News-Kategorie: Deals

Colo­gne — Rödl & Part­ner has acqui­red the Sieg­burg-based consul­ting firm OSB Kran­ken­haus-Manage­ment­be­ra­tung GmbH as of Nov. 1, 2019. With this acqui­si­tion, Rödl & Part­ner is consis­t­ently pursuing its Digi­tal Agenda and expan­ding its consul­ting port­fo­lio in the health­care sector to include smart digi­tal solu­ti­ons for linking medi­cine and economics.

The acqui­si­tion of the Sieg­burg-based company is also being made in anti­ci­pa­tion of one of the biggest chal­lenges facing the hospi­tal land­scape, the future nursing budget 2020. In paral­lel, a future-proofing offen­sive for hospi­tals is being laun­ched. The smart solu­ti­ons for hospi­tal opera­tors include, for exam­ple, offers for clari­fy­ing the neces­sary perfor­mance-adapted and effi­ci­ent staff deploy­ment or for setting up process controls and effec­tive perfor­mance-adapted staff deve­lo­p­ment strategies.

“We are very plea­sed about the inte­gra­tion of OSB Kran­ken­haus-Manage­ment­be­ra­tung GmbH. Its combi­na­tion of medi­cal exper­tise and digi­tal compe­tence makes it a perfect addi­tion to our range of services,” comm­ents Part­ner Bernd Vogel, Head of the Health and Social Economy Divi­sion, on the acquisition.

Tim Schil­ling, son of the company’s foun­der Dr. Hagen Schil­ling, adds: “We have put our heart and soul and all our energy into the product port­fo­lio and we are looking forward to further deve­lo­ping our ideas and exis­ting tools with a strong company like Rödl & Part­ner behind us”.

About OSB Kran­ken­haus-Manage­ment­be­ra­tung GmbH
The company OSB Kran­ken­haus­ma­nage­ment­be­ra­tung GmbH was foun­ded over 20 years ago by Hagen Schil­ling, MD. The company is charac­te­ri­zed by a unique combi­na­tion of medi­cal exper­tise, busi­ness exper­tise and high digi­tal affi­nity. As a result, OSB has made a name for itself as a premium consul­tant in the field of hospi­tal struc­tu­ral consul­ting and stands out above all for its smart digi­tal solu­ti­ons in bench­mar­king for hospi­tals. In addi­tion to Dr. Schil­ling, his sons Tim and Jan Schil­ling have also played a key role in shaping the company’s fortu­nes as medi­cal econo­mists in recent years. Inno­va­tive self-deve­lo­ped IT solu­ti­ons combi­ned with in-depth insights into the heart of ever­y­day hospi­tal life create a unique know-how.

About Rödl & Partner
The agile caret­a­ker for medium-sized global market leaders. As lawy­ers, tax advi­sors, busi­ness and IT consul­tants and audi­tors, we are repre­sen­ted at 111 of our own loca­ti­ons in 50 count­ries. Our clients trust our 4,900 colle­agues worldwide.

Munich — ARQIS has advi­sed SkyFive GmbH on the acqui­si­tion of the key assets of Nokia ’s Air-to-Ground (A2G) busi­ness. Both parties have agreed not to disc­lose the purchase price.

Nokia’s A2G tech­no­logy is parti­cu­larly suita­ble for provi­ding broad­band mobile connec­ti­vity for conti­nen­tal air traf­fic and has signi­fi­cant tech­no­logy and cost advan­ta­ges over satel­lite commu­ni­ca­ti­ons solu­ti­ons commonly used today. With the acqui­red assets, SkyFive beco­mes the world’s first A2G commu­ni­ca­ti­ons specialist.

SkyFive takes respon­si­bi­lity for the end-to-end solu­tion, which consists of avio­nics, tele­com­mu­ni­ca­ti­ons and IT systems. Nokia conti­nues to be respon­si­ble for selling and imple­men­ting the back­bone network — an inte­gral part of the solu­tion — to commu­ni­ca­ti­ons service provi­ders, based on its strong tech­no­logy and global deli­very capa­bi­li­ties. Thors­ten Robrecht, CEO of SkyFive, said, “For us, this tran­sac­tion is an important step on our path to true broad­band connec­ti­vity services in the sky and serves as a spring­board for global expansion.”

SkyFive GmbH was foun­ded in 2019 by three senior NOKIA employees through a manage­ment buy-out to build a specia­list air-to-ground (A2G) solu­ti­ons and services company. The company’s mission is to enable a breakth­rough in the digi­tiza­tion of air travel and meet the growing connec­ti­vity needs of airlines with a high-perfor­mance, future-proof and cost-effec­tive solu­tion based on 4G and 5G standards.

Advi­sor SkyFive: ARQIS Rechts­an­wälte (Düsseldorf/Munich)
Mauritz von Einem (Lead; Corporate/M&A/Tax Law), Prof. Dr. Chris­toph von Einem (Corpo­rate), Marcus Noth­hel­fer (IP & Commer­cial), Dr. Andrea Panzer-Heemeier, Dr. Stepha­nie Lenze (both Labor Law), Chris­tian Wege­ner (Tax Law), Dr. Chris­tof Schnei­der (Corporate/M&A and Compli­ance), Elisa­beth Falte­rer (Corpo­rate); Bere­nike Gott­wald (Legal Support Specialist)

Colo­gne — Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek advi­sed the manage­ment on the acqui­si­tion of NOBILIS Group GmbH, one of the most renow­ned German compa­nies for high-quality fragrance and perfume brands.

NOBILIS GROUP specia­li­zes in the distri­bu­tion of perfume brands and distri­bu­tes a wide port­fo­lio of brands such as Creed, Atkin­sons, Versace, Mont­blanc, Baldessa­rini, Coach, Acqua Colo­nia, Hollis­ter, Karl Lager­feld and many other inter­na­tio­nal perfume brands with deve­lo­p­ment poten­tial. It is conside­red a pioneer and driving force in the indus­try and covers the entire fragrance market, with a wide range of premium and luxury brands, through to life­style brands. The NOBILIS GROUP has also estab­lished itself as a service part­ner for Bulgari Parfums and Revlon/Elizabeth Arden, among others. The company cele­bra­ted its 25th anni­ver­sary in 2018, enjoys an excel­lent repu­ta­tion and high reco­gni­tion in the indus­try, and was able to break the magic barrier of 100 million euros in sales for the first time last year.

With imme­diate effect, the previous Mana­ging Direc­tor Udo Heuser (51) and the long-stan­ding Chief Finan­cial Offi­cer Dr. Joachim Hense­ler (51) are respon­si­ble for the company as Mana­ging Part­ners with equal rights. Both have been perso­nally asso­cia­ted with the NOBILIS GROUP for a long time and stand for the grea­test possi­ble conti­nuity. They take over the company shares from the foun­ders Thomas C. Schnitz­ler and Detlef Rughöft, who thus leave the opera­tio­nal level and move to a newly foun­ded advi­sory board. In this way, their valuable indus­try cont­acts of many years’ stan­ding, their know-how and their acqui­si­tion strength will remain with the company in the long term. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the purchase price.

The Heuking team provi­ded compre­hen­sive advice to the acqui­rer from the struc­tu­ring of the tran­sac­tion to the contract docu­men­ta­tion to the closing and on the financing.

Advi­sor­s­NO­BI­LIS GROUP: Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek:
Dr. Oliver Bött­cher, photo (lead),
Kris­tina Schnei­der, LL.M.,
Laura Rilin­ger (all corporate/M&A), all Cologne
Dr. Guido Hoff­mann, LL.M.,
Dr. Chris­tian Appel­baum (both Finan­cing), both Düsseldorf
Fabian G. Gaffron (Tax Law), Hamburg

Munich, Frank­furt a. Main - Upfield Group B.V. has acqui­red Arivia S.A., a leading and inter­na­tio­nally active manu­fac­tu­rer of vegan cheese and owner of the VIOLIFE brand. Upfield Group B.V. was advi­sed by the inter­na­tio­nal law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP. The closing of the tran­sac­tion is subject to appr­oval by the rele­vant anti­trust autho­ri­ties and the usual closing condi­ti­ons. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the purchase price.

The Upfield Group is the marga­rine and spreads busi­ness spun off from the Dutch-British food group Unile­ver, which was acqui­red by finan­cial inves­tor KKR for EUR 6.83 billion at the end of 2017. The store includes tradi­tio­nal brands such as Rama, Becel, Lätta and Flora. The stra­te­gic acqui­si­tion of Arivia allows Upfield to enter a new busi­ness segment.

The Weil team for this tran­sac­tion was led by Munich Corpo­rate Part­ner Prof. Dr. Gerhard Schmidt and included part­ners Tobias Geer­ling (Tax, Munich), Dr. Barbara Jagers­ber­ger (Corpo­rate, Munich), Dr. Kamyar Abrar (Anti­trust, Frank­furt) and Britta Grauke (Liti­ga­tion, Frank­furt) as well as asso­cia­tes Manuel-Peter Fringer, Alex­an­der Pfef­fer­ler, Caro­lin Ober­maier, Ramona Fren­zel, Marcel Ander­sen (all Corpo­rate, Munich), Dr. Ansgar Wimber, Julian Schwa­ne­beck, Thomas Weise, Aurel Hille, Kai Neumann (all Corpo­rate, Frank­furt), Benja­min Rapp, Dennis Reisich, Manuela Minsel (all Tax, Munich), Thomas Zimmer­mann, Dr. Alex­an­der Wandt (both Finance, Munich), Mareike Pfeif­fer (Labor Law, Frank­furt) as well as Dr. Konstan­tin Hoppe and Dr. Barbara Sand­fuchs (both IP, Munich).

Frank­furt a.M. — McDer­mott Will & Emery has advi­sed Unsere Cham­pi­ons GmbH on further acqui­si­ti­ons. The company took over Child Care Company GmbH, Zwer­gen­welt GmbH as well as MD Kita­Part­ner GmbH.

Child Care Company and Zwer­gen­welt operate kinder­gar­tens and daycare centers, respec­tively, in Munich. MD Kita­Part­ner will be taken over by Our Cham­pi­ons in the plan­ning phase for a new daycare center in Munich and will be accom­pa­nied in the conti­nua­tion of the project.

Our cham­pi­ons operate kinder­gar­tens and daycare centers at seve­ral loca­ti­ons in Bava­ria and Baden-Würt­tem­berg. The majo­rity share­hol­ders of Unsere Cham­pi­ons GmbH are the French Enjoy Group, which has alre­ady built up a network of over 40 daycare centers in France under the name Crèche 1, 2, 3 Soleil, and the Luxem­bourg-based Lavorel Group, which only joined as a new inves­tor at the begin­ning of the year.

McDer­mott regu­larly advi­ses Our Cham­pi­ons on tran­sac­tions, inclu­ding the acqui­si­tion of Munich-based daycare group Isarkids in the first half of 2019.

Advi­sors to Unsere Cham­pi­ons GmbH: McDer­mott Will & Emery, Frankfurt
Norman Wasse (Lead), Dr. Maxi­mi­lian Clos­ter­meyer (Coun­sel, both Corporate/M&A), Dr. Thomas Gennert (Labor Law, Düssel­dorf); Asso­cia­tes: Isabelle Suzanne Müller, Marion von Grön­heim (both Corporate/M&A), Tina Zeller (Real Estate), Jose­pha Hettich (Labor Law, Düsseldorf)

About McDer­mott Will & Emery
McDer­mott Will & Emery is a leading inter­na­tio­nal law firm. With over 1,100 lawy­ers, we are repre­sen­ted in 20 loca­ti­ons world­wide: Boston, Brussels, Chicago, Dallas, Düssel­dorf, Frank­furt a. M., Hous­ton, Colo­gne, London, Los Ange­les, Miami, Milan, Munich, New York, Orange County, Paris, San Fran­cisco, Sili­con Valley, Washing­ton, D.C. and Wilm­ing­ton. There is a stra­te­gic alli­ance with MWE China Law Offices in Shang­hai. The German prac­tice is mana­ged by McDer­mott Will & Emery Rechts­an­wälte Steu­er­be­ra­ter LLP www.mwe.com

Frank­furt a. Main — Shear­man & Ster­ling has acqui­red the Joh. Beren­berg, Goss­ler KG (“Beren­berg”) on the finan­cing of the acqui­si­tion of Novo­press KG by ZHG Zangen Holding GmbH. One of the sellers was Deut­sche Betei­li­gungs AG. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose details of the transaction.

Novo­press, foun­ded in 1969 and head­quar­te­red in Neuss, Germany, is a leading manu­fac­tu­rer of elec­tro­me­cha­ni­cal pres­sing tools used by heating and plum­bing contrac­tors to join copper, stain­less steel or plas­tic pipes. The pres­sing tech­ni­que is tech­no­lo­gi­cally and cost-wise supe­rior to other pipe joining tech­ni­ques such as welding or bolting. Through contin­ued high invest­ment in rese­arch and equip­ment deve­lo­p­ment, Novo­press has succee­ded in achie­ving a tech­no­lo­gi­cally leading market posi­tion and conti­nuously expan­ding it.

With its Wealth and Asset Manage­ment, Invest­ment Banking and Corpo­rate Banking divi­si­ons, Beren­berg is one of Europe’s leading private banks. From its head­quar­ters in Hamburg, Beren­berg has built up a strong presence in the finan­cial centers of Frank­furt, London and New York in recent years and is repre­sen­ted by around 1,600 employees in 15 loca­ti­ons in Europe and America.

The Shear­man & Ster­ling team included part­ner Winfried M. Carli and asso­cia­tes Andreas Breu and Martina Buller (all Germany-Finance).

About Shear­man & Sterling:
Shear­man & Ster­ling is an inter­na­tio­nal law firm with 23 offices in 14 count­ries and appro­xi­m­ately 850 lawy­ers. In Germany, Shear­man & Ster­ling is repre­sen­ted at the Frank­furt office. The firm is one of the inter­na­tio­nal market leaders in advi­sing on complex cross-border tran­sac­tions. World­wide, Shear­man & Ster­ling prima­rily advi­ses inter­na­tio­nal corpo­ra­ti­ons and large natio­nal compa­nies, finan­cial insti­tu­ti­ons, and large mid-sized compa­nies. For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.shearman.com.

Frank­furt am Main -Allen & Overy LLP has advi­sed commu­ni­ca­ti­ons tech­no­logy specia­list KATHREIN SE on the sale of its mobile commu­ni­ca­ti­ons antenna and filter busi­ness to Swedish tele­com­mu­ni­ca­ti­ons equip­ment supplier Erics­son. The closing of the shell purchase agree­ment alre­ady concluded in Febru­ary, on the basis of which indi­vi­dual asset deals in a number of juris­dic­tions were linked, took place as plan­ned on Octo­ber 1, 2019.

The sale is an essen­tial part of a long-term down­si­zing of the KATHREIN Group. After beco­ming inde­pen­dent, the remai­ning subsi­dia­ries will operate under the names KATHREIN Solu­ti­ons GmbH, KATHREIN Sach­sen GmbH, KATHREIN Digi­tal Systems GmbH and KATHREIN Broad­cast GmbH. Thus, the restruc­tu­ring of the KATHREIN Group is largely completed.

Follo­wing the announce­ment of the sale of the mobile antenna and filter busi­ness from KATHREIN SE to Erics­son on Febru­ary 25, 2019, the sale was offi­ci­ally comple­ted with the comple­tion of all regu­la­tory appr­oval proce­du­res on Septem­ber 30, 2019. Erics­son thus expands its radio system port­fo­lio with a wide range of advan­ced antenna solu­ti­ons. Nearly 3,500 KATHREIN employees world­wide will trans­fer to Ericsson.

The Allen & Overy team, led by restruc­tu­ring part­ner Peter Hoegen, advi­sed in parti­cu­lar on the amend­ment of the finan­cing docu­men­ta­tion with a syndi­cate of banks in Germany and a bila­te­ral bank in Mexico requi­red due to the closing of the tran­sac­tion. Another focus of acti­vity was the nego­tia­tion and conclu­sion of various colla­te­ral release agree­ments in Germany, Mexico, Roma­nia and the USA.
The Allen & Overy team included part­ner Peter Hoegen (lead), senior asso­ciate Dr. Chris­to­pher Kranz, asso­cia­tes Moritz Probst, Evan­ge­lina Wiegand and Simon Kirsch­ner (all banking and finance/restructuring, Frankfurt).
Further­more, KATHREIN was repre­sen­ted by Noerr LLP (Prof. Dr. Chris­tian Pleis­ter, Kenny Koa), Fresh­fields Bruck­haus Derin­ger LLP (Dr. Chris­tian Sister­mann, Dr. David Beutel, Dr. Martin Rehberg).

Ziems & Part­ner (Hans-Joachim Ziems, Elmar Geis­sin­ger, Stephan Maas, Marcus Mertens) had over­all respon­si­bi­lity for the tran­sac­tion as part of the ongo­ing restructuring.
The banking consor­tium was advi­sed by Latham & Watkins LLP (Dr. Jörn Kowa­lew­ski, Dr. Daniel Splitt­ger­ber, Dr. Ann-Sophie Rosenhagen).
Allen & Overy had alre­ady advi­sed Rosen­heim-based KATH­REIN-Werke KG in 2018 on the conclu­sion of a restruc­tu­ring agree­ment and a restruc­tu­ring loan agree­ment. The agree­ment concluded at the end of March 2018 prepared the ground for a consen­sual restruc­tu­ring of the KATHREIN Group, which KATH­REIN-Werke KG and its legal succes­sor, KATHREIN SE, had agreed upon with their main finan­ciers. In addi­tion, the Allen & Overy team had also advi­sed KATHREIN SE in 2018/2019 on the sale of KATHREIN Auto­mo­tive GmbH, a specia­list in trans­mis­sion and recep­tion systems for vehic­les based in Hildes­heim, to the auto­mo­tive supplier Continental.

Munich/Frankfurt am Main — Allen & Overy LLP has advi­sed French energy group ENGIE in connec­tion with the conclu­sion of an agree­ment to acquire Mobi­sol, a pioneer in off-grid solar systems. With this acqui­si­tion, ENGIE is expan­ding its decen­tra­li­zed energy offe­ring in Africa. The tran­sac­tion is still subject to appr­oval by the rele­vant regu­la­tory authorities.

Foun­ded in 2011, Mobi­sol has more than 500 employees and appro­xi­m­ately 1,200 instal­lers as contrac­tors. The company has instal­led more than 150,000 resi­den­tial solar systems in Tanz­a­nia, Rwanda and Kenya, provi­ding clean, relia­ble energy to more than 750,000 people in sub-Saha­ran Africa.

With the acqui­si­tion of Mobi­sol, ENGIE, which is alre­ady present in six count­ries through its subsi­diary Fenix Inter­na­tio­nal, active in the field of solar instal­la­ti­ons for house­holds, will offer solar instal­la­ti­ons in three more count­ries. In addi­tion, Mobi­sol is active in the field of products for commer­cial appli­ca­ti­ons. Combi­ned with Fenix’s inclu­sive resi­den­tial solar systems, this will allow ENGIE to offer an unpre­ce­den­ted range of afforda­ble energy products and reach custo­mers in both rural and urban areas.

The Allen & Overy team was led by part­ners Dr. Alex­an­der Veith (Corporate/M&A, Munich), Alex­andre Ancel (M&A, Paris) and Peter Hoegen (Restructuring/Insolvency, Frank­furt). They were supported by senior asso­cia­tes Dr. Chris­to­pher Kranz (Restructuring/Insolvency, Frank­furt) and Ralph Sala­meh (Corporate/M&A, Paris), asso­cia­tes Linda Mayer (Corporate/M&A, Munich), Clau­dia Di Paolo (Corporate/M&A, Paris), Oliver Köhler (Restructuring/Insolvency, Frank­furt) and Sean Magner (Banking and Finance, Johannesburg).

The team also included Coun­sel Dr. René Galle (Anti­trust, Hamburg), Richard Qiang (Corpo­rate, Beijing), Asso­cia­tes Anna Kräling (IP, Düssel­dorf), Dr. Lisa Müller (Labor, Frank­furt), Lewis Weaver (Corporate/M&A, London), Chao­hui Liang (Corpo­rate, Beijing), Jasmine Norris (Banking and Finance, London), Hasan Kaya and Simon König (Real Estate, Frankfurt).

Advi­sor Mobi­sol: Dentons

Allen & Overy
Allen & Overy is an inter­na­tio­nal law firm with appro­xi­m­ately 5,500 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 47 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.

Frank­furt a. Main — EMERAM Capi­tal Part­ners has acqui­red the ]init[ AG, a leading provi­der of trans­for­ma­tion services from Perm­ira and HCOB acqui­red. Shear­man & Ster­ling advi­sed funds advi­sed by Perm­ira Debt Mana­gers (PDM) and Hamburg Commer­cial Bank (HCOB) on the finan­cing of the acqui­si­tion of ]init[ AG für digi­tale Kommu­ni­ka­tion (]init[) by EMERAM Capi­tal Part­ners,. Dirk Stocks­meier, Chief Execu­tive Offi­cer and foun­der of ]init[, will conti­nue to hold a signi­fi­cant stake in the company.

]init[ AG für digi­tale Kommu­ni­ka­tion, head­quar­te­red in Berlin, is one of Germany’s leading full-service provi­ders for Inter­net and IT projects. The company employs over 500 people world­wide in the areas of online commu­ni­ca­ti­ons, IT services and data centers.

Consul­tant:
EMERAM was advi­sed by Noerr (Legal & Tax), PwC (Finan­cial), strategy& (Commer­cial), Quar­ton (Debt Advi­sory) and Willis (Insu­rance).

]init[ was advi­sed by Drake Star Part­ners (Exclu­sive Finan­cial Advi­sor) and Taylor­Wes­sing (Legal).

Perm­ira and HCOB: The Shear­man & Ster­ling team led by Part­ner Winfried M. Carli included Asso­cia­tes Andreas Breu and Martina Buller as well as Tran­sac­tion Specia­list Deniz Alkanli (all Germany-Finance). Hamburg Commer­cial Bank was advi­sed on inter­cre­di­tor issues by Dr. Matthias Weis­sin­ger (Germany-Finance).

About Shear­man & Sterling
Shear­man & Ster­ling is an inter­na­tio­nal law firm with 23 offices in 13 count­ries and appro­xi­m­ately 850 lawy­ers. In Germany, Shear­man & Ster­ling is repre­sen­ted at the Frank­furt office. The firm is one of the inter­na­tio­nal market leaders in advi­sing on complex cross-border tran­sac­tions. World­wide, Shear­man & Ster­ling prima­rily advi­ses inter­na­tio­nal corpo­ra­ti­ons and large natio­nal compa­nies, finan­cial insti­tu­ti­ons, and large mid-sized compa­nies. For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.shearman.com.

Munich — AURELIUS Growth Capi­tal acqui­res Marcus Trans­port with HF Private Debt. — Shear­man & Ster­ling advi­sed HF Private Debt on the finan­cing of the acqui­si­tion of Marcus Trans­port by AURELIUS Growth Capital.

Marcus Trans­port GmbH is a medium-sized company in the field of indus­trial services based in Wupper­tal. The focus is on the execu­tion of indus­trial assem­blies, machine rentals (espe­ci­ally fork­lifts, mobile cranes and lifting plat­forms), special logi­stics as well as main­ten­ance and service of indus­trial trucks. Around 100 employees at the head­quar­ters in Wupper­tal are respon­si­ble for hand­ling these tasks. The family busi­ness was foun­ded in the 1930s.

As part of the AURELIUS Group, AURELIUS Growth Capi­tal focu­ses on buyouts/succession solu­ti­ons and on the acqui­si­tion of parts of larger medium-sized compa­nies and groups (spin-offs).

HF Debt GmbH (www.hf-debt.de) acts as exclu­sive advi­sor to the Luxem­bourg-based HF Private Debt fund, SCSp. The fund specia­li­zes in provi­ding private debt finan­cing for medium-sized compa­nies and provi­des support in the case of growth finan­cing, succes­sion solu­ti­ons and buy-outs by private equity inves­tors. The geogra­phi­cal focus is on German, Western and Nort­hern Euro­pean compa­nies with a history of seve­ral years.

The Shear­man & Ster­ling team included Part­ner Dr. Matthias Weis­sin­ger and Tran­sac­tion Specia­list Deniz Alkanli (both Germany-Finance).

About HF Debt GmbH
HF Debt GmbH, based in Hano­ver, Germany, is the exclu­sive advi­sor to the HF Private Debt Fund, SCSp, which specia­li­zes in provi­ding private debt finan­cing to middle-market companies.

HF Debt also provi­des access to the private debt finan­cing market, espe­ci­ally for smal­ler compa­nies with finan­cing requi­re­ments of EUR 4 to 20 million. With a clear focus on the DACH region, HF Debt invests in compa­nies with a history of seve­ral years in the case of growth finan­cing, succes­sion solu­ti­ons as well as buy-outs by private equity investors.

About Shear­man & Sterling
Shear­man & Ster­ling is an inter­na­tio­nal law firm with 23 offices in 13 count­ries and appro­xi­m­ately 850 lawy­ers. In Germany, Shear­man & Ster­ling is repre­sen­ted at the Frank­furt office. The firm is one of the inter­na­tio­nal market leaders in advi­sing on complex cross-border tran­sac­tions. World­wide, Shear­man & Ster­ling prima­rily advi­ses inter­na­tio­nal corpo­ra­ti­ons and large natio­nal compa­nies, finan­cial insti­tu­ti­ons, and large mid-sized compa­nies. For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.shearman.com.

Munich/ Düssel­dorf — ARQIS advi­sed Volks­wa­gen AG (“VW”) on the acqui­si­tion of a mino­rity stake in SeeReal Tech­no­lo­gies, a leading tech­no­logy company based in Dres­den and Luxem­bourg. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the amount of the investment.

The invest­ment promo­tes the Group’s access to pionee­ring augmen­ted reality in the field of future display tech­no­lo­gies in cars. The tech­no­logy makes it possi­ble, for exam­ple, for poten­tial dange­rous situa­tions in road traf­fic to be displayed three-dimen­sio­nally in the driver’s envi­ron­ment, for “tangi­ble” displays to hang in the driver’s vici­nity instead of dash­boards, or for the person on the phone to appear as a holo­gram. Thus, through its parti­ci­pa­tion, VW secu­res important know-how to make driving even safer and more comfor­ta­ble in the future.

Dr. Axel Hein­rich, Head of Volks­wa­gen Group Inno­va­tion, says: “Augmen­ted reality is a core compo­nent of future mobi­lity and inter­ac­tion concepts. For this reason, we are rely­ing on key tech­no­lo­gies such as holo­gra­phy, which repre­sent this new reality in a fasci­na­ting way. For our part, we are brin­ging the “auto­mo­tive” requi­re­ments to this exci­ting project, and from SeeReal comes the know-how of 3‑D technology.”

SeeReal Tech­no­lo­gies is a global leader in real-time 3D (H3D) holo­gra­phic display tech­no­logy. With a team of expe­ri­en­ced experts, SeeReal designs and deve­lops next-gene­ra­tion H3D display tech­no­logy for every plat­form, from mobile to TV to projec­tion in HMD and HUD. H3D products are licen­sed and inte­gra­ted with display compa­nies, consu­mer brands and high-end imaging compa­nies. A rese­arch coope­ra­tion between VW and the tech­no­logy company has alre­ady been in place since the end of 2018.

ARQIS has alre­ady acted for VW for the second time. Howe­ver, this is the first time ARQIS has advi­sed VW on a tran­sac­tion. The mandate goes back to lead part­ner Dr. Lars Laeger, who also worked in-house in VW’s legal depart­ment for seve­ral months as part of a secondment.

Advi­sors to Volks­wa­gen: ARQIS Rechts­an­wälte (Düsseldorf/Munich)
Dr. Lars Laeger (Lead, Corporate/M&A), Marcus Noth­hel­fer (IP/Compliance), Chris­tian Wege­ner (Tax), Dr. Ulrich Lien­hard (Real Estate), Saskia Kirsch­baum (Labor); Asso­cia­tes: Malte Grie­pen­burg (Corporate/M&A), Martin Wein­gärt­ner (Labor), Jenni­fer Huschauer (Real Estate), Sina Janke (IP)

Held Jagut­tis (Colo­gne): Dr. Simeon Held, Dr. Malte Jagut­tis (both Public Commer­cial Law/Regulation)

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

Hamburg — MDAX-listed Fiel­mann AG, Hamburg, is acqui­ring 70% of the shares in the Slove­nian opti­cian chain Optika Clarus. Network Corpo­rate Finance exclu­si­vely advi­sed Fiel­mann AG on the transaction.

The acqui­si­tion opens up Fielmann’s 14th Euro­pean market. Optika Clarus opera­tes 26 specia­list opti­cal stores in Slove­nia and is the undis­pu­ted market leader with a sales market share of 30%. Within the Fiel­mann Group, Slove­nia is the coun­try with the highest purcha­sing power east of the core markets (GDP per capita: more than 22,000 euros). The acqui­si­tion is part of Fielmann’s expan­sion stra­tegy, which aims to expand into four addi­tio­nal markets by 2025 through orga­nic growth and acquisitions.

About Fiel­mann
Fiel­mann is the market leader in the Central Euro­pean opti­ci­ans’ market and opera­tes 742 bran­ches in 14 Euro­pean count­ries. 24 million people wear glas­ses from Fiel­mann; in Germany, the listed family company sells every second pair of glas­ses. Fiel­mann covers all levels of the value chain in ophthal­mic optics, is a desi­gner, manu­fac­tu­rer and optician.

About­Net­work Corpo­rate Finance
Network Corpo­rate Finance is an inde­pen­dent, owner-mana­ged advi­sory firm focu­sed on mergers and acqui­si­ti­ons, capi­tal markets tran­sac­tions and equity and debt finan­cing. Our core compe­ten­cies lie in the struc­tu­ring and execu­tion of complex corpo­rate tran­sac­tions — natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal — such as company sales to stra­te­gic inves­tors and finan­cial inves­tors, IPOs or struc­tu­red corpo­rate finan­cing. We advise both estab­lished and young compa­nies in a wide range of industries.
With our team of 28 employees, we have been able to estab­lish oursel­ves as one of the most successful inde­pen­dent corpo­rate finance consul­ting firms in Germany since our foun­ding in 2002. www.ncf.de

 

Asch­heim (Munich) — Supplier Schlem­mer — a port­fo­lio company of private equity inves­tor 3i — has streng­the­ned its focus on plas­tic products and the auto­mo­tive busi­ness by selling Schlem­mer Indus­try & Buil­ding Parts (SIB), a French subsi­diary. The company intends to conti­nue its growth with new products.

Schlem­mer is known for its cable protec­tion solu­ti­ons, fluid lines and, for some years now, battery protec­tion systems. The company intends to grow further in these fields. SIB supplies mainly to DIY stores and the cons­truc­tion sector and also manu­fac­tures metal cable glands and access­ories. Schlem­mer Indus­try & Buil­ding Parts (SIB) was acqui­red a few days ago by Gali­ena Capi­tal, a private equity firm based in France. Both parties have agreed not to disc­lose the purchase price.

“In view of the rapidly chan­ging markets, the clea­rer posi­tio­ning as a plas­tics expert for the auto­mo­tive indus­try is an essen­tial corner­stone for our success,” explains Karl Krause, Presi­dent and CEO of the Schlem­mer Group. “By focu­sing on our core auto­mo­tive busi­ness, we will be able to offer our custo­mers inno­va­tive solu­ti­ons that are even better tail­o­red to them in the future and thus further drive our global growth.”

Schlem­mer has 22 produc­tion sites and around 3,800 employees, gene­ra­ting sales of 355 million euros, inclu­ding around 100 million euros in China. The company has been owned by private equity inves­tor 3i for around three years.

In the coming months, Schlem­mer also plans to further expand its exper­tise in the e‑mobility segment and vehicle infra­struc­ture, as well as opti­mize its produc­tion foot­print, as part of its growth stra­tegy. Among the new products Schlem­mer plans to grow with are fluid lines for clea­ning sensors on the vehicle and for battery tempe­ra­ture control, as well as battery covers.

Munich — Bird & Bird LLP has advi­sed Nürn­berg­Messe GmbH on the acqui­si­tion of an 80% majo­rity stake in FORUM SA, the Greek market leader for exhi­bi­tion events.

With sales of around EUR 17.5 million, the Athens subsi­diary will be the largest foreign subsi­diary of Nürn­berg­Messe GmbH. Nürn­berg­Messe GmbH is alre­ady present with subsi­dia­ries in Brazil, China, India, Italy and the USA and orga­ni­zes exhi­bi­ti­ons world­wide. The exhi­bi­ti­ons orga­ni­zed by FORUM SA and Nürn­berg­Messe GmbH also over­lap in terms of content in the areas of (orga­nic) food, bever­a­ges and gastronomy.

Nürn­berg­Messe GmbH was advi­sed by the follo­wing Bird & Bird lawy­ers: Coun­sel Michael Gaßner (lead) and Part­ner Stefan Münch, both Corporate/M&A, Munich. In Greece, the project team was supported by part­ners Kate­rina Poli­to­pou­lou and Maria Golfi­no­pou­lou of the Greek law firm Your Legal Partners.
Client Rela­ti­onship Part­ner of Nürn­berg­Messe GmbH is Stefan Münch, who has been advi­sing the Fran­co­nian company on tran­sac­tions in Germany and abroad for years.

About Brid & Bird
Bird & Bird is a leading inter­na­tio­nal law firm with over 1,350 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 200 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. www.twobirds.com.

Baier­brunn — A Gleiss Lutz team has advi­sed Givau­dan SA, the world’s largest fragrance manu­fac­tu­rer, on the acqui­si­tion of drom frag rances GmbH & Co KG from its owners, Dr. Ferdi­nand Storp and Dr. Andreas Storp. The tran­sac­tion is expec­ted to close at the begin­ning of the third quar­ter of 2019. The details of the tran­sac­tion are not disclosed.

Givau­dan is the world’s leading manu­fac­tu­rer and deve­lo­per of flavors and fragran­ces. Givau­dan deve­lops flavors and fragran­ces in close colla­bo­ra­tion with part­ners in the food, beverage, consu­mer goods and perfume sectors. In 2018, the company, head­quar­te­red in Vernier, Switz­er­land, gene­ra­ted sales of around 6 billion euros (5.5
billion Swiss francs). Givau­dan employs nearly 13,600 people at more than 145 sites worldwide.

Drom fragran­ces is an inter­na­tio­nally active perfume manu­fac­tu­rer based in Munich. Foun­ded over 100 years ago, the family-owned company works with nume­rous custo­mers in the consu­mer goods and fine fragrance indus­tries. Drom employs 489 people world­wide at
four produc­tion sites in Germany, China, the USA and Brazil and gene­ra­ted sales of around 110 million euros in the past fiscal year.

The follo­wing Gleiss Lutz team advi­sed Givau­dan on the tran­sac­tion: Dr. Alex­an­der Schwarz (Part­ner, Lead, Düssel­dorf), Dr. Martin Viciano Gofferje (Part­ner, Berlin), Dr. Reimund von der Höh, Fried­rich Baum­gär­tel, Dr. Fabian Mumme (all Düssel­dorf, all
Corporate/M&A), Dr. Ulrich Denzel (Part­ner, Anti­trust, Stutt­gart), Dr. Tim Weber (Part­ner, Real Estate, Frank­furt), Dr. Phil­ipp Pich­ler (Anti­trust, Stutt­gart), Michael Neher (Real Estate), Patrick Reuter, Yvonne Gers­ter (both Finance, all Frank­furt), Dr. Johann Wagner (Part­ner), Dr. Hendrik Marchal (Coun­sel, both Tax, Hamburg), Dr. Manuel Klar (Data Protec­tion Law, Munich).

Munich/ San DIego/ Sili­con Valley — DLA Piper advi­sed Maxon Compu­ter, Inc. a subsi­diary of soft­ware provi­der Nemet­schek SE, on the acqui­si­tion of Reds­hift Rende­ring Tech­no­lo­gies, Inc. a deve­lo­per of flexi­ble GPU-acce­le­ra­ted 3D rende­ring software.

Maxon is a leading deve­lo­per of profes­sio­nal 3D mode­ling, anima­tion and rende­ring solu­ti­ons. Reds­hift offers a compre­hen­sive feature set that signi­fi­cantly redu­ces the rende­ring time of large and complex 3D projects. Reds­hift was alre­ady available as a plug-in rende­ring solu­tion for Maxon’s award-winning Cinema 4D and other indus­try-stan­dard 3D applications.

Cali­for­nia-based Reds­hift Rende­ring Tech­no­lo­gies, Inc. is one of the leading provi­ders of rende­ring solu­ti­ons and counts renow­ned compa­nies such as Tech­ni­co­lor, Poly­gon Pictures, Digi­tal Domain, DHX, Rain­ma­ker, Encore Holly­wood and Bliz­zard among its custo­mers. DLA Piper Part­ner Dr. Nils Krause (Corporate/M&A, Hamburg) is the global Client Rela­ti­onship Part­ner for Nemet­schek SE and provi­ded stra­te­gic support for the deal.

Advi­sor Maxon Compu­ter, Inc.: DLA Piper
In the US, a DLA Piper team led by part­ner Matthew Leivo (Corpo­rate, San Diego) advi­sed. In addi­tion, part­ners Stacy Paz (Tax), Nate McKit­te­rick (Corpo­rate), Chung Wie (IPT), Cisco Palao-Ricketts (all Sili­con Valley), Ben Gipson (both Employ­ment, Los Ange­les) and Danish Hamid (Corpo­rate, Washing­ton, D.C.) and asso­cia­tes Shehzad Huda, Jenni­fer Cumming (both Corpo­rate, San Diego), Nicole B. Albert­son (IPT) and Andrew Chan (Tax, both Silli­con Valley) invol­ved in the advisory.

Frei­burg — Schölly Fiber­op­tic GmbH, based in Baden-Würt­tem­berg, Germany, has signed an agree­ment with US medi­cal tech­no­logy company Intui­tive Surgi­cal for the sale of its robo­tic endo­scopy busi­ness unit. Howe­ver, Schölly Fiber­op­tic remains a stra­te­gic supplier to Intui­tive Surgi­cal. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the purchase price.

The tran­sac­tion rela­tes to Schölly Fiberoptic’s produc­tion line for the manu­fac­ture of robot-assis­ted endo­sco­pes at the produc­tion sites in Denz­lin­gen and Bieber­tal as well as at the repair site in Worces­ter, Massa­chu­setts / USA.

About Schölly Fiberoptic
Schölly Fiber­op­tic GmbH, based in Denz­lin­gen / Baden-Würt­tem­berg, is a leading provi­der of visua­liza­tion systems for mini­mally inva­sive diagno­stic and surgi­cal appli­ca­ti­ons. Schölly and Intui­tive have been working toge­ther for over 20 years, during which time they have desi­gned and manu­fac­tu­red seve­ral gene­ra­ti­ons of imaging equip­ment for Intuitive’s da Vinci® Surgi­cal Systems. The owners of the globally active family company are the Schölly family and the B.Braun subsi­diary Aescu­lap AG in Tutt­lin­gen. Schölly Fiber­op­tic was foun­ded in 1973 and curr­ently employs appro­xi­m­ately 900 people, of which appro­xi­m­ately 200 will be inte­gra­ted into Intui­tive as part of this transaction.

About Intui­tive Surgical
Intui­tive Surgi­cal (Nasdaq: ISRG) is a global leader in robo­tic-assis­ted mini­mally inva­sive surgery tech­no­lo­gies. For over 20 years, the U.S. company, head­quar­te­red in Sunny­vale, Cali­for­nia, has deve­lo­ped, manu­fac­tu­red and marke­ted surgi­cal and endo­lu­mi­nal systems in the U.S., Western Europe, Japan and South Korea.

Schölly Fiber­op­tic was compre­hen­si­vely legally advi­sed on the sale by a corpo­rate and M&A team from the law firm Fried­rich Graf von West­pha­len & Part­ner, led by Dr. Barbara Mayer. With this mandate, FGvW was able to further deepen its health­care focus in the M&A sector.

Intui­tive Surgi­cal Inc. was advi­sed by a Hogan Lovells team led by Dr. Peter Huber in Munich; Aescu­lap AG, a subsi­diary of B. Braun SE — as share­hol­der of Schoelly Fiber­op­tic GmbH — was advi­sed by Dr. Chris­tian Ulrich Wolf of Watson Farley in Hamburg. On the Schölly side, Hanns-Georg Schell and Clau­dio Schmitt from the audi­ting and tax consul­ting firm Bans­bach GmbH in Frei­burg were invol­ved as tax advisors.

Advi­sors to Schölly Fiber­op­tic GmbH:Fried­rich Graf von West­pha­len & Partner

Dr. Barbara Mayer, Frei­burg, Part­ner (Lead Part­ner, Corpo­rate, M&A)
Dr. Jan Barth, Frei­burg, Senior Asso­ciate (Corpo­rate, M&A)
Dr. Chris­toph Fingerle, Frei­burg, Part­ner (Labor Law)
Dr. Stefan Daub, Frei­burg, Part­ner (Labor Law)
Dr. Morton Douglas, Frei­burg, Part­ner (IP)
Dr. Lukas Kalk­bren­ner, Frei­burg, Asso­ciate (IP)

Düssel­dorf — Network Corpo­rate Finance has advi­sed the share­hol­ders and manage­ment of the LUTZ Group as debt advi­sor on the struc­tu­ring and imple­men­ta­tion of a complex new group financing.

As part of the realignment of the Group, in which one of the two main share­hol­ders has left and a complete relo­ca­tion of opera­ti­ons is being under­ta­ken, exten­sive finan­cing has been struc­tu­red. The flexi­ble and cost-opti­mi­zed concept consists of acqui­si­tion finan­cing, sale-and-lease-back finan­cing of the new plant, and a leasing solu­tion (off-balance) for the new machi­nery and equipment.

The LUTZ Group is Europe’s largest manu­fac­tu­rer of special tech­ni­cal blades for indus­try, medi­cal appli­ca­ti­ons and crafts. The company was foun­ded in 1922 and now employs over 300 people at its two sites in Solin­gen and Nysa (Poland). www.lutz-blades.com

About Network Corpo­rate Finance
Network Corpo­rate Finance is an inde­pen­dent, owner-mana­ged advi­sory firm focu­sed on mergers and acqui­si­ti­ons, capi­tal markets tran­sac­tions and equity and debt finan­cing. We advise both estab­lished and young compa­nies in a wide range of indus­tries. With our team of 26 employees at our offices in Düssel­dorf, Berlin and Frank­furt, we have been able to estab­lish oursel­ves as one of the most successful inde­pen­dent corpo­rate finance consul­ting firms in Germany since our foun­da­tion in 2002.

Luxem­bourg / Gajków (Poland) — Dywi­dag-Systems Inter­na­tio­nal (“DYWIDAG”), a port­fo­lio company of Triton Fund III, has announ­ced the acqui­si­tion of PARTEC System (“PARTEC”). PARTEC was foun­ded 20 years ago by Krzy­sz­tof Kotarba as a specia­li­zed manu­fac­tu­rer and distri­bu­tor of perma­nent form­work and hydro­in­su­la­tion systems for the cons­truc­tion sector. The company is based in Gajków near Wroclaw and opera­tes throug­hout Europe. This acqui­si­tion is an important step in DYWIDAG’s expan­sion to meet the needs of the Euro­pean market.

The speed and relia­bi­lity of PARTEC, combi­ned with DYWIDAG’s distri­bu­tion chan­nels, is expec­ted to gene­rate signi­fi­cant growth and product deve­lo­p­ment within the Group. Krzy­s­tof Kotarba said, “It is clear that DYWIDAG’s values and vision reflect my values and those of the PARTEC orga­niza­tion. These shared prin­ci­ples and DYWIDAG’s ambi­tion provide PARTEC with an exci­ting oppor­tu­nity to conti­nue to grow and become an inte­gral part of future busi­ness success.”

Ian Jarvis, Presi­dent of Concrete Access­ories DYWIDAG, said, “We are plea­sed to welcome the PARTEC team to DYWIDAG. This is an important mile­stone for our Concrete Access­ories busi­ness, which we intend to further expand in the area, and to build a strong presence in the Polish market. This provi­des us with grea­ter oppor­tu­ni­ties for the emer­ging markets in Eastern Europe. ”
Matti Kuiva­lai­nen, CEO of DYWIDAG, said: “Stra­te­gi­cally, we see many oppor­tu­ni­ties in Europe. I am very plea­sed that PARTEC has become part of the DYWIDAG family. The acqui­si­tion of PARTEC streng­thens the busi­ness area and our posi­tion in specialty buil­ding materials. ”

About Triton
Since its foun­ding in 1997, Triton has laun­ched nine funds and focu­sed on compa­nies in the indus­trial, services, consu­mer goods and health­care sectors. The Triton funds invest in medium-sized compa­nies based in Europe and support their posi­tive deve­lo­p­ment. 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.Currently, Triton’s port­fo­lio includes 38 compa­nies with total sales of around 14.9, billion euros and appro­xi­m­ately 73,000 employees. www.triton-partners.de

Munich / London — The ailing fashion manu­fac­tu­rer Gerry Weber has largely sepa­ra­ted from its subsi­diary Hall­hu­ber. British inves­tor Robus Capi­tal Manage­ment has acqui­red a majo­rity stake in the Munich-based fashion chain, Gerry Weber announ­ced. The fashion company from North Rhine-West­pha­lia, which is working on its own respon­si­bi­lity on its reor­ga­niza­tion in insol­vency procee­dings, will thus retain a stake of only 12 percent in Hallhuber.

The inves­tor had provi­ded bridge finan­cing of ten million euros for Hall­hu­ber in Febru­ary. In return, he had a purchase option gran­ted to him, which he has now exer­cised. Gerry Weber took over Hall­hu­ber in 2015 in order to tap into youn­ger custo­mer groups. The subsi­diary was long regarded as the Group’s biggest growth driver.

Invest­ment in online retail­ing and IT technologies
Hall­hu­ber announ­ced invest­ments in the areas of online retail­ing and IT tech­no­lo­gies. “Here we can build on the finan­cial support of our new majo­rity share­hol­der,” Mana­ging Direc­tor Rouven Anger­mann said, accor­ding to the release. Expan­sion is also plan­ned in the statio­na­ry­Pri­vate Busi­ness Cloud trade, he said.
The parent company Gerry Weber Inter­na­tio­nal had filed for insol­vency procee­dings in self-admi­nis­tra­tion in Janu­ary — with the aim of restruc­tu­ring the company. Accor­ding to earlier infor­ma­tion, the restruc­tu­ring concept includes the closure of 146 stores and sales areas and the reduc­tion of 330 full-time jobs in Germany.

About Robus Capital
Robus Capi­tal Manage­ment is an asset manage­ment company with offices in Frank­furt and London. Robus invests in all areas of a company’s capi­tal struc­ture follo­wing a holi­stic analy­sis. The invest­ment focus is on debt instru­ments such as syndi­ca­ted loans, bonds, promis­sory bill loans and conver­ti­ble bonds from medium-sized issuers. Invest­ments can be made through both the primary and secon­dary markets, and invest­ments are also made in situa­tions that are very complex and require in-depth analy­sis. The regio­nal focus of Robus is Conti­nen­tal Europe and espe­ci­ally the German spea­king countries.

Hamburg/Dormagen/Vienna — coeo Inkasso, a receiv­a­bles manage­ment service provi­der in Water­land Private Equity’s corpo­rate port­fo­lio, is acqui­ring KNP Finan­cial Services GmbH. KNP is a leading provi­der of coll­ec­tion services in Austria and prima­rily serves corpo­rate custo­mers in the e‑commerce sector. For coeo Inkasso, the inte­gra­tion of KNP means entry into the Austrian market. The sellers are the two foun­ders and mana­ging direc­tors of the company Anton Moser and Wolf­gang Hetlin­ger. They will remain in manage­ment after the sale. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose details of the tran­sac­tion, which is still subject to appr­oval by the rele­vant anti­trust autho­ri­ties. The invest­ment company Water­land had acqui­red a majo­rity stake in coeo Inkasso in Febru­ary 2018.

KNP Finan­cial Services, which is head­quar­te­red in Vienna and has around 30 employees, aims to improve the liqui­dity of its custo­mers and also relies on highly auto­ma­ted proces­ses. A modern infra­struc­ture, powerful inter­faces and a custo­mi­zed work­flow enable effec­tive receiv­a­bles manage­ment. Last year, KNP proces­sed around 100,000 new claims. KNP bene­fits from its inte­gra­tion into the coeo Inkasso Group prima­rily in the area of custo­mer acqui­si­tion and through access to a large and stable indus­try network.

coeo Inkasso was foun­ded in 2010 and is now based in Dorma­gen. The company offers fidu­ciary coll­ec­tion, debt purchase and credit reports in the e‑commerce, retail, tele­com­mu­ni­ca­ti­ons and energy sectors. More than 250 employees curr­ently work for coeo Inkasso, and the service provi­der takes on more than 1,200,000 new receiv­a­bles every year.

Wolf­gang Hetlin­ger, foun­der and mana­ging direc­tor of KNP, is plea­sed about the deepe­ning of the part­ner­ship: “We have alre­ady worked very successfully with coeo Inkasso in the past — espe­ci­ally in the joint acqui­si­tion of new custo­mers. The deepe­ning of our coope­ra­tion brings many oppor­tu­ni­ties: there are opera­tio­nal points of cont­act, for exam­ple, in the struc­tu­red exch­ange of know­ledge for opti­mi­zing service quality.” Anton Moser, co-foun­der and Mana­ging Direc­tor at KNP, adds: “Our coll­ec­tion proces­ses are alre­ady highly auto­ma­ted. Toge­ther with coeo Inkasso, we want to make them even more effi­ci­ent. Above all, we will drive inno­va­tions in the topic area of advan­ced analy­tics in a targe­ted manner.”

Sebas­tian Ludwig, Mana­ging Direc­tor at coeo Inkasso, sees the inte­gra­tion of KNP as an important mile­stone in the further deve­lo­p­ment of the company: “With KNP, coeo Inkasso succeeds in ente­ring the Austrian market. In addi­tion, we are further expan­ding our exper­tise in the e‑commerce sector. The deepe­ning of our part­ner­ship brings immense bene­fits to both companies.”

Dr. Cars­ten Rahlfs, Mana­ging Part­ner at Water­land, comm­ents: “With our port­fo­lio compa­nies, we prima­rily rely on buy & build stra­te­gies to deve­lop them further. To this end, we also support the search for well-posi­tio­ned compa­nies that have strong growth and are leaders in their indus­try. The receiv­a­bles manage­ment market is still highly frag­men­ted, parti­cu­larly in German-spea­king count­ries, and a conso­li­da­tion of coeo Inkasso and KNP will signi­fi­cantly streng­then the posi­tion of both companies.”

The inde­pen­dent invest­ment company Water­land has exten­sive expe­ri­ence in the field of “Outsour­cing and Effi­ci­ency”. In German-spea­king count­ries, for exam­ple, Water­land has a stake in the Serrala Group. From its head­quar­ters in Hamburg, the finan­cial soft­ware specia­list supports over 2,500 compa­nies world­wide with forward-looking tech­no­logy for opti­mi­zed payment tran­sac­tions and rela­ted finan­cial processes.

About coeo Inkasso
coeo Inkasso stands for intel­li­gent receiv­a­bles manage­ment and combi­nes “know­ledge from expe­ri­ence” with “man and machine” exper­tise. As a result, new data-driven, beha­vior-orien­ted, and custo­mer value-preser­ving coll­ec­tion stra­te­gies are constantly emer­ging. The company was foun­ded in 2010. In 2011, it took over the busi­ness opera­ti­ons of the receiv­a­bles service provi­der Forum Inkasso GmbH. This was follo­wed in 2012 by the acqui­si­tion of the busi­ness opera­ti­ons of acor­eus Coll­ec­tion Services GmbH. coeo Inkasso curr­ently employs over 250 staff and takes on over 1,200,000 new receiv­a­bles files every year.

About KNP
KNP Finan­cial Services GmbH was foun­ded in 2011 and stands for modern and inno­va­tive receiv­a­bles manage­ment with the aim of impro­ving the liqui­dity of its clients. KNP curr­ently employs 30 staff based in Vienna and takes on over 100,000 new receiv­a­bles files every year.

About Water­land
Water­land is an inde­pen­dent private equity invest­ment firm that helps compa­nies realize their growth plans. With substan­tial finan­cial support and indus­try exper­tise, Water­land enables its port­fo­lio compa­nies to achieve acce­le­ra­ted growth both orga­ni­cally and through acqui­si­ti­ons. Water­land has offices in the Nether­lands (Bussum), Belgium (Antwerp), Germany (Hamburg, Munich), Poland (Warsaw), the UK (Manches­ter), Denmark (Copen­ha­gen) and Switz­er­land (Zurich). Curr­ently, six billion euros in equity funds are under management.

 

Hamburg/ Frank­furt a. M. — DLA Piper advi­sed KRAHN Chemie GmbH, active in chemi­cal distri­bu­tion, on the acqui­si­tion of eMBe Products & Service GmbH, one of the leading addi­tive manu­fac­tu­r­ers for the cera­mics and powder metal indus­try in Europe.

eMBe was foun­ded in 2007 and produ­ces binder systems for ther­mo­pla­s­tic shaping of sinterable powder mate­ri­als (cera­mic and metall­ur­gi­cal). In addi­tion, indi­vi­dua­li­zed product solu­ti­ons along the value chain are deve­lo­ped toge­ther with custo­mers in a tech­ni­cal center and also produ­ced on site in small quantities.

KRAHN Chemie is part of the OTTO KRAHN Group. The OTTO KRAHN Group has an annual turno­ver of appro­xi­m­ately 1.3 billion EUR and more than 18,000 custo­mers world­wide. KRAHN’s core compe­tence is the distri­bu­tion, marke­ting and sales of specialty chemi­cals. KRAHN Chemie has also been active in the field of tech­ni­cal cera­mics for 25 years and has helped to deve­lop this market, parti­cu­larly in the dental sector.

Advi­sors to KRAHN Chemie GmbH: DLA Piper
The DLA Piper core team was led by part­ner Sebas­tian Decker (photo) and included asso­ciate Sophie von Mandels­loh (both Corporate/M&A).
The exten­ded team consis­ted of part­ners Dr. Henri­ette Norda (Labor Law, all Hamburg), Dr. Björn Enders (Tax) and Semin O (Anti­trust), coun­sel Dr. Fabian Klein (IPT, all Frank­furt), senior asso­ciate Georg Haber­korn (Labor Law, Munich) and asso­cia­tes Anasta­sia Max (Tax), Chris­tian Georg, David Klock (both Anti­trust) and Konstan­tin Decker-Horz (Real Estate, all Frankfurt).