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News-Kategorie: Deals

RAUE advises De Gruyter on acquisition of scientific journals from Carl Hanser

Posted on by Tatjana Anderer

Berlin/ Munich — Berlin-based acade­mic publisher De Gruy­ter has acqui­red eight acade­mic jour­nals from Munich-based Carl Hanser Verlag. Carl Hanser Verlag will trans­fer the jour­nals “Inter­na­tio­nal Jour­nal of Mate­ri­als Rese­arch,” “Inter­na­tio­nal Poly­mer Proces­sing,” “Kern­tech­nik,” “Mate­ri­als Test­ing,” “Prac­ti­cal Metall­o­gra­phy,” “Tenside Surfac­tants Deter­gents,” “ZWF-Zeit­schrift für wirt­schaft­li­che Fabrik­be­trieb” and “HTM-Jour­nal of Heat Treat­ment and Mate­ri­als” to De Gruy­ter on Janu­ary 1, 2021. Raue advi­sed Berlin-based acade­mic publisher De Gruy­ter on the transaction.

De Gruy­ter is an inde­pen­dent acade­mic publisher with head­quar­ters in Berlin and offices in Basel, Boston, Munich, Beijing, Warsaw and Vienna. De Gruy­ter publishes more than 1,300 new book titles and more than 900 jour­nals a year, is a world leader in open access, and provi­des digi­tal access to scho­larly content to more than 12 million users a year on its website, degruyter.com.

Carl Hanser Verlag is one of Germany’s leading publishers of lite­ra­ture as well as applied engi­nee­ring, tech­no­logy, compu­ter science and business.

Advi­sor Walter De Gruy­ter GmbH: Raue (Berlin)
Dr. Jörg Jaecks (Part­ner, Lead Part­ner Corpo­rate Law, M&A), Dr. Michael K. Berg­mann (Part­ner, Anti­trust Law), Dr. Johan­nes Modest (Asso­ciate, Anti­trust Law)

About Raue
Raue is an inter­na­tio­nally active law firm based in Berlin. She provi­des compre­hen­sive advice to natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal compa­nies and public enti­ties on invest­ment projects, tran­sac­tions, regu­la­tory issues and conten­tious dispu­tes. www.raue.com

Buy&Build: NORD Holding and audiOsono acquire two companies in the hearing care market

Posted on by Tatjana Anderer

Septem­ber 2020, Hano­ver, Germany — NORD Holding, toge­ther with an indus­try-expe­ri­en­ced manage­ment team led by Mana­ging Direc­tor Mr. Wilhelm Evers, is pursuing a buy-and-build stra­tegy in the premium hearing care segment. With part of the oton-/ Ohrwerk Group (a total of 29 estab­lished specialty stores), the foun­da­tion has now been laid for the inor­ga­nic growth plan­ned to more than 150 specialty stores. The compa­nies will be united in perspec­tive under a common appearance as “OHRWERK Hörge­räte” in the stron­gly growing market of premium hearing acoustics.

“With these invest­ments, audiO­sono will directly join the ranks of the largest hearing care compa­nies in Germany. Thanks to Mr. Evers’ indus­try expe­ri­ence and network, we are parti­ci­pa­ting in the strong growth in the hearing care market in the best possi­ble way and are very much looking forward to support­ing him in the further deve­lo­p­ment of the new company,” says Phil­ipp von Mitzlaff, Member of the Execu­tive Board at NORD Holding.

“We give our hearing care profes­sio­nals the oppor­tu­nity to concen­trate fully on their craft: Advi­sing custo­mers in the best possi­ble way, fitting hearing aids opti­mally and selling them. With this in mind, we want to be the most attrac­tive buyer and, above all, employer for hearing care profes­sio­nals in Germany,” says Wilhelm Evers, Mana­ging Direc­tor of audiOsono.

“We are plea­sed to have found strong part­ners in NORD Holding and audiO­sono, who share our corpo­rate philo­so­phy of respon­si­ble hearing care craft­sman­ship and will conti­nue the group’s growth course on this basis. In the future, I will concen­trate more on support­ing the oton & friends network part­ners,” says Andreas Roberg, Mana­ging Direc­tor of oton.

On the part of NORD Holding, the tran­sac­tions were accom­pa­nied by Phil­ipp von Mitzlaff, André Seidel and David Wössner.

About audiO­sono
With audiO­sono, NORD Holding is addres­sing the incre­asing demand for high-quality hearing aids and custo­mer-orien­ted advice in clear distinc­tion to the estab­lished branch concepts. As a buy-and-build plat­form with a focus on hearing acou­stics, audiO­sono prima­rily bene­fits from the high degree of frag­men­ta­tion in the German market and the incre­asing pene­tra­tion and accep­tance of hearing aids in society. audiO­sono parti­ci­pa­tes in estab­lished hearing care stores with a strong local presence as well as natio­nally active chains throug­hout Germany, offe­ring inde­pen­dent acou­sti­ci­ans an alter­na­tive to selling to a large chain store.

About oton and Ohrwerk
The Group opera­tes a total of 29 own stores with approx. 75 employees under the two umbrella brands oton — Die Hörakus­ti­ker and Ohrwerk Hörge­räte with seve­ral regio­nal clus­ters throug­hout Germany (esp. NRW, nort­hern Germany and Bava­ria). With its own hearing aid coll­ec­tion, an attrac­tive finan­cing concept, broad service port­fo­lio and various trai­ning programs, the Group is a leading entity in Germany in terms of custo­mer proxi­mity, quality aware­ness and employee deve­lo­p­ment. www.oton-hoerakustik.de/ and www.ohrwerk-gmbh.info/

Advi­sor Nord Holding: BPG Bera­tungs- und Prüfungsgesellschaft 
Andreas Hoff­mann, WP and Part­ner (Over­all Manage­ment), Alex­an­der Schnei­der, Asso­ciate (Finan­cial), Ludger Fang­mann, StB and Part­ner (Tax), and Jan Phil­ipp Kruse, Asso­ciate (Tax).
www.bpe.de

About NORD Holding
With its 50-year history and assets under manage­ment of € 2.5 billion, NORD Holding is one of the leading private equity asset manage­ment compa­nies in Germany. The focus is on the Direct Invest­ments and Fund Invest­ments busi­ness areas. The focus of the direct busi­ness is on the struc­tu­ring and finan­cing of corpo­rate succes­sion models, the acqui­si­tion of group parts/subsidiaries and the expan­sion finan­cing of medium-sized compa­nies. In contrast to most other finan­cial inves­tors, who only manage time-limi­ted funds, NORD Holding acts as a so-called “ever­green fund” with no time limit and invests from its own balance sheet. The company is curr­ently invol­ved with more than 15 compa­nies in Germany and other German-spea­king count­ries. The Fund Invest­ments busi­ness unit targets the small-cap segment of the Euro­pean private equity market and focu­ses on primary, secon­dary and co-invest­ments. NORD Holding focu­ses stron­gly on buyout mana­gers newly estab­lished in the market, opera­tio­nal invest­ment stra­te­gies and also regu­larly acts as an anchor investor.

ROTZINGER acquires Viersen site from Syntegon

Posted on by Tatjana Anderer

Güters­loh — The Swiss mecha­ni­cal engi­nee­ring company ROTZINGER GROUP AG has taken over the site in Viersen/North Rhine-West­pha­lia and a large part of the product port­fo­lio manu­fac­tu­red there from the pack­a­ging specia­list Synte­gon Tech­no­logy GmbH. The process and pack­a­ging tech­no­logy company was a divi­sion of Robert Bosch GmbH until 2019. The acqui­si­tion is still subject to appr­oval by the rele­vant anti­trust authorities.

ROTZINGER intends to realign and sustain­ably deve­lop the Vier­sen site. The company is acqui­ring the port­fo­lios in the areas of filling and closing machi­nes as well as parts of the process tech­no­logy for bars and sugar confec­tion­ery as part of an asset deal. Excluded from the sale are the process plants for the produc­tion of jelly products, which Synte­gon will trans­fer to its subsi­diary Makat Candy Tech­no­logy GmbH.

ROTZINGER was compre­hen­si­vely advi­sed on the take­over by a team of BRANDI Rechts­an­wälte in Güters­loh, Detmold, Hano­ver, Pader­born and Biele­feld specia­li­zing in M&A tran­sac­tions under the leader­ship of part­ner Dr. Franz Tepper (photo) on corpo­rate law, labor law and IT law. In Switz­er­land, Dr. Max Nägeli of the law firm Probst Part­ner in Winter­thur advi­sed the purcha­ser. BRANDI and Probst Part­ner frequently work toge­ther in cross-border tran­sac­tions and are both foun­ding members of the law firm network PANGEA NET.

ROTZINGER GROUP AG in Kaiseraugst/Switzerland with its compa­nies DEMAUREX SA, ROTZINGER AG and TRANSVER AG was foun­ded in 1948 and is today a leading supplier of convey­ing, storage and product flow control systems for products in the choco­late, cookie, phar­maceu­ti­cal and other indus­tries. The systems are deve­lo­ped and manu­fac­tu­red at the Kaiser­augst plant and then assem­bled and commis­sio­ned at the customer’s site. The joint-stock company, which is run as a family busi­ness with appro­xi­m­ately 85 employees, is also a specia­list in feeding pack­a­ging machi­nes with products and trans­port­ing them away.

Synte­gon Tech­no­logy GmbH, head­quar­te­red in Waib­lin­gen/­Ba­den-Würt­tem­berg, is a global supplier of process and pack­a­ging tech­no­logy for the food and phar­maceu­ti­cal indus­tries. After the take­over of Robert Bosch Pack­a­ging Tech­no­logy GmbH by the invest­ment company CVC Capi­tal Part­ners last year, the company had been rena­med Synte­gon Tech­no­logy. It employs around 6,100 people, around half of whom work in Germany. The company is repre­sen­ted at over 30 loca­ti­ons in more than 15 count­ries and gene­ra­ted sales of around 1.3 billion euros in 2019.

Synte­gon Tech­no­logy GmbH was repre­sen­ted by the Stutt­gart office of CMS Hasche Sigle under the leader­ship of Dr. Claus-Peter Fabian.

Advi­sors to ROTZINGER GROUP AG: BRANDI Attor­neys at Law
Dr: Franz Tepper, Part­ner (Lead, Corporate/M&A), Gütersloh
Dr. Cars­ten Chris­to­phery, Asso­ciate (Corporate/M&A), Gütersloh
Eva-Maria Gott­schalk, Part­ner (Corporate/M&A), Gütersloh
Björn Mai, Asso­ciate (Labor Law), Detmold
Dr. Oliver Ebert, Part­ner (Labor Law), Hanover
Dr. Chris­toph Rempe, Part­ner (IP/IT, Anti­trust Law), Bielefeld
Daniela Deifuß-Kruse, Part­ner (Envi­ron­men­tal Law), Paderborn

Probst Part­ner (Winter­thur, Switzerland)
Dr. Max Nägeli (Corpo­rate)

Advi­sors to Synte­gon Tech­no­logy GmbH: CMS Hasche Sigle, Stuttgart
Dr. Claus-Peter Fabian, Part­ner (Lead Part­ner, Corporate/M&A)
Dr. Kai Wallisch, Coun­sel (Corporate/M&A)
Simone Phil­ipp, Senior Asso­ciate (Corporate/M&A)
Dr. Chris­tian Haell­migk, Part­ner (Anti­trust Law)
Malena Hansen, Asso­ciate (Anti­trust)

About BRANDI Rechtsanwälte
BRANDI Rechts­an­wälte is one of the leading medium-sized commer­cial law firms in West­pha­lia and Hano­ver with offices in Biele­feld, Detmold, Güters­loh, Hano­ver, Pader­born and Minden as well as coope­ra­tion offices in Paris and Beijing. More than 90 lawy­ers, 23 of whom are also nota­ries, advise compa­nies in all areas of natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal busi­ness law and public law. BRANDI is a foun­ding member of the inter­na­tio­nal network PANGEA NET. For more infor­ma­tion about BRANDI Attor­neys at Law, visit www.brandi.net.

GOF advises Career Partner on the sale of PROAKTIV Management

Posted on by Tatjana Anderer

Munich — Career Part­ner GmbH has sold its stake in PROAKTIV Manage­ment GmbH as part of a manage­ment buy-out. Career part­ner was advi­sed on this tran­sac­tion by the commer­cial law firm Gütt Olk Feld­haus.

PROAKTIV Manage­ment was foun­ded in 1995 and is today a reco­gni­zed premium provi­der of in-house and open trai­ning in the areas of manage­ment, sales and commu­ni­ca­tion. The inter­na­tio­nal custo­mer base consists of market-leading compa­nies from indus­try, trade and services.

Career Part­ner is one of the leading full-service provi­ders of private higher educa­tion in Germany and the holding company of IUBH Inter­na­tio­nal Univer­sity of Applied Scien­ces. Career Part­ner is a port­fo­lio company of Oakley Capital.

Legal advi­sors Career Part­ner GmbH: Gütt Olk Feld­haus, Munich
Adrian von Prit­t­witz (Part­ner, Lead), Dr. Sebas­tian Olk (Part­ner), Isabelle Vran­cken (Senior Asso­ciate), Ricarda Theis (Asso­ciate, all Corporate/M&A)

About Gütt Olk Feldhaus
Gütt Olk Feld­haus is a leading inter­na­tio­nal law firm based in Munich. We provide compre­hen­sive advice on commer­cial and corpo­rate law. Our focus is on corpo­rate law, M&A, private equity and finan­cing. In these specia­list areas we also take on the litigation.

Advent and Cinven acquire thyssenkrupp Elevator

Posted on by Tatjana Anderer

Essen/ Frank­furt a. Main - thys­sen­krupp Eleva­tor, a leading global player in the market for eleva­tors and escala­tors (E&E), will operate as an inde­pen­dent company with new owner­ship struc­tures from today. All rele­vant regu­la­tory autho­ri­ties have uncon­di­tio­nally appro­ved the acqui­si­tion by Advent and Cinven. Working with the new owners as stra­te­gic and finan­cial part­ners will allow thys­sen­krupp Eleva­tor to conti­nue its ambi­tious corpo­rate plans: to expand its strong market posi­tion and tech­no­lo­gi­cal market leadership.

With global opera­ti­ons and over 50,000 employees, thys­sen­krupp Eleva­tor gene­ra­ted earnings of around eight billion euros in fiscal year 2018/2019. The most important busi­ness area is the main­ten­ance of around 1.4 million eleva­tors and escala­tors. This is ensu­red by 24,000 service tech­ni­ci­ans all over the globe.

The product port­fo­lio of thys­sen­krupp Eleva­tor covers a wide range — from eleva­tor systems for resi­den­tial and commer­cial proper­ties to tech­no­lo­gi­cally sophisti­ca­ted, tailor-made solu­ti­ons for state-of-the-art high-rise buil­dings such as One World Trade Center in New York. In addi­tion to eleva­tor systems, the port­fo­lio also includes escala­tors and moving walks, passen­ger boar­ding bridges, stair and plat­form lifts, and indi­vi­dual service models for all products. All this adds up to a compre­hen­sive range of products and services for a broad spec­trum of urban mobility.

In the context of COVID-19 thys­sen­krupp Eleva­tor once again demons­tra­tes a high level of crisis resi­li­ence. Thanks to a special focus on stable service busi­ness, a global presence, a dedi­ca­ted manage­ment team and a highly moti­va­ted work­force, work contin­ued even under diffi­cult condi­ti­ons. In system-rele­vant buil­dings, such as hospi­tals and public faci­li­ties, mobi­lity has thus been ensured.

The strong market posi­tion of thys­sen­krupp Eleva­tor and its inno­va­tive tech­no­lo­gies convin­ced Advent and Cinven. Both are fami­liar with the company’s rele­vant growth markets and have alre­ady successfully inves­ted in 130 compa­nies in the indus­trial and busi­ness services sectors. The consor­tium shares a common invest­ment philo­so­phy: sustainable further growth of leading compa­nies. The focus is always on long-term value creation.

Ranjan Sen (photo), Mana­ging Part­ner and Head of Germany at Advent Inter­na­tio­nal, comm­ents: “We are deligh­ted to conti­nue support­ing thys­sen­krupp Eleva­tor as an inde­pen­dent company. We see signi­fi­cant poten­tial to further expand our market posi­tion and intend to leverage our coll­ec­tive exper­tise and finan­cial resour­ces for further sustainable growth.”

Bruno Schick, Part­ner and Head of DACH and Emer­ging Europe at Cinven, adds: “In close part­ner­ship with manage­ment and employees we will further deve­lop thys­sen­krupp Eleva­tor by inves­t­ing in orga­nic growth and targe­ted acqui­si­ti­ons. Our clear goal is to create resour­ces to further streng­then and expand thys­sen­krupp Elevator’s global presence — parti­cu­larly in Asia — through addi­tio­nal acqui­si­ti­ons, new and energy-effi­ci­ent products, and invest­ment in rese­arch & and development.”

Follo­wing the successful closing, thys­sen­krupp Eleva­tor will relo­cate its head­quar­ters to the vici­nity of Düssel­dorf Airport. The move is sche­du­led to take place in the first quar­ter of 2021.

About thys­sen­krupp Eleva­tor AG
With custo­mers in over 100 count­ries served by more than 50,000 employees, thys­sen­krupp Eleva­tor achie­ved sales of around €8.0 billion in fiscal year 2018/2019. Over 1,000 loca­ti­ons around the globe form a dense sales and service network, ensu­ring opti­mum proxi­mity to custo­mers. thys­sen­krupp Eleva­tor has estab­lished itself as one of the world’s leading eleva­tor compa­nies since ente­ring the market 40 years ago and became inde­pen­dent in August 2020. The company’s most important busi­ness area is the service provi­ded by more than 24,000 tech­ni­ci­ans for around 1.4 million trans­port solu­ti­ons world­wide. The product port­fo­lio ranges from passen­ger and freight eleva­tors to modern, custo­mi­zed solu­ti­ons for modern high-rise buil­dings — such as the One World Trade Center in New York. In addi­tion to escala­tors, the port­fo­lio also includes moving walks, passen­ger boar­ding bridges, stair and plat­form lifts, and tail­o­red service solu­ti­ons such as MAX, the industry’s first predic­tive main­ten­ance solu­tion — cove­ring a broad spec­trum of urban mobility.

Baker McKenzie advises CureVac on strategic partnership with GSK

Posted on by Tatjana Anderer

Munich — Baker McKen­zie advi­sed Cure­Vac AG on a stra­te­gic colla­bo­ra­tion agree­ment with Glax­oS­mit­h­Kline (GSK) to rese­arch, deve­lop, gene­rate and commer­cia­lize up to five mRNA-based vacci­nes and mono­clonal anti­bo­dies (mAbs) to combat infec­tious dise­ase patho­gens. The colla­bo­ra­tion comple­ments GSK’s exis­ting mRNA exper­tise with CureVac’s inte­gra­ted mRNA platform.

Further deve­lo­p­ment of mRNA-based vacci­nes and thera­pies could play a criti­cal role in miti­ga­ting future pande­mics. The two compa­nies are combi­ning their mRNA exper­tise to combat a wide range of infec­tious dise­ase patho­gens. These projects were speci­fi­cally selec­ted to take full advan­tage of this plat­form tech­no­logy, while also addres­sing unmet medi­cal needs and asso­cia­ted econo­mic burdens.

Cure­Vac is entit­led to payments for deve­lo­p­ment and regu­la­tory mile­sto­nes of up to EUR 320 million and for commer­cial mile­sto­nes of up to EUR 380 million. — In addi­tion, Cure­Vac recei­ves tiered royal­ties on product sales. In addi­tion, GSK will make a one-time payment of EUR 120 million and a refundable payment of EUR 30 million. The latter will be due as soon as CureVac’s indus­trial produc­tion faci­lity curr­ently under cons­truc­tion in Germany has recei­ved its GMP (Good Manu­fac­tu­ring Prac­tice) certi­fi­ca­tion from the rele­vant autho­ri­ties. Under the terms of the agree­ment, GSK will also make an equity invest­ment of EUR 150 million in Cure­Vac, repre­sen­ting just under 10% of CureVac’s share capital.

“We are very plea­sed to support Cure­Vac in this important colla­bo­ra­tion agree­ment with GSK, which brings toge­ther two world-class compa­nies to further deve­lop their mRNA-based vacci­nes and thera­pies to combat a wide range of infec­tious dise­ase agents,” commen­ted Dr. Constanze Ulmer-Eilfort (pictu­red), lead part­ner at Baker McKen­zie on the transaction.

Cure­Vac is a long-stan­ding client of Baker McKen­zie. Under the leader­ship of Dr. Constanze Ulmer-Eilfort, Baker McKen­zie advi­sed Cure­Vac on, among other things, the colla­bo­ra­tion agree­ments with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foun­da­tion and CEPI, and most recently on the stra­te­gic part­ner­ship with Genmab A/S for the deve­lo­p­ment of mRNA-based anti­body thera­pies (Decem­ber 2019).

Legal advi­sor Cure­Vac AG: Baker McKenzie
Lead: IP: Dr. Constanze Ulmer-Eilfort, LL.M. (Part­ner, Munich)
IP: Julia Schie­ber (Senior Asso­ciate, Zurich), Andreas Jauch (Senior Asso­ciate, Frankfurt),
Anti­trust: Dr. Chris­tian Burholt (Part­ner, Berlin)
Pharma: Dr. Thilo Räpple (Part­ner, Frankfurt)

P+P Pöllath + Partners advises Zur Rose Group on the acquisition of TeleClinic

Posted on by Tatjana Anderer

Munich — The Zur Rose Group has acqui­red Tele­Cli­nic GmbH (“Tele­Cli­nic”), based in Munich, for a purchase price in the mid double-digit million euro range.

Tele­Cli­nic was foun­ded in 2015 by Katha­rina Jünger and has quickly estab­lished itself as the leading tele­me­di­cine provi­der in Germany. The company provi­des tele­me­di­cine services, inclu­ding digi­tal prescrip­ti­ons and dise­ase certi­fi­ca­tes that are compli­ant with German health insu­rance reim­bur­se­ment regu­la­ti­ons. After a diagno­sis by a specia­list, pati­ents who are self-paying receive an e‑prescription based on a Tele­Cli­nic solu­tion via app on their cell phone, which they can redeem at an on-site or mail-order phar­macy. Online sick notes can be sent directly to the employer via email. Doctors can join the plat­form easily and without obli­ga­tion and offer their exper­tise flexi­bly and regard­less of location.

The Swiss Zur Rose Group is Europe’s largest e‑commerce phar­macy and one of the leading medi­cal whole­sa­lers in Switz­er­land. It also opera­tes the leading market­place in Southern Europe for phar­macy-bran­ded health and perso­nal care products. The company has an inter­na­tio­nal presence, inclu­ding Germany’s best-known phar­macy brand DocMor­ris. Zur Rose employs more than 1,800 people at its sites in Switz­er­land, Germany, the Nether­lands, Spain and France. In 2019, it gene­ra­ted sales of 1,569 million Swiss francs (inclu­ding medpex) at

Advi­sor Zur Rose Group: P+P Pöllath + Partners 
Dr. Michael Inhes­ter (Part­ner, Lead Part­ner, M&A, Munich)
Adal­bert Makos (Coun­sel, M&A, Munich)
Daniel Wied­mann, LL.M. (NYU) (Asso­cia­ted Part­ner, Anti­trust Law, Frankfurt)
Matthias Ober­bauer (Asso­ciate, M&A, Munich)

Private equity house Brockhaus Capital Management goes public

Posted on by Tatjana Anderer

Frank­furt a. Main — Tech­no­logy inves­tor Brock­haus Capi­tal Manage­ment (BCM) has successfully gone public despite the coro­na­vi­rus pande­mic. 115 million flowed into the acqui­si­tion treasury as a result of the capi­tal increase. at an issue price of 32 euros per share, the tech­no­logy inves­tor is valued at 332 million euros. — The exclu­si­vely new secu­ri­ties are to go to insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors as part of a private place­ment. BCM plans to use the proceeds to acquire other compa­nies in sectors such as health­care, soft­ware and envi­ron­men­tal tech­no­logy. BCM speaks of “tech­no­logy cham­pi­ons in the German SME sector with B2B busi­ness models”.

Foun­der Marco Brock­haus (photo) and the manage­ment team, which curr­ently still jointly holds 33 percent of BCM and will remain the largest share­hol­der group even after the dilu­tion resul­ting from the IPO, have commit­ted to a lock-up period of two years. Marco Brockhaus’s team is not allo­wed to sell any shares for that long.

The IPO was accom­pa­nied by the US banks Citi­bank and Jeffe­ries. Commerz­bank was on board as joint bookrunner.

A total of 3,593,750 new shares were placed in the private place­ment. Assum­ing full exer­cise of the green­shoe option, the gross proceeds amount to appro­xi­m­ately EUR 115 million. Within the scope of the private place­ment, members of the Manage­ment Board, Super­vi­sory Board and employees of BCM as well as members of the manage­ment of BCM subsi­dia­ries parti­ci­pa­ted in the capi­tal increase in the total amount of EUR 1 million.

About Brock­haus Capi­tal Management
BCM AG, head­quar­te­red in Frank­furt am Main, is a tech­no­logy group that acqui­res high-margin and high-growth tech­no­logy cham­pi­ons with B2B busi­ness models in the German midmar­ket. With a unique plat­form approach and a long-term hori­zon, BCM actively and stra­te­gi­cally supports its subsi­dia­ries to achieve long-term profi­ta­ble growth across indus­tries and count­ries. At the same time, BCM hereby offers access to these non-listed German tech­no­logy cham­pi­ons, which are other­wise inac­ces­si­ble to capi­tal market investors.

heidelpay takes over the “Pay Later” business from Paysafe

Posted on by Tatjana Anderer

Frank­furt a.M. — Herbert Smith Freeh­ills has advi­sed heidel­pay Group on the acqui­si­tion of Paysafe Pay Later, a specia­list in pay-later payment methods, from Paysafe Group. The tran­sac­tion is still subject to regu­la­tory appr­oval and is expec­ted to close in the third quar­ter of 2020. Until then, the two compa­nies will conti­nue to operate as inde­pen­dent organizations.

Paysafe Pay Later (payo­lu­tion GmbH) deve­lops payment solu­ti­ons for online and offline commerce. As part of the inter­na­tio­nal Paysafe Group, a leading specia­li­zed payment plat­form with over 20 years of expe­ri­ence in the online payment busi­ness, Paysafe Pay Later offers indi­vi­dual solu­ti­ons for the DACH region.

heidel­pay is one of the fastest growing German tech compa­nies for inter­na­tio­nal payments. With over 17 years of expe­ri­ence in e‑commerce and as a BaFin-appro­ved payment insti­tu­tion, heidel­pay offers compa­nies of all sizes the ability to process payments world­wide. Since 2020, the inves­tor KKR has been the majo­rity share­hol­der of the heidel­pay Group.

heidelpay’s latest invest­ment is part of the company’s stra­tegy to drive Euro­pean expan­sion and expand its product offe­ring for its own custo­mers in the area of Pay Later payment methods.

Herbert Smith Freeh­ills had alre­ady advi­sed the heidel­pay foun­ders and the inves­tor AnaCap Finan­cial Part­ners on the sale of a majo­rity stake to the invest­ment company KKR in 2019. In 2017, the firm had assis­ted the heidel­pay foun­ders in the sale of a majo­rity stake to AnaCap Finan­cial Partners.

Advi­sor heidel­pay Group: Herbert Smith Freeh­ills (Frank­furt)
Dr. Nico Abel, Photo (Part­ner, Lead), Rüdi­ger Hoff­mann (Coun­sel; both Corporate/M&A), Dr. Marcel Nuys (Part­ner), Dr. Florian Huer­kamp (Coun­sel; both Anti­trust; both Düssel­dorf), Kai Liebrich (Part­ner, Finance / Regu­la­tory), Moritz Kunz (Part­ner, Labor Law / Data Protec­tion), Dr. Stef­fen C. Hörner (Part­ner, Tax), Dr. Julius Brandt (Senior Asso­ciate), Tatiana Guens­ter, Quenie Hubert (both Asso­cia­tes; all Corporate/M&A), Mirko Gleits­mann (Asso­ciate, Anti­trust Law, Düssel­dorf), Dr. Hannes Jacobi (Senior Asso­ciate, Finance / Regu­la­tory), Dr. Simone Zieg­ler (Senior Asso­ciate, Labor Law / Data Protection)

Gamma acquires majority stake in SIP trunk provider HFO

Posted on by Tatjana Anderer

Munich — Bird & Bird LLP has advi­sed Gamma Commu­ni­ca­ti­ons plc (Gamma) on the acqui­si­tion of 80% of the shares in HFO Holding AG (HFO), one of the leading SIP trunk provi­ders in Germany, which also includes the distri­bu­tor Epsi­lon. There is an acqui­si­tion option for the remai­ning 20% for the next three years.

Gamma is a leading provi­der of Unified Commu­ni­ca­ti­ons as a Service (UCaaS) in the UK, Spain and the Nether­lands and has iden­ti­fied Germany as a key target market as part of its expan­sion stra­tegy. Accor­ding to the company, the over­all German market has around 36 million PBX exten­si­ons, but a cloud pene­tra­tion of only around 6%. Thus, the market for cloud tele­phony is expec­ted to grow steadily over the next few years.

Gamma’s goal is to deve­lop and sell a market-leading cloud PBX solu­tion through the chan­nel to acce­le­rate HFO’s growth in the emer­ging cloud PBX market in Germany. HFO also offers B2B mobile services through its subsi­diary Epsi­lon Tele­com — most recently selling over 100,000 connec­tions per year. This also provi­des an oppor­tu­nity for Gamma to sell a mobile cloud PBX product through this channel.

Advi­sor Gamma Commu­ni­ca­ti­ons plc: Bird & Bird LLP
Part­ner Stefan Münch (photo), Part­ner Stephan Kübler, LL.M., Coun­sel Michael Gass­ner, Asso­cia­tes Marcel Nurk and Mari­jana Simo­nova (all Corporate/M&A, Munich), Part­ner Dr. Ralph Panzer, Asso­cia­tes Julia Gottin­ger and Laura Schild­berg (all Labor Law, Munich) Part­ner Dr. Henri­ette Picot, Part­ner Dr. Alex­an­der Duis­berg, Asso­ciate Goek­han Kosak (all Tech & Comms, Munich), Part­ner Dr. Markus Körner, Asso­ciate Maxi­mi­lian Hillen­kamp (both Trade­mark Law, Munich), Senior Coun­sel Vale­rian Jenny (Foreign Trade Law, Frank­furt), Part­ner Neil Blun­dell, Part­ner Simon Allport, (both Corporate/M&A) Legal Dirc­tor Nick Heap (Corpo­rate Finance) all London, Asso­ciate Pauline Toet (Corpo­rate, Candi­tate Notary, The Hague).

Bird & Bird has advi­sed Gamma for many years, e.g. in 2014 on the IPO in London or recently on the public offe­ring for VOZTELECOM OIGAA360, S.A. (“VozTe­le­com”). VozTe­le­com is one of the leading provi­ders of cloud PBX solu­ti­ons in Spain and, along with the major fixed and mobile opera­tors, has the largest cloud PBX busi­ness. Neil Blun­dell, Part­ner in London, says: “We are deligh­ted to support Gamma in their expan­sion in Europe. It’s a very exci­ting company and has perfor­med incre­di­bly well since going public. Bird & Bird has a super­bly inte­gra­ted inter­na­tio­nal M&A group, and the teams in the UK, Germany, Spain and the Nether­lands have worked first class to deli­ver these deals. We look forward to conti­nuing to support Gamma on their future jour­neys, both in the UK and internationally.”

GRÜN Software wins family offices Fontas and Mogk as financially strong partners

Posted on by Tatjana Anderer

Aachen — The Aachen-based GRÜN Soft­ware Group was able to win the Nurem­berg family offices Fontas and Mogk as finan­ci­ally strong part­ners for its growth plans to build up a group of medium-sized B2B soft­ware compa­nies. The inves­tors have taken a signi­fi­cant mino­rity stake. Foun­der and CEO Dr. Oliver Grün remains majo­rity share­hol­der. Bird & Bird LLP advi­sed the Nurem­berg-based family offices Fontas and Mogk on their invest­ment in Aachen-based GRÜN Soft­ware Group. You take over a signi­fi­cant mino­rity shareholding

The aim of the part­ner­ship is to promote the growth of the GRÜN Soft­ware Group with today 150 employees by acqui­si­tion & further deve­lo­p­ment of soft­ware compa­nies with indus­try soft­ware within the frame­work of a “Buy & Build” stra­tegy: “Through our new, strong part­ners, we comple­ment our expe­ri­ence in buil­ding medium-sized soft­ware compa­nies with the neces­sary capi­tal for acqui­si­ti­ons. This crea­tes an owner-mana­ged plat­form for invest­ments in soft­ware compa­nies that is unique in this form,” says a plea­sed Dr. Oliver Grün.

The invest­ment team at GRÜN will be supported by Prof. Dr. Rainer Lauter­bach and Fabian Durst in the future. This will also streng­then the group’s finan­cial exper­tise: “Our joint approach of combi­ning soft­ware and finan­cial know-how is a new offe­ring in the market of medium-sized soft­ware compa­nies, which is curr­ently under­go­ing a strong conso­li­da­tion phase due to succes­si­ons and market chan­ges,” says Prof. Lauterbach.

To streng­then and expand the opera­tio­nal busi­ness of the GRÜN Soft­ware Group, which curr­ently offers solu­ti­ons for non-profit orga­niza­ti­ons and educa­tion provi­ders, Dirk Hönscheid, the company’s long-time autho­ri­zed signa­tory and COO, was also appoin­ted to the manage­ment board.

As part of a change in legal form, the company will no longer trade under the name GRÜN Soft­ware AG, but under GRÜN Soft­ware Group GmbH. All exis­ting cont­acts, contracts and coope­ra­ti­ons remain unchanged.

Consul­tant GRÜN Soft­ware Group: WSS Redpoint Cologne

Advi­sors to the Fontas and Mogk family offices: Bird & Bird Frankfurt
Part­ner Dr. Michael Jüne­mann (photo) and Acco­ciate Johan­nes Wirtz, LL.M.

Goodwin advises Storm Ventures on Series C of €60 million for solarisBank

Posted on by Tatjana Anderer

Frank­furt a.M. — The inter­na­tio­nal law firm Good­win has advi­sed Storm Ventures on a €60 million Series C finan­cing round for sola­ris­Bank.

The finan­cing round was led by HV Holtz­brinck Ventures; in addi­tion to Storm Ventures, Vulcan Capi­tal and Samsung Cata­lyst Fund parti­ci­pa­ted. The strength of the round is also reflec­ted in the fact that about half of the funding was raised from exis­ting inves­tors; these were led by yabeo and supported by BBVA, SBI Group, ABN AMRO Ventures, Global Brain, Hegus and Lake­star.

Storm Ventures is a Sili­con Valley-based venture capi­tal firm focu­sed on early-stage invest­ments in leading B2B compa­nies, inclu­ding Aire­space (sold to Cisco), Blues­hift, Echo­Sign (sold to Adobe), Marketo (sold to Adobe), MobileI­ron, Sendoso, Splash­top and Work­ato. The company has also inves­ted in leading Euro­pean start­ups, inclu­ding Algo­lia, Digi­tal Shadows and Talkdesk.

Berlin-based sola­ris­Bank AG is the first banking-as-a-service plat­form with a full banking license that enables compa­nies to offer their own finan­cial products. APIs give part­ners access to the bank’s modu­lar services. Inclu­ding the current Series C finan­cing round, sola­ris­Bank has raised a total of more than 160 million euros in the past four years.

Advi­sors Storm Ventures: Good­win, Frank­furt a.M./Silicon Valley
Gregor Klenk, Photo (Private Equity, Frank­furt); Craig Schmitz (FinTech, Sili­con Valley/Los Ange­les; both Lead); Asso­ciate: Joana Pamu­kova (Private Equity, Frankfurt)

CORVEL advises heidelpay Group on investment in fintech start-up Tillhub

Posted on by Tatjana Anderer

Hamburg — CORVEL advi­sed heidel­pay Group GmbH (“heidel­pay”) on its invest­ment in Till­hub GmbH. Till­hub offers retail­ers digi­tal payment methods via an all-in-one iPad POS system. Well-known custo­mers of Till­hub are Klier Hair Group GmbH and Fleu­rop AG. Heidel­pay is thus expan­ding its exper­tise in the PoS (Point of Sale) area and conti­nuing to drive its growth and omnich­an­nel approach. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the size of the investment.

Heidel­pay is one of the fastest growing German tech compa­nies for inter­na­tio­nal payments and offers its own solu­ti­ons such as invoice and install­ment purchase, direct debit, online bank trans­fer or prepay­ment as well as on well-known provi­ders of credit cards or wallet solu­ti­ons. Since 2020, the inves­tor KKR has been the majo­rity share­hol­der of heidelpay.

Advi­sor heidel­pay: CORVEL LLP (Hamburg)
Dr. Felix Brammer (photo), Asso­ciate: Thomas Sievers

Triton acquires RENK Group via high-yield bond financing

Posted on by Tatjana Anderer

Frank­furt a. Main/ Munich — The inter­na­tio­nal law firm Latham & Watkins LLP has advi­sed funds advi­sed by Triton on the finan­cing in connec­tion with the acqui­si­tion of the RENK Group. In addi­tion to a high-yield bond (senior secu­red notes, 144A/Reg S) placed with insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors with a volume of EUR 320 million, a matu­rity in July 2025 and a coupon of 5.75 percent p.a. Senior secu­red credit faci­li­ties (Super Senior Revol­ving Credit Faci­li­ties) with a volume of EUR 40 million (cash line) and EUR 167.5 million (guaran­tee line). The Senior Secu­red Notes are listed on The Inter­na­tio­nal Stock Exch­ange (Offi­cial List).

The tran­sac­tion was accom­pa­nied by a banking syndi­cate consis­ting of Gold­man Sachs Inter­na­tio­nal, Commerz­bank, Credit Suisse, Deut­sche Bank and UniCre­dit Bank.

Latham & Watkins advi­sed Triton with the follo­wing team:
Dr. Rüdi­ger Malaun (Part­ner, Munich), Dr. Alex­an­der Lentz (Part­ner, joint lead), Gregory Walker (Coun­sel), Jan Penselin, Jana Sichel­schmidt, Peter Neuböck (Asso­cia­tes, all Capi­tal Markets), Alex­an­dra Hage­lü­ken (Part­ner), Cora Gran­ne­mann (Coun­sel, both Banking, all Frank­furt), Stefan Süß (Part­ner, Tax, Munich), Verena Seevers (Asso­ciate, Tax, Hamburg)

Bright Capital configures financing for SOPRONEM Greven

Posted on by Tatjana Anderer

Frank­furt a.M. — McDer­mott Will & Emery advi­sed German mid-market finan­cier Bright Capi­tal on a credit faci­lity for SOPRONEM Greven GmbH, a port­fo­lio company of Quan­tum Capi­tal Part­ners.

With the help of highly auto­ma­ted and flexi­ble machi­nes, SOPRONEM Greven GmbH produ­ces a range of liquid deter­gents, care products and clea­ning agents specia­li­zing in private labels at its site in Greven and curr­ently employs more than 160 people. Throug­hout Europe, the company is one of the largest manu­fac­tu­r­ers of deter­gents and clea­ning agents.

McDer­mott regu­larly advi­ses Bright Capi­tal on finan­cings, most recently on a credit faci­lity to finance Beyond Capital’s acqui­si­tion of 19 opti­cal stores in Germany.

Advi­sors to Bright Capi­tal: McDer­mott Will & Emery, Frankfurt
Dr. Oliver Hahn­elt (photo), LL.M. (Lead), Dr. Niko­las Kout­sós (Coun­sel; both Financing)

First State makes public takeover offer for MVV Energie

Posted on by Tatjana Anderer

Mannheim/ Munich / Frank­furt a. Main/ London — First State intends to acquire MVV Ener­gie from EnBW and Rhein­ener­gie. Inter­na­tio­nal law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP advi­sed banks on the finan­cing of the acqui­si­tion of a 45.1% stake in Mann­heim-based energy supplier MVV Ener­gie AG by inter­na­tio­nal asset mana­ger First State from EnBW and Rhein­ener­gie and in connec­tion with a public take­over offer.

Weil also advi­sed BNP Pari­bas S.A. Germany Branch as the issuing bank of the finan­cing confir­ma­tion for the tender offer.

Advi­sors to First State: Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP
The German-English team was led by Banking Part­ners Dr. Wolf­ram Distler, photo (Frank­furt) and Paul Hibbert (London). Other team members were Part­ner Ludger Kempf (Tax Frank­furt), Coun­sel Dr. Heiner Drüke (Corpo­rate Frank­furt), Ben Thomp­son (Banking London) and Asso­cia­tes Sebas­tian Bren­ner (Corpo­rate), Markus Cejka (Banking) and Alisa Preis­sler (Tax, all Frank­furt) as well as Camille Jetzer (Banking London).

Korte Etiketten becomes part of the Chinese MAXIM Group

Posted on by Tatjana Anderer

Schwelm/ Düsseldorf/ Shang­hai — The owner of Klaus Korte GmbH & Co KG (“Korte”), a Schwelm-based produ­cer and supplier of high-quality labels and brand iden­ti­fi­ca­tion solu­ti­ons (photo) has sold to the Chinese Maxim Label and Pack­a­ging Group (“Maxim”) of Shang­hai. Klaus Korte GmbH & Co KG was advi­sed on the tran­sac­tion by Mayland AG.

Since 1962, Korte has been produ­cing the highest quality origi­nal woven and prin­ted labels at compe­ti­tive prices. In doing so, Korte works in a parti­cu­larly indi­vi­dua­li­zed manner and can custo­mize the mate­rial, shape, colors as well as brand iden­ti­fi­ca­tion solu­ti­ons to meet custo­mer requi­re­ments. The merger with Maxim now enables Korte to expand its previous focus on the German market inter­na­tio­nally, espe­ci­ally to the Asian region, and to comple­ment its range of brand iden­ti­fi­ca­tion solu­ti­ons with RFID solu­ti­ons, among other things.

Maxim Label and Pack­a­ging Group sees itself as a one-stop shop provi­ding brand iden­tity protec­tion and infor­ma­tion tech­no­logy solu­ti­ons to retail­ers and major brands. The product port­fo­lio includes RFID solu­ti­ons, price tags, ther­mal trans­fer labels, hang tags, care labels, adhe­si­ves and pack­a­ging solu­ti­ons. With the acqui­si­tion of Korte, Maxim intends to expand its produc­tion capa­ci­ties around the globe while conti­nuing to secure Korte’s posi­tion as one of the indus­try leaders in this segment. The main goal of Maxim is to quickly and easily adapt to chan­ging global requi­re­ments while syste­ma­tiz­ing them.

About MAYLAND AG
MAYLAND remains your relia­ble and profes­sio­nal M&A advi­sor even in these diffi­cult Corona times. We help you not to passi­vely endure the serious chan­ges, but to actively shape them. M&A can secure and streng­then the future of compa­nies in such times of crisis. In addi­tion to secu­ring the exis­tence of the company and jobs, (family) assets of the share­hol­ders can also be secu­red. In addi­tion, unique invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties often arise in times of crisis, and MAYLAND’s long expe­ri­ence through various econo­mic and capi­tal market cycles means it is ideally posi­tio­ned to take advan­tage of them.

MAYLAND is an inde­pen­dent, owner-mana­ged M&A consul­tancy based in Düssel­dorf. Since its foun­da­tion in 1998, MAYLAND has been deve­lo­ping indi­vi­dual solu­ti­ons for the purchase and sale of compa­nies or parts of compa­nies. MAYLAND also arran­ges the finan­cing or restruc­tu­ring that may be neces­sary or requi­red for these tran­sac­tions. MAYLAND provi­des struc­tu­red process manage­ment for these natio­nal and cross-border projects and coor­di­na­tes all services for a successful comple­tion of the tran­sac­tion. For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.mayland.de.

BayBG acquires minority stake in SAV

Posted on by Tatjana Anderer

Munich/Nuremberg — The clam­ping tech­no­logy company SAV GmbH, Nurem­berg, announ­ces a capi­tal increase. The new capi­tal comes from BayBG Baye­ri­sche Betei­li­gungs­ge­sell­schaft, which takes over 20 percent of the company’s shares as a mino­rity share­hol­der and at the same time contri­bu­tes a silent part­ner­ship. BayBG’s invest­ment will enable SAV, which has annual sales of €27 million at sites in Nurem­berg, Mitt­weida and Göppin­gen, to conti­nue its deve­lo­p­ment into an engi­nee­ring specia­list and thus successfully complete the restruc­tu­ring process of recent years.

As one of the few full-range suppli­ers, SAV can draw on many years of exper­tise in magne­tic, rotary and statio­nary clam­ping and auto­ma­tion solu­ti­ons, giving the company a high level of solu­tion compe­tence for all clam­ping tech­no­logy requi­re­ments in a wide range of indus­tries. Well-known compa­nies from the fields of mecha­ni­cal engi­nee­ring, trans­port and traf­fic, agri­cul­tu­ral tech­no­logy, aero­space and medi­cal tech­no­logy are among SAV’s custo­mer port­fo­lio. Inde­pen­dent product deve­lo­p­ments form a focal point of the further orientation.

SAV is also incre­asingly rely­ing on intel­li­gent auto­ma­tion concepts, such as the robot cell deve­lo­ped in-house. Martin Schach­erl, Mana­ging Direc­tor of SAV, is very plea­sed with the new inves­tor: “With BayBG, we have gained a very expe­ri­en­ced new part­ner. The newly acqui­red network and the addi­tio­nal capi­tal give us the free­dom to leverage growth poten­tial, for further deve­lo­p­ments and for opening up new markets. We are convin­ced that the coope­ra­tion will be very successful for both sides.”

Thomas Becher, Senior Invest­ment Mana­ger of BayBG, adds: “We were parti­cu­larly convin­ced by the expe­ri­en­ced and compe­tent SAV manage­ment team. With its consis­tent further focus on beco­ming an engi­nee­ring specia­list, the company is tapping addi­tio­nal poten­tial as a provi­der of clam­ping tech­no­logy solutions.”

About BayBG
With an inves­ted volume of more than 300 million euros, BayBG Baye­ri­sche Betei­li­gungs­ge­sell­schaft mbH is one of the largest venture capi­tal and private equity inves­tors and provi­ders of mezza­nine finance for medium-sized compa­nies. It curr­ently has a commit­ment of over 300 million euros. With its venture capi­tal and equity invest­ments, it enables medium-sized compa­nies and start-ups to imple­ment inno­va­tion and growth projects, arrange for company succes­sion or opti­mize their capi­tal structure.

Bryter targets U.S. expansion with USD 16 million Series A round

Posted on by Tatjana Anderer

Berlin — The legal soft­ware company Bryter wants to expand its US busi­ness with a finan­cing round of 16 million dollars (about 14 million euros). She plans to open an office in New York in the fall. Series A is led by Dawn Capi­tal and Accel.

Accel has alre­ady been invol­ved since last year’s seed round, when the startup raised six million dollars (about 5.5 million euros) in a late-seed round, and is now expan­ding its stake. Exis­ting inves­tors Notion Capi­tal, Chal­fen Ventures and Cavalry Ventures are also parti­ci­pa­ting in the Series A.

Bryter opened an office in London last year, and now New York is on the sche­dule for the fall. Bryter intends to invest the new capi­tal prima­rily in expan­ding the US repre­sen­ta­tive office.

Michael Grupp, CEO (photo center, M. Hübl left, M. Bues right): “BRYTER is deve­lo­ping soft­ware that can be used to deve­lop inter­ac­tive appli­ca­ti­ons for decis­ion auto­ma­tion, inclu­ding for lawy­ers. One can visua­lize and digi­tize complex decis­i­ons with the soft­ware.” Bryter’s custo­mers include many legal depart­ments and law firms, which can create custo­mi­zed appli­ca­ti­ons based on the no-code soft­ware it offers, such as virtual assistants, chat­bots and auto­ma­tion tools.

Advi­sors to Dawn Capi­tal: Schnitt­ker Möll­mann Part­ners (Berlin)
Dr. Benja­min Ullrich (Lead Part­ner); Asso­ciate: Daniela Machado (both Venture Capital)

Advi­sor Accel: Osborne Clarke (Colo­gne)
Nico­las Gabrysch (Venture Capital)

Cavalry Ventures: Hyac­inth (Berlin)
Kris­tian Lutz; Asso­ciate: Johan­nes Steinacher (both Venture Capital)

Advi­sor Bryter: Taylor Wessing (Hamburg)
Dr. Jens Wolf (lead); Asso­ciate: Phil­ipp Hoegl (both M&A/Venture Capital)
Inhouse Legal (Berlin): Konstan­tin Heil­mann (Senior Legal Counsel)

 

Lilium air cab receives USD 35 million from Tesla investor Baillie Gifford

Posted on by Tatjana Anderer

Munich — British inves­tor Bail­lie Gifford is inves­t­ing $35 million in Munich-based air cab deve­lo­per Lilium. Gifford is Tesla’s largest inves­tor after Elon Musk.

Most recently, Chinese Inter­net group Tencent, Atomico, Frei­geist and LGT inves­ted $240 million in the company. A total of 275 million was thus inves­ted in Lilium in the current invest­ment round. In this latest round of funding, Lilium reaches a billion-dollar valua­tion. The air cab manu­fac­tu­rer was foun­ded in 2015 by four engi­neers Daniel Wiegand, Sebas­tian Born, Patrick Nathen and Matthias Meiner.

The German startup has deve­lo­ped an all-elec­tric passen­ger jet (photo Lilium) that can take off and land vertically.

IK Investment Partners closes its 9th Mid Cap Fund at €2.85 billion.

Posted on by Tatjana Anderer

London — IK Invest­ment Part­ners (“IK” or “the Firm”), a leading Pan-Euro­pean private equity firm, is plea­sed to announce that it has closed its ninth Mid Cap fund, the IK IX Fund (“the Fund”), having reached its hard cap of €2.85 billion. IK’s previous Mid Cap fund, IK VIII, raised €1.85 billion in 2016.

The fund­raise attrac­ted signi­fi­cant inte­rest from a high-quality insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tor base across Europe (60%), North America (30%), Asia (7%) and South America (3%), with over a third of the money raised coming from new limi­ted part­ners inves­t­ing in IK funds for the first time.

Reflec­ting the opera­tio­nal strength of the Firm and its local market foot­print with seven offices across Europe, the Fund will conti­nue to invest across its core markets of the Nordics, the DACH region, France and the Bene­lux. The successful stra­tegy of support­ing growing and resi­li­ent Mid Cap busi­nesses in the Busi­ness Services, Consu­mer / Food, Engi­nee­red Products and Health­care sectors remains in place.

Chris­to­pher Masek, IK CEO (photo)said: “We are grateful for the confi­dence of our inves­tors in our active approach to trans­forming Euro­pean mid-market compa­nies through inter­na­tio­nal reach and shar­pe­ned opera­tio­nal capa­ci­ties. We are confi­dent that the IK IX Fund is well posi­tio­ned to leverage the strengths and expe­ri­ence acqui­red over 30 years in this new envi­ron­ment of change and opportunity.”

Mads Ryum Larsen, Head of IR and a Mana­ging Part­ner, said:
“We are deligh­ted to welcome both new and exis­ting inves­tors to IK IX, our largest ever fund. With our expan­ded team and on-the-ground exper­tise in all the markets we operate, we have never been better placed to seek out oppor­tu­ni­ties and support attrac­tive busi­nesses across Europe.”

Kirk­land & Ellis LLP acted as the legal coun­sel to the Fund.

This press release is not an offer of secu­ri­ties for sale in the United States or any other juris­dic­tion and inte­rests in the Fund may not be offe­red or sold in the United States or any other juris­dic­tions save in accordance with appli­ca­ble law.

About IK Invest­ment Partners
IK Invest­ment Part­ners (“IK”) is a Pan-Euro­pean private equity firm focu­sed on invest­ments in the Nordics, DACH region, France, Bene­lux, and the UK. Since 1989, IK has nearly €13 billion of capi­tal and inves­ted in over 130 Euro­pean compa­nies. Across its stra­te­gies, IK funds support compa­nies with strong under­ly­ing poten­tial, part­ne­ring with manage­ment teams and inves­tors to create robust, well-posi­tio­ned busi­nesses with excel­lent long-term pros­pects. For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.ikinvest.com

ARQIS advises Omnes Capital on investment in solar energy

Posted on by Tatjana Anderer

Düssel­dorf — ARQIS advi­sed Omnes Capi­tal on the closing of a solar energy joint venture with German solar power deve­lo­per ILOS New Energy. The French private equity firm invests through its Capen­er­gie 4 fund.

The fund is dedi­ca­ted to rene­wa­ble energy and now has three invest­ments in its port­fo­lio. He part­ne­red with Spain’s Proso­lia Energy and became invol­ved with Danish solar energy provi­der Better Energy. Further tran­sac­tions are curr­ently being exami­ned and are alre­ady at an advan­ced stage.

The goal of the Capen­er­gie funds is to provide growth capi­tal to support Euro­pean rene­wa­ble energy deve­lo­pers on their way to beco­ming inde­pen­dent energy produ­cers. The current tran­sac­tion illus­tra­tes this strategy.

ILOS New Energy is an inter­na­tio­nal solar power deve­lo­per based in Germany and was foun­ded by Michael Winter and Niko­laus Krane, two experts in utility systems and the solar indus­try. The aim of the part­ner­ship is to create a plat­form for pan-Euro­pean solar power projects with a total capa­city of more than 1.5 GW. The company alre­ady has a project pipe­line that includes a total capa­city of more than 500 MW in the Nether­lands, Ireland, the United King­dom, Spain and Italy. The part­ner­ship with Omnes comes with the inten­tion of beco­ming an inde­pen­dent power produ­cer across multi­ple markets.

Advi­sors to Omnes Capi­tal: ARQIS Rechts­an­wälte (Düssel­dorf)
Dr. Mirjam Boche (Lead; M&A); Coun­sel: Dr. Gerhard Schwartz (Energy; Munich); Asso­cia­tes: Thomas Chwa­lek, Dr. Maxi­mi­lian Back­haus (both M&A)

About ARQIS
ARQIS is an inde­pen­dent law firm opera­ting in Germany and Japan. The firm was foun­ded in 2006 at its current offices in Düssel­dorf, Munich and Tokyo. Around 55 employees advise dome­stic and foreign compa­nies at the highest level on the core issues of German and Japa­nese busi­ness law. The focus is on M&A, corpo­rate law, private equity, venture capi­tal, employ­ment law, private clients, intellec­tual property, liti­ga­tion as well as real estate law and tax law.

Achilles Vaccines receives Euro 11 million venture debt from EU malaria fund

Posted on by Tatjana Anderer

Frank­furt am Main — Herbert Smith Freeh­ills has advi­sed biotech company Achil­les Vacci­nes on the raising of an €11 million venture loan provi­ded by the EU Mala­ria Fund. The loan will support the rese­arch and deve­lo­p­ment of a mono­clonal anti­body against COVID-19. It will also be used for the first phase of three other vaccine rese­arch and deve­lo­p­ment projects. The combi­ned use of geno­mics, advan­ced mathe­ma­tics and arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence in the funded projects is expec­ted to signi­fi­cantly reduce the dura­tion and cost of development.

As the EU Mala­ria Fund is domic­i­led in Germany, the loan is subject to German law. It is the first of five annual loans from the new fund with a total volume of more than 46 million euros. At the same time, it marks the largest seed finan­cing to date for an Italian start-up in the biotech sector.

Achil­les Vacci­nes, based in Siena, Italy, focu­ses on the rese­arch and deve­lo­p­ment of vacci­nes against mala­ria and other serious infec­tious diseases.

The EU Mala­ria Fund is finan­ced, among others, by Innov­Fin EU and the Euro­pean Fund for Stra­te­gic Invest­ments, two joint initia­ti­ves of the Euro­pean Invest­ment Bank and the Euro­pean Commis­sion, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foun­da­tion , and the Monte dei Paschi di Siena Foun­da­tion.

Advi­sor Mala­ria Fund: Dentons (Frank­furt)
by part­ners Dr. Arne Klüwer and Dirk-Reiner Voss and coun­sels Verena Etzel and Oda Elmou­taoua­kil. They were supported by a team from Dentons’ Milan and Rome offices, led by part­ner Michele Odello.

Advi­sor Achil­les Vacci­nes: Herbert Smith Freeh­ills (Milan/Frankfurt)
Simone Egidi (Of Coun­sel, Milan, Lead), Kai Liebrich, Stefa­nie Herkert (both Part­ners), Dr. Katja Lehr (Coun­sel; all Banking & Finance), Dr. Stef­fen Hörner (Part­ner, Tax; all Frank­furt), Laura Orlando (Part­ner, Life Scien­ces), Sara Balice (Asso­ciate, IP; both Milan)
Maisto e Asso­ciati (Milan): Mauro Messi (Tax Law)

CCE Group issues 25 million euro promissory note loan

Posted on by Tatjana Anderer

Düssel­dorf — A Deloitte Legal team led by part­ners Dr. Albrecht Kind­ler, Foto (Düssel­dorf) and Dr. Peter Maser (Stutt­gart) advi­sed CCE Group GmbH, an Austrian deve­lo­per of photo­vol­taic plants, on the issu­ance of a promis­sory note loan in the amount of EUR 25 million. The promis­sory note loan was fully subscri­bed by a German pension fund.

The promis­sory note loan will be used to finance a photo­vol­taic project with a nomi­nal output of 87 MW in the Atacama Desert in Chile. After a cons­truc­tion phase of around 12 months, the photo­vol­taic power plant, which occu­p­ies an area of 145 hecta­res, will be connec­ted to the Chilean power grid at the end of the year. Loca­ted in the Coquimbo region — some 400 kilo­me­ters north of Sant­iago de Chile — the photo­vol­taic system is expec­ted to produce around 220 giga­watt hours of elec­tri­city per year from 2021.

The CCE Group, based in Garsten/Austria, reali­zes, finan­ces and mana­ges global alter­na­tive invest­ments in the field of photo­vol­taics. The group employs more than 100 people in six nati­ons. World­wide, the Group has solar projects with over 2 giga­watts of capa­city in various stages of deve­lo­p­ment and realiza­tion in its port­fo­lio, making it one of the leading photo­vol­taic deve­lo­pers in Europe.

Advi­sor CCE Group: Deloitte Legal

Dr. Albrecht Kind­ler (Corporate/M&A, Lead), Dr. Peter Maser (Commer­cial, Co-Lead), Dr. Juliane Wert­her-Bontje LL.M. (Corporate/M&A), Dr. Marcell Baumann (Corporate/M&A) Deloitte Corpo­rate Finance: Chris­toph Westphal.

An Austrian-German team of tax and legal experts provi­ded compre­hen­sive advice to the CCE Group in all phases of the tran­sac­tion, up to the successful closing. The finan­cing process inclu­ding the rating was supported by Deloitte Corpo­rate Finance around Mana­ging Direc­tor Chris­toph Westphal.

About Deloitte and Deloitte Legal

Deloitte provi­des audi­ting, risk advi­sory, tax advi­sory, finan­cial advi­sory and consul­ting services to compa­nies and insti­tu­ti­ons from all sectors of the economy; Legal advice is provi­ded in Germany by Deloitte Legal. With a global network of member compa­nies in more than 150 count­ries, Deloitte combi­nes excel­lence with world-class perfor­mance and helps clients solve their complex busi­ness chal­lenges. Making an impact that matters – for around 312,000 Deloitte employees, this is a common mission state­ment and indi­vi­dual ambi­tion at the same time. Deloitte Legal refers to the legal advice prac­ti­ces of the member compa­nies of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limi­ted, its affi­lia­tes or affi­lia­tes that provide legal services. Deloitte refers to Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limi­ted (“DTTL”), a “private limi­ted company limi­ted by guaran­tee” (limi­ted liabi­lity company under UK law), its network of member compa­nies and its affi­lia­tes. DTTL and each of its member compa­nies are legally inde­pen­dent and inde­pen­dent. DTTL (also called “Deloitte Global”) does not provide services to clients. www.deloitte.com/de/UeberUns.

McDermott advises Bantleon Group on the sale of its shares in LPKF

Posted on by Tatjana Anderer

Frank­furt a.M. — The Bant­leon Group was advi­sed by McDer­mott on the sale of its shares in SDAX-listed LPKF Laser & Elec­tro­nics AG (LPKF). As part of a capi­tal market tran­sac­tion, insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors acqui­red around 18.2% of LPKF’s share capi­tal, previously held by Bant­leon subsi­diary German Tech­no­logy AG, as well as the 10.4% stake held by Jörg Bant­leon, owner of the Bant­leon Group.

“The broad place­ment to insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors has the advan­tage for LPKF of signi­fi­cantly grea­ter inter­na­tio­nal visi­bi­lity at inves­tor level follo­wing its promo­tion to the SDAX,” explains Jörg Schu­bert, CEO of the invest­ment company German Tech­no­logy AG, which is part of the Bant­leon Bank Group.

The Bant­leon Group had held a stake in LPKF since June 2016 and, with Dr. Markus Peters, had been repre­sen­ted on the Super­vi­sory Board since 2017. Hauck & Aufhäu­ser acted as sole global coor­di­na­tor and sole book­run­ner for the place­ment of LPKF shares.

As an alter­na­tive to placing LPKF shares on the capi­tal market, the Bant­leon Group had prepared the sale of the entire 28.6% stake to stra­te­gic inves­tors or finan­cial inves­tors. The McDer­mott team also provi­ded compre­hen­sive advice to the Bant­leon Group in connec­tion with this struc­tu­red M&A process.

LPKF Laser & Elec­tro­nics AG is a provi­der of laser-based solu­ti­ons for the tech­no­logy indus­try with a current market capi­ta­liza­tion of around € 530 million. The Bant­leon Group is an asset mana­ger with a focus on insti­tu­tio­nal invest­ments and loca­ti­ons in Germany and Switz­er­land. The company mana­ges 5.1 billion euros with 45 employees.

Advi­sor Bant­leon Group: McDer­mott Will & Emery (Frank­furt)
Simon Weiß, Photo (Lead, Capi­tal Markets), Dr. Maxi­mi­lian Clos­ter­meyer (Corporate/M&A), Joseph M. Marx (US Capi­tal Markets), Daniel von Brevern (Anti­trust, Düssel­dorf); Asso­cia­tes: Isabelle Müller and Tina Zeller (both Corporate/M&A).

Baufi24 acquires fintech company LoanLink

Posted on by Tatjana Anderer

Hamburg — Baufi24 acqui­res the fintech company Loan­Link. Loan­Link GmbH, known for its CRM plat­form FinLink, will be inte­gra­ted into the Baufi24 Group as a subsi­diary in the course of this M&A tran­sac­tion. The parties invol­ved have agreed not to disc­lose further details of the deal. Through the acqui­si­tion, Baufi24, a mortgage broker that opera­tes prima­rily locally, is expan­ding its digi­tal custo­mer advi­sory services and streng­thening its posi­tion in the market. The merger with Baufi24 was prima­rily advi­sed on legal and tax matters from the Hamburg office by a team led by part­ner Dr. Jörn Wöbke (photo).

Baufi24
The cons­truc­tion finan­cing broker Baufi24 offers those inte­res­ted in loans exten­sive infor­ma­tion on the subject of real estate finan­cing and compa­res the offers of over 450 provi­ders. Foun­ded in 2006, the company is now the point of cont­act for over 3 million pros­pec­tive custo­mers each year. The advi­sors in the bran­ches throug­hout Germany support future homeow­ners on their way to owning their own home and deve­lop the finan­cing stra­tegy for them.

Loan­Link
Loan­Link is a Berlin-based fintech company that is parti­cu­larly present on the market through its core product FinLink, a CRM plat­form for finan­cial service provi­ders. The soft­ware solu­tion was laun­ched in 2019 in the form of a plat­form and enables finan­cial inter­me­dia­ries to digi­tize their day-to-day work. Loan­Link GmbH was foun­ded in August 2017 by Başar Canı­perk and Gernot Schus­ser.

Consul­tant Loan­Link: SMP
Dr. Jörn Wöbke (Lead) (Corpo­rate), Partner
Dr. Stephan Bank (Lead) (Corpo­rate), Partner
Dr. Malte Berg­mann (Taxes), Partner
Dr. Dennis Rasch (Corpo­rate), Associate
A team led by SMP part­ner Stephan Bank has been assis­ting Loan­Link in all legal matters since its angel finan­cing round.

About SMP
SMP is a specia­list tax and commer­cial law firm opera­ting in the core areas of corpo­rate, funds, liti­ga­tion, tax and tran­sac­tions. SMP attor­neys and tax advi­sors repre­sent a wide variety of clients. These include emer­ging tech­no­logy compa­nies and family-run medium-sized enter­pri­ses as well as corpo­ra­ti­ons and private equity/venture capi­tal funds. Since its foun­da­tion in 2017, SMP has become one of the leading addres­ses for venture capi­tal, private equity and fund struc­tu­ring in Germany. The firm and its part­ners have been reco­gni­zed natio­nally and inter­na­tio­nally by JUVE, Best Lawy­ers, Legal 500, Focus, and Cham­bers and Part­ners. Today, SMP employs over 50 expe­ri­en­ced lawy­ers and tax advi­sors in three offices in Berlin, Hamburg and Colo­gne. www.smp.law

Bird & Bird advises KORIAN on acquisition of Qualivita

Posted on by Tatjana Anderer

Munich — Bird & Bird LLP has advi­sed KORIAN Deutsch­land AG on the acqui­si­tion of the care divi­sion of Quali­vita AG.

With the hando­ver of the care busi­ness of Quali­Vita AG to KORIAN, the foun­der Jana Schulz wants to provide her company with a strong and sustainable part­ner. Start­ing with the opening of the first home in Ilsede in 2001, the company headed by Jana Schulz has built up almost 800 beds, outpa­ti­ent services and day care faci­li­ties in Lower Saxony and North Rhine-West­pha­lia to enable elderly people and those in need of care to lead largely auto­no­mous, self-deter­mi­ned and safe lives. — The Cartel Office has not yet given its appr­oval for the take­over. KORIAN has a large Euro­pean network and at the same time relies on the local ancho­ring of the faci­li­ties in their commu­ni­ties and neighborhoods.

KORIAN Germany is part of the KORIAN Group, Europe’s leading network of care homes and, with over 235 care faci­li­ties and outpa­ti­ent services, Germany’s largest private opera­tor of care and nursing services. The Quali­vita Group opera­tes more than 15 care faci­li­ties in Germany with a total of around 1,000 beds, inclu­ding inpa­ti­ent and outpa­ti­ent faci­li­ties as well as day care centers.

In order to take over the care divi­sion of the Quali­vita Group, exten­sive restruc­tu­ring measu­res were neces­sary between the signing of the purchase agree­ment and its closing, which were imple­men­ted, among other things, by means of a combi­na­tion of share and asset deal.

Advi­sors to KORIAN Germany: Bird & Bird 
Part­ner Stefan Münch (Part­ner) and Coun­sel Michael Gass­ner (both Corporate/M&A, Munich, lead) and Asso­ciate Jan Medele (Corporate/M&A, Düssel­dorf). Part­ner Thomas Hey and Asso­ciate Chris­tian Wirtz (both Labor Law, Düssel­dorf), Part­ner Dr. Markus Körner and Coun­sel Thomas Urband (both IP, Munich), Part­ner Dr. Jörg Witting, Coun­sel Dr. Stephan Wald­heim and Asso­ciate Marcio da Silva Lima (all Anti­trust, Düssel­dorf), Coun­sel Elie Kauf­man, LL.M., Asso­cia­tes Markus Stel­zig and Mari­jana Simo­nova (all Real Estate, Frank­furt and Munich, respec­tively) and Part­ner Dr. Henri­ette Picot and Asso­ciate Lara Ueber­feldt (both Data Protec­tion, Munich).

About Bird & Bird
Bird & Bird is a leading inter­na­tio­nal law firm with over 1,300 lawy­ers in 30 offices in 20 count­ries in Europe, the Middle East, Asia Paci­fic and North America. In Germany, we are repre­sen­ted by more than 220 lawy­ers in Düssel­dorf, Frank­furt, Hamburg and Munich and also have a presence in Berlin. We focus our consul­ting in parti­cu­lar on indus­trial sectors that are deve­lo­ping new tech­no­lo­gies and helping to shape digi­ta­liza­tion or are being chan­ged by it. Our attor­neys cover the full range of busi­ness and corpo­rate law, parti­cu­larly in areas where tech­no­logy, regu­la­tion and intellec­tual property play a special role. To learn more about us, visit www.twobirds.com.

GOF advises OPUS ONE on sale of shares to univativ

Posted on by Tatjana Anderer

Munich — The law firm Gütt Olk Feld­haus has advi­sed the share­hol­der and mana­ging direc­tor of OPUS ONE Recruit­ment GmbH, Sascha Yassine, on the sale of a majo­rity stake to the univa­tiv Group.

OPUS ONE Recruit­ment GmbH, based in Munich, was foun­ded in 2011. The company provi­des tempo­rary and perma­nent staf­fing services for the banking indus­try, as well as in the areas of office, finance, tax, legal and IT. Sascha Yassine will remain with the company as mana­ging direc­tor and will syste­ma­ti­cally deve­lop the company toge­ther with the univa­tiv Group.

The univa­tiv Group, head­quar­te­red in Darm­stadt, is one of the market-leading provi­ders of specia­li­zed person­nel services in the German-spea­king region. The univa­tiv Group was acqui­red by the Triton Smal­ler Mid-Cap Fund (TSM) in July 2017.

Gütt Olk Feld­haus provi­ded legal advice to Sascha Yassine in all phases of the tran­sac­tion process.

Legal advi­sors to Sascha Yassine: Gütt Olk Feld­haus, Munich
Dr. Heiner Feld­haus (Part­ner, Corporate/M&A, Lead), Dr. Tilmann Gütt (Part­ner, Banking/Finance), Thomas Becker (Of Coun­sel, IP/IT/Data Protec­tion), Chris­to­pher Ghabel (Senior Asso­ciate, Banking/Finance), Matthias Uelner (Asso­ciate, Corporate/M&A)
Stau­dacher Annuß, Munich: Ingo Sappa, Dr. Felix Half­meier (both Labor Law)
Kind & Drews, Düssel­dorf: Dr. Ernesto Drews (Tax Law)

About Gütt Olk Feldhaus
Gütt Olk Feld­haus is a leading inter­na­tio­nal law firm based in Munich. We provide compre­hen­sive advice on commer­cial and corpo­rate law. Our focus is on corpo­rate law, M&A, private equity and finan­cing. In these specia­list areas we also take on the litigation.

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