News-Kategorie: Deals

Berlin — Home­ToGo, the world’s largest search engine for vaca­tion rentals, has acqui­red CASAMUNDO GmbH for an undis­c­lo­sed sum from the @Leisure Group, a leading opera­tor of online rental portals for vaca­tion proper­ties in Europe, in which Axel Sprin­ger holds a majo­rity stake. Vogel Heerma Waitz advi­sed its long-stan­ding client Home­ToGo on this transaction.

The company CASAMUNDO, which employs more than 100 people in Hamburg, remains an important sales part­ner for the brands of the @Leisure Group such as Belvilla, DanCen­ter and Danland. The website of CASAMUNDO offers over 700,000 vaca­tion accom­mo­da­ti­ons worldwide.

Tobias Wann, CEO @Leisure Group: “The focus of our stra­tegy is the further deve­lo­p­ment of our full-service offe­rings such as Belvilla and Dan Center as well as our self-service offe­ring Dream Holi­day Apart­ments. The sale of CASAMUNDO is ther­e­fore a logi­cal step. We believe that CASAMUNDO has found an excel­lent new owner in Home­ToGo for the further expan­sion of its market presence and the @Leisure Group has found an excel­lent distri­bu­tion part­ner at the same time.”

CASAMUNDO opera­tes an online portal for the procu­re­ment of vaca­tion homes and apart­ments. Home­ToGo is the world’s largest search engine for vaca­tion rentals. The coope­ra­tion is inten­ded to further improve the search for vaca­tion accommodation.

About @Leisure Group
The @Leisure Group is one of the leading opera­tors of online vaca­tion accom­mo­da­tion portals in Europe. The Amster­dam-based group of compa­nies includes full-service provi­ders such as Belvilla, Dancen­ter and Danland, with which it hand­les the entire rental process for property owners. In addi­tion, the online booking plat­form Traum-Feri­en­woh­nun­gen also belongs to the company. The goal of @Leisure Group is to create happy and unfor­gettable memo­ries for guests, owners and part­ners. Since Janu­ary 2015, the @Leisure Group is part of Axel Sprin­ger SE, the leading digi­tal publisher in Europe.

Advi­sors to Home­toGo: Vogel Heerma Waitz
Dr. Jan Heerma (Part­ner) , Dr. Clemens Waitz (Part­ner), Olga Balan­dina-Luke (Part­ner), Claas Hohl­we­ger (Asso­ciate), Dr. Simon Pfef­ferle (Asso­ciate), Anika Lepage (Asso­ciate), Linus Korherr (Asso­ciate), Anne Leßner (Asso­ciate)

About Vogel Heerma Waitz
Vogel Heerma Waitz is a Berlin-based law firm specia­li­zing in growth capi­tal, tech­no­logy and media that has been in opera­tion since May 2014 and can draw on a total of over 50 years of expe­ri­ence of its now five part­ners in connec­tion with growth capi­tal financings.

The share­hol­ders of Erwin Hymer Group SE and Thor Indus­tries, Inc. have announ­ced that they have ente­red into a defi­ni­tive agree­ment for the acqui­si­tion of Erwin Hymer Group by Thor for an enter­prise value of appro­xi­m­ately 2.1 billion euros. The purchase price is to be finan­ced by cash and equity. The equity payment will consist of appro­xi­m­ately 2.3 million shares of Thor. The Hymer family thus remains commit­ted to the indus­try. The merger crea­tes the world’s largest motor­home manu­fac­tu­rer with the leading posi­tion in North America and Europe and estab­lishes a global sales and produc­tion base for the company.

Henge­ler Muel­ler advi­sed Hymer both in connec­tion with the sale and in prepa­ra­tion of an IPO (dual track).

The sale was advi­sed by part­ners Prof. Dr. Hans-Jörg Ziegen­hain and Dr. Daniel Möritz (both lead, M&A, Munich), Dr. Markus Röhrig (antitrust/merger control, Brussels), Dr. Matthias Schei­fele (tax, Munich), Prof. Dr. Dirk Uwer (public commer­cial law, Düssel­dorf), Dr. Daniel Weiß (finan­cing, Frank­furt), coun­sel Dr. Gunther Wagner (tax, Munich), Peter Dampf (finan­cing, Frank­furt) and Dr. Andrea Schlaffge (Intellec­tual Property/IT, Düssel­dorf) as well as asso­cia­tes Dr. Jakub Lorys, Dr. Johan­nes Baumann, Dr. Aris Miro Mari­nello, Dr. Thomas Daniel Weie­rer, Dr. Florian Alex­an­der Dendl (all M&A, Munich), Dr. Sebas­tian Adam (Tax), Dr. Alex­an­der Wellerdt (Finan­cing) (both Frank­furt), Dr. Deniz Tschamm­ler (Public Commer­cial Law, Berlin), Anja Balitzki (Düssel­dorf) and Dr. Chris­tina Wolf (Brussels) (both Antitrust).

Part­ners Dr. Rein­hold Ernst (Frank­furt) and Dr. Simon Patrick Link (Munich) (both lead) and Coun­sel Ceci­lia Di Ció (Frank­furt) (all Capi­tal Markets) were invol­ved in the prepa­ra­tion of the IPO.

A team from the US law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore (part­ners Mark I. Greene and Aaron M. Gruber) advi­sed on US law issues.

Saar­brü­cken — The share­hol­ders of the Saar­brü­cken-based voice control specia­list SemVox have sold a majo­rity of their shares to the listed auto­mo­tive supplier para­gon. For EUR 16.4 million, para­gon is acqui­ring 82 percent of the shares in the company and has also agreed opti­ons for the remai­ning shares, which will initi­ally remain with the founders.

SemVox deve­lops effi­ci­ent and secure tech­no­lo­gies and solu­ti­ons for voice control, multi­face­ted human-tech­no­logy inter­ac­tion, and pro-active assis­tance systems based on arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence. The company employs around 60 people and expects sales in the mid-single-digit million range for fiscal year 2018. The alre­ady profi­ta­ble company was foun­ded ten years ago as a spin-off of the German Rese­arch Center for Arti­fi­cial Intel­li­gence. In 2017, SemVox won the Car HMI Special Jury Award. Nume­rous vehicle types are alre­ady equip­ped with SemVox tech­no­logy, and this figure is expec­ted to rise to more than 13 million vehic­les in the next five years.

Thesellers of the shares are the four foun­ders of SemVox GmbH and four inves­tors. These include the German Rese­arch Center for Arti­fi­cial Intel­li­gence, Saar­brü­cken, and M. Laden­dorf Betei­li­gung, Trier. The four foun­ders will conti­nue to be invol­ved in the company for a period of at least three years and will take on mana­ging or execu­tive func­tions. The tran­sac­tion is expec­ted to be comple­ted by the begin­ning of Octo­ber 2018 at the latest.

Listed on the Regu­la­ted Market (Prime Stan­dard) of Deut­sche Börse AG in Frank­furt a.M., para­gon GmbH & Co. KGaA deve­lops, produ­ces and sells pionee­ring solu­ti­ons in the fields of auto­mo­tive elec­tro­nics, body kine­ma­tics and elec­tro­mo­bi­lity. With the acqui­si­tion of SemVox, para­gon crea­tes a new busi­ness area for digi­tal assis­tance systems. Toge­ther, para­gon and SemVox want to signi­fi­cantly expand the range of inte­gra­tive solu­ti­ons. Para­gon is thus incre­asingly deve­lo­ping into a full-service provi­der for auto­mo­tive manufacturers.

Consul­tant SemVox: IMAP
Dr. Cars­ten Lehmann (photo, IMAP board member), Nils Keller and Atanas Petkov of IMAP exclu­si­vely advi­sed the sellers in all phases of the inves­tor process and supported them in successfully closing the tran­sac­tion within a few months.

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

Ingel­heim am Rhein, Germany — German phar­maceu­ti­cal group Boeh­rin­ger Ingel­heim has acqui­red all shares in Austria-based Vira­The­ra­peu­tics GmbH, a biophar­maceu­ti­cal company rese­ar­ching inno­va­tive virus-based immu­no­the­ra­peu­tics for the treat­ment of cancer. Through this biotech acqui­si­tion with a tran­sac­tion volume of 210 million euros, Boeh­rin­ger Ingel­heim is further expan­ding its commit­ment in this area. Boeh­rin­ger Ingel­heim was advi­sed on this tran­sac­tion by GleissLutz.

Back in 2016, Boeh­rin­ger Ingel­heim ente­red into a colla­bo­ra­tion with Vira­The­ra­peu­tics: Their goal was to deve­lop onco­ly­tic viru­ses, which are among the most promi­sing new thera­peu­tic approa­ches in cancer rese­arch. In this context, the Boeh­rin­ger Ingel­heim Venture Fund (BIVF) was alre­ady one of the core inves­tors in the Austrian company. A purchase option had also been agreed as part of the coope­ra­tion. Boeh­rin­ger Ingel­heim has now exer­cised this. Gleiss Lutz had alre­ady compre­hen­si­vely advi­sed Boeh­rin­ger Ingel­heim on the conclu­sion of the coope­ra­tion in 2016.

Boeh­rin­ger Ingel­heim is one of the world’s top 20 phar­maceu­ti­cal compa­nies. Head­quar­te­red in Ingel­heim, Germany, Boeh­rin­ger Ingel­heim has 145 affi­lia­ted compa­nies world­wide and employs a total of appro­xi­m­ately 50,000 people. In 2017, Boeh­rin­ger Ingel­heim gene­ra­ted sales of just under 18.1 billion euros. At more than three billion euros, rese­arch & deve­lo­p­ment expen­dit­ures corre­spond to 17.0 percent of sales.

The law firm Maybach Görg Lenn­eis Geréd Rechts­an­wälte GmbH advi­sed on Austrian law.

Dr. Jan Wilhelm Bolt from Boeh­rin­ger Ingelheim’s legal depart­ment was in charge of the transaction.

Advi­sor Boeh­rin­ger Ingel­heim: Gleiss Lutz
Dr. Martin Viciano Gofferje (Part­ner, Lead, Corporate/M&A, Berlin), Dr. Alex­an­der Schwarz (Part­ner, Corporate/M&A, Düssel­dorf) and Dr. Herwig Lux (Coun­sel, IP, Stutt­gart) advi­sed Boeh­rin­ger Ingel­heim on this transaction.

Düsseldorf/ Frank­furt a. M. — Aareal Bank Group has reached an agree­ment with the Bundes­ver­band Deut­scher Banken e.V. (BdB) on the acqui­si­tion of all shares in Düssel­dor­fer Hypo­the­ken­bank AG. The closing of the tran­sac­tion is subject to regu­la­tory appr­ovals and is curr­ently plan­ned to take place in 2018. The preli­mi­nary purchase price is appro­xi­m­ately EUR 162 million. The final purchase price is subject to fluc­tua­tions in market value up to the closing date.

Advi­sor to Aareal Bank Group: Henge­ler Muel­ler Part­ner­schaft von Rechts­an­wäl­ten mbB
Part­ner­Hen­ge­ler Muel­ler provi­ded compre­hen­sive advice to Aareal on the tran­sac­tion. The part­ners Prof. Dr. Johan­nes Adolff (Corporate/M&A), Dr. Dirk H. Blie­se­ner (Banking Regu­la­tory), Dr. Lucina Berger (Corpo­rate), Dr. Chris­tian Hoefs (Labor) (all Frank­furt) and Dr. Alf-Henrik Bischke (Anti­trust, Düssel­dorf) as well as asso­cia­tes Loretta Lang (M&A), Dr. Jan Häller (Corpo­rate) and Jan L. Stef­fen (Banking Regu­la­tory) (all Frank­furt) were active.

Munich/ London — CANCOM SE has acqui­red The Orga­nised Group Ltd, parent company of UK IT solu­ti­ons provi­der OCSL. The total volume of the tran­sac­tion is appro­xi­m­ately €32 million, of which appro­xi­m­ately €29 million will be paid in cash. The remai­ning part will be sett­led by issuing 12.5 percent of the shares of the acqui­ring British subsi­diary of CANCOM SE to OCSL execu­ti­ves who conti­nue to work for the company. Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek provi­ded legal support for the tran­sac­tion toge­ther with the British law firm Stevens & Bolton LLP.

OCSL is a UK provi­der of cloud and on-premise IT solu­ti­ons. With more than 200 employees, the group of compa­nies gene­ra­ted sales of over 78 million euros in the last fiscal year.

In the future, OCSL will act as a base for the CANCOM Group’s acti­vi­ties in the United King­dom. Syner­gies can be lever­a­ged through the combi­ned use of OCSL’s and CANCOM’s product port­fo­lios, capa­bi­li­ties and part­ner rela­ti­onships. The acqui­si­tion makes CANCOM Group a major player in the country’s IT market.

CANCOM SE is a global, listed provi­der of IT infra­struc­ture and IT services with conso­li­da­ted reve­nues of well over €1 billion and nearly 3,000 employees. The company, head­quar­te­red in Munich, accom­pa­nies compa­nies into the digi­tal future as a “Digi­tal Trans­for­ma­tion Part­ner”. The range of solu­ti­ons includes consul­ting, imple­men­ta­tion and services.

Most recently, Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek advi­sed CANCOM SE in spring 2018 on the acqui­si­tion of UCC and mana­ged services provi­der Ocean Intel­li­gent Commu­ni­ca­ti­ons, which now opera­tes under the name CANCOM Colla­bo­ra­tion and Communication.

Advi­sors to CANCOM SE: Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek, Munich
Boris Dürr, photo (lead, M&A),
Marcel Greu­bel (Corporate/M&A),
Chris­tian Schild, LL.M. (M&A),
Astrid Well­hö­ner, LL.M. (labor law)
Dr. Rein­hard Siegert (Antitrust/Distribution Law)
Dr. Ruth Schnei­der (Antitrust/Distribution Law), all Munich

Katlen­burg-Lindau/ Hamburg — Taylor Wessing, led by Frank­furt-based part­ners Hassan Sohbi (photo ) and Michael Sinhart, advi­sed Omni­Guide Holdings Inc, a leading US medi­cal tech­no­logy company, on the acqui­si­tion of LISA Laser Products OHG, a tech­no­logy leader in surgi­cal lasers based in Katlen­burg-Lindau. The acqui­si­tion was also accom­pa­nied for Omni­Guide by the US commer­cial law firm Wilson Sonsini Good­rich & Rosati. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose details of the acquisition.

Omni­Guide specia­li­zes in the deve­lo­p­ment of medi­cal devices that use advan­ced laser tech­no­lo­gies to help remove tumors from pati­ents through precise surgi­cal proce­du­res while preser­ving healthy tissue. For its part, Omni­Guide is part of the port­fo­lio of Orbi­Med, a leading global invest­ment firm focu­sed on the health­care sector and head­quar­te­red in New York.

LISA Laser Products OHG, based in Katlen­burg-Lindau, Germany, has in turn been regarded as a bench­mark for surgi­cal laser systems since its foun­da­tion in 1989, parti­cu­larly in the deve­lo­p­ment of holmium and thulium lasers. Espe­ci­ally in the field of urology, products deve­lo­ped by LISA-Laser and comple­men­tary products such as laser fibers, endo­sco­pes and access­ories have become an important form of therapy.

The acqui­si­tion enables the compa­nies to combine LISA Laser’s Thulium and Holmium laser tech­no­lo­gies with OmniGuide’s CO2 lasers in the inte­rest of successfully trea­ting patients.

Hamburg — With the support of Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek ’s M&A team, Hamburg-based ATH Alto­naer-Tech­no­lo­gie-Holding GmbH — owner of KROENERT GmbH & Co KG — acqui­red all shares in Coatema Coating Machi­nery GmbH, based in Dorma­gen. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the purchase price.

KROENERT and Coatema are machine and plant manu­fac­tu­r­ers in the coating and conver­ting indus­try and global leaders in their respec­tive market segments. The merger of the compa­nies under ATH crea­tes an alli­ance with a broad product port­fo­lio for coating appli­ca­ti­ons and high inno­va­tive strength.

Both compa­nies and brands will remain inde­pen­dent and conti­nue to operate from their respec­tive loca­ti­ons. Thus, the previous mana­ging part­ners Dr. Andreas Giess­mann and Detlef Dieke will also conti­nue to act as mana­ging direc­tors of Coatema.

Dr. Tarik Vardag, Mana­ging Direc­tor of ATH and KROENERT, empha­si­zes: “As a leading manu­fac­tu­rer of custo­mi­zed coating and lami­na­ting systems, the merger will enable us to further expand our inter­na­tio­nal market posi­tion and, above all, set new tech­no­lo­gi­cal stan­dards. We are convin­ced by Coatema’s product range and inno­va­tive strength, which are supported in parti­cu­lar by the close networ­king with rese­arch and deve­lo­p­ment faci­li­ties. KROENERT and Coatema comple­ment each other ideally and I am very plea­sed about the future cooperation.”

Under the umbrella of ATH Alto­naer-Tech­no­lo­gie-Holding GmbH, the compa­nies KROENERT, DRYTEC and ZAE provide inno­va­tive tech­no­lo­gies, effi­ci­ent machi­nes and drive systems for custo­mers world­wide. ATH is head­quar­te­red in Hamburg and employs a total of around 390 people.

The consul­tancy was carried out in coope­ra­tion with ECOVIS Hansea­ti­sche Mittel­stands Treu­hand GmbH (WP/StB Dr. Hans-Werner Kort­mann and WP/StB Astrid Busch).

Advi­sor ATH: Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek
Dr. Stefan Duhn­krack, Photo (Lead Part­ner / M&A),
Dr. Hans Henning Hoff (Corpo­rate, Real Estate),
Dr. Stefan Brett­hauer (Commer­cial),
Dr. Chris­tina Etzel (Public Law),
Dr. Johan-Michel Menke, LL.M. (labor law), all Hamburg
Dr. Anton Horn (IP), Düsseldorf

Wupper­tal — GESCO AG, listed in the Prime Stan­dard, has taken over Sommer & Strass­bur­ger GmbH & Co KG, Bretten. Foun­ded in 1973, the company designs and manu­fac­tures process plants, espe­ci­ally for the phar­maceu­ti­cal, food, water tech­no­logy and chemi­cal industries.

As a high-end stain­less steel proces­sor, Sommer & Strass­bur­ger has posi­tio­ned itself as a tech­no­lo­gi­cally leading supplier in the rele­vant custo­mer indus­tries with its own brands Asep­tra­Line, Filtra­Line and Membra­Line for process vessels, filter and membrane housings. At the ACHEMA trade fair in June 2018, the company also presen­ted the Resi­Line product line, a new type of corro­sion-resistant membrane housing made of poly­mer-coated stain­less steel for the passage of subs­tances with a high salt or chlo­rine content, for example.

GESCO AG takes over 100 % of the shares, the owner Michael Hilpp remains active in the company as mana­ging direc­tor. With around 125 employees, Sommer & Strass­bur­ger gene­ra­tes sales of just under €20 million. Within GESCO Group, the company is allo­ca­ted to the Produc­tion Process Tech­no­logy segment. The acqui­si­tion is subject to appr­oval by the anti­trust authorities.

Sommer & Strass­bur­ger has deca­des of expe­ri­ence, inten­sive mate­ri­als know-how and its own system deve­lo­p­ment. The company has the process engi­nee­ring exper­tise to under­stand its custo­mers’ proces­ses and deve­lop func­tion­ally relia­ble solu­ti­ons. A high level of verti­cal inte­gra­tion, inclu­ding in-house surface treat­ment, offers high-end quality for the respec­tive custo­mer industries.

Michael Hilpp: “In order to ensure the success and contin­ued exis­tence of my company, I have trans­fer­red it to an indus­trial group. In doing so, GESCO, as a long-term orien­ted owner, secu­res my succes­sion and actively supports me with its indus­trial exper­tise in the next growth steps. My company reta­ins its inde­pen­dence and at the same time bene­fits from the support of GESCO AG as well as from the exch­ange with its sister compa­nies — an ideal constel­la­tion in my opinion.”

Ralph Rumberg, Spokes­man of the Execu­tive Board of GESCO AG: “Sommer & Strass­bur­ger has consis­t­ently deve­lo­ped from a contract manu­fac­tu­rer to a focu­sed supplier with its own product range over the past 20 years. The company serves deman­ding custo­mers in attrac­tive markets with high-quality tech­no­logy — all in all, a true hidden cham­pion that is an excel­lent fit for GESCO Group. We look forward to inte­gra­ting Sommer & Strass­bur­ger quickly and actively deve­lo­ping it further toge­ther with Mr. Hilpp.”

About GESCO
GESCO AG is an indus­trial group with market and tech­no­logy leading compa­nies in the capi­tal goods indus­try with a focus on produc­tion process tech­no­logy, resource tech­no­logy, health and infra­struc­ture tech­no­logy and mobi­lity tech­no­logy. As a company listed in the Prime Stan­dard, GESCO AG gives private and insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors access to a port­fo­lio of hidden cham­pi­ons in the German indus­trial SME sector.

Frank­furt am Main — ALANTRA advi­sed United Digi­tal Group (UDG), a leading German digi­tal marke­ting agency, on the sale of its perfor­mance marke­ting divi­sion (M&PM) to Omni­com Media Group Germany GmbH. ALANTRA’s Frank­furt team supported UDG toge­ther with ALANTRA’s US TMT (Tech­no­logy, Media and Tele­coms) specia­lists in the imple­men­ta­tion of this stra­te­gic decis­ion. The tran­sac­tion is still subject to appr­oval by the rele­vant compe­ti­tion authorities.

As part of a struc­tu­red sales process, the ALANTRA team presen­ted the M&PM divi­sion to the world’s leading agency networks and consul­tancies as well as finan­cial inves­tors. The successful dive­st­ment unders­cores ALANTRA’s exten­sive expe­ri­ence and exper­tise in the digi­tal agency, digi­tal consul­ting and digi­tal marke­ting market, which is worth around $300 billion world­wide. This is ALANTRA’s third tran­sac­tion in this sector in Germany and the fifte­enth world­wide in the past five years. After the dives­ti­ture, M&PM will conti­nue to provide perfor­mance marke­ting services to UDG through a stra­te­gic part­ner­ship with Omni­com Media Group.

Marcus H. Starke, CEO of UDG United Digi­tal Group, said: “We are deligh­ted to have found the ideal new owner for M&PM in Omni­com Media Group. ALANTRA’s inte­gra­ted global team has been a valued part­ner in this process and has deli­vered on each of the objec­ti­ves we defi­ned for this mandate. ALANTRA’s deep indus­try exper­tise, successful posi­tio­ning of M&PM, and estab­lished rela­ti­onships with poten­tial acqui­rers clearly set them apart from the compe­ti­tion. UDG and M&PM’s manage­ment are extre­mely plea­sed with the outcome of the transaction.”

UDG’s M&PM divi­sion is one of the last remai­ning large and focu­sed perfor­mance marke­ting provi­ders and a premium part­ner of Google in Germany. It takes an inte­gra­ted approach to compre­hen­sive perfor­mance marke­ting solu­ti­ons with a focus on SEO, SEA, affi­liate, social media adver­ti­sing and digi­tal analy­tics. M&PM employs more than 150 people at three loca­ti­ons in Germany.

About Alan­tra
Alan­tra is a global invest­ment banking and asset manage­ment firm focu­sed on the mid-market segment with offices in Europe, the US, Asia and Latin America.
With over 300 experts, the Invest­ment Banking unit provi­des inde­pen­dent advice on M&A, corpo­rate finance, loan port­fo­lios and capi­tal market transactions.
The Asset Manage­ment unit mana­ges assets of around four billion euros in the asset clas­ses private equity, active funds, private debt, real estate and wealth management.

The successful dive­st­ment unders­cores ALANTRA’s exten­sive expe­ri­ence in the digi­tal agency, digi­tal consul­ting and digi­tal marke­ting market, which is worth around $300 billion world­wide. This is ALANTRA’s third tran­sac­tion in this sector in Germany and the fifte­enth world­wide in the past five years.

Leverkusen/ Düssel­dorf — Bayer has signed an agree­ment with LEO Pharma for the sale of Bayer’s global prescrip­tion derma­to­logy busi­ness. The port­fo­lio to be acqui­red includes bran­ded prescrip­tion products for the topi­cal treat­ment of acne, fungal skin infec­tions and rosacea, as well as a range of topi­cal stero­ids with annual sales of over EUR 280 million (2017).

LEO Pharma will acquire the world­wide product rights except for Afgha­ni­stan and Paki­stan and will take over the sales and marke­ting orga­niza­tion in 14 count­ries as well as a produc­tion faci­lity in Segrate, Italy. In total, around 450 employees will trans­fer to LEO Pharma as part of the tran­sac­tion. The acqui­si­tion is subject to the fulfill­ment of custo­mary closing condi­ti­ons, inclu­ding clearance by the compe­ti­tion authorities.

Advi­sors to Bayer: Henge­ler Muel­ler advi­ses Bayer on the transaction
The part­ners Dr. Chris­tian Wentrup (photo ) and Dr. Matthias Hent­zen (both lead, M&A/Corporate), Dr. Thors­ten Mäger (Anti­trust) (all Düssel­dorf) as well as Coun­sel Dr. Gunther Wagner (Tax, Munich) and Asso­cia­tes PD Dr. Gerrit Forst, Dr. Florian Hass­ner and Richard Suer­mann (all M&A/Corporate, Düssel­dorf) are active.

Bonn, Munich — As the first seed inves­tor in the Munich-based fintech startup givve, HTGF sells its shares to the French, inter­na­tio­nally opera­ting, Up group in a multi-million exit.
Foun­ded in 2010, the sale will give the startup a much larger deve­lo­p­ment oppor­tu­nity in the finan­cial services sector. As a tech­no­lo­gi­cal market leader, givve has been able to gene­rate enorm­ous value deve­lo­p­ment and win well-known custo­mers since 2016.

givve: More than 250,000 card users in Germany
Fintech givve is alre­ady estab­lished in the employee loyalty market in Germany: More than 6,000 corpo­rate custo­mers use the givve cards. This works like a prepaid card that employ­ers can use to reward their employees while also enjoy­ing tax bene­fits for non-cash bene­fits. There are alre­ady more than 250,000 card users in Germany.

Up group offers loyalty programs, incen­tive and payment solu­ti­ons, among others. The Up group employs more than 3,400 people. The parent company is a cooperative.

givve tech­no­logy: machine lear­ning and auto­ma­ted payment processing
Above all, the inte­gra­tion at the Up group offers givve grea­ter oppor­tu­ni­ties for deve­lo­p­ment. The tech­no­logy deve­lo­ped in-house by givve includes auto­ma­ted payment auction matching proces­ses that save staff capa­city in payment proces­sing. Moreo­ver, these proces­ses are constantly impro­ving through machine learning.

Until now, givve tech­no­logy has only been used in the area of employee reten­tion. The Up group offers a much wider range of services, which opens up a grea­ter variety of possi­ble applications.

Up goup: New stra­te­gic investor
The acqui­si­tion by the Up group will not change anything for givve custo­mers for the time being. And the brand will also be retai­ned for the time being.

Patrick Löff­ler, Co-Foun­der and CEO of givve: “We could­n’t think of a better stra­te­gic inves­tor than the Up group. Not only do they under­stand our busi­ness very well, they are also active in far more busi­ness areas than we are. givve will bene­fit greatly from this large network and the exper­tise it provides.”

HTGF: Seed inves­tor reco­gni­zes technology’s poten­tial early on
HTGF reco­gni­zed the promi­sing FinTech tech­no­logy in givve at an early stage and sees the FinTech and block­chain sector as an incre­asingly signi­fi­cant and growing market with high deve­lo­p­ment poten­tial in the future.

Jens Baum­gärt­ner, Invest­ment Mana­ger of HTGF: “The foun­ding team has always convin­ced through the conti­nuous pursuit of long-term and stra­te­gic busi­ness goals. The tran­sac­tion comes at exactly the right time and opens up enorm­ous oppor­tu­ni­ties for the team to grow even faster with their mature technology.”

About givve
The company was foun­ded in 2010 by Patrick Löff­ler (CEO) and Alex­an­der Klai­ber (CTO). The givve prepaid credit card is the most flexi­ble voucher in the world and can be used at more than 30 million accep­tance points around the globe.

As a mone­tary addi­tio­nal bene­fit from the employer, the givve prepaid credit card is a smart way to increase wages. Compa­nies have the option of provi­ding their employees with tax-free bene­fits in kind amoun­ting to 44 euros. With the givve card, which can be desi­gned in the company’s corpo­rate design, employees can use this amount as they wish. Thus, givve offers compa­nies an advan­ced and sustainable tool for employee reten­tion and moti­va­tion as well as for incre­asing employer attrac­ti­ve­ness and is employee moti­va­tion that pays off. www.givve.com

About Up group
Up connects people, compa­nies and regi­ons by deve­lo­ping manage­ment, rela­ti­onship and tran­sac­tion plat­forms. Up deve­lops inte­gra­ted solu­ti­ons that meet the needs of diffe­rent part­ners, custo­mers and users. Up faci­li­ta­tes access to food, culture, leisure, educa­tion, home care, social assis­tance, expense manage­ment, and incen­tive and loyalty systems through its solu­ti­ons. With 3,465 employees and opera­ti­ons in 19 count­ries, Up is present in the daily lives of 26.6 million people world­wide. In 2017, total sales amoun­ted to 494 million euros. Up is an inde­pen­dent group whose parent company is a coope­ra­tive and parti­ci­pa­tory company. www.up.coop

Frank­furt a. M. — The U.S. services company Genpact acqui­res the Munich-based consul­ting firm Barkawi. Henge­ler Muel­ler, Latham & Watkins, Noerr and Baker Hostet­ler advised.

Genpact has signed an agree­ment to acquire Barkawi Manage­ment Consul­tants. Genpact is a global services company listed on the New York Stock Exch­ange and specia­li­zing in digi­tal transformation.

Barkawi Manage­ment Consul­tants was foun­ded in Munich in 1994 and is a global consul­ting firm specia­li­zing in supply chain manage­ment, supply chain tech­no­logy and after­sa­les services with over 200 employees in offices in Munich, Vienna, Riyadh, Dubai, Shen­zhen, Shang­hai and Atlanta. The merger of Barkawi Manage­ment Consul­tants with Genpact’s Supply Chain Service Line crea­tes ’ ”Barkawi Manage­ment Consul­tants — A Genpact Company”, a global provi­der of manage­ment consul­ting, mana­ged services and digi­tal transformation.

As part of the tran­sac­tion, Noerr provi­ded tax advice to Barkawi’s limi­ted part­ners in the prepa­ra­tion and during the tran­sac­tion. The Noerr team was led by Munich tax law part­ner Dr. Cars­ten Heinz. Noerr invol­ved the US law firm Baker Hostet­ler for the US tax issues.

Advi­sor Genpact: Henge­ler Mueller
Dr. Daniel Wiegand, Part­ner, Lead, M&A, Munich, Dr. Bernd Wirbel, Part­ner, Lead, M&A, Düssel­dorf, Dr. Chris­tian Hoefs, Part­ner, Labor Law, Frank­furt, Dr. Alf-Henrik Bischke, Part­ner, Anti­trust, Düssel­dorf, Dr. Markus Ernst, Coun­sel, Tax, Munich, Patrick H. Wilke­ning, Coun­sel, IP, Düssel­dorf, Dr. Andrea Schlaffge, IP, Düsseldorf
Asso­cia­tes: Dr. Maxi­mi­lian Schauf (M&A, Düssel­dorf), Dr. Achim Speng­ler, Dr. Vero­nika Wimmer (both M&A, Munich), Vicki Treib­mann (Labor Law), Dr. Anja Balitzki (Anti­trust Law), Dr. Maxi­mi­lien Wosgien (IP) (all Düssel­dorf), Dr. Sebas­tian Adam (Tax, Frankfurt)

Advi­sors­Bar­kawi: Latham & Watkins LLP
Dr. Rainer Trau­gott, Lead, Part­ner, Corporate/M&A, Munich, Dr. Nils Röver, Part­ner, Corporate/M&A, Hamburg, Dr. Thomas Fox, Part­ner, Tax, Munich, Dr. Chris­tian Engel­hardt, Coun­sel, IP/IT, Hamburg
Asso­cia­tes: Dr. Michael Schweppe, Corinna Freu­den­ma­cher (Corporate/M&A, Munich), Dr. Chris­tine Watz­in­ger (Tax Law, Munich)

On US tax law: Baker Hostetler 
Paul Schmidt, John D. Bates

Advi­sors to the limi­ted part­ners of Barkawi Manage­ment Consul­tant GmbH & Co: Noerr LLP
Dr. Cars­ten Heinz, Lead, Tax, Berlin/Munich, Peter Scheuch, Tax, Dres­den, Michael Tommaso, Tax, Berlin, Dr. Uwe Brend­ler, Corpo­rate M&A, Dresden

Berlin / Munich / Hamburg — The Scout24 AG (“Scout24″ or “the Group”), a leading opera­tor of digi­tal market­places focu­sing on real estate and auto­mo­tive in Germany and other selec­ted Euro­pean count­ries, has ente­red into an agree­ment to acquire all shares in the FFG FINANZCHECK Finanz­por­tale GmbH (“FINANZCHECK.de”), a German online compa­ri­son portal for consu­mer loans. Scout24 acqui­res FINANZCHECK.de from Acton Capi­tal Part­ners, btov Part­ners, High­land Europe, Harbour­Vest Part­ners as well as from the foun­der and CEO and other inves­tors (toge­ther the “Sellers”). The closing is subject to anti­trust appr­oval and is expec­ted within the next four to six weeks. The tran­sac­tion is based on a conside­ra­tion of €285 million, free of cash and debt. The purchase price is paid enti­rely in cash.

FINANZCHECK.de opera­tes an online plat­form for consu­mer finance and offers users a fast and effi­ci­ent compa­ri­son of consu­mer loans in real time. In addi­tion, FINANZCHECK.de coope­ra­tes with affi­liate websites, point-of-sale finan­cing part­ners and part­ner networks in Germany via its own consu­mer finance tech­no­logy plat­form. In terms of market share and market posi­tio­ning in the online compa­ri­son of consu­mer loans, FINANZCHECK.de is one of the top three portals in Germany. Using an uncom­pli­ca­ted online query, credit offers and credit-rela­ted products from all major provi­ders on the market can be compared within minu­tes. For credit inqui­ries on install­ment loans, car loans and debt resche­du­ling loans, credit advi­sors are available on request in addi­tion to online inquiry — seven days a week and free of charge.

Through this acqui­si­tion of high stra­te­gic importance, Scout24 will in future work with one of the leading indus­try provi­ders to be able to offer users an outstan­ding user expe­ri­ence and help them save time and money in their search for the right consu­mer loan. Banks and finan­cial insti­tu­ti­ons can also be provi­ded with a cost-effec­tive and scalable way to offer their services to loan seekers. FINANZCHECK.de has built its successful busi­ness on its own tech­no­logy plat­form with machine lear­ning capa­bi­li­ties and API connec­tions (Appli­ca­tion Programming Inter­face) to the most rele­vant finan­cial service provi­ders in Germany.

The market for online consu­mer loan compa­ri­sons is a fast-growing market, bene­fiting both from a good over­all deve­lo­p­ment of the more than 80 billion euros in new consu­mer loans gran­ted in Germany and from a progres­sive shift in consu­mer loan tran­sac­tions from offline chan­nels to online. Over the period from 2015 to 2022, the market share of consu­mer loans gene­ra­ted through online compa­ri­son is expec­ted to double.

With an average annual growth rate of around 35% over the last three years, FINANZCHECK.de can demons­trate a strong growth history and gene­ra­ted reve­nues of more than 35 million euros in the fiscal year ending Decem­ber 2017. This brings the volume of loans broke­red since the company was foun­ded in 2012 to more than EUR 3.5 billion. In addi­tion, with more than 20 finan­cial insti­tu­ti­ons connec­ted to its tech­no­logy plat­form via API, FINANZCHECK.de has compre­hen­sive market coverage with regard to the main provi­ders of consu­mer finance.

The acqui­si­tion of FINANZCHECK.de is an important stra­te­gic step to support users during their consu­mer jour­ney and to imple­ment Scout24’s motto “Inspi­ring your best decis­i­ons” — perfectly comple­men­ted by FINANZCHECK.de’s motto “enab­ling for money”. The acqui­si­tion builds on the alre­ady well-estab­lished and successful busi­ness part­ner­ship between the two compa­nies in broke­ring consu­mer finan­cing for car seekers on the AutoScout24 and FinanceScout24 platforms.

Since the IPO in Octo­ber 2015, Scout24 has alre­ady acqui­red and successfully inte­gra­ted seve­ral other compa­nies from its Euro­pean core markets, such as Auto­Trader B.V. in the Nether­lands or Gebrauchtwagen.at in Austria, which were a perfect stra­te­gic fit and at the same time contri­bu­ted to the expan­sion of the market posi­tion. In this respect, FINANZCHECK.de with its strong and estab­lished brand is a perfect comple­ment to the exis­ting busi­ness and contri­bu­tes signi­fi­cantly to the scope and reach of the market network — which in turn also bene­fits the future deve­lo­p­ment of FINANZCHECK.de.

“The acqui­si­tion of FINANZCHECK.de is another major step in the digi­tiza­tion of the Consu­mer Jour­ney within the Scout24 market network. It is a perfect fit for our busi­ness, and we are convin­ced that this stra­te­gic move will enable us to expand Consu­mer Services sales growth to the EUR 250 million mark in the medium term. In addi­tion to opera­tio­nal syner­gies and reve­nue contri­bu­tion, we also gain an even deeper under­stan­ding of user needs to the point of tran­sac­tion. With insight into user life­cy­cles and an under­stan­ding of when a user will start their next search for a new car or home, we can gain very valuable insights for our busi­ness. These will help us stra­te­gi­cally align our offe­ring so we can build more bridges to future user touch­points,” empha­si­zes Gregory Ellis, CEO of Scout24 AG, the high stra­te­gic value and leverage of the tran­sac­tion, which will help close the gaps in cove­ring the consu­mer jour­ney along the value chains of the real estate and auto­mo­tive businesses.

“We are deligh­ted to have Scout24 on board as our new parent company. This new alli­ance builds on an alre­ady very good coope­ra­tion within the frame­work of our long-stan­ding affi­liate part­ner­ship,” says Moritz Thiele, CEO and foun­der of FINANZCHECK.de.

The Manage­ment Board of Scout24 sees considera­ble oppor­tu­ni­ties to drive growth in this segment through the expan­sion of the Consu­mer Services divi­sion to include FINANZCHECK.de. This is prima­rily due to a more inte­gra­ted service offe­ring on the Scout24 plat­forms, with which Scout24 can accom­pany the consu­mer jour­ney to a grea­ter extent. The Execu­tive Board anti­ci­pa­tes syner­gies in both the auto­mo­tive and real estate busi­nesses. The initial focus will be on expan­ding the presence of FINANZCHECK.de on the AutoScout24 plat­form in order to meet further user needs rela­ting to car purcha­ses. Car loans are an essen­tial part of buying a car; about 40% of used cars are parti­ally or fully finan­ced. Scout24’s manage­ment plans to extend the offer to the AutoScout24 plat­forms in the Euro­pean core markets in the future.

In addi­tion to streng­thening the AutoScout24 plat­form through inte­gra­ted car finan­cing, Scout24’s Manage­ment Board sees addi­tio­nal syner­gies and reve­nue poten­tial by lever­aging the exis­ting close rela­ti­onships with the appro­xi­m­ately 26,000 AutoScout24 dealer part­ners in Germany. For exam­ple, AutoScout24 can also offer the busi­ness-to-busi­ness solu­tion “finanz­check­PRO” from FINANZCHECK.de, which helps car dealers to show poten­tial car buyers suita­ble finan­cing opti­ons for their desi­red car purchase and enable its implementation.

Consul­tant SCOUT 24 
Scout24 was advi­sed in the tran­sac­tion by McKin­sey & Company, Inc., BDO AG Wirt­schafts­prü­fungs­ge­sell­schaft, Will­kie Farr & Gallag­her LLP and by Credit Suisse (Deutsch­land) AG advi­sed. The Scout24 Group is finan­cing the acqui­si­tion through a credit facility.

Consul­tant FINANTCHECK.de
FINANZCHECK.de and its share­hol­ders were supported in the tran­sac­tion by Macqua­rie Capi­tal (Europe) Limi­ted as exclu­sive finan­cial advi­ser and Leo Schmidt-Holl­burg Witte & Frank as legal advi­ser. advise The tran­sac­tion contin­ued to be supported by Ernst & Young and EY Parthe­non. Better­mind GmbH supported the FINANZCHECK.de manage­ment intern­ally in the process and ensu­red further growth in parallel.

About SCOUT 24
With our leading digi­tal market­places ImmobilienScout24 in Germany and AutoScout24 in Europe, we inspire people to make their best decis­i­ons when it comes to finding a property or a car. Scout24 bund­les indi­vi­dual addi­tio­nal services, such as credit reports, the procu­re­ment of relo­ca­tion services or cons­truc­tion and car finan­cing, in the Scout24 Consu­mer Services busi­ness segment. More than 1,200 employees work on the success of our products and services. We put our users at the center and create a networked offe­ring for living and mobi­lity. Scout24 AG is a listed stock corpo­ra­tion and is traded on the Frank­furt Stock Exch­ange (ISIN: DE000A12DM80, Ticker: G24). For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.scout24.com.

About FINANZCHECK.de
FINANZCHECK.de, based in Hamburg, is one of the leading inde­pen­dent, tech­no­logy-supported consu­mer finance plat­forms in Germany. FINANZCHECK.de connects consu­mers with product provi­ders across all chan­nels. Consu­mers bene­fit from signi­fi­cant inte­rest cost savings and higher finan­cing opti­ons, while product provi­ders bene­fit from signi­fi­cantly lower custo­mer acqui­si­tion costs. The goal of FINANZCHECK.de is to become the leading provi­der of consu­mer liqui­dity solu­ti­ons through plug-and-play infra­struc­ture. Direct inter­faces to the IT infra­struc­ture of finan­cial service provi­ders are used to compare >70 consu­mer credit products. The end-to-end plat­form incor­po­ra­tes indus­try-leading tech­no­logy and custo­mer service to cover the entire life­cy­cle from custo­mer acqui­si­tion to credit appr­oval and beyond. For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.finanzcheck.de.

About Acton Capi­tal Partners
Acton Capi­tal Part­ners is a growth inves­tor from Munich for inter­net compa­nies. The invest­ment focus is on start­ups with scalable busi­ness models in the areas of online market­places, e‑commerce, online services, digi­tal media and SaaS. Acton invests in Europe and North America. The team has been working toge­ther successfully for many years and has inves­ted in over 70 compa­nies since 1999. Its best-known holdings include AbeBooks, Alando, Alpha­Sights, Ciao, Elite­part­ner, Etsy, Holi­day­Check, Linas Matkasse, Lumas, mytheresa.com, OnVista, Windeln.de and zooplus. To learn more, visit: www.actoncapital.com.

About btov Partners
btov Part­ners, foun­ded in 2000, is a Euro­pean venture capi­tal firm with offices in Berlin, Luxem­bourg and St. Gallen. The invest­ment focus is on digi­tal and indus­trial tech­no­logy compa­nies. btov mana­ges insti­tu­tio­nal funds, part­ner funds and provi­des access to direct invest­ments for private inves­tors and family offices. Through its three divi­si­ons, the company mana­ges assets of 375 million euros and reviews over 3,000 invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties annu­ally. To learn more, visit: www.btov.vc.

About Harbour­Vest Partners
Harbour­Vest is an inde­pen­dent global private equity inves­tor with more than 35 years of expe­ri­ence and more than $50 million in assets under manage­ment. The finan­cial investor’s global plat­form offers clients invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties through primary fund invest­ments, secon­dary invest­ments and direct co-invest­ments in commingled funds or others. Harbour­Vest employs more than 400 people, inclu­ding more than 100 invest­ment specia­lists in Asia, Europe and the US. The global team has commit­ted more than $34 billion to newly estab­lished funds, comple­ted more than $19 billion in secon­dary purcha­ses, and inves­ted more than $8 billion directly. By part­ne­ring with Harbour­Vest, clients bene­fit in a variety of ways from custo­mi­zed solu­ti­ons, long-stan­ding rela­ti­onships, key exper­tise, and successful results. To learn more, visit: www.harbourvest.com.

About High­land Europe
High­land Europe invests in excep­tio­nal growth soft­ware and Inter­net compa­nies. High­land Europe, the company which has been active in Europe since 2003 as High­land Capi­tal Part­ners and was offi­ci­ally foun­ded in 2012, has raised over €1 billion and inves­ted in compa­nies such as Adjust, Bitmo­vin, ContentS­quare, GetSour­Guide, Malware­bytes, Matches­Fa­shion, NewVoice­Me­dia, Next­hink, Smartly.io and WeTrans­fer. Toge­ther, the sites in the U.S., Europe and China include 46 IPOs and >$19 billion compa­nies. To learn more, visit: www.highlandeurope.com.

Marburg/ Darm­stadt — The British Spec­tris plc has acqui­red the VI-grade Group. The closing of the tran­sac­tion is still subject to custo­mary regu­la­tory appr­ovals and is expec­ted for the end of August 2018. Both parties have agreed not to disc­lose details of the tran­sac­tion. Gleiss Lutz advi­sed the British tech­no­logy company Spec­trics plc on this transaction.

VI-grade specia­li­zes in the produc­tion of auto­ma­tic controls and test systems, as well as the deve­lo­p­ment of turn­key solu­ti­ons for static and dyna­mic driving simu­la­tion. The company, with offices in Germany, Switz­er­land, Italy, the UK, Japan, China and the USA, deli­vers inno­va­tive solu­ti­ons to stream­line deve­lo­p­ment proces­ses, mainly in the auto­mo­tive, aero­space, motor­cy­cle, motor­sport and rail­road industries.

Spec­tris plc is a leading provi­der of products, tech­no­lo­gies and services that help compa­nies increase produc­ti­vity, improve product quality and opti­mize proces­ses until a product is laun­ched. In doing so, Spec­tris is active world­wide for custo­mers from various indus­tries and serves four busi­ness areas: Mate­ri­als Analy­sis, Test and Measu­re­ment, In-Line Instru­men­ta­tion and Indus­trial Controls. Head­quar­te­red in Egham, Surrey, UK, the company is listed on the London Stock Exch­ange (LSE) and employs around 9,800 people in more than 30 countries.

Gleiss Lutz coor­di­na­ted the tran­sac­tion as lead coun­sel in all juris­dic­tions invol­ved, in addi­tion to Germany also the UK (Shoos­miths LLP), Italy (Gianni, Origoni, Grippo, Cappelli & Part­ners), Japan (Kita­hama Part­ners), Switz­er­land (Hombur­ger) and USA (Sidley Austin LLP).

The follo­wing Gleiss Lutz team led by Dr. Patrick Kaffiné, photo (Part­ner, Corporate/M&A, Frank­furt) advi­sed Spec­tris on the tran­sac­tion: Dr. Stefan Mayer (Part­ner, Tax Law, Frank­furt), Dr. Jacob von Andreae (Part­ner, Public Law, Düssel­dorf), Dr. Michael Ilter, Julia Müller, Dr. Konstan­tin von Dryan­der, (all Corporate/M&A, all Frank­furt), Dr. Matthias Werner, (Coun­sel, IP/IT, Munich), Dr. Ocka Stumm, Chris­tian Hein­richs (both Tax Law, Frank­furt), Dr. Tobias Abend (Labor Law, Frank­furt), Dr. Birgit Colbus (Coun­sel), Dr. Saskia Kirch­geß­ner (both Anti­trust Law, Frankfurt).

The tran­sac­tion was advi­sed in-house by Dr. Alex­an­der Dähnert (M&A Coun­sel, London/Darmstadt) and Silke Leng­nick (Mana­ger Group Taxes, Darmstadt).

Gleiss Lutz regu­larly advi­ses Spec­tris on tran­sac­tions in Germany, most recently on the acqui­si­tion of DISCOM Elek­tro­ni­sche Systeme und Komponenten

Munich, Germany - Swyx Group, a port­fo­lio company of Water­land Private Equity (“Water­land”), is joining forces with the Dutch Within Reach Group, parent company of Voice­works. The compa­nies thus estab­lish the Euro­pean market leader for inno­va­tive commu­ni­ca­ti­ons services. At the same time, the new group acqui­res the French company Centile Tele­com Appli­ca­ti­ons.

Advi­sor Water­land: Henge­ler Mueller
Water­land is advi­sing on the tran­sac­tion in an inte­gra­ted team with Dutch Best Friends law firm DeBrauw Blackstone West­br­oek.
Henge­ler Mueller’s part­ners are Dr. Alex­an­der Nolte (Düssel­dorf), Dr. Jens Wenzel (Berlin) (both M&A, both lead,), Dr. Alf-Henrik Bischke (Anti­trust, Düssel­dorf), Dr. Niko­laus Vieten, Dr. Daniela Böning (both Finan­cing, Frank­furt), Dr. Chris­tian Schwandt­ner (Manage­ment Parti­ci­pa­tion, Düssel­dorf), Hendrik Bocken­hei­mer (Labor Law, Frank­furt), Coun­sel Peter Dampf (Finan­cing, Frank­furt) and Fabian Seip (IP, Berlin) and Asso­cia­tes Mandana Bahr­am­pour (M&A, London), Dr. Anja Balitzki (Anti­trust, Düssel­dorf), Adrian Cavin (Manage­ment Parti­ci­pa­tion, Düssel­dorf), Dr. Henning Hilke (Finan­cing, Frank­furt), Jan Krusche (IP, Berlin) and Marc Seeger (M&A, Düsseldorf).

Munich, Germany — Jones Day advi­sed Celo­nis SE, a soft­ware company based in Munich and New York, in connec­tion with a US$50 million Series B finan­cing round for parti­ci­pa­tion by exis­ting inves­tors Accel and 83North. The Series B finan­cing round was based on a US$1 billion enter­prise valua­tion of Celo­nis SE.

Since its foun­ding in 2011, Celo­nis has become a pioneer in the field of process mining. Based on this tech­no­logy, the Celo­nis Intel­li­gent Busi­ness System helps compa­nies under­stand and improve opera­tio­nal process flows. The current invest­ment will be used for further invest­ments in rese­arch & deve­lo­p­ment and support the global expan­sion plans. The US head­quar­ters in New York, which opened in Septem­ber 2016, grew tenfold last year, new offices were added in London, Boston, Raleigh and Miami, and the site in the Nether­lands was expan­ded. Growth targets since the June 2016 Series A invest­ment of $27.5 million have all been exceeded.

Jones Day alre­ady advi­sed Celo­nis, which was still opera­ting as a limi­ted liabi­lity company at the time, in its first Series A finan­cing round. At US$ 27 million, the volume was very high for a venture capi­tal finan­cing in the German market and the legal struc­ture unusually complex. Among other things, the company was conver­ted into an SE (Socie­tas Euro­paea) with a moni­stic board of direc­tors by way of a down­stream merger after the investment.

Advi­sor Celo­nis: Jones Day
Ivo Poslu­schny, Photo (Lead Part­ner, Private Equity, Munich), Dr. Kars­ten Müller-Eising (Banking, Finance & Secu­ri­ties, Frank­furt), Dr. Markus Fisch (M&A, Munich).

About Jones Day
Jones Day is one of the world’s best and most diver­si­fied commer­cial law firms and has been reco­gni­zed for years as the most client-focu­sed firm. Jones Day advi­ses and repres­ents more than half of the DAX 30 compa­nies and has been the number one firm by number of M&A deals comple­ted world­wide without inter­rup­tion since 2000 (Thom­son and Bloom­berg). The firm employs more than 2,500 lawy­ers in 43 busi­ness and finan­cial centers world­wide — inclu­ding about 600 in Europe and 200 in Asia. In Germany, the firm is repre­sen­ted by more than 100 profes­sio­nals in Düssel­dorf, Frank­furt and Munich.

Frank­furt a. M. / Munich — The Frank­furt and Munich offices of the inter­na­tio­nal law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP have advi­sed the owners of MKM Mans­fel­der Kupfer und Messing GmbH on the acqui­si­tion of the company by the KME Group. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the purchase price. The closing of the tran­sac­tion is subject to anti­trust clearance by the EU compe­ti­tion autho­ri­ties and is expec­ted to take place in the fourth quar­ter of 2018.

MKM Mans­fel­der Kupfer und Messing GmbH, based in Hett­stedt, Germany, is a leading Euro­pean manu­fac­tu­rer of copper and copper alloy inter­me­dia­tes and semi-finis­hed products.

The KME Group is one of the world’s largest manu­fac­tu­r­ers of copper and copper alloy products. The company is part of the Italian Intek­Group Spa and is based in Osnabrück.

Advi­sors to MKM Mans­fel­der Kupfer und Messing GmbH:Weil, Gotshal & Manges
The Weil tran­sac­tion team was led by Frank­furt corpo­rate part­ners Prof. Dr. Gerhard Schmidt and Stephan Grauke and was supported by part­ner Dr. Kamyar Abrar (anti­trust, Frank­furt) and asso­cia­tes Dr. Ansgar Wimber, Manuel-Peter Fringer, Alex­an­der Pfef­fer­ler, Andreas Fogel (all Corpo­rate, Munich), Aurel Hille, Simone Hagen (both Anti­trust, Frank­furt), Ludger Kempf (Tax, Frank­furt), Thomas Zimmer­mann, Stef­fen Giolda (both Finance, Munich/Frankfurt) and para­le­gals Madleen Düdder, Sonja Popp (both Corpo­rate, Munich).

Advi­sers to the KME Group: Link­la­ters Munich
under the leader­ship of part­ner Dr. Florian Harder

Munich — Excel­lent start to the new issue year 2018 with 6 IPOs in Q1 with a place­ment volume of around 6.4 billion euros. Best half-year record for new issues in Germany since 2000.

While new issue acti­vity is weak­e­ning inter­na­tio­nally, with a 19% decline in numbers compared to H1 2017, Germany is putting in its best H1 since 2000 in terms of IPOs in 2018. With 12 new issues, Germany accounts for 1.82% of all IPOs world­wide, and with a place­ment volume of $7.9 billion, even 8.38%.

With an issue volume of €4.2 billion ($5.3 billion), Siemens Healt­hi­neers (photo) is the largest IPO from Germany. With a place­ment volume of around €1.3 billion ($1.6 billion), DWS is a second newco­mer to the stock market to enter the top 10 of the world’s largest IPOs in H1.

Although stock market indi­ces around the world fell signi­fi­cantly in the final weeks before the June 30 dead­line due to econo­mic and poli­ti­cal uncer­tain­ties, new issues in Germany outper­for­med the over­all market by an average of 3.1%. Siemens Healt­hi­neers was by far the best perfor­mer, with its share price rising 21.5% above the issue price. By contrast, Deut­sche Bank subsi­diary DWS disap­poin­ted with a share price loss of 20.8%. Over­all, inves­tors suffe­red price losses on 5 of the 12 new issues.

As in the previous two half-years, the speci­fic trading segment for small and medium-sized enter­pri­ses “Scale” recor­ded 2 new issues. STEMMER IMAGING was the first Scale IPO with a place­ment volume of more than € 100 million. Bank­haus Hauck & Aufhäu­ser has obviously become the top address for new issues in Scale. 4 of the 6 new issues were supported by Hauck & Aufhäuser.

For the The first compa­nies have announ­ced their IPOs in the second half of 2018. We ther­e­fore expect around 20 compa­nies to make their stock market debut this year. Nevert­hel­ess, we put a big ques­tion mark behind the new issue year 2018. There are no indi­ca­ti­ons that this trend will conti­nue in Germany in the future. This is mainly because the struc­tu­ral problems — whether in terms of share culture, costs or regu­la­tory obsta­cles — have not chan­ged. A detailed evalua­tion and analy­sis of all IPOs in Germany in the 1st half of 2018 can be found on our home­page https://www.blaettchen.de.

About Blätt­chen & Part­ner Blätt­chen & Part­ner GmbH has been one of Germany’s leading corpo­rate finance experts with inno­va­tive finan­cial stra­te­gies for over 30 years. The Munich-based company specia­li­zes in advi­sing on IPOs, bonds, promis­sory note loans as well as the rela­ted post-issu­ance capi­tal market support. Further focal points in the range of services are corpo­rate invest­ments, M&A tran­sac­tions as well as the struc­tu­ring of execu­tive compen­sa­tion and manage­ment parti­ci­pa­tion programs. More than 500 tran­sac­tions are proof of the company’s proven exper­tise. The grown inter­di­sci­pli­nary compe­tence network, the high custo­mer satis­fac­tion and the large number of publi­ca­ti­ons on important corpo­rate finance topics reflect the reco­gni­zed repu­ta­tion of Blätt­chen & Part­ner GmbH.

Düssel­dorf — ARQIS advi­sed Shimadzu Corpo­ra­tion on the acqui­si­tion of all shares in infra­serv Vaku­um­ser­vice GmbH, a specia­list in the main­ten­ance of turbo­mole­cu­lar pumps in Europe. infra­serv Vaku­um­ser­vice has become a wholly owned subsi­diary of Shimadzu.

With 25 employees, infra­serv Vaku­um­ser­vice gene­ra­ted net sales of 4.9 million euros in 2017. The company is based near Munich and services the vacuum systems of major semi­con­duc­tor and equip­ment manu­fac­tu­r­ers in Europe. It has high tech­ni­cal compe­tence and good rela­ti­ons with its custo­mers. Shimadzu has alre­ady outsour­ced service work for turbo­mole­cu­lar pumps to infra­serv Vakuumservice.

The acqui­si­tion is a step towards further deve­lo­ping Shimadzu’s Euro­pean turbo­mole­cu­lar pump busi­ness and streng­thening local sales acti­vi­ties and tech­ni­cal support.

Advi­sor Shimadzu: ARQIS Attor­neys at Law
ARQIS Rechts­an­wälte (Düssel­dorf): Dr. Meiko Dill­mann, Foto (Munich), Eber­hard Hafer­malz (both lead), Dr. Shigeo Yama­guchi (all Corporate/M&A), Dr. Andrea Panzer-Heemeier (Labor Law), Dr. Ulrich Lien­hard (Real Estate); Asso­cia­tes: Dr. Yohei Nagata (Corporate/M&A), Dr. Markus Schwip­per (Munich), Dr. Eva Trost, Carina Engel­hard (all Labor Law), Jenni­fer Huschauer (Real Estate)
Held Jagut­tis (Colo­gne): Public 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 as well as intellec­tual property and liti­ga­tion. For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.arqis.com.

Steinfurt/ Munich — Jones Day is advi­sing Geor­gia-Paci­fic LLC (“GP”) in connec­tion with the sale of its Euro­pean nonwo­vens busi­ness to a subsi­diary of P.H. Glat­fel­ter Company (“Glat­fel­ter”) for US$185 million. The tran­sac­tion includes GP’s nonwo­vens produc­tion in Stein­furt, North Rhine-West­pha­lia, and sales offices in France and Italy. The tran­sac­tion invol­ves the sale of shares in certain GP subsi­dia­ries to a subsi­diary of Glat­fel­ter and is expec­ted to close in the fourth quar­ter of 2018, subject to regu­la­tory approval.

Head­quar­te­red in Atlanta and employ­ing appro­xi­m­ately 35,000 people world­wide, GP is one of the leading manu­fac­tu­r­ers of nonwo­ven fabrics for the produc­tion of napkins, baby wipes, toile­tries, cosme­tics, and clea­ning and wet wipes. The company employs around 220 people in Stein­furt. Glat­fel­ter was foun­ded in Penn­syl­va­nia in 1864 and employs appro­xi­m­ately 4,200 people at 13 manu­fac­tu­ring loca­ti­ons in North America, Europe and Asia. The company produ­ces specialty papers and fiber materials.

Advi­sor Geor­gia-Paci­fic LLC: Jones Day
The team was led in Europe by Maxi­mi­lian Krause and Stefan Schnei­der (both M&A — Munich) and in the US by Troy Lewis and Bobby Cardone (both M&A — Dallas).

The Jones Day team included: Markus Ledwina and Moritz Rich­ter (both M&A — Munich), Markus Hamann (Public Law and Regu­la­tion — Frank­furt), Dr. Chris­tian Fulda (Intellec­tual Property — Munich), Dr. Markus Kappen­ha­gen (Labor Law — Düssel­dorf), Chris­tian Tren­kel (Real Estate — Munich), Dr. Klaus Herken­roth and Oliver Staatz (both Tax — Frank­furt), Michael Walra­ven (M&A — Dallas), Jean-Gabriel Griboul and Alex­andre Wibaux (both Private Equity — Paris), Fabri­zio Faina, Andrea Cesana, Mari­anna Consiglio and Patri­zia Pedretti (all M&A — Milan), Tom Briggs and Rob Latta (both Intellec­tual Property — San Diego), Jean-Michel Bobillo (Employ­ment — Paris), Andrew Eisen­berg (Tax — Washing­ton), Kelly Rubin (Tax — Dallas).

Advi­sors to P.H. Glat­fel­ter Company: Shear­man & Ster­ling LLP
Clare O’Brien, Daniel Lito­witz (both Part­ners, M&A — New York), Andreas Piepers (M&A — New York), Sven Opper­mann, Phil­ipp Jaspers (both M&A — Frank­furt), Ethan Harris, Ryan Au (both Tax — Washing­ton, DC), Anders Kraft, Astrid Mayer (both Tax — Frank­furt), Jordan Altman and Benja­min Peter­sen (both Intellec­tual Property — New York).

Stockum & Part­ner: Dr. Rainer Thum, Bene­dikt Grae­fen­stein (both Labor Law — Frankfurt).

This mandate again unders­cores Jones Day’s strength in cross-border tran­sac­tions. In the last three months alone, the Jones Day team has attrac­ted atten­tion with three other signi­fi­cant deals: advi­sing PAG Asia Capi­tal as co-inves­tor of KSS on the US$ 1.6 billion acqui­si­tion of Takata, Proc­ter & Gamble on the € 3.4 billion acqui­si­tion of Merck’s global consu­mer health divi­sion, or Plas­tic Omnium on the majo­rity acqui­si­tion of HBPO Group (enter­prise value: € 350 million).

About Jones Day
Jones Day is one of the world’s best and most diver­si­fied commer­cial law firms and has been reco­gni­zed for years as the most client-focu­sed firm. Jones Day advi­ses and repres­ents more than half of the DAX 30 compa­nies and has been the number one firm by number of M&A deals comple­ted world­wide without inter­rup­tion since 2000 (Thom­son and Bloom­berg). The firm employs more than 2,500 lawy­ers in 43 busi­ness and finan­cial centers world­wide — inclu­ding about 600 in Europe and 200 in Asia. In Germany, the firm is repre­sen­ted by more than 100 profes­sio­nals in Düssel­dorf, Frank­furt and Munich.

Munich, Germany — Elgato Systems is selling its gaming divi­sion to Corsair and will now focus solely on its smart home products, which will be marke­ted under the Eve brand. Elgato Systems is rena­med Eve Systems. For the realignment, the provi­der of app-control­led life­style access­ories is also parting with another company divi­sion. The strea­ming access­ories divi­sion Elgato Gaming will be sold to the US gaming access­ories specia­list Corsair and will be contin­ued there as an inde­pen­dent brand.

“Within an extre­mely dyna­mic segment, Elgato Gaming has achie­ved a momen­tum that only a larger part­ner can amplify,” said Markus Fest, Elgato foun­der and, as of now, CEO of Eve Systems. “The success of our gaming products has excee­ded all expec­ta­ti­ons, and it is now inex­tri­ca­bly linked to the Elgato brand. While saying good­bye to the brand after 20 years is anything but easy for us, Corsair is a fanta­stic company and a worthy new home for Elgato. At the same time, the Eve product line will also bene­fit from a focu­sed team within a dedi­ca­ted organization.”

Eve Systems is repre­sen­ted in the connec­ted home market with a diver­si­fied product port­fo­lio. The product family deve­lo­ped by Elgato in recent years is based on Apple’s Home­kit tech­no­logy. The compon­ents of the Eve family control and auto­mate home appli­ances, regu­late tempe­ra­ture and irri­ga­tion or moni­tor indoor and outdoor air. Each Eve product adds indi­vi­dual features to the smart home that can be acces­sed with iPhone, iPad, Home­Pod and Apple Watch. Eve devices talk to the iPhone via Apple’s secure end-to-end encryp­tion, perso­nal data is thus only visi­ble to the user. The products work wire­lessly thanks to Blue­tooth tech­no­logy, are quick to set up and do not require bridges. Eve devices can be acces­sed via the Apple Home app, the Eve app, the iPhone control center or Siri.

Advi­sor to Elgato Systems GmbH: Bird & Bird LLP
Bird & Bird LLP has advi­sed Munich-based Elgato Systems GmbH on the sale of Elgato’s gaming divi­sion to CORSAIR, the US gaming access­ories specialist.

Elgato was advi­sed by the follo­wing Bird & Bird attor­neys: Part­ner Stefan Münch and Asso­ciate Michael Gass­ner, both Corporate/M&A, Part­ner Dr. Henri­ette Picot, Tech & Comms/Commercial and Part­ner Dr. Ralph Panzer, Labor Law, all Munich.