grow sustain­ably by deve­lo­ping new products and inno­va­tive tech­no­lo­gies and by addres­sing new customers.
“Toge­ther with the dedi­ca­ted manage­ment and the highly quali­fied employee base, we have mana­ged to signi­fi­cantly deve­lop an alre­ady well-posi­tio­ned company,” says Dirk Sche­kerka, Coun­try Head DACH at Equis­tone. “The know-how and expe­ri­ence of the entire work­force are key drivers of E. WINKEMANN’s strong posi­tion. The new part­ner will accom­pany the company into the next growth phase and expand its strong posi­tion in further markets, espe­ci­ally in Asia. We are plea­sed to remain asso­cia­ted with E. WINKEMANN as a share­hol­der and to conti­nue to support the company’s development.”
“Six years ago, in the course of succes­sion plan­ning, we carefully sear­ched for a suita­ble part­ner to secure the future of E.WINKEMANN. It turned out that we found the right part­ner in Equis­tone: Toge­ther we were able to secure long-term growth and expand into new markets,” says Dr. Bernd Sent, CEO of the company. “With its exper­tise in the auto­mo­tive supply indus­try and its profound expe­ri­ence in the syste­ma­tic and long-term orien­ted deve­lo­p­ment of medium-sized compa­nies, the Equis­tone team has supported the achie­ve­ment of our goals at all times. With Cathay Capi­tal, we now want to conti­nue on the path we have chosen.”
Respon­si­ble for the tran­sac­tion on the part of Equis­tone are Dirk Sche­kerka and Stefan Maser.
Advi­sors to Equis­tone: Robert W. Baird & Co. (M&A) and P+P Pöllath & Part­ners (Legal/Tax).
About Equis­tone Part­ners Europe 
Equis­tone Part­ners Europe is one of Europe’s leading equity inves­tors with a team of more than 35 invest­ment specia­lists in six offices in Germany, Switz­er­land, France and the UK. Equis­tone prima­rily invests in estab­lished medium-sized compa­nies with a good market posi­tion, above-average growth poten­tial and an enter­prise value of between EUR 50 and 500 million. Since its foun­ding, equity has been inves­ted in more than 140 tran­sac­tions, mainly mid-market buy-outs. The port­fo­lio curr­ently compri­ses over 40 compa­nies across Europe, inclu­ding around 20 active holdings in Germany, Switz­er­land and the Netherlands.
About E. WINKEMANN GmbH
Since its foun­da­tion in 1938, the tradi­tio­nal company E. WINKEMANN has deve­lo­ped into one of the most important and effi­ci­ent manu­fac­tu­r­ers of precis­ion metal stam­pings. The Plet­ten­berg (NRW) site now employs around 380 people. Custo­mers come from almost all indus­trial sectors, with the global auto­mo­tive and auto­mo­tive supply indus­try being the main focus. For precis­ion stam­ped metal parts, E. WINKEMANN is a compe­tent part­ner for the imple­men­ta­tion of custo­mer-speci­fic requi­re­ments. The company relies on its 80 years of expe­ri­ence and the supe­rior tech­ni­cal know-how of its employees. High-precis­ion stam­ped, embos­sed, bent and drawn parts are produ­ced in a modern machine park with a high degree of in-house produc­tion depth. All areas of the company are subject to a conti­nuous impro­ve­ment process based on effec­tive zero-defect stra­te­gies. E. WINKEMANN GmbH offers a compre­hen­sive range of services from product deve­lo­p­ment to series production.
News

Düssel­dorf, Germany - Allen & Overy LLP advi­sed US-based Eli Global LLC (Eli) on the acqui­si­tion of finanzen.de Vermitt­lungs­ge­sell­schaft für Verbrau­cher­ver­träge AG(finanzen.de) and its subsi­dia­ries in Germany, France, the UK and Switz­er­land from Black­fin Capi­tal Part­ners and the foun­ders of finanzen.de.

Finanzen.de is a successful Insur­Tech company based in Berlin and the leading Euro­pean online market­place for consu­mer leads in the finance and insu­rance sector.

The acqui­si­tion of finanzen.de is Eli’s first tran­sac­tion in Germany and the first company in Eli’s new finan­cial and insu­rance services port­fo­lio, which will consist of a diver­si­fied mix of compa­nies offe­ring such services and cover various sectors and sub-sectors. The closing of the tran­sac­tion is still subject to regu­la­tory appr­oval and is expec­ted to take place later this year. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the purchase price.

The Allen & Overyteam consis­ted of Part­ner Dr. Jan Schrö­der and Coun­sel Anne Fischer (both Lead, bothCorporate/M&A/Insurance Corpo­rate), Part­ner Tobias Neufeld, Asso­ciate Catha­rina Glugla (both Data Protec­tion and Labor Law), Senior Asso­ciate Miray Kavruk (IP/IT, all Düssel­dorf) as well as Part­ner Thomas Neubaum , Coun­sel Bianca Engel­mann, Senior Asociate Elke Funken-Hötzel and Asso­ciate Dr. Anna Serwotka (all Banking and Finance, both Frank­furt). — In addi­tion, teams from Allen & Overy’s Paris and London offices were involved.

The law firm Niede­rer Kraft & Frey advi­sed on Swiss law.

About Allen & Overy
Allen & Overy is an inter­na­tio­nal law firm with appro­xi­m­ately 5,400 employees, inclu­ding appro­xi­m­ately 550 part­ners, in 44 offices worldwide.

Allen & Overy is repre­sen­ted in Germany at its offices in Düssel­dorf, Frank­furt am Main, Hamburg and Munich with appro­xi­m­ately 220 lawy­ers, inclu­ding 50 part­ners. The lawy­ers advise leading natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal compa­nies prima­rily in the areas of banking, finance and capi­tal markets law, corpo­rate law and M&A, tax law as well as other areas of busi­ness law.

 

News

London — IK Invest­ment Part­ners (“IK”), a leading pan-Euro­pean private equity firm, today announ­ced the closing of its IK Small Cap II Fund (“IK Small Cap II” or “the Fund”) at the hard cap of €550 million set out in the Fund’s Artic­les of Asso­cia­tion. The fund was signi­fi­cantly over­sub­scri­bed and was placed exclu­si­vely with exis­ting inves­tors of IK.

The new fund is twice the size of its prede­ces­sor, which was IK’s first small cap fund closed in March 2016 at a hard cap of 277 million euros. The IK Small Cap I Fund has inves­ted in 12 compa­nies, of which three invest­ments have been successfully sold to date.

Like its prede­ces­sor fund, IK Small Cap II will focus on growth compa­nies in the core markets of Bene­lux, DACH, France and the Scan­di­na­vian count­ries. The invest­ments are carried out by a dedi­ca­ted small cap team with offices in Amster­dam, Hamburg, Paris and Stockholm.

Chris­to­pher Masek (photo), CEO of IK Invest­ment Part­ners, said, “Compa­nies, such as those that fall within the invest­ment focus of IK Small Cap II, are, we believe, the drivers of econo­mic growth and job crea­tion in Europe. The contin­ued confi­dence and support of our inves­tors unders­cores the high importance of inves­t­ing in this market segment, enab­ling compa­nies to enter their next phase of growth.”

Kris­tian Carls­son Kemp­pi­nen, Part­ner and respon­si­ble for the IK Small Cap Funds at IK Invest­ment Part­ners, added: “In 2017, we have seen an unpre­ce­den­ted abun­dance of invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties, with very crea­tive and ambi­tious compa­nies. We look forward to iden­ti­fy­ing and helping these future indus­try leaders reach their full potential.”

Nils Pohl­mann, Part­ner at IK Invest­ment Part­ners, said: “We are encou­ra­ged by the large number of excel­lent compa­nies in the DACH region and the resul­ting invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties. IK’s value crea­tion approach combi­nes buy-and-build stra­te­gies and opera­tio­nal excel­lence, making it ideally aligned with high-growth natio­nal and global cham­pi­ons of the German Mittelstand.”

Gregor Korte, Part­ner at IK Invest­ment Part­ners, added: “Our far-reaching Euro­pean plat­form, combi­ned with our exten­sive local market know­ledge, offers unique growth oppor­tu­ni­ties to ambi­tious German small cap compa­nies. We look forward to part­ne­ring further with talen­ted entre­pre­neurs in the DACH region and helping them grow their businesses.”

Kirk­land & Ellis was manda­ted to provide legal advice to the IK Small Cap II Fund.

About 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 more than 9.5 billion euros and inves­ted in more than 115 Euro­pean compa­nies through the funds. The IK funds invest toge­ther with the respec­tive manage­ment and their inves­tors in medium-sized compa­nies with signi­fi­cant growth poten­tial in order to create successful, well-posi­tio­ned compa­nies with excel­lent pros­pects for the future.

News

Bietig­heim Bissingen/ Eschborn/ Frank­furt a. M. — Funds advi­sed by private equity firm Triton have successfully comple­ted the acqui­si­tion of BFC Fahr­zeug­teile in Bietig­heim Bissin­gen. BFC Fahr­zeug­teile GmbH is a leading global specia­list and tech­no­logy leader in the field of metal clam­ping profiles for the auto­mo­tive indus­try and main­ta­ins produc­tion sites in Germany, China, Turkey and the USA.

The Triton funds invest in medium-sized compa­nies based in Europe and support their posi­tive deve­lo­p­ment. They focus on compa­nies in the indus­trial, services and consu­mer goods/healthcare sectors. Triton’s goal is to successfully deve­lop its port­fo­lio compa­nies in the long term by working toge­ther as part­ners. Triton and its manage­ment strive to gene­rate posi­tive change and growth through the sustainable impro­ve­ment of opera­tio­nal proces­ses and struc­tures. At present, Triton’s port­fo­lio includes 36 compa­nies with total sales of around EUR 14.2 billion and around 91,000 employees. The Triton funds are advi­sed by expe­ri­en­ced invest­ment profes­sio­nals based in Germany, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Italy, the UK, the US, China, Luxem­bourg and Jersey.

The inter­na­tio­nally active BFC Fahr­zeug­teile Group, head­quar­te­red in Bietig­heim-Bissin­gen, is one of the global market leaders in the field of metal clam­ping profiles for the auto­mo­tive indus­try. These products are mainly used in vehicle door, trunk and other body seals. BFC also designs and manu­fac­tures the machi­nes used, opera­ting highly flexi­ble produc­tion lines at seve­ral loca­ti­ons in Germany (2), the USA, China (2) and Turkey.

In the context of the tran­sac­tion, Triton was compre­hen­si­vely advi­sed by a team of Rödl & Part­ner specia­li­zed in private equity tran­sac­tions under the leader­ship of part­ner Jochen Reis in the context of the finan­cial due dili­gence. The Tran­sac­tion Services team led by Jochen Reis advi­ses private equity compa­nies in parti­cu­lar on natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal tran­sac­tion projects at the Esch­born / Frank­furt office.

About Triton
The invest­ment company Triton invests prima­rily in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy, Luxem­bourg, the Nether­lands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and Switz­er­land. We focus on medium-sized compa­nies that have the poten­tial to grow conti­nuously over econo­mic cycles. To foster this poten­tial, we work closely with the respec­tive manage­ment teams. Our invest­ment focus is on the indus­trial, service and consu­mer goods sectors

We curr­ently have invest­ments in compa­nies in Denmark, Germany, Finland, Luxem­bourg, Norway and Sweden. These compa­nies gene­rate total sales of around 14.2 billion euros and employ a total of around 91,000 people.

Advi­sor Triton: Rödl & Part­ner Eschborn
Jochen Reis, Head of Tran­sac­tion Services Esch­born, Diplom-Kauf­mann, Part­ner (Finan­cial Due Dili­gence), Simon Nieder­mann, Asso­ciate (Finan­cial Due Diligence)

About Rödl & Partner
As lawy­ers, tax advi­sors, busi­ness and IT consul­tants and audi­tors, we are repre­sen­ted at 108 of our own loca­ti­ons in 50 count­ries. Our clients trust our 4,500 colle­agues worldwide.

News

Trois­dorf — Effec­tive Janu­ary 17, 2018, the Reifen­häu­ser Group will acquire the EDS Group, an inter­na­tio­nal supplier of high-quality extru­sion dies. The inter­na­tio­nal nozzle specia­list EDS stands for tailor-made products in nozzle manu­fac­tu­ring and is a specia­list for flat nozz­les; Reifen­häu­ser stands inter­na­tio­nally for inno­va­tive tech­no­lo­gies in plas­tics extrusion.

Reifen­häu­ser is thus expan­ding its know-how in the compon­ents busi­ness and posi­tio­ning itself as a leading compon­ents supplier for extru­ders and dies. The acqui­si­tion combi­nes the strengths of both high-perfor­mance brands. EDS and Reifen­häu­ser comple­ment each other perfectly in terms of design and manu­fac­tu­ring know-how. With the acqui­si­tion, custo­mers will bene­fit in the future from shared high-perfor­mance tech­no­logy and manu­fac­tu­ring resour­ces as well as a global sales struc­ture. Over­all, Reifen­häu­ser is massi­vely expan­ding its tech­no­logy leader­ship in the field of nozzle produc­tion with this transaction.

MAYLAND AG was exclu­si­vely manda­ted with the sales process by Mr. Müller, the owner of the EDS Group. The process was successfully comple­ted in Decem­ber 2017 within a period of only four months with the sale to the Reifen­häu­ser Group.

About MAYLAND AG
MAYLAND is an inde­pen­dent, owner-mana­ged M&A consul­tancy based in Düssel­dorf. Since its foun­da­tion in 1998, MAYLAND, CEO Matthias C. Just (photo), has been deve­lo­ping indi­vi­dual solu­ti­ons for the purchase and sale of compa­nies or parts of compa­nies with owners and manage­ment of both medium-sized compa­nies and corpo­rate groups and imple­men­ting these tran­sac­tions toge­ther with the decis­ion-makers. MAYLAND also arran­ges any neces­sary or requi­red finan­cing or asso­cia­ted restructuring.

MAYLAND provi­des struc­tu­red process manage­ment for these natio­nal and cross-border projects and coor­di­na­tes all services for a successful comple­tion of the tran­sac­tion. With analy­ti­cal excel­lence, many years of expe­ri­ence and a commit­ment to part­ner­ship, MAYLAND struc­tures tran­sac­tions in all phases of a company. MAYLAND atta­ches parti­cu­lar importance to custo­mi­zed and holi­stic solu­ti­ons, trans­pa­rent consul­ting services and long-term custo­mer rela­ti­onships based on trust.

News

Munich — Private equity inves­tor Gene­ral Atlan­tic was successful in the bidding process for a mino­rity stake in the digi­tal divi­sion of ProSiebenSat.1 Group. The parties announ­ced that Gene­ral Atlan­tic is acqui­ring a 25.1 percent stake in NuCom Group. The tran­sac­tion, which is still subject to appr­oval by the rele­vant anti­trust autho­ri­ties, is based on an enter­prise value of the NuCom Group of EUR 1.8 billion.

In the NuCom Group, ProSiebenSat.l Media SE bund­les ten stra­te­gic invest­ments in predo­mi­nantly digi­tal commerce plat­forms, inclu­ding Veri­vox, Parship Elite Group and Jochen Schwei­zer mydays Group. The compa­nies bene­fit from the parent company’s high TV reach and mutual syner­gies, and are growing steadily on this basis. With Gene­ral Atlan­tic as a part­ner, ProSiebenSat.1 wants to further expand and inter­na­tio­na­lize the digi­tal division.

Gene­ral Atlan­tic is distin­gu­is­hed by deca­des of exper­tise as a stra­te­gic inves­tor in global compa­nies in the Inter­net and tech­no­logy sectors. Gene­ral Atlan­tic provi­des capi­tal and stra­te­gic support to compa­nies with high growth poten­tial. The fund employs more than 110 invest­ment profes­sio­nals across its offices in New York, Amster­dam, Beijing, Green­wich, Hong Kong, London, Mexico City, Mumbai, Munich, Palo Alto, São Paulo, Shang­hai and Singa­pore, and mana­ges more than $20 billion in assets.

Advi­sor Gene­ral Atlan­tic: Gleiss Lutz 
Lead Corporate/M&A Part­ners Dr. Jan Bals­sen (Munich) and Dr. Jan Bauer (Frank­furt)
Dr. Tobias Falk­ner (Coun­sel), Dr. Verena Kopp­mann, Dr. Tobias Harzenet­ter (Coun­sel), Dr. Stephan Dangel­mayer, Dr. Olaf Hohle­fel­der, Dr. Johan­nes Witt­mann, (all Corporate/M&A, all Munich), Dr. Stefan Mayer (Part­ner), Dr. Ocka Stumm (both Tax, both Frank­furt), Dr. Matthias Werner (Coun­sel), Dr. Björn Kalb­fus (Coun­sel), Dr. Manuel Klar, Dr. Theresa Uhlen­hut (all Munich), Dr. Hannah Bug (Berlin, all IP/IT/Data Protec­tion), Dr. Stefan Aubel (Part­ner, Frank­furt, Capi­tal Markets), Dr. Jens Günther (Part­ner), Dr. Matthias Bögl­mül­ler, Dr. Eva Heup (all Labor Law, all Munich), Dr. Reimar Buch­ner (Part­ner), Dr. Jan-Peter Spie­gel (Coun­sel, both Medi­cal Law, both Berlin), Dr. Phil­ipp Naab (Coun­sel), Svenja Bender (both Real Estate Law, both Frank­furt), Dr. Luid­ger Röck­rath (Coun­sel), Simon Fischer (both Dispute Reso­lu­tion), Dr. Petra Lins­meier (Part­ner) and Dr. Daniel Petzold (both Anti­trust Law, all Munich).

 

Gene­ral Atlan­tic is to acquire 25.1 percent of the shares in the Nucom Group , which includes online plat­forms such as Veri­vox and Parship, the company announ­ced in Unter­föh­ring. The Nucom Group is valued at 1.8 billion euros.
AdTech Ad
This confirmed the specu­la­tion about the deal that had been circu­la­ting for seve­ral days and had alre­ady caused slight price jumps in the share price. The inves­tor is highly regarded in the indus­try for his exten­sive exper­tise. A few years ago, for exam­ple, he was a major share­hol­der in Axel Springer’s online clas­si­fieds busi­ness. He is also known in Germany as a co-owner of the long-distance bus opera­tor Flix­bus — in the USA, he holds shares in Airbnb and Uber, among others.

News

Pinnen­berg — The phar­maceu­ti­cal factory Evers GmbH & Co KG sells to the Chinese company Bright Future Phar­maceu­ti­cal Labo­ra­to­ries Ltd. The company produ­ces mainly natu­ral medi­ci­nes for the urology and gastro­en­te­ro­logy sector, which are sold inter­na­tio­nally and very stron­gly on the Asian market, espe­ci­ally in Japan and China. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the purchase price.

The family busi­ness Phar­ma­zeu­ti­sche Fabrik Evers GmbH & Co KG was foun­ded in 1933. Head­quar­te­red in Pinne­berg, near Hamburg, Germany, the company focu­ses on a selec­ted range of natu­ral medi­ci­nes for the urology and gastro­en­te­ro­logy sectors and acts as a licen­sor in seve­ral count­ries. The Evipro­stat S, Evipro­stat N and Gallith brands are among the estab­lished products in this field.

Estab­lished in 1993, Bright Future Phar­maceu­ti­cal Labo­ra­to­ries Ltd is the largest GMP (Good Manu­fac­tu­ring Prac­tice) certi­fied phar­maceu­ti­cal manu­fac­tu­rer in Hong Kong. The company, with more than 7,000 employees, provi­des people with access to medi­ci­nes at afforda­ble prices and is parti­cu­larly active in key growth markets such as Hong Kong, main­land China, North America, Africa, Southe­ast Asia and Europe.

Advi­sors to Evers GmbH & Co KG: DLA Piper
The tran­sac­tion once again under­lines the exten­sive expe­ri­ence of the DLA Piper German China Desk, this time on the German seller side.

The core team of DLA Piper under the leader­ship of part­ner Dr. Nils Krause (photo ) contin­ued to consist of senior asso­ciate Dr. Jan-Phil­ipp Meier and asso­cia­tes Dr. Jasper von Georg and Ronja Hecker (all Corpo­rate, Hamburg). In addi­tion, Part­ner Guido Kleve, Coun­sel Dr. Thilo Streit (both Liti­ga­tion and Regu­la­tory, Colo­gne) and Chris­tian Lonquich (Real Estate, Frank­furt) as well as Tran­sac­tion Lawyer Hui Hao (Corpo­rate, Hamburg) were part of the team.

News

Düssel­dorf — The law firm FPS provi­ded compre­hen­sive legal advice to the family share­hol­ders of the coupling manu­fac­tu­rer CENTA Antriebe Kirschey GmbH (“CENTA”) on the sale of their shares in the context of a bidding compe­ti­tion to the Ameri­can drive and conveyor chain manu­fac­tu­rer Rexnord Corpo­ra­tion (“Rexnord”). The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the purchase price. The tran­sac­tion has alre­ady been comple­ted follo­wing appr­oval by the anti­trust authorities.

Foun­ded in 1970 and head­quar­te­red in Haan, North Rhine-West­pha­lia, the family-owned company CENTA is one of the world’s leading manu­fac­tu­r­ers of advan­ced flexi­ble couplings and drive shafts for rail, indus­try, marine and the energy sector. The company has an inter­na­tio­nal presence with ten subsi­dia­ries, around 30 agen­cies and two licen­sees, and opera­tes produc­tion sites in Germany, England, the USA and China. With more than 500 employees world­wide, CENTA recently achie­ved sales of over EUR 100 million.

NYSE-listed Rexnord is head­quar­te­red in Milwau­kee, Wiscon­sin, USA, and produ­ces compon­ents in the field of drive tech­no­logy and for conveyor tech­no­logy, for exam­ple chains, couplings and conveyor systems, at more than 20 manu­fac­tu­ring sites with more than 8,000 employees world­wide. In Europe, Rexnord opera­tes seven manu­fac­tu­ring and logi­stics sites, inclu­ding Betz­dorf in Rhine­land-Pala­ti­nate and Dortmund.

Under the leader­ship of Düssel­dorf M&A Part­ner Dr. Georg-Peter Kränz­lin (photo) toge­ther with Asso­cia­ted Part­ner Dr. Sebas­tian Weller, FPS provi­ded compre­hen­sive legal support and advice to the tran­sac­tion and all family share­hol­ders of CENTA across all offices. The inter­na­tio­nal law firm network of FPS was consul­ted for the foreign companies.

Advi­sors to CENTA Antriebe Kirschey GmbH: FPS Fritze Wicke Seelig Düsseldorf
Dr. Georg-Peter Kränz­lin, Part­ner (Lead Part­ner, Corpo­rate, M&A)
Dr. Sebas­tian Weller, Asso­cia­ted Part­ner (Co-Lead, Corpo­rate, M&A)
Dr. Anja Krüger, Asso­cia­ted Part­ner (Corpo­rate, M&A)
Tobias Törnig, Part­ner (Real Estate)
Dr. Karl Fried­rich Dumoulin, Part­ner (IP)

Rexnord was advi­sed on the tran­sac­tion by Baker & McKen­zie, led by Dr. Florian Kästle and Dr. Doro­thee Prosteder.

News

Berlin — German private equity firm Odewald KMU (Berlin) has sold 7days Group, a provi­der of work­wear for the health­care sector, to Silver­fleet Capi­tal. — The company’s foun­ders, Marc Staper­feld and Ulrich Dölken, conti­nue to be invol­ved in the company through a reverse shareholding.

7days designs, manu­fac­tures and distri­bu­tes work­wear for medi­cal profes­si­ons. The product range includes medi­cal and labo­ra­tory coats, tops, pants, shoes and access­ories. A special focus is on the offer for medi­cal and dental prac­ti­ces. Foun­ded in 1999, the company is head­quar­te­red in Lotte near Osnabrück.

Odewald KMU (Berlin) also acqui­red a majo­rity stake in Langer & Laumann Inge­nieur­büro GmbH.

Langer & Laumann Inge­nieur­büro GmbH specia­li­zes in the instal­la­tion and moder­niza­tion of door drives for eleva­tors and safety doors on or in machi­nes. The previous owners have taken a reverse stake in the tran­sac­tion and will conti­nue to manage the group. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the amount of the investment.

The invest­ment is the third invest­ment of the new Odewald KMU II Fund. Odewald KMU invests in medium-sized, estab­lished and high-growth compa­nies in German-spea­king count­ries. Inves­tors are predo­mi­nantly German insti­tu­tio­nal asset manage­ment compa­nies and wealthy private inves­tors. P+P Pöllath + Part­ners has alre­ady provi­ded tax advice to the first invest­ments of the Odewald KMU II Fund.

Advi­sor Odewald SME: P+P Pöllath + Partners
In both tran­sac­tions Odewald KMU was advi­sed on tax matters by:
— Alex­an­der Pupe­ter (Part­ner, M&A/Private Equity, Tax, Munich)
— Mareen Glaab (Asso­ciate, M&A/Private Equity, Tax, Munich)

News

Münster/Paris — eCAPI­TAL (Müns­ter) and Deme­ter Part­ners (Paris) have signed a coope­ra­tion agree­ment to mutually comple­ment their exper­tise in the common invest­ment areas of Clean­tech, Indus­try 4.0 and New Mate­ri­als and to jointly deve­lop a compre­hen­sive sector under­stan­ding at Euro­pean level. The part­ner­ship means addi­tio­nal added value for both the inves­tors in the funds and the entre­pre­neurs in the investments.

As part of the coope­ra­tion, the two venture capi­tal compa­nies will support each other in moni­to­ring indus­tries and invest­ment trends, exch­ange coun­try-speci­fic know­ledge, provide the partner’s port­fo­lio compa­nies with access to their own networks and support each other in fundraising.

Deme­ter (www.demeter-im.com) is a leading Euro­pean private equity inves­tor in the field of ecolo­gi­cal trans­for­ma­tion and energy tran­si­tion. The company’s funds invest amounts ranging from €500,000 to €30 million to support compa­nies in this sector at all stages of deve­lo­p­ment: thus, Deme­ter accom­pa­nies inno­va­tive start-ups, high-growth SMEs, as well as mid-cap compa­nies and infra­struc­ture projects. The Deme­ter team, consis­ting of 33 employees in Paris, Greno­ble, Metz and Madrid, mana­ges a total of €1 billion and has reali­zed 120 invest­ments in the last twelve years.

eCAPI­TAL (www.ecapital.de) is a leading German venture capi­tal firm that invests in inno­va­tive compa­nies in early to later stage phases. For almost two deca­des, eCAPI­TAL has been support­ing fast-growing compa­nies in the areas of Clean­tech, Indus­try 4.0, Soft­ware / IT and New Mate­ri­als — with the goal of deve­lo­ping them into global market leaders. Curr­ently eCAPI­TAL mana­ges six funds with a subscrip­tion capi­tal of more than € 220 million.

“On the one hand, the coope­ra­tion between Deme­ter and eCAPI­TAL allows both compa­nies to further focus as well as build on their strengths in their respec­tive home markets, while on the other hand, the reach in terms of addi­tio­nal Euro­pean networks is increased to best support the global ambi­ti­ons of the port­fo­lio compa­nies,” says Willi Mann­heims, Mana­ging Part­ner at eCAPI­TAL.

“We are very exci­ted about the part­ner­ship of our compa­nies, which share a common vision and culture. Our primary goal is to enable the deve­lo­p­ment of cham­pi­ons of envi­ron­men­tal change and energy tran­si­tion, and to support them in moving into new dimen­si­ons in these markets,” says Stéphane Ville­croze, Mana­ging Part­ner at Deme­ter.

News

Commerz­Ven­tures GmbH has inves­ted in Payworks, a provi­der of mobile payment services, as part of a Series B finan­cing round.

Commerz­Ven­tures as well as Visa inves­ted in the company for the first time as main inves­tors. In addi­tion, legacy inves­tors Speed­in­vest and Finparx were also repre­sen­ted again. In total, Payworks raised $14.5 million in new capi­tal from inves­tors for its inter­na­tio­nal growth and inno­va­tion strategy.

Payworks inte­gra­tes mobile payments into apps and card readers. The Munich-based company offers a B2B service that provi­des an easy path to mobile payment (point-of-sale) capa­bi­li­ties. The GmbH was foun­ded in April 2012 by Chris­tian Deger, David Bellem, Simon Eumes and Johan­nes Lechner.

Commerz­Ven­tures GmbH is a wholly owned subsi­diary of Commerz­bank based in Frank­furt. The corpo­rate venture capi­tal company with a focus on finan­cial services invests in young compa­nies that specia­lize in inno­va­tive products, services and tech­no­lo­gies in the FinTech sector.

Advi­sor Commerz­Ven­tures: P+P Pöllath + Partners 
— Dr. Michael Inhes­ter (Part­ner, M&A/Venture Capi­tal, Munich)
— Andreas Kühnert (Asso­ciate, M&A/Venture Capi­tal, Munich)

News

Düssel­dorf — ARQIS advi­sed Posei­don GmbH on the sale of great­con­tent AG to the MAIRDUMONT media group. A private family of inves­tors is behind Posei­don GmbH. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the purchase price.

Berlin-based great­con­tent AG has been on the market since 2011 with an online plat­form that offers compa­nies access to profes­sio­nal authors for marke­ting and SEO content and has since become one of the market leaders in Europe. Custo­mers include online fashion retailer Zalando, car rental company Sixt, C&A and Kayak.

“After a phase of conti­nuous growth, now is the right time to trans­fer great­con­tent into a larger corpo­rate struc­ture. We are looking forward to further expan­ding our offe­ring in the future toge­ther with an estab­lished stra­te­gic part­ner like MAIRDUMONT,” explains Daniel Förs­ter­mann, member of the board of great­con­tent AG. Mr. Förs­ter­mann will conti­nue to manage the busi­ness after the change of ownership.

MAIRDUMONT is the leading company for tourist infor­ma­tion in Europe. The offe­ring covers the entire media spec­trum of print, online and mobile. More than 10 media compa­nies world­wide belong to the MAIRDUMONT Group.

Advi­sors to Posei­don GmbH: ARQIS Rechts­an­wälte (Düssel­dorf)
Dr. Lars Laeger (M&A, lead); Johan­nes Landry (Commer­cial); Asso­cia­tes: Thomas Chwa­lek (Corporate/M&A), Dr. Markus Schwip­per (Labor Law), Dr. Phil­ipp Maier (IP; both Munich)

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 lawy­ers 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 as well as intellec­tual property and liti­ga­tion. For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.arqis.com.

News

Munich — Munich-based parking sensor provi­der Cler­ver­citi Systems has found a second inves­tor in EnBW New Ventures. The venture capi­tal subsi­diary of the Baden-Würt­tem­berg-based energy giant is inves­t­ing ten million euros in the start-up, which wants to take the plunge into the Ameri­can market. The group of inves­tors in Clever­citi Systems alre­ady includes the Belgian invest­ment company SPDG.

Clever­citi Systems has been produ­cing systems for energy-saving parking manage­ment since 2012. Free parking spaces are displayed to the minute by means of perma­nently instal­led sensors. In 2016, the company was able to win the Belgian inves­tor SPDG. With EnBW New Ventures, the company is now aiming to market its digi­tal tech­no­logy internationally.

For some time now, EnBW New Ventures has been making targe­ted invest­ments in young compa­nies that repre­sent the digi­ta­li­zed energy world of the future. The port­fo­lio includes, for exam­ple, Theva, a Bava­rian equip­ment manu­fac­tu­rer, and Lumen­aza, a Berlin-based soft­ware company foun­ded in 2013 that offers solu­ti­ons for regio­nal power supply.

Advi­sor EnBW: Weit­nauer (Munich)
Dr. Wolf­gang Weit­nauer (Corporate/M&A)
Inhouse Legal: Martin Düker (Gene­ral Counsel)

Advi­sors to Clever­citi Systems: Baker & McKen­zie (Munich)
Dr. Michael Barto­sch (Lead), Bert­hold Hummel (both Corporate/M&A), Dr. Lothar Deter­mann (IP Law; San Fran­cisco); Asso­cia­tes: Dr. Tino Marz, Hanna Lütkens (both Corpo­rate), Fabian Bött­ger (Munich), Dr. Markus Hecht (both IP Law; Frankfurt)
GKK Part­ners (Munich)
Hermann Krämer (auditor/tax consul­tant) — known from the market

News

Osna­brück, Germany — The German manu­fac­tu­rer of copper products, KME, issues a bond with a volume of €300 million. The bond (A2G8U5) pays inves­tors a fixed annual inte­rest rate of 6.75% until matu­rity on Feb. 1, 2023. This is paid in April and Octo­ber of each year. The issue price was 98.953%, which repre­sen­ted a spread of +693 bps over the compa­ra­ble Bund. The wholly owned subsi­diary of the Milan-based Intek Group S.p.A. included three addi­tio­nal termi­na­tion dates in the terms and condi­ti­ons of the issue, in addi­tion to a Make Whole option.

The Frank­furt office of the inter­na­tio­nal law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP advi­sed KME AG, an inter­na­tio­nally active manu­fac­tu­rer of copper and copper alloys, on the successful place­ment of a high-yield bond with a volume of EUR 300 million and a matu­rity date of 2023. The proceeds of the issue will be used to redeem exis­ting liabilities.

The place­ment of the bond issued by KME AG to insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors was mana­ged by Gold­man Sachs Inter­na­tio­nal, BNP PARIBAS and Deut­sche Bank as Global Co-ordi­na­tors and Joint Book­run­ners. KME AG’s capi­tal market debut with this bond follows a successful inter­nal reor­ga­niza­tion with signi­fi­cant increa­ses in value added.

Weil’s advi­sory team was led by Frank­furt part­ner Michael Kohl (Banking & Finance) and supported by part­ners Dr. Wolf­ram Distler (Banking & Finance, Frank­furt) and Dr. Ingo Kleut­gens (Tax, Frank­furt), coun­sel Dr. Heiner Drüke (Capi­tal Markets, Frank­furt) and Frank­furt asso­cia­tes Julia Schum, Stef­fen Giolda and para­le­gal Nico Schub­art (all Banking & Finance, Frankfurt).

Weil has been advi­sing the Osna­brück-based KME Group for many years on its inter­na­tio­nal bank finan­cing (borro­wing base finan­cing) as well as multi-juris­dic­tional factoring.

News

Oldenburg/ Paris — The fast-growing French market leader for photo­fi­nis­hing apps will become part of the Euro­pean photo­fi­nis­hing market leader: CEWE Stif­tung & Co. KGaA (SDAX, ISIN: DE 0005403901), head­quar­te­red in Olden­burg, has reached an agree­ment with the owners of the Cheerz Group (Paris) on a share­hol­ding. The Cheerz Group (Paris) is growing dyna­mi­cally in France, Spain and Italy with its premium brand “Cheerz,” which is prima­rily targe­ted at smart­phone users. — CEWE, which was foun­ded in 1961 and has around 3,500 employees, is initi­ally acqui­ring around 80 % of the shares in the Cheerz Group for 36 million euros. The tran­sac­tion values the company at slightly more than one and a half times expec­ted 2018 reve­nue. The CEWE Board of Manage­ment initi­ally expects the take­over — inclu­ding purchase price allo­ca­tion and tran­sac­tion costs — to have a nega­tive EBIT effect of around 4 million euros in the current busi­ness year.

Sustained posi­tive effect on enter­prise value expected
The CEWE Board of Manage­ment expects the invest­ment to streng­then busi­ness in France and Southern Europe through addi­tio­nal growth in mobile busi­ness. He also anti­ci­pa­tes syner­gies in the areas of mobile compe­tence, purcha­sing, produc­tion and logi­stics. “We are certain that this invest­ment will have a lasting posi­tive effect on the value of the company as a whole,” says Dr. Chris­tian Friege, Chair­man of the Board of Manage­ment of CEWE Stif­tung & Co. KGaA. “In addi­tion to the clas­sic syner­gies, we were convin­ced by the high level of custo­mer orien­ta­tion, the user-friendly solu­tion, the posi­tio­ning as a premium brand, and the tech­no­lo­gi­cal exper­tise of the strong, entre­pre­neu­rial manage­ment team. We want to main­tain this posi­tive culture and these compe­ten­cies in exactly the same way. Cheerz stands for a convin­cing idea: A fast way to a cool product!”, Friege continues.

Aure­lien de Meaux and Antoine Le Conte, foun­ders of Cheerz, add: “We are deligh­ted to have found a part­ner in CEWE that stands for the highest produc­tion quality and scala­bi­lity and can thus best support our dyna­mic growth in France and Southern Europe. We want to grow into a new dimen­sion with a true Euro­pean cham­pion — quickly, easily and in a direct way. Just the way we are. It was important for us that CEWE appre­cia­tes and wants to main­tain our corpo­rate culture. It’s a perfect fit!”

Advi­sers to CEWE Stif­tung & Co. KGaA: P+P Pöllath + Part­ners and its French part­ner law firm Jeantet

P+P:
Otto Haber­stock (Part­ner, Lead, M&A, Munich)
Dr. Eva Nase (Part­ner, Corpo­rate and Capi­tal Markets, Munich)
Daniel Wied­mann (Coun­sel, Merger Control, Frankfurt)
Phil­ipp Opitz (Senior Asso­ciate, Corpo­rate and Capi­tal Markets, Munich)

Jean­tet:
Karl Hepp de Seve­lin­ges (Part­ner, Lead M&A, Paris)
Michael Samol (Coun­sel, M&A, Paris)
Ruben Koslar (Asso­ciate, M&A, Paris)
Gabriel di Chiara (Senior Asso­ciate, Tax, Paris)
Fréde­ric Sardain (Part­ner, IP, Paris)

 

News

Berlin — InFarm recei­ves EUR 20 million Series A finan­cing from Cherry Ventures, led by Balder­ton Capi­tal. In addi­tion to new share­hol­ders such as Triple­Point and Mons Invest­ments LLC, exis­ting inves­tors Cherry Ventures, Quadia and Local­Globe also parti­ci­pa­ted. Cherry Ventures was advi­sed by Clemens Waitz and Sabine Röth of the law firm Vogel Heerma Waitz. Spring 2017, Clemens Waitz and Sabine Röth (Photo) advi­sed Cherry Ventures on the seed finan­cing round led by Cherry Ventures. In this frame­work, Quadia and Local­Globe had also participated.

InFarm, a verti­cal farming startup, was foun­ded in 2013. There are now more than 50 verti­cal farms in Berlin restau­rant kitchens, super­mar­kets and warehou­ses, inclu­ding Edeka and Metro stores. With the fresh money, InFarm plans to go to Paris, London and Copen­ha­gen this year, as well as launch in other German cities.

Consul­tant: Vogel Heerma Waitz
Dr. Clemens Waitz (Part­ner)
Sabine Röth (Part­ner)

About Vogel Heerma Waitz
Vogel Heerma Waitz is a Berlin-based law firm specia­li­zing in growth capi­tal, tech­no­logy and media that has been in opera­tion since May 2014 and can draw on a total of more than 40 years of expe­ri­ence of its part­ners and staff in connec­tion with growth capi­tal financings.

News

Brussels, Febru­ary 9, 2018 — svt Holding GmbH (“svt”), a port­fo­lio company of Ergon Capi­tal Part­ners III S.A. (“Ergon”), joins forces with the Rolf Kuhn Group, consis­ting of Rolf Kuhn GmbH and an indi­rect 90% inte­rest in Rolf Kuhn Brand­schutz GmbH, Austria, as well as Flamro Brand­schutz-Systeme GmbH, Prüf- und Tech­nik­zen­trum Brand­schutz GmbH and Kuhn Service GmbH (the “Rolf Kuhn Group”).

The Rolf Kuhn Group, foun­ded in 1976, is a leading German manu­fac­tu­rer of fire protec­tion mate­ri­als for the proces­sing indus­try, espe­ci­ally the door indus­try, for complete systems in buil­ding services as well as fire protec­tion access­ories for the glazing indus­try. Flamro, a leading manu­fac­tu­rer of bulk­head systems, has also been part of the Rolf Kuhn Group since 2012, as has Brand­che­mie since 2016.

The merger of the Rolf Kuhn Group and svt crea­tes a leading Euro­pean supplier of fire protec­tion products with the largest and most compre­hen­sive product port­fo­lio. Toge­ther, the group employs over 600 people and gene­ra­tes sales of appro­xi­m­ately €150 million in over 60 count­ries. The Group has an exten­sive port­fo­lio of over 400 natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal approvals

Mr. Jürgen Wied, as the respon­si­ble opera­tio­nal mana­ging direc­tor in the compa­nies of the Rolf Kuhn Group, looks back on 23 years of expe­ri­ence with the Rolf Kuhn Group and will conti­nue to hold the opera­tio­nal respon­si­bi­lity. Mr. Harald Kuhn, as previous share­hol­der of the Rolf Kuhn Group, will contri­bute his valuable expe­ri­ence to the joint group within the frame­work of an advi­sory board posi­tion. Mr. Stef­fen Gerdau will lead the Group as CEO.

“After long and inten­sive deli­be­ra­ti­ons on the solu­tion for the succes­sion of the Rolf Kuhn Group, I am convin­ced to have found the ideal part­ner in svt. The acti­vi­ties of the two compa­nies, which have grown conti­nuously in recent years, comple­ment each other perfectly,” commen­ted Harald Kuhn. Stef­fen Gerdau said, “I am looking forward to working with the employees of the Rolf Kuhn Group. svt and Rolf Kuhn comple­ment each other ideally and I am convin­ced that toge­ther the new group will serve its custo­mers even more successfully in the natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal markets.”

Wolf­gang de Limburg, Mana­ging Part­ner of Ergon, added: “We are very plea­sed to accom­pany svt and Rolf Kuhn in this important stra­te­gic step. We are convin­ced of the indus­trial logic of the merger and thank both manage­ment teams and Mr. Kuhn for their confi­dence in Ergon as a new share­hol­der.” Nils Lüssem, Part­ner at Ergon in Germany added: “The combi­ned group forms a leading Euro­pean market player in the attrac­tive niche market of products for preven­tive passive fire protec­tion. We are plea­sed to be able to support the combi­ned group in the future.” — The merger is subject to the suspen­sive condi­tion of anti­trust approval.

About Rolf Kuhn Group
The Rolf Kuhn Group was foun­ded in 1976 and has its head­quar­ters in Ernd­te­brück in North Rhine-West­pha­lia. The Rolf Kuhn Group is a leading manu­fac­tu­rer of fire protec­tion mate­ri­als for the proces­sing indus­try, espe­ci­ally the door indus­try, for complete systems in buil­ding tech­no­logy as well as fire protec­tion access­ories for the glazing indus­try. With ~160 employees, the group distri­bu­tes its products in Germany and inter­na­tio­nally in ~60 count­ries in Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America.
www.kuhn-brandschutz.com and www.flamro.de

About svt
svt was foun­ded in 1969 and has its head­quar­ters in Seeve­tal near Hamburg. svt is a leading supplier of products for preven­tive passive fire protec­tion and their instal­la­tion. In addi­tion, svt is a full-service provi­der for damage resto­ra­tion services follo­wing fire, water and natu­ral hazards damage, as well as for the removal of pollut­ants. With ~450 employees, svt serves its custo­mers through its nati­on­wide network of 32 offices and through its subsi­dia­ries in Singa­pore, Dubai and Poland. www.svt.de

About Ergon Capi­tal Part­ners III S.A.
Ergon Capi­tal Part­ners III S.A. (“Ergon”) is a leading middle market inves­tor with ~€500 million of capi­tal under manage­ment, predo­mi­nantly finan­ced by the family holding company Groupe Bruxel­les Lambert (“GBL”). Ergon is a disci­pli­ned and discreet share­hol­der with “friendly” capi­tal and a focus on profes­sio­na­liza­tion, opera­tio­nal value enhance­ment and growth. Ergon is targe­ting equity invest­ments of €25 million to €75 million in leading compa­nies with sustainable compe­ti­tive posi­ti­ons in Bene­lux, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Switz­er­land. Ergon is advi­sed by Ergon Capi­tal Advi­sors with offices in Brussels, Madrid, Milan, Munich and Paris.
Since its foun­da­tion in 2005, Ergon has inves­ted in 18 port­fo­lio compa­nies (5 in Bene­lux, 3 in Germany, 2 in France, 7 in Italy and 1 in Spain) as well as 31 addi­tio­nal acqui­si­ti­ons with a volume of € 3.0 billion.

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