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.