News-Kategorie: People

Munich — The soft­ware inves­tor DRS Invest­ment GmbH expands its team with the M&A expert Matthias Schneck, photo. After 13 years, Schneck joins DRS Invest­ment from the AURELIUS Group, where he was most recently Mana­ging Part­ner of AURELIUS Growth Capital.

With this step, DRS Invest­ment comple­tes its own circle of part­ners, which, in addi­tion to foun­der and Mana­ging Part­ner Dr. Andreas Spie­gel, consists of venture capi­tal expert Harald Ebrecht and soft­ware entre­pre­neur Dr. Sven Abels. They are supported by other private equity specia­lists on the Advi­sory Board.

Having worked in the invest­ment banking depart­ment of a major bank, in the finance depart­ment of a listed medium-sized company and in the M&A team at the AURELIUS Group, for which he execu­ted more than a dozen tran­sac­tions, Schneck is one of the most expe­ri­en­ced experts in the German small-cap segment. His respon­si­bi­li­ties at DRS Invest­ment include deal origi­na­tion and execu­tion as well as buil­ding a high performing invest­ment team.

About DRS Investment
DRS Invest­ment acqui­res long-term invest­ments in soft­ware compa­nies. Foun­ded by entre­pre­neur Andreas Spie­gel, DRS enables entre­pre­neurs to sell (part of) their busi­ness with long-term deve­lo­p­ment prospects.

DRS is mana­ged by a hete­ro­ge­neous team of invest­ment profes­sio­nals and soft­ware experts. As a soft­ware group, DRS promo­tes exch­ange between soft­ware compa­nies in the port­fo­lio and provi­des access to experts in virtually all current tech­no­lo­gies. The DRS manage­ment team invests for the long term with a select group of investors.

Berlin — BCG Digi­tal Ventures, BCG’s digi­tal divi­sion has brought former co-CEO and Windeln.de co-foun­der Konstan­tin Urban (53) onto its manage­ment team. She wants to bene­fit from his expe­ri­ence with digi­tiza­tion and incubation.

The Boston Consul­ting Group has streng­the­ned its digi­tal divi­sion: The co-foun­der and ex-co-CEO of the online retailer for baby products Windeln.de, Konstan­tin Urban, has joined the subsi­diary BCG Digi­tal Ventures (BCGDV) as a part­ner. Urban has been part of BCGDV’s manage­ment team under Mana­ging Direc­tor Mathias Enten­mann since the begin­ning of the year.

BCGDV specia­li­zes in start-ups and digi­tal busi­ness models. With Urban, the company wants to bene­fit from his “many years of expe­ri­ence in startup incu­ba­tion, venture capi­tal and corpo­rate manage­ment,” it says.

Konstan­tin Urban was at Parship and Zalando
Urban has about 20 years of expe­ri­ence in start-up crea­tion and deve­lo­p­ment. Before foun­ding Windeln.de toge­ther with Alex­an­der Brand and taking it public in 2015, his career stati­ons included the online dating agency Parship and the career portal Exper­teer. Urban was also active in the venture capi­tal sector, which is important for start­ups: He helped estab­lish the VC subsi­diary Holtz­brinck Ventures, which inves­ted in start­ups such as Zalando and Deli­very Hero. www.bcgdv.com

Munich, Frank­furt, Zurich — Invest­ment bank GCA Altium has successfully expan­ded its senior deal team in Frank­furt: long-time employees Raiko Stel­ten and Thors­ten Weber (pictu­red) have been appoin­ted Mana­ging Direc­tors, effec­tive March 1, 2019, to further grow the firm’s ongo­ing advi­sory busi­ness around tech­no­logy M&A and financing.

Raiko Stel­ten (38) joined Altium in 2013 and most recently worked as a Direc­tor on a number of M&A tran­sac­tions in the soft­ware, tech­no­logy and health­care sectors. He has been part of the team that origi­nally came toge­ther at Close Brothers/DC Advi­sory for more than 12 years. In total, Raiko Stel­ten has been invol­ved in more than 40 successfully comple­ted M&A tran­sac­tions. He holds a degree in econo­mics (Univer­sity of Witten/Herdecke) and a Master of Busi­ness Admi­nis­tra­tion from Macqua­rie Univer­sity Sydney.

“Raiko Stel­ten has been a key member of our Frank­furt team for many years,” says Sascha Pfeif­fer, Mana­ging Direc­tor at GCA Altium in Frank­furt. “He has been instru­men­tal in estab­li­shing and expan­ding our outstan­ding posi­tion in M&A tran­sac­tions in the soft­ware and IT sector. I am deligh­ted that Raiko Stel­ten will be advi­sing our clients in this conti­nuing growth segment with his exper­tise in an even more respon­si­ble posi­tion with imme­diate effect.”

Thors­ten Weber (40, photo), who also joined Altium’s then newly opened second German office in Frank­furt in 2013, has more than 17 years of expe­ri­ence in corpo­rate finance, debt advi­sory and restruc­tu­ring. Thors­ten Weber has deve­lo­ped parti­cu­lar exper­tise in the areas of acqui­si­tion finan­cing, refi­nan­cing and divi­dend recaps. He has also been instru­men­tal in estab­li­shing the savings bank sector in the German mid-cap LBO market as well as estab­li­shing GCA Altium’s MidCap­Mo­ni­tor as a regu­lar analy­sis report on lever­a­ged buyout finan­cings. His previous posi­ti­ons were at Close Brothers/DC Advi­sory, Helaba Landes­bank Hessen-Thürin­gen and BW-Bank. Thors­ten Weber successfully comple­ted his studies at the Frank­furt School of Finance & Manage­ment with a Master’s degree in Banking and Finance.

Johan­nes Schmit­tat, Gerd Bieding and Norbert Schmitz, Mana­ging Direc­tors of the Debt Advi­sory Group in Frank­furt: “Thors­ten Weber has been a team member from the very begin­ning in our Debt Advisory/Financial Restruc­tu­ring divi­sion, which was laun­ched in 2013. Since then, he has estab­lished important client rela­ti­onships, successfully comple­ted many tran­sac­tions of various types and expan­ded our exper­tise beyond the clas­sic LBO struc­tures — we are very much looking forward to further, even more inten­sive cooperation.”

About GCA Altium
GCA Altium is the Euro­pean divi­sion of GCA. The global invest­ment bank provi­des stra­te­gic M&A as well as capi­tal markets advi­sory services to growth compa­nies and market leaders. GCA opera­tes globally with over 400 experts in 18 loca­ti­ons in the US, Asia and Europe. Built by the people who run the busi­ness, GCA specia­li­zes in deals that require commit­ment, an unbi­a­sed view, exper­tise and unique networks. www.gcaaltium.com

Bad Homburg/New York - Dr. Bernd Türk (photo), until now Spokes­man of the Manage­ment Board of Harald Quandt Holding, is appoin­ted to the Manage­ment Board of HQ Capi­tal. Dr. Türk is a proven finan­cial expert with over 25 years of expe­ri­ence in the finance and credit industry.

Türk succeeds Dr. Georg Wunder­lin, who will leave the manage­ment of HQ Capi­tal at his own request on March 31, 2019, to pursue new chal­lenges outside HQ Capi­tal. Since 2012, Wunder­lin was respon­si­ble for HQ Capi­tal, first as COO and since 2016 as CEO.

Gabriele Quandt, share­hol­der of the Harald Quandt Group: “The Harald Quandt family and the Super­vi­sory Board of HQ Capi­tal since­rely thank Dr. Wunder­lin for his great contri­bu­tion to the further deve­lo­p­ment of HQ Capi­tal over the past years and wish him all the best. We look forward to conti­nuing to work with Dr. Türk in his new role at HQ.”

Dr. Georg Wunder­lin: “In 2018, we were once again able to record inflows of inves­tor funds. With an excel­lent team and impres­sive clientele, the company is thus excel­lently posi­tio­ned for the future. I warmly congra­tu­late Dr. Türk on his new role and wish him and the HQ Capi­tal team every success for the future.”

Dr. Bernd Türk: “HQ Capi­tal is opti­mally posi­tio­ned for further growth. I look forward to accom­pany­ing the team and the company in its further development.”

HQ Capi­tal plans to conti­nue its growth course and further expand its leading market posi­tion as a specia­list for private equity and real estate invest­ments. www.hqcapital.com

Munich, London — Silver­fleet Capi­tal has gained another expe­ri­en­ced invest­ment specia­list in Ricardo Sommer (photo) . With him, the Euro­pean invest­ment company expands its invest­ment team specia­li­zing in smal­ler medium-sized compa­nies, led by Alex Breb­bia and David MacKen­zie. As Prin­ci­pal, Ricardo Sommer will in future be respon­si­ble for the invest­ment acti­vi­ties in the German-spea­king region, focu­sing on compa­nies with a value of between EUR 25 and 75 million. In addi­tion, he will support the acti­vi­ties of the Lower Mid-Market team in other regi­ons from the Munich office.

Ricardo Sommer comes from the invest­ment company Quadriga Capi­tal, where he played a key role as a direc­tor in buyouts of indus­trial compa­nies and busi­ness services provi­ders in the DACH region. Previously, Mr. Sommer worked as an invest­ment mana­ger for Synte­gra Capi­tal and advi­sed clients in the private equity and indus­trial goods sectors at the Boston Consul­ting Group. He studied indus­trial engi­nee­ring with a focus on mecha­ni­cal engi­nee­ring at the Tech­ni­cal Univer­sity of Berlin and holds an MBA from INSEAD.

David MacKen­zie, Part­ner at Silver­fleet Capi­tal and Co-Head of Lower Mid-Market, said, “We are plea­sed to welcome Ricardo Sommer on board. He brings exten­sive invest­ment expe­ri­ence to our team and will actively support us in further expan­ding our enga­ge­ment in the DACH region.”

About Silver­fleet Capital
Silver­fleet Capi­tal has been active as a private equity inves­tor in the Euro­pean mid-market for more than 30 years and curr­ently mana­ges around €1.2 billion with its 30-strong invest­ment team in Munich, London, Paris, Stock­holm and Amsterdam.

Eight invest­ments have alre­ady been made from the second inde­pen­dent fund closed in 2015 with a volume of 870 million euros: The Masai Clot­hing Company, a women’s fashion whole­sa­ler and retailer head­quar­te­red in Denmark; Coven­tya, a French deve­lo­per of specialty chemi­cals; Sigma Compon­ents, a U.K. manu­fac­tu­rer of precis­ion compon­ents for civil avia­tion; Life­time Trai­ning, a U.K. provi­der of trai­ning programs; Pumpen­fa­brik Wangen, a manu­fac­tu­rer of specialty pumps based in Germany; Riviera Travel, a British opera­tor of escor­ted group tours and crui­ses; 7days, a West­pha­lian supplier of medi­cal work­wear; and Prefere Resins, a leading phen­o­lic and amino resin manu­fac­tu­rer in Europe.

Silver­fleet achie­ves value growth through its “buy to build” invest­ment stra­tegy. As part of this stra­tegy, Silver­fleet is acce­le­ra­ting the growth of its subsi­dia­ries by inves­t­ing in new products, produc­tion capa­city and employees, instal­ling successful retail formats or making follow-up acqui­si­ti­ons. Since 2004, Silver­fleet Capi­tal has inves­ted €1.9 billion in 28 companies.

Silver­fleet specia­li­zes in four key indus­tries: Busi­ness and Finan­cial Services, Health­care, Manu­fac­tu­ring, and Retail and Consu­mer Goods. Since 2004, the private equity inves­tor has inves­ted 33 percent of its assets in compa­nies head­quar­te­red in the DACH region, 31 percent in the UK and Ireland, 19 percent in Scan­di­na­via and 17 percent mainly in France and the Bene­lux count­ries (1).

Silver­fleet Capi­tal has a solid invest­ment track record. Most recently, Silver­fleet sold Ipes, a leading provi­der of outsour­cing services to Euro­pean private equity firms (invest­ment multi­ple 3.8x); CCC, one of the leading BPO services provi­ders in Europe, as well as Cimbria, a Danish manu­fac­tu­rer of agri­cul­tu­ral equip­ment (2); Kalle, a German manu­fac­tu­rer of arti­fi­cial sausage pellets (invest­ment multi­ple 3.5x); OFFICE, a UK foot­wear retailer (invest­ment multi­ple 3.4x); and Aesica, a leading phar­maceu­ti­cal CDMO company (invest­ment multi­ple 3.3x).

London — H.I.G. Capi­tal, a leading global private equity firm with over EUR 26 billion in equity under manage­ment, appoints Markus Noe-Nord­berg (photo) as Mana­ging Direc­tor and head of its new Euro­pean mid-cap busi­ness, which will comple­ment H.I.G.’s exis­ting Euro­pean small-cap activities.

The small-cap team focu­sing on medium-sized compa­nies with an enter­prise value of up to EUR 250 million will conti­nue to invest from the current EUR 825 million fund as before.

Markus Noe-Nord­berg will lead the private equity acti­vi­ties in the mid-cap segment from London and work closely with the estab­lished local invest­ment teams. He has over 30 years of expe­ri­ence in corpo­rate finance and leverage buyout. Prior to joining H.I.G. Capi­tal, he was a part­ner and one of the foun­ders of Pamplona Capi­tal. Previously, he was a Mana­ging Direc­tor and Co-Head in the Finan­cial Spon­sors Group at Gold­man Sachs in London.

Sami Mnaym­neh and Tony Tamer, foun­ders and co-CEOs of H.I.G., commen­ted, “We are very plea­sed to have Markus join H.I.G.. Given his back­ground and expe­ri­ence, he is the ideal fit to lead our new private equity acti­vi­ties in the Euro­pean mid-cap segment.”

Commen­ting on his new role, Noe-Nord­berg said: “I am deligh­ted to build on H.I.G.’s success in Europe in the small-cap and lower mid-cap markets, where the firm has alre­ady secu­red a leading posi­tion in private equity with five offices. We are now broa­de­ning our invest­ment focus to include larger tran­sac­tions valued between EUR 250 million and EUR 750 million — a market segment in which the firm has been a successful player in the U.S. for more than a decade.”

About H.I.G. Capital
H.I.G. is a leading global alter­na­tive asset invest­ment firm with over EUR 26 billion in equity under manage­ment.* The company is head­quar­te­red in Miami and has U.S. offices in New York, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Ange­les, San Fran­cisco and Atlanta, as well as inter­na­tio­nal branch offices in London, Hamburg, Madrid, Milan, Paris, Bogotá, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. H.I.G. specia­li­zes in the provi­sion of debt and equity capi­tal to small and medium-sized compa­nies, pursuing a flexi­ble, opera­tio­nally orien­ted and value-enhan­cing approach:

1. H.I.G. invest­ment funds invest in manage­ment buyouts, corpo­rate reor­ga­niza­ti­ons, and spin-offs of both profi­ta­ble and distres­sed manu­fac­tu­ring and service companies.
2. H.I.G.’s debt funds invest in senior, unitran­che and subor­di­na­ted debt finan­cing tran­sac­tions with compa­nies of all sizes, both directly and through secon­dary markets. In addi­tion, H.I.G. is a leading CLO mana­ger through its White­Horse port­fo­lio and mana­ges a publicly traded BDC through White­Horse Finance.
3. H.I.G. real estate funds invest in upgraded proper­ties that can bene­fit from better asset manage­ment methods.

Since its foun­ding in 1993, H.I.G. has inves­ted in and mana­ged over 300 compa­nies world­wide. The company’s port­fo­lio curr­ently includes over 100 compa­nies with combi­ned total reve­nues of over €28 billion. For more infor­ma­tion, visit H.I.G.’s website at www.higcapital.com.

* Based on total capi­tal commit­ments mana­ged by H.I.G. Capi­tal and part­ner firms.

Frank­furt a.M. - Gleiss Lutz part­ners streng­then M&A prac­tice with Dr. Andreas Löhde­fink (photo), previously M&A part­ner at Shear­man & Ster­ling, as part­ner. The exact date of the change has not yet been deter­mi­ned. With the addi­tion of Andreas Löhde­fink, Gleiss Lutz is expan­ding its Finan­cial Insti­tu­ti­ons prac­tice with Dr. Rainer Loges and Dr. Jan Bals­sen, as well as its gene­ral M&A team, follo­wing the part­ner appoint­ment of Dr. Tobias Harzenet­ter (focus: insurance).

Andreas Löhde­fink joined Shear­man & Ster­ling in Frank­furt in 2010, where he became a part­ner in Janu­ary 2014. He has a focus in M&A for finan­cial insti­tu­ti­ons and insu­rance compa­nies and is co-head of Shearman’s global Insu­rance Group. He also advi­ses on gene­ral M&A and on corpo­rate and capi­tal markets law issues. IFLR 1000 names Andreas Löhde­fink as a ‘Highly Regarded Prac­ti­tio­ner’ for Corporate/M&A, JUVE recom­mends him as a lawyer for M&A.

Andreas Löhde­fink on his move: “Of course, the decis­ion is not easy for me, as many profes­sio­nal and perso­nal connec­tions have been made at Shear­man over the years. But Gleiss Lutz’s extra­or­di­nary repu­ta­tion and stra­te­gic focus open up oppor­tu­ni­ties for me to deve­lop my own prac­tice in M&A and in
Finan­cial Insti­tu­ti­ons area to deve­lop further in a great environment.”

Dr. Alex­an­der Schwarz, Co-Mana­ging Part­ner of Gleiss Lutz, commen­ted: “We are very plea­sed to have gained a renow­ned M&A part­ner in Andreas Löhde­fink. He is an excel­lent fit for our team and will signi­fi­cantly advance our M&A prac­tice with his focus on finan­cial insti­tu­ti­ons, a stra­te­gi­cally promi­sing area.”

Munich — GSK Stock­mann can report an important step in the expan­sion of its FinTech and Legal­Tech advi­sory prac­tice. On Janu­ary 1, 2019, Dr. Tobias Rieth­mül­ler (39, photo), one of the experts on digi­tal finan­cing models from the very begin­ning, retur­ned to GSK Stock­mann as Equity Part­ner. He worked in GSK’s Frank­furt office until August 2015, after which he joined Schie­der­mair Rechtsanwälte.

Tobias Rieth­mül­ler is quali­fied as a lawyer and graduate econo­mist. He advi­ses clients in all phases of corpo­rate deve­lo­p­ment on corpo­rate and capi­tal market law issues as well as on corpo­rate and project finan­cing. Tobias Rieth­mül­ler has parti­cu­lar expe­ri­ence and exper­tise in the legal struc­tu­ring of digi­tal finan­cing plat­forms and stan­dar­di­zed issu­ance models. Since 2008, he has advi­sed over 40 natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal digi­tal finan­cing plat­forms on struc­tu­ring equity, debt and secu­ri­ties-based models. In 2015 and 2018, he served as a fede­ral expert witness on regu­la­tory propo­sals in this area. His work for finan­cing plat­forms also includes the design of IT proces­ses in compli­ance with super­vi­sory law and the auto­ma­tion of data­base-supported contract processing.

“We are very plea­sed about the return of Tobias Rieth­mül­ler to GSK Stock­mann. With his exper­tise in FinTech and Legal­Tech, we will be able to signi­fi­cantly broa­den our regu­la­tory and capi­tal markets exper­tise in the area of bank-inde­pen­dent finan­cing models,” comm­ents Max Wilmanns, spokesper­son of the Corpo­rate prac­tice group at GSK Stock­mann. “There is also enorm­ous cross-selling poten­tial with colle­agues from the banking/finance area, the IT/data protec­tion colle­agues and the Luxem­bourg office. Finally, Tobias Rieth­mül­ler can also support us in our own Legal­Tech projects.”

Tobias Riethmüller’s advi­sory focus is on the future indus­tries of inte­rest to GSK Stock­mann, namely FinTech, in parti­cu­lar digi­tal invest­ment brokerage, LegalTech/Legal Engi­nee­ring and PropTech. Due to his inten­sive networ­king in the indus­try as legal coun­sel of the Bundes­ver­band Crowd­fun­ding (BVCF) e.V. and foun­ding member of the German Crowd­fun­ding Network (GCN), Tobias Rieth­mül­ler is always invol­ved in regu­la­tory chan­ges and current market deve­lo­p­ments. “I am happy to be back at GSK Stock­mann and to be able to directly bene­fit from the exper­tise on regu­la­tory issues available at GSK Stock­mann,” commen­ted Tobias Rieth­mül­ler. “Over the past three years, I have kept in touch with GSK Stock­mann and have always worked with former colle­agues in regu­la­tory law, inclu­ding Luxembourg.”

Through his network, Tobias Rieth­mül­ler has direct access to inno­va­tive consul­ting fields such as crypto asset plat­forms and token issu­an­ces. “We will now be able to imple­ment these new areas of advice, which are charac­te­ri­zed by ever-incre­asing comple­xity, inter­na­tio­na­lity and digi­ta­liza­tion, espe­ci­ally in the area of regu­la­tory and capi­tal markets law, even better than before,” says Dr. Timo Patrick Bernau, Banking Part­ner and FinTech specia­list at GSK Stockmann.

For GSK Stock­mann, Tobias Riethmüller’s addi­tion offers diverse growth poten­tial. This applies in parti­cu­lar to the expan­sion of the network to include new clients who want to bene­fit from the inno­va­tive exper­tise of FinTechs, as well as the increased inclu­sion of secu­ri­tiza­tion models and struc­tu­red finance in coope­ra­tion with the Luxem­bourg office of GSK Stock­mann. The Corpo­rate divi­sion will parti­cu­larly bene­fit from Tobias Riethmüller’s exper­tise in the issu­ance of capi­tal market instru­ments in the equity, debt and mezza­nine areas and the legal and econo­mic struc­tu­ring of stan­dar­di­zed issu­ance models — also in the venture capi­tal area.

Dr. Tobias Rieth­mül­ler brings with him as asso­ciate Kath­rin Müller, a lawyer specia­li­zing in regu­la­tory and capi­tal markets law. With the two addi­ti­ons, the Corpo­rate prac­tice grows to a total of 20 Equity Part­ners, 8 Local Part­ners and 32 Associates.

Munich — Dr. Gregor Hengst (43, photo) has been Mana­ging Direc­tor in the Munich office since Decem­ber and is thus respon­si­ble for the further expan­sion of the local invest­ment acti­vi­ties toge­ther with Dr. Cars­ten Rahlfs (Mana­ging Part­ner in Hamburg) and Jörg Drei­sow (Mana­ging Part­ner at the Munich office).

In the past year, the Euro­pean private equity company Water­land consis­t­ently imple­men­ted its invest­ment philo­so­phy and included nume­rous compa­nies with the best growth pros­pects in its port­fo­lio. In the DACH region in parti­cu­lar, 15 tran­sac­tions were successfully imple­men­ted and the exis­ting port­fo­lio was expan­ded. In addi­tion to a further expan­sion of the invest­ment teams in the DACH region, the Bene­lux count­ries, Scan­di­na­via and the British Isles by 14 new colle­agues, the manage­ment in the German market will now also be strengthened.

Hengst (43), a quali­fied banker with a docto­rate inlaw, has been working for Water­land for around seven years; previously he worked for McKin­sey & Company and Vestar Capi­tal Part­ners, among others. At Water­land, he mana­ges, among others, the invest­ment and further deve­lo­p­ment of the payment soft­ware company Serrala Group (form­erly Hanse Orga) with seve­ral acqui­si­ti­ons as well as the invest­ments in Hanse­fit and Tineo. “I am very plea­sed that with Gregor Hengst we now have an addi­tio­nal colle­ague in the manage­ment team who combi­nes exten­sive expe­ri­ence and an impres­sive track record in streng­thening our port­fo­lio compa­nies,” says Jörg Drei­sow. In addi­tion to the Munich office, Hengst will also head the Zurich office, which opened in 2018 and from which he alre­ady over­sees Tineo, the commu­ni­ca­ti­ons company acqui­red by Water­land in the same year.

15 tran­sac­tions in Germany and Switzerland
Water­land prima­rily focu­ses on social mega­trends such as sustaina­bi­lity, demo­gra­phic deve­lo­p­ment and leisure and luxury, as well as the gene­ral trend towards outsour­cing. Since its foun­ding in 1999, Water­land has inves­ted in more than 450 compa­nies in these sectors — in 2018 alone, 11 plat­form and 38 add-on acqui­si­ti­ons were reali­zed across Europe. The port­fo­lio in Germany grew last year with the addi­tion of the Hanse­fit corpo­rate fitness network and the receiv­a­bles manage­ment service provi­der coeo; with the merger of the addi­tio­nal newco­mer Swyx with Voice­works and Centile, Water­land built up a Euro­pean market leader for unified communication.

In total, Waterland’s port­fo­lio compa­nies in the German-spea­king region were streng­the­ned in their further deve­lo­p­ment through 15 acqui­si­ti­ons — inclu­ding seve­ral faci­li­ties for Germany’s largest private opera­tor of reha­bi­li­ta­tion clinics MEDIAN and for the specia­list clinic group ATOS, as well as alre­ady two specia­list provi­ders for the care service provi­der Schö­nes Leben, whose acqui­si­tion was comple­ted in 2018.

Part­ner for growth-orien­ted medium-sized companies
“Our approach of streng­thening the market posi­tion of compa­nies in frag­men­ted growth markets through targe­ted acqui­si­ti­ons and orga­nic growth was again very successful in the past year,” explains Dr. Cars­ten Rahlfs. “In addi­tion to capi­tal, it is our profes­sio­nal and opera­tio­nally expe­ri­en­ced team that actively works with the manage­ment of the port­fo­lio compa­nies to turn ambi­tious plans into reality quickly and sustain­ably.” Water­land also expects to further expand its acti­vi­ties in the German-spea­king region in the coming year: “The focus is on estab­lished SMEs with outstan­ding products and services — in the face of no fewer chal­lenges, they can realize decisive growth steps with our finan­cial, stra­te­gic and opera­tio­nal support,” says Hengst.

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 (Munich, Hamburg), Poland (Warsaw), the UK (Manches­ter), Denmark (Copen­ha­gen) and Switz­er­land (Zurich). Curr­ently, 6 billion euros in equity funds are managed.

Water­land has consis­t­ently outper­for­med its invest­ments since its foun­ding in 1999 and has regu­larly ranked among the top three leading private equity firms world­wide in past HEC/Dow Jones Private Equity Perfor­mance Rankings. In addi­tion, Water­land has also been among the top 3 most consis­tent buyout fund mana­gers globally in the Preqin Consis­tent Perfor­mers in Global Private Equity & Venture Capi­tal Report in recent years.

Water­land is listed as a fund mana­ger in the direc­tory main­tai­ned by the Dutch regu­la­tor AFM (Auto­ri­teit Finan­ciële Markten).

Munich, London — Gareth Whiley (pictu­red) will take over the role of Mana­ging Part­ner at Silver­fleet Capi­tal from Neil MacDou­gall on April 1, 2019, when he will become Chair­man of the Euro­pean private equity firm specia­li­zing in “buy to build.” In this new role, MacDou­gall will remain a member of the invest­ment commit­tee of Silver­fleet Capital’s funds; MacDou­gall will also serve in an advi­sory capa­city to the 15 part­ners in the London, Munich, Paris and Stock­holm offices.

Neil MacDou­gall joined Silver­fleet Capi­tal in 1989 and has been a Mana­ging Part­ner since 2004. In 2007, he led the buy-out of Silver­fleet Capi­tal (then “PPM Capi­tal”) from the insu­rance group Pruden­tial plc. For 14 years, he headed Silver­fleet Capi­tal as Mana­ging Part­ner. Under his aegis, Silver­fleet deve­lo­ped into one of the leading Euro­pean private equity houses in the mid-market segment. Gareth Whiley joined the firm in 1997, became a part­ner in 2002 and was respon­si­ble for a number of successful invest­ments in Europe. Most recently, he led the invest­ment acti­vi­ties in the UK and Scan­di­na­via as well as in the consu­mer goods sector.

Silver­fleet Capi­tal prepa­res for next phase of growth with leader­ship change. Curr­ently, the 30-strong invest­ment team mana­ges more than 1.2 billion euros; the invest­ments, based in the UK, Ireland, the DACH region, France, the Bene­lux count­ries and Scan­di­na­via, each have an enter­prise value of between 20 and 300 million euros. In the future, Silver­fleet Capi­tal will conti­nue to pursue its 30-year proven invest­ment stra­tegy — the focus will remain on buil­ding inter­na­tio­nal market-leading companies.

“I am proud to have been able to lead Silver­fleet for many years and to have been actively invol­ved in its growth,” explains Neil MacDou­gall. “The change in leader­ship was inten­si­vely prepared and also agreed with our inves­tors. Gareth Whiley has played an important role in Silverfleet’s success over the past 20 years and his appoint­ment as Mana­ging Part­ner is the logi­cal step — I look forward to conti­nuing to work closely with him.” Gareth Whiley adds, “It is a parti­cu­lar honor to be given respon­si­bi­lity for such an outstan­ding team and the joint deve­lo­p­ment of the company. Neil MacDou­gall has made an outstan­ding contri­bu­tion — I’m deligh­ted that he will conti­nue to guide the further expan­sion of our platform.”

About Silver­fleet Capital
Silver­fleet Capi­tal has been active as a private equity inves­tor in the Euro­pean mid-market for more than 30 years and curr­ently mana­ges around €1.2 billion with its 30-strong invest­ment team in Munich, London, Paris, Stock­holm and Amsterdam.

Eight invest­ments have alre­ady been made from the second inde­pen­dent fund closed in 2015 with a volume of 870 million euros: The Masai Clot­hing Company, a whole­sa­ler and retailer of women’s fashion head­quar­te­red in Denmark; Coven­tya, a French deve­lo­per of specialty chemi­cals; Sigma Compon­ents, a British manu­fac­tu­rer of precis­ion compon­ents for civil avia­tion; Life­time Trai­ning, a UK provi­der of trai­ning programs; Pumpen­fa­brik Wangen, a manu­fac­tu­rer of specialty pumps based in Germany; Riviera Travel, a British opera­tor of escor­ted group tours and crui­ses; 7days, a West­pha­lian supplier of medi­cal work­wear; and Prefere Resins, a leading phen­o­lic and amino resin produ­cer in Europe.

Silver­fleet achie­ves value growth through its “buy to build” invest­ment stra­tegy. As part of this stra­tegy, Silver­fleet is acce­le­ra­ting the growth of its subsi­dia­ries by inves­t­ing in new products, produc­tion capa­city and employees, instal­ling successful retail formats or making follow-up acqui­si­ti­ons. Since 2004, Silver­fleet Capi­tal has inves­ted €1.9 billion in 28 companies.

Silver­fleet specia­li­zes in four key indus­tries: Busi­ness and Finan­cial Services, Health­care, Manu­fac­tu­ring, and Retail and Consu­mer Goods. Since 2004, the private equity inves­tor has inves­ted 33 percent of its assets in compa­nies head­quar­te­red in the DACH region, 31 percent in the UK and Ireland, 19 percent in Scan­di­na­via and 17 percent mainly in France and the Bene­lux count­ries (1).

Silver­fleet Capi­tal has a solid invest­ment track record. Most recently, Silver­fleet sold Ipes, a leading provi­der of outsour­cing services to Euro­pean private equity firms (invest­ment multi­ple 3.8x); CCC, one of the leading BPO services provi­ders in Europe, as well as Cimbria, a Danish manu­fac­tu­rer of agri­cul­tu­ral equip­ment (2); Kalle, a German manu­fac­tu­rer of arti­fi­cial sausage pellets (invest­ment multi­ple 3.5x); OFFICE, a UK foot­wear retailer (invest­ment multi­ple 3.4x); and Aesica, a leading phar­maceu­ti­cal CDMO company (invest­ment multi­ple 3.3x).

Munich — As of Novem­ber 15, 2018, Dipl.-Ing. Karl Chris­tian Vogel (54, photo) will take over the posi­tion of Mana­ging Direc­tor of BayBG Baye­ri­sche Betei­li­gungs­ge­sell­schaft. This means that BayBG’s manage­ment board is once again complete, after Peter Pauli took over as spokes­man for the manage­ment board on Octo­ber 1.

Karl Chris­tian Vogel has deca­des of expe­ri­ence in the consul­ting and invest­ment busi­ness. After study­ing mecha­ni­cal engi­nee­ring, he began his profes­sio­nal career in 1992 at the consul­ting firm CIM Manage­ment, which focu­ses on medium-sized indus­trial compa­nies. There he successfully imple­men­ted seve­ral restruc­tu­ring projects, among others at Schott in Mainz. From 1996, he was head of orga­niza­tio­nal deve­lo­p­ment at Brose Fahr­zeug­teile GmbH & Co. KG, Coburg. This was follo­wed by further posi­ti­ons at 3i Deutsch­land, Frank­furt, and at a prede­ces­sor company of today’s Süd Betei­li­gun­gen GmbH (SüdBG), Stutt­gart, where he was Mana­ging Direc­tor until the end of 2017.

In his career, Karl Chris­tian Vogel and his teams have assis­ted more than 50 medium-sized compa­nies with succes­si­ons, growth projects and asset diver­si­fi­ca­tion with equity and mezza­nine and finan­ced around 80 tech­no­logy start-ups.

“I am deligh­ted,” says Peter Pauli, “that we have been able to win Karl Chris­tian Vogel, such an estab­lished mana­ger with expe­ri­ence in the invest­ment busi­ness, as Mana­ging Direc­tor. Toge­ther we will work to further expand BayBG’s posi­tion as a compe­tent, effi­ci­ent and market-leading invest­ment part­ner for Bava­rian SMEs.”

About BayBG
With an inves­ted volume of more than 300 million euros, BayBG Baye­ri­sche Betei­li­gungs­ge­sell­schaft is one of the largest provi­ders of equity capi­tal for Bava­rian SMEs. With its venture capi­tal and equity invest­ments, which it provi­des in the form of equity and mezza­nine, it enables medium-sized compa­nies to imple­ment inno­va­tion and growth projects, manage corpo­rate succes­sion or opti­mize their capi­tal structure.

Frank­furt a. M. — The finan­cial inves­tor Perm­ira is restruc­tu­ring its person­nel: BCG consul­tant Jens Riedl is to head the global indus­trial busi­ness from Frank­furt in the future.

Perm­ira, the British private equity inves­tor that is also very active in Germany, is repla­cing its head of global indus­trial busi­ness. From stra­tegy consul­tant to market player: Dr. Jens Riedl, 45, photo starts in Janu­ary in Frank­furt as the new head of the global indus­trial busi­ness of finan­cial inves­tor Permira.

Jens Riedl succeeds Tors­ten Vogt and Richard Carey, who previously mana­ged the indus­trial busi­ness jointly from the Frank­furt (Vogt) and New York (Carey) loca­ti­ons. The two long-stan­ding Perm­ira part­ners will leave the finan­cial inves­tor at the end of the year, which Perm­ira said had alre­ady been deci­ded intern­ally for some time.

 

Frank­furt a. M. — Gold­man Sachs promo­tes Frank­furt-based Mana­ging Direc­tor Tobias Köster, photo (45) to Part­ner. Koster’s promo­tion to the top manage­ment of the U.S. invest­ment bank is to be comple­ted in early Janu­ary. Along­side Germany head Wolf­gang Fink and Alex­an­der Mayer, Köster thus beco­mes the third Gold­man Sachs part­ner in Frank­furt. With Kösters’ promo­tion, the Ameri­cans are streng­thening a busi­ness area in which Gold­man is outpa­cing the compe­ti­tion this year.

The invest­ment banker brings many years of expe­ri­ence in advi­sing private equity inves­tors. He curr­ently leads Goldman’s busi­ness with PE inves­tors and their port­fo­lio compa­nies in German-spea­king count­ries. — In total, Gold­man Sachs promo­ted five employees in Euro­pean invest­ment banking to the part­ner circle at the turn of the year. The fact that four of the five new Euro­pean part­ners come from the private equity busi­ness reflects the great success Gold­man is curr­ently enjoy­ing in this area of consul­ting. This is parti­cu­larly true for Europe. Gold­man has never done as much busi­ness with finan­cial inves­tors here as it has in the current year, a bank spokes­wo­man explained.

After study­ing econo­mics in Frei­burg and Basel, Köster began his career in 1998 as an analyst at the invest­ment bank Credit Suisse First Boston in Frank­furt. Just one year later, he moved to the M&A and corpo­rate finance divi­sion of Gold­man Sachs. Five years later, he moved to New York to join the lever­a­ged finance divi­sion of the US invest­ment bank. In 2006, he retur­ned to Germany, where he contin­ued to work in lever­a­ged finance until 2008. In 2008, he was appoin­ted Mana­ging Director.

Frank­furt a.M. — With the renow­ned M&A/Private Equity lawyer Dr. Tobias Fenck (photo ), GÖRG has been able to gain a reco­gni­zed tran­sac­tion expert. Tobias Fenck joins the firm on Septem­ber 15, 2018 from Bryan Cave Leigh­ton Pais­ner, where he most recently led the Frank­furt office. Toge­ther with Dr. Fenck, the two asso­cia­tes Markus Beyer and Robert Schind­ler move to the Frank­furt office of GÖRG.

Dr. Fenck advi­ses prima­rily in the areas of M&A, private equity and venture capi­tal. His long-stan­ding clients include funds, medium-sized and owner-mana­ged compa­nies as well as inter­na­tio­nal corpo­ra­ti­ons. In the tran­sac­tion area, he prima­rily advi­ses in the mid-cap and small-mid-cap segment. Recently, Dr. Fenck has advi­sed clients in various service sectors, regu­la­ted indus­tries, and in the tech/IT environment.

Dr. Jens-Diet­rich Mitzlaff from GÖRG’s law firm manage­ment on the addi­tion of Dr. Fenck and his team: “We are very plea­sed to have gained Tobias Fenck, a distin­gu­is­hed lawyer in the field of M&A/private equity. The change confirms our stra­tegy of combi­ning orga­nic growth through annual part­ner appoint­ments from our own ranks with exter­nal, stra­te­gic part­ner appoint­ments. It also demons­tra­tes the attrac­ti­ve­ness of our firm as one of the few remai­ning German inde­pen­dent law firms. Due to his profes­sio­nal compe­tence and prag­ma­tic perso­na­lity, Mr. Fenck fits very well with the culture of our firm.”

Dr. Yorick Ruland, Head of the Corpo­rate Service Line, adds: “With his joining GÖRG, the firm’s M&A/Private Equity/Corporate prac­tice grows to more than 70 lawy­ers. With the three new colle­agues, we are sustain­ably expan­ding our exper­tise and our capa­ci­ties for M&A and private equity tran­sac­tions, both at the Frank­furt office and across the firm.” Follo­wing Dr. Matthias Menke and Florian Wolff (Frank­furt, 2014), Dr. Marcus Herr­mann (Frank­furt, 2016) and Dr. Oliver von Rosen­berg (Colo­gne, 2016), Dr. Tobias Fenck is the fifth part­ner addi­tion in this area within the last four years.

Dr. Matthias Menke, head of the Frank­furt office, added: “Mr. Fenck and his team, to which we will imme­dia­tely add further asso­cia­tes, fit perfectly into our stra­tegy of expan­ding the tran­sac­tion-driven advi­sory busi­ness for the entire firm in Frankfurt.”

Dr. Fenck says: “I am very plea­sed that I will be able to contri­bute my exper­tise to a cross-loca­tion team at GÖRG in the future and that I will be able to accom­pany the expan­sion of the prac­tice. With the broad range of advice and GÖRG’s ancho­ring in the German Mittel­stand, I will now be able to advise my clients even more compre­hen­si­vely. The compe­ten­cies alre­ady available in Frank­furt, parti­cu­larly in the areas of M&A/corporate law, finan­cing, labor law and IP/IT, are a good fit.”

About GÖRG
GÖRG is one of the leading inde­pen­dent commer­cial law firms in Germany. With 290 lawy­ers and tax advi­sors at our five offices in Berlin, Frank­furt am Main, Hamburg, Colo­gne and Munich, we advise well-known dome­stic and foreign compa­nies from all areas of indus­try, trade, real estate, media and services in all core areas of commer­cial law in natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal projects.

Garching b. Munich — Heiko Huber (photo) takes over the manage­ment of the Unter­neh­mer­TUM acce­le­ra­tor Tech­Foun­ders. As Mana­ging Direc­tor, his job is to network estab­lished compa­nies such as Miele, ADAC, Festo and Knorr-Bremse with inno­va­tive tech start-ups and initiate collaborations.
Huber brings exten­sive expe­ri­ence at the inter­face of start-ups and indus­try: Most recently, he was respon­si­ble for start-up invest­ments and employee spin-offs at Siemens’ venture unit “Next47″. Previously, he worked for McKin­sey and Daim­ler, among others, and co-foun­ded a successful start-up hims­elf with eGym.

“Heiko Huber is exactly the right person to take Tech­Foun­ders forward,” says Dr. Helmut Schö­nen­ber­ger, Mana­ging Direc­tor of Unter­neh­mer­TUM, which includes the Tech­Foun­ders acce­le­ra­tor program. “His great strength is that he under­stands the needs of both start­ups and corpo­ra­ti­ons. He helps young compa­nies grow because he knows from his own expe­ri­ence what they need. Moreo­ver, because he has worked in corpo­ra­ti­ons hims­elf, he under­stands perfectly how to set up successful colla­bo­ra­ti­ons between estab­lished compa­nies and startups.”

“I am very exci­ted to be on board with Tech­Foun­ders. When young compa­nies with inno­va­tive solu­ti­ons coope­rate with estab­lished cham­pi­ons, both sides win. We iden­tify the most exci­ting start-ups for our indus­try part­ners world­wide and initiate pilot projects that help deve­lop inno­va­tive products and digi­tize tradi­tio­nal busi­ness models. The foun­ding teams bene­fit twice over. In addi­tion to the paid pilot project, they receive indi­vi­dual coaching and access to our unique network of mentors and inves­tors,” says Heiko Huber.

About Unter­neh­mer­TUM — Center for Inno­va­tion and Start-up at the TU Munich
Unter­neh­mer­TUM offers foun­ders an all-round service from the initial idea to going public. A team of expe­ri­en­ced entre­pre­neurs, scien­tists, mana­gers and inves­tors supports start-ups in deve­lo­ping their products and services. The 200 employees provide active support in buil­ding up the company, ente­ring the market and obtai­ning finan­cing — inclu­ding venture capital.

XPRENEURS supports high-tech teams at an early stage to deve­lop their busi­ness model. The Tech­Foun­ders acce­le­ra­tor program coaches tech­no­logy foun­ders to a first venture capi­tal round within 20 weeks and initia­tes colla­bo­ra­ti­ons with estab­lished compa­nies. For indus­try part­ners, Unter­neh­mer­TUM is a unique plat­form for colla­bo­ra­ting with start­ups and buil­ding their inter­nal inno­va­tion power and culture.
In Europe’s largest high-tech work­shop open to the public, Maker­Space, compa­nies, start-ups and crea­ti­ves can produce proto­ty­pes and small series on 1,500 square meters using state-of-the-art machi­nes such as large 3‑D prin­ters. Unter­neh­mer­TUM is the Digi­tal Hub Mobi­lity within the frame­work of the Digi­tal Hub Initia­tive of the Fede­ral Government.

Foun­ded in 2002 by entre­pre­neur Susanne Klat­ten, Unter­neh­mer­TUM is the leading start-up center in Germany, with more than 50 high-growth tech­no­logy start-ups each year and its unique range of services.

Frank­furt a. M. — HSBC Germany intends to do more busi­ness with large private equity inves­tors. To this end, they bring in the two invest­ment banker­sAlex­an­der Glawe and Jürgen Stein in HSBC expands private equity business

HSBC Germany is expan­ding its invest­ment banking acti­vi­ties. With Alex­an­der Glawe and Jürgen Stein, two new invest­ment bankers join HSBC’s Corpo­rate & Insti­tu­tio­nal Banking.

Alex­an­der Glawe is a private equity specia­list and joins in early Decem­ber from Credit Suisse, where he was most recently part of the German invest­ment banking team. As Head of Finan­cial Spon­sors, he will be respon­si­ble for the German-spea­king region and Scan­di­na­via. ER is to deepen HSBC’s cont­acts with major private equity houses.

Jürgen Stein has been on board since the begin­ning of the month and is conside­red a finan­cing expert for private equity deals. He is expec­ted to work closely with the bank’s other teams, speci­fi­cally those in M&A, Corpo­rate Finance and Lever­a­ged & Acqui­si­tion Finance. HSBC services this area from London, Düssel­dorf and Frank­furt. Stein joins from UBS, where he was respon­si­ble for lever­a­ged finance tran­sac­tions in Europe from London.

Munich — Inter­na­tio­nal law firm Reed Smith announ­ced today that renow­ned tran­sac­tion specia­list Florian Hirsch­mann (photo) will join the Euro­pean Corporate/M&A prac­tice in its Munich office. Florian Hirsch­mann is curr­ently co-head of the China Desk at DLA Piper.

Florian Hirsch­mann focu­ses on private equity and M&A tran­sac­tions with a parti­cu­lar empha­sis on legal advice to Chinese funds and stra­te­gic finan­cial inves­tors on their invest­ments in Germany. He regu­larly advi­ses Euro­pean funds and German compa­nies in Germany and abroad. At Reed Smith, Florian Hirsch­mann will work inten­si­vely with colle­agues in our Beijing, Shang­hai and Hong Kong offices, assis­ting clients with their inbound and outbound invest­ments between China and Europe.

“For some time now, it has been our goal to build on the strengths of our Corporate/M&A prac­tice in Europe. Over the past 18 months, the teams in London and Paris have grown signi­fi­cantly. Florian Hirschmann’s move to our Munich office will allow us to comple­ment our exis­ting exper­tise as well as expand our M&A/PE advi­sory offe­ring to clients in Europe,” said Delphine Currie, Reed Smith Part­ner and Co-chair of the Corpo­rate practice.

Oliver Rathje, Office Mana­ging Part­ner of the Munich office, adds: “The expan­sion of our offices in Germany demons­tra­tes Reed Smith’s high commit­ment to the German market. Growth in line with the wishes and consul­ting needs of our clients is and remains our goal. We are deligh­ted to welcome Florian Hirsch­mann to our team of around 60 in Germany.”

Düssel­dorf — The part­ners’ meeting of ARQIS has unani­mously appoin­ted Dr. Andrea Panzer-Heemeier (photo) as Mana­ging Part­ner of the firm. The 45-year-old equity part­ner will assume the role for four years and retroac­tively to the start of the fiscal year on Janu­ary 1, 2018. The posi­tion was newly intro­du­ced in the firm.

“Since its foun­da­tion twelve years ago, ARQIS has grown from a handful of employees to around 45 lawy­ers at three loca­ti­ons, and in the process has estab­lished an excel­lent market posi­tion,” explains Dr. Andrea Panzer-Heemeier. “I look forward to driving further growth as well as stra­te­gic firm projects in the coming years as Mana­ging Part­ner of the firm.”

ARQIS plans to recruit addi­tio­nal late­ral hires, parti­cu­larly for the M&A area. In addi­tion, a Chief Opera­tion Offi­cer (COO) will be appoin­ted in the near future as a link between the Mana­ging Part­ner and the Busi­ness Services depart­ment, which has been conti­nuously expan­ded in recent years. Decis­ion-making chan­nels are stream­li­ned over­all and manage­ment is effec­tively supported in the long term.

Dr. Andrea Panzer-Heemeier is one of the part­ners who foun­ded ARQIS. Prior to her recent appoint­ment, the employ­ment lawyer had served as the firm’s part­ner in charge of human resour­ces for many years. She will conti­nue to advise and lead the 12-person employ­ment law team.

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.

Düssel­dorf — Chris­toph Büth (51) will become the new Head of Equity Finan­cing and Invest­ments as of July 15, 2018. He succeeds Dr. Peter Güll­mann, who will leave NRW.BANK in the middle of the year.

Michael Stöl­ting, Member of the Mana­ging Board of NRW.BANK, says: “NRW.BANK’s equity capi­tal finan­cing acti­vi­ties are of central importance for modern start-up, SME and inno­va­tion promo­tion in North Rhine-West­pha­lia and thus of incre­asing stra­te­gic importance for the Bank. We ther­e­fore alre­ady signi­fi­cantly expan­ded our venture capi­tal commit­ment at the end of last year. In this respect, we are plea­sed that we were able to fill the posi­tion intern­ally at NRW.BANK with a very expe­ri­en­ced expert and connois­seur of the invest­ment business.”

Büth has been employed at NRW.BANK since 2007 — initi­ally as an equity invest­ment mana­ger, then as Head of the SME Equity Finan­cing Depart­ment since 2009. Previously, the trai­ned banker and graduate in busi­ness admi­nis­tra­tion worked in the invest­ment busi­ness of WestLB.

About NRW.BANK
NRW.BANK is the deve­lo­p­ment bank for North Rhine-West­pha­lia. It supports its owner, the state of NRW, in its struc­tu­ral and econo­mic policy tasks. In its three promo­tion fields “Economy”, “Housing” and “Infrastructure/Municipalities”, NRW.BANK uses a broad range of promo­tion instru­ments: from low-inte­rest deve­lo­p­ment loans to equity finan­cing and advi­sory services. It works toge­ther with all banks and savings banks in NRW on a compe­ti­tion-neutral basis. In its promo­tion acti­vi­ties, NRW.BANK also takes into account exis­ting offers from the fede­ral govern­ment, the state and the Euro­pean Union.

Berlin — Iris Capi­tal expands its team in Berlin: Thor­ben Rothe (photo) beco­mes the new Prin­ci­pal. Iris Capi­tal, one of the leading Euro­pean venture capi­tal firms, enga­ges Thor­ben Rothe as Prin­ci­pal. Effec­tive imme­dia­tely, he joins the team in Berlin and is respon­si­ble for early-stage invest­ments in Germany.

Thor­ben Rothe has more than seven years of venture capi­tal expe­ri­ence. Most recently, the 34-year-old was a prin­ci­pal at Capna­mic Ventures, one of the leading early-stage venture capi­tal firms in Germany. Iris Capi­tal has made seve­ral early-stage co-invest­ments with Capna­mic Ventures over the past five years. Rothe was respon­si­ble for the manage­ment of twelve port­fo­lio compa­nies and the deve­lo­p­ment of the Berlin office. Previously, he worked at DuMont Venture, a corpo­rate venture capi­tal firm focu­sed on digi­tal media and IT, and gained opera­tio­nal expe­ri­ence at various startups

The hiring of Thor­ben Rothe is an important part of Iris Capital’s expan­sion stra­tegy for Germany. This is also accom­pa­nied by a stra­te­gic expan­sion of the Berlin loca­tion, where the startup scene is parti­cu­larly active. Iris Capital’s port­fo­lio alre­ady includes well-known Berlin-based compa­nies such as the leading re-commerce retailer reBuy, the equally leading solu­tion provi­der for app analy­tics and attri­bu­tion Adjust, and the specia­list for search and content stra­te­gies Searchme­trics. Further new hires are plan­ned for the Berlin office, which is led by Erkan Kili­cas­lan, Mana­ging Part­ner at Iris Capital.

“We have been active in Germany since 1993, our first invest­ment was E‑Plus,” says Erkan Kili­cas­lan, Mana­ging Part­ner at Iris Capi­tal. “Since then, we have been successfully inves­t­ing in talen­ted foun­ders in Germany and beyond. Through Thor­ben Rothe, we will further deve­lop our Berlin loca­tion and expand our alre­ady estab­lished network.”

About Iris Capital
Iris Capi­tal is a Euro­pean venture capi­tal firm specia­li­zing in the digi­tal economy. Iris Capi­tal invests in compa­nies at various stages of growth, from start­ups to late-stage and growth play­ers. Due to its parti­cu­lar specia­liza­tion in indi­vi­dual indus­tries and over 30 years of expe­ri­ence, as well as the support of its corpo­rate spon­sors, Iris Capi­tal actively accom­pa­nies the compa­nies in its own port­fo­lio. Iris Capi­tal has offices in Paris, Berlin, San Fran­cisco, Tel Aviv, Tokyo and Dubai. Its holdings include Adjust, Careem, Kyriba, Marco Vasco, Mister Auto, Mopub, Netatmo, ReBuy, Searchme­trics, Scality, Shift Tech­no­logy and Talend.

Iris­Next is a fund of Iris Capi­tal, backed as inves­tors by leading compa­nies such as Orange, Publi­cis, Valeo, Bpifrance, BRED Banque Popu­laire and other finan­cial institutions.

Oslo / Stock­holm / Copen­ha­gen / Munich — Scan­di­na­vian private equity house FSN Capi­tal Part­ners has opened an office in Munich. With Robin Mürer (photo on the right) and Justin Kent (photo on the left), two expe­ri­en­ced invest­ment specia­lists could be won as new part­ners for the acti­vi­ties in the DACH region.

FSN Capi­tal Part­ners (“FSN Capi­tal”) was foun­ded in 1999 and is one of the leading Scan­di­na­vian equity inves­tors focu­sing on medium-sized compa­nies. The FSN Capi­tal funds advi­sed by FSN manage more than two billion euros. With a 43-strong team and offices in Oslo, Stock­holm, Copen­ha­gen and now Munich, FSN Capi­tal prefers to invest in growth-orien­ted, mid-sized compa­nies in the indus­trial, digi­tal, services and consu­mer goods sectors. FSN Capi­tal supports manage­ment teams pursuing an orga­nic and acqui­si­tion-driven growth strategy.

Long-term commit­ment in the DACH region
The new office with two German part­ners in Munich under­lines FSN Capital’s ambi­tion to estab­lish a perma­nent presence in the German-spea­king region. With Robin Mürer and Justin Kent, FSN Capi­tal now counts ten part­ners. They bring exten­sive inter­na­tio­nal expe­ri­ence and toge­ther have more than twenty years of invest­ment prac­tice in the DACH region: Over the past ten years at Apax Part­ners, based in Munich and London, Mürer mainly mana­ged invest­ments in the digi­tal, consu­mer goods and health­care sectors. Kent has spent the last twelve years of his career working prima­rily on invest­ments in small and mid-cap compa­nies throug­hout Europe — first at The River­side Company and most recently at Capvis Equity Part­ners, where he focu­sed on the German-spea­king region.

“Opening an office in Germany is an important mile­stone for FSN Capi­tal and at the same time a logi­cal step in the deve­lo­p­ment of our company. The indus­trial link between the Nordic count­ries and Germany is tradi­tio­nally strong; in the DACH region there are many very successful SMEs facing chal­lenges such as succes­sion, globa­liza­tion and digi­ta­liza­tion,” explains Frode Strand-Niel­sen, Foun­der and Mana­ging Part­ner of FSN Capi­tal. “The start of Robin Mürer and Justin Kent is a key pillar of our contin­ued deve­lo­p­ment and we are plea­sed to welcome both to our team for the tasks ahead.”

Patrice Jabet, Part­ner in Munich, adds: “Robin Mürer and Justin Kent have exten­sive expe­ri­ence and a broad network in the DACH region. Equally important, they share FSN Capital’s values and company ethos.” With the new hires, the Munich team grows to five people; in the medium term, it is expec­ted to grow to ten invest­ment experts.

Special value orien­ta­tion, excel­lent track record
FSN Capi­tal sees itself as a respon­si­ble, value-driven inves­tor and follows the prin­ci­ple “we are decent people making a decent return in a decent way”. Toge­ther with foun­ders, owner fami­lies and manage­ment teams, FSN Capi­tal works to further deve­lop the busi­ness of its port­fo­lio compa­nies — in a respon­si­ble and sustainable way and through an active invest­ment approach. In this way, FSN funds have been able to achieve average returns with a multi­ple (ROI) of 3.0x and an inter­nal rate of return (IRR) of 27%; making FSN Capi­tal one of the best performing advi­sed invest­ment funds across Europe. FSN Capital’s and the FSN Funds’ commit­ment to strict envi­ron­men­tal, social and gover­nance (ESG) prin­ci­ples was recently reco­gni­zed with the 2017 Private Equity Corpo­rate Citi­zen­ship Award.

About FSN Capital
FSN Capi­tal Part­ners is an invest­ment firm exclu­si­vely advi­sing the FSN Capi­tal Funds with capi­tal commit­ments of €2.2 billion. To support their further deve­lo­p­ment, these funds invest mainly in growth-orien­ted, Nort­hern Euro­pean compa­nies with a valua­tion of between €50 million and €300 million. FSN Capi­tal was foun­ded in 1999; the 43-member team works from Oslo, Copen­ha­gen, Stock­holm and Munich, and eleven execu­tive advi­sors contri­bute exten­sive indus­trial expe­ri­ence. The FSN funds curr­ently invest from the fund “FSN Capi­tal V” with a volume of one billion euros.

Since incep­tion, FSN funds have inves­ted more than one billion euros in 32 plat­form compa­nies and more than 70 add-on acqui­si­ti­ons. As a result, returns were achie­ved with a multi­ple (ROI) of 3.0x and an inter­nal rate of return (IRR) of 27%; making FSN Capi­tal one of the best performing advi­sed invest­ment funds across Europe. The recent share sales of Instalco (Sweden) and Lagka­ge­hu­set (Denmark) exem­plify excel­lent returns through crea­tive, entre­pre­neu­rial growth stra­te­gies; the invest­ments in Netcom­pany (Denmark) and Bygg­hemma (Sweden) demons­trate the successful part­ner­ship with strong manage­ment teams in acce­le­ra­ting growth in dyna­mic markets. The purchase of Austrian Fasching Safety Belts GmbH by FSN Capi­tal V port­fo­lio company Holm­bergs Safety System is the latest transaction.
For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.fsncapital.com.

Munich - The Euro­pean invest­ment company Gimv reports a successful third quar­ter in the 2017/2018 finan­cial year. The Munich office has been streng­the­ned with the new Part­ner Phil­ipp von Hammer­stein (35) and the two new Prin­ci­pals Fried­rich von Wall­witz (32) and Patrick Schaich (38) — Gimv is thus gearing up for new invest­ments in the German-spea­king region across all focu­sed invest­ment platforms.

Phil­ipp von Hammer­stein (35, photo), on board as a Prin­ci­pal at Gimv in Munich since 2016, has been appoin­ted Part­ner in the Health & Care prac­tice, effec­tive Janu­ary 1, 2018. Prior to joining Gimv, von Hammer­stein worked for KPMG in Germany in the area of Deal Advi­sory — M&A. There, he has advi­sed on more than 50 projects — prima­rily in the health­care sector and for various client groups such as large listed corpo­ra­ti­ons, family-owned compa­nies, the public sector as well as private equity funds and their port­fo­lio compa­nies. At Gimv, von Hammer­stein was instru­men­tal in tran­sac­tions such as the invest­ment in the Swiss MVZ Holding. He holds a degree in Busi­ness Admi­nis­tra­tion (Tech­ni­cal Univer­sity of Berlin) and a Master in Manage­ment (ESC Toulouse/Toulouse Busi­ness School).

Fried­rich von Wall­witz (32) has been a Prin­ci­pal in the Smart Indus­tries team since Janu­ary. He previously worked in London, first as a commo­di­ties trader, then as an M&A advi­sor and merchant banker for PMB Capi­tal. There he deve­lo­ped long-term and sustainable finan­cing solu­ti­ons for compa­nies in the DACH region. Fried­rich von Wall­witz studied Econo­mics & Inter­na­tio­nal Rela­ti­ons (BA) at Lancas­ter Univer­sity, Law & Econo­mics at the Univer­si­ties of Hamburg, Rotter­dam and UC Berke­ley (LL.M), and Chris­tian Theo­logy at the Univer­sity of London (MA).

Patrick Schaich (38), Prin­ci­pal in the Connec­ted Consu­mer team since Febru­ary, joins from inter­na­tio­nal small-mid market private equity inves­tor The River­side Company. There, Schaich worked on tran­sac­tions in various indus­tries for nearly five years. Prior to that, he gained exten­sive expe­ri­ence in invest­ment banking at Kepler-Cheu­vreux and at Beren­berg, prima­rily in the retail and consu­mer goods sectors. Patrick Schaich holds an MSc as well as a BBA in Finance from the ESF Euro­pean School of Finance / HfWU Nürtingen-Geislingen.

Laun­ched in Belgium almost 40 years ago, Gimv, which is listed on Euron­ext Brussels, now opera­tes across Europe with around 90 employees and mana­ges around 1.6 billion euros. In addi­tion to its head­quar­ters in Antwerp, Gimv has offices in Munich, Paris and The Hague. The company curr­ently holds stakes in around 50 port­fo­lio compa­nies. The focus is on the four invest­ment plat­forms Smart Indus­tries, Health & Care, Connec­ted Consu­mer and Sustainable Cities — inno­va­tive, leading compa­nies from these sectors with high growth poten­tial are supported by Gimv with capi­tal and know-how on their way to market leadership.

Promi­sing last quar­ter of 2017

Gimv’s on-balance sheet invest­ments from Octo­ber 1, 2017 to Decem­ber 31, 2017 amoun­ted to 55 million euros — brin­ging the total inves­ted in 2017 to 159 million euros. In the last quar­ter of 2017, two major invest­ments were reali­zed, inclu­ding in WEMAS Absperr­tech­nik GmbH from Güters­loh. Total dive­st­ments reco­gni­zed in the balance sheet in the third quar­ter amoun­ted to 197 million euros (full year: 314 million euros); five compa­nies were dive­s­ted. Gimv’s brisk busi­ness acti­vity has contin­ued since the begin­ning of 2018 — five new invest­ments and one sale have alre­ady been repor­ted since Janu­ary 1.

Great poten­tial in the DACH region

The team strength of Gimv’s Munich office, which is respon­si­ble for acti­vi­ties in the DACH region, has now been increased to ten invest­ment specia­lists — the reason for this is the increased demand for specia­li­zed inves­tors in the market: “In the DACH region in parti­cu­lar, many medium-sized compa­nies are curr­ently having to realign them­sel­ves and are looking for ways and means to expand into new regi­ons or to grow via addi­tio­nal busi­ness acti­vi­ties. With our almost 40 years of expe­ri­ence in future-orien­ted sectors and indus­tries, we can provide opti­mal support to these compa­nies — helped by the back­ground of our experts, all of whom have worked for many years in an opera­tio­nal and advi­sory capa­city in our target indus­tries,” explains Dr. Sven Oleow­nik, who heads the Munich office.

Gimv’s port­fo­lio in the German-spea­king region curr­ently compri­ses eleven growth compa­nies. To date, the team has reali­zed four successful exits, inclu­ding most recently the high-profile sale of compu­ter-gene­ra­ted imagery market leader Macke­vi­sion to Accenture.

About GIMV
Gimv is a Euro­pean invest­ment firm with nearly 40 years of expe­ri­ence in private equity and venture capi­tal. The company is listed on Euron­ext Brussels, curr­ently mana­ges around EUR 1.6 billion and has invest­ments in 50 port­fo­lio compa­nies. As a reco­gni­zed leader in exclu­sive invest­ment plat­forms, Gimv iden­ti­fies inno­va­tive, leading compa­nies with high growth poten­tial and supports them on their way to market leader­ship. Each of the four invest­ment plat­forms Connec­ted Consu­mer, Health & Care, Smart Indus­tries and Sustainable Cities is mana­ged by a dedi­ca­ted and compe­tent team, each based in Gimv’s home markets — the Bene­lux, France and Germany — and supported by an exten­sive inter­na­tio­nal network of experts.

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

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

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

About IMAP
Foun­ded in 1973, IMAP is one of the oldest and largest Mergers & Acqui­si­ti­ons orga­niza­ti­ons in the world with offices in 35 count­ries. More than 400 M&A advi­sors in inter­na­tio­nal sector teams specia­lize in corpo­rate sales, cross-border acqui­si­ti­ons and stra­te­gic finan­cing issues. Its clients are prima­rily family-owned compa­nies from the midmar­ket, but also include large natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal corpo­ra­ti­ons as well as finan­cial inves­tors, family offices and insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors. World­wide, IMAP accom­pa­nies about 200 tran­sac­tions per year with a total volume of more than USD 12 billion.