News-Kategorie: Private Equity

Hamburg — The Danish Heart­land A/S, holding company of one of the largest Euro­pean clot­hing compa­nies, Best­sel­ler A/S, joins ABOUT YOU as a new inves­tor. The invest­ment is being made as part of a capi­tal increase of around 300 million US dollars and on the basis of a company valua­tion of ABOUT YOU of over one billion US dollars. This makes the fast-growing fashion tech start-up of the Otto Group the first so-called unicorn from Hamburg.

The finan­cing round of around 300 million US dollars is largely based on the invest­ment by Heart­land A/S, which is acqui­ring a double-digit share in ABOUT YOU. The previous share­hol­ders German Media Pool and Seven Ventures as well as the three ABOUT YOU mana­ging direc­tors Tarek Müller, Sebas­tian Betz and Hannes Wiese (photo from right: obs/About You GmbH/Johannes Arlt) are also parti­ci­pa­ting in the capi­tal increase. Benja­min Otto, forma­tive part­ner and member of the Super­vi­sory Board of the Otto Group, and his sister remain mino­rity share­hol­ders with their Gesell­schaft für Handels­be­tei­li­gun­gen mbH (GfH). Although the Otto Group remains the largest share­hol­der in ABOUT YOU, it will manage the fashion tech company as an invest­ment company in the future. ABOUT YOU now intends to use the addi­tio­nal capi­tal for the further expan­sion of the company.

Inter­na­tio­nal busi­ness law firm Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP has advi­sed the Otto Group on Heart­land A/S ’ invest­ment in ABOUT YOU, the Otto Group’s fashion tech start-up.

ABOUT YOU is conside­red one of the fastest growing fashion tech start-ups in Europe. For fiscal 2018/2019, the company expects sales to increase from 283 million euros to 450 to 480 million euros. ABOUT YOU intends to use the addi­tio­nal capi­tal for further expansion.

The plan­ned parti­ci­pa­tion of Heart­land A/S in ABOUT YOU is subject to the appr­oval of the anti­trust authorities.

The Milbank team led by Norbert Rieger and Sebas­tian Heim provi­ded compre­hen­sive advice to the Otto Group on corpo­rate, tax, anti­trust and finan­cial aspects of the transaction.

About ABOUT YOU
ABOUT YOU digi­ti­zes the clas­sic shop­ping trip and crea­tes a perso­na­li­zed shop­ping expe­ri­ence on the smart­phone. By adap­ting to each customer’s indi­vi­dual style, the online store crea­tes a store that is unique to all custo­mers, display­ing only rele­vant products and outfit sugges­ti­ons. At ABOUT YOU, the focus is on the custo­mer and through this, an infi­nite number of diffe­rent perso­na­li­ties who find their expres­sion through fashion and are supported by ABOUT YOU. Women and men between 20 and 49 years of age will find on aboutyou.de, in addi­tion to the versa­tile inspi­ra­tion, an assort­ment with more than 150,000 artic­les from over 1,000 brands. With more than 10 million monthly active custo­mers, ABOUT YOU is one of the largest fashion and life­style plat­forms in Europe. The fashion tech company gene­ra­ted sales of €283 million in 2017/18, and sales of €450–480 million are expec­ted for the current fiscal year, repre­sen­ting an annual tran­sac­tion volume of more than €1.6 billion. ABOUT YOU GmbH was foun­ded in 2014 as a subsi­diary of the Otto Group and is now part of the Group port­fo­lio. The manage­ment team includes multi­ple foun­ders and digi­tal experts Tarek Müller (29, Marke­ting & Brands) and Sebas­tian Betz (27, Tech & Product) as well as former Roland Berger stra­te­gist Hannes Wiese (37, Opera­ti­ons & Finance).

About Otto Group
Foun­ded in Germany in 1949, the Otto Group is now a global trading and services group with around 51,800 employees. The Group is present with 123 major compa­nies in more than 30 count­ries in Europe, North and South America and Asia. Its busi­ness acti­vi­ties cover the three segments of multich­an­nel retail­ing, finan­cial services, and service. In the finan­cial year 2017/18 (Febru­ary 28), the Otto Group gene­ra­ted reve­nues of 13.7 billion euros. With online sales of around 7.9 billion euros, it is one of the world’s largest online retail­ers. E‑commerce, cata­log busi­ness and over-the-coun­ter retail­ing form the three pillars of the Otto Group’s multich­an­nel retail­ing. World­wide Group acti­vi­ties and a large number of stra­te­gic part­ner­ships and joint ventures provide the Otto Group with excel­lent condi­ti­ons for know-how trans­fer and the explo­ita­tion of synergy poten­tial. At the same time, a high degree of auto­nomy on the part of the Group compa­nies guaran­tees flexi­bi­lity and custo­mer proxi­mity as well as an opti­mum target group approach in the respec­tive countries.

Advi­sor Otto Group: Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP
Dr. Norbert Rieger, Dr. Sebas­tian Heim (joint lead, both Corporate/M&A, Munich), Dr. Rolf Füger (Tax, Munich), Dr. Alex­an­der Rinne (Anti­trust, Munich), Dr. Ulrike Friese-Dormann (Corporate/M&A, Munich), Pascal Härdt­ner (Corporate/M&A, Munich), Dr. Karen Freh­mel-Kück (Corporate/M&A, Frank­furt), Dr. Moritz Lich­ten­eg­ger (Anti­trust, Munich), Dr. Niko­las Kout­sós, Dr. Thomas Moel­ler (both Finance, Frank­furt), Dr. Moritz Phil­ipp (Tax, Munich), Dr. Fritz Schuch­mann (Corporate/M&A).

Munich — The private equity inves­tor Rigeto Unter­neh­mer­ka­pi­tal GmbH has acqui­red a stake in the SICCUM Group.

SICCUM Group is a service provi­der for drying, clea­ning and resto­ra­tion of water, fire and mold damage. The company works for private, commer­cial and public clients and takes care of both the repair of damage claims and their sett­le­ment with insu­r­ers. THE SICCUM Group opera­tes prima­rily in Meck­len­burg-Western Pome­ra­nia and Schles­wig-Holstein, where it has six locations.

Dr. Richard Lenz (photo) is the mana­ging direc­tor of Rigeto Unter­neh­mer­ka­pi­tal, which repres­ents a group of entre­pre­neurs and family offices seeking to drive the further market expan­sion of the SICCUM Group. With the opening of a new, seventh loca­tion in Seeve­tal near Hamburg in July 2018, a new growth phase of the SICCUM Group has begun.

P+P Pöllath + Part­ners provi­ded compre­hen­sive legal and tax advice to Rigeto Unter­neh­mer­ka­pi­talwith the follo­wing team:
Dr. Frank Thiä­ner (Part­ner, Lead, M&A/Private Equity, Munich), Alex­an­der Pupe­ter (Part­ner, Tax, Munich), Dr. Jens Linde (Asso­cia­ted Part­ner, Finan­cing, Frank­furt am Main), Dr. Jesko von Mirbach, LL.M. (Stel­len­bosch) (Asso­ciate, M&A/Private Equity, Munich)

Advi­sor to SICCUM share­hol­ders: GSK Stockmann
Dr. Markus Söhn­chen (Lead, Corporate/M&A), Dr. Petra Eckl (Tax), Dr. Andreas Peters (Corporate/M&A), Domi­nik Berka (Tax), Dr. Gerhard Gündel (Corporate/M&A); Asso­cia­tes: Inga Henrich (Corporate/M&A), Nicole Depa­rade (Labor Law)

Laat­zen (Germany) — Funds advi­sed by Triton (“Triton”) have successfully comple­ted the sale of Aven­tics to Emer­son (NYSE: EMR). Aven­tics is one of the world’s leading compa­nies in the field of intel­li­gent pneu­ma­tic tech­no­lo­gies used in machine and factory auto­ma­tion. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the purchase price.

Triton acqui­red Aven­tics in Decem­ber 2013 through a corpo­rate carve-out from Bosch. Under Triton’s owner­ship, Aven­tics’ manage­ment and advi­sory board have worked toge­ther on a number of impro­ve­ment initia­ti­ves to streng­then the company’s posi­tion as one of the world’s leading manu­fac­tu­r­ers of intel­li­gent pneu­ma­tic tech­no­lo­gies for machine and factory auto­ma­tion applications.

Key impro­ve­ment initia­ti­ves include the inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion of the busi­ness, the dive­st­ment of non-core busi­nesses, and effi­ci­ency gains in produc­tion. In prepa­ra­tion for the future, the digi­tiza­tion of the company was star­ted by intro­du­cing digi­tal tools. It also included occu­pa­tio­nal safety programs, invest­ments in product deve­lo­p­ment and the estab­lish­ment of a new global sales organization

About Aven­tics
Aven­tics is one of the leading manu­fac­tu­r­ers of pneu­ma­tic compon­ents and systems. The pneu­ma­tics specia­lists offer products and services for indus­trial auto­ma­tion and the food, pack­a­ging, medi­cal and energy tech­no­logy sectors. The company also deve­lops solu­ti­ons for commer­cial vehic­les, ships and rail vehicles.

By inte­gra­ting elec­tro­nics, using modern mate­ri­als and focu­sing on machine safety and Indus­try 4.0, Aven­tics is a pioneer in user- and envi­ron­men­tally-friendly solu­ti­ons. With the expan­sion of digi­ta­liza­tion, Aven­tics is posi­tio­ning itself for the future.

Aven­tics can look back on around 150 years of pneu­ma­tics expe­ri­ence and employs over 2,000 people world­wide. From its produc­tion sites in Germany, France, Hungary, USA and China, Aven­tics sells its products through direct sales and distri­bu­tors in more than 100 count­ries. Aven­tics Group has multi­ple certi­fi­ca­ti­ons, inclu­ding ISO 9001 and ISO/TS 16949 for quality, ISO 50001 for energy manage­ment, and ISO 14001 for envi­ron­men­tal management.

About Triton
The Triton funds invest in medium-sized compa­nies based in Europe and support their posi­tive deve­lo­p­ment. They focus on compa­nies in the indus­trial, services and consu­mer goods/healthcare sectors.

Triton’s goal is to successfully deve­lop its port­fo­lio compa­nies in the long term by working toge­ther as part­ners. Triton and its manage­ment strive to gene­rate posi­tive change and growth through the sustainable impro­ve­ment of opera­tio­nal proces­ses and struc­tures. At present, Triton’s port­fo­lio includes 35 compa­nies with total sales of around EUR 13 billion and around 87,000 employees.

Frank­furt a. M. — Halder Betei­li­gungs­be­ra­tung sells its shares in Klin­gel medi­cal metal to IK Invest­ment Part­ners. The medi­cal tech­no­logy company is the second exit from the port­fo­lio of the Halder Germany II fund. Shear­man & Ster­ling advi­sed LBBW, SEB and Siemens Bank on the finan­cing of the acqui­si­tion of KLINGEL, a manu­fac­tu­rer of high-precis­ion compon­ents, by IK Investments.

As a machi­ning specia­list head­quar­te­red in Pforz­heim, KLINGEL deve­lops and manu­fac­tures high-precis­ion compon­ents made of mate­ri­als that are diffi­cult to machine, espe­ci­ally stain­less steel or tita­nium in the highest quality and tech­ni­cal aesthe­tics, prima­rily for medi­cal tech­no­logy. KLINGEL manu­fac­tures products for various sectors and appli­ca­ti­ons, inclu­ding ortho­pe­dic, cardio­vas­cu­lar and dental implants, as well as instru­ments for endo­scopy and robo­tic surgery. Klin­gel medi­cal metal GmbH was foun­ded in 1986. — Helmut Klin­gel star­ted the company as a two-man opera­tion. Accor­ding to the company, it now employs 330 people and gene­ra­tes annual sales of 30 million euros.

The Shear­man & Ster­ling team led by part­ner Winfried M. Carli included asso­ciate Andreas Breu and tran­sac­tion specia­list Marina Kieweg (all Germany Finance).

About Shear­man & Sterling
Shear­man & Ster­ling is an inter­na­tio­nal law firm with 22 offices in 13 count­ries and appro­xi­m­ately 850 lawy­ers. In Germany, Shear­man & Ster­ling is repre­sen­ted at the Frank­furt office. The firm is one of the inter­na­tio­nal market leaders in advi­sing on complex cross-border tran­sac­tions. World­wide, Shear­man & Ster­ling prima­rily advi­ses inter­na­tio­nal corpo­ra­ti­ons and large natio­nal compa­nies, finan­cial insti­tu­ti­ons, and large mid-sized compa­nies. For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.shearman.com.

Berlin — The invest­ment company Capi­ton and the mino­rity share­hol­ders have sold their shares in EMS Schwa­nen­mühle GmbH, a manu­fac­tu­rer of special products for heavy current appli­ca­ti­ons, to a family office based in Luxem­bourg. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the terms of the transaction.

Schwa­nen­mühle deve­lops, manu­fac­tures and sells special elec­tri­cal engi­nee­ring products for heavy current appli­ca­ti­ons used in power gene­ra­tion, power distri­bu­tion and indus­try. In addi­tion, the company deve­lops and sells busbar systems world­wide. The company produ­ces in Germany and Poland and gene­ra­ted sales of approx. 220 employees a turno­ver of more than € 60 million.

Consul­tant capiton:
CMS Hasche Sigle (Law)
Ernst & Young (Taxes)

About capi­ton AG
capi­ton is an inde­pen­dent, owner-mana­ged private equity company mana­ging a total fund volume of € 1.0 billion. There are curr­ently 11 medium-sized compa­nies in capi­ton AG’s invest­ment port­fo­lio. As an equity part­ner, capi­ton supports manage­ment buy-outs and growth finan­cings of estab­lished medium-sized companies.

Frankfurt/Munich — Inter­na­tio­nal law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP has advi­sed London-based inves­tor GHO Capi­tal on the acqui­si­tion of Lini­med Gruppe GmbH from Vitru­vian Part­ners and the company’s foun­ders. GHO Capi­tal acqui­res the Lini­med Group, a leading provi­der of out-of-hospi­tal inten­sive care and home venti­la­tion services opera­ting at 44 loca­ti­ons in Germany, toge­ther with the company’s current manage­ment. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the purchase price.

GHO Capi­tal is a London-based finan­cial inves­tor specia­li­zing in health­care invest­ments in Europe. GHO Capi­tal was awarded the contract after the finan­cial inves­tor prevai­led over various compe­ti­tors in a bidding competition.

Advi­sors to GHO Capital:Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP
The Weil tran­sac­tion team was led by Frank­furt Corpo­rate Part­ners Prof. Dr. Gerhard Schmidt and Dr. Kamyar Abrar and supported by Part­ner Tobias Geer­ling (Tax, Munich) and Asso­cia­tes Manuel-Peter Fringer (Corpo­rate, Munich), Thomas Weise (Corpo­rate, Frank­furt), Dr. Konstan­tin Hoppe, Simone Hagen (both Health­care, Munich and Frank­furt), Aurel Hille, Julian Schwa­ne­beck (both Labor Law, Frank­furt), Ludger Kempf, Alisa Preis­sler (both Tax, Frank­furt), Dr. Barbara Sand­fuchs (Data Protec­tion, Munich), Patrik Marten (Tax, Munich) and Para­le­gal Sonja Popp (Corpo­rate, Munich).
The Weil team invol­ved in the acqui­si­tion finan­cing was led by Frank­furt Finance Part­ner Dr. Wolf­ram Distler and supported by Asso­ciate Dr. Dorian Legel (Finance, Frankfurt).

About Weil
Weil, Gotshal & Manges is an inter­na­tio­nal law firm with appro­xi­m­ately 1,100 lawy­ers, inclu­ding about 300 part­ners. Weil is head­quar­te­red in New York and has offices in Boston, Dallas, Frankfurt/Main, Hong Kong, Hous­ton, London, Miami, Munich, Paris, Beijing, Prague, Prince­ton, Shang­hai, Sili­con Valley, Warsaw and Washing­ton, D.C.

Hano­ver / Munich — Deut­sche Betei­li­gungs AG (DBAG) has acqui­red a stake in the opera­ting busi­ness of BTV braun tele­Com AG (BTV), a well-known equip­ment and service provi­der in broad­band commu­ni­ca­ti­ons. As part of a manage­ment buy-out (MBO), the DBAG ECF fund advi­sed by Deut­sche Betei­li­gungs AG will acquire the majo­rity of shares in four opera­ting compa­nies of the BTV group. These will be sold as part of a succes­sion plan by the company foun­der and share­hol­der of BTV Thomas Braun, who will conti­nue to be respon­si­ble for the manage­ment of the companies.

DBAG co-invests up to 4.8 million euros; in future, it will account for around 38 percent of the shares in the compa­nies. Further shares in addi­tion to the DBAG ECF (a total of 93 percent) will be held by the compa­nies’ manage­ment. The closing of the purchase agree­ment is sche­du­led for July 2018. The rele­vant anti­trust autho­ri­ties still have to approve the tran­sac­tion. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the purchase price.

Deut­sche Betei­li­gungs AG (DBAG) has acqui­red four opera­ting compa­nies of BTV braun tele­Com AG (BTV braun). P+P advi­sed the manage­ment of BTV braun on the tran­sac­tion. The BTV braun group is a full-service provi­der in the field of broad­band commu­ni­ca­ti­ons. The compa­nies of the Group deve­lop, produce and distri­bute compon­ents for the cons­truc­tion of cable and fiber optic networks.

BTV braun, which is head­quar­te­red in Hano­ver and has bran­ches in Hamburg, Wismar, the Nether­lands and Taiwan, gene­ra­ted sales of around 30 million euros in 2017. Deut­sche Betei­li­gungs AG is a finan­cial inves­tor specia­li­zing in growth-orien­ted medium-sized compa­nies. DBAG is prima­rily active in Germany and has an inter­na­tio­nal network. DBAG intends to conti­nue the orga­nic growth of the BTV braun compa­nies and broa­den its range of products and services.

BTV is the fifth company in broad­band commu­ni­ca­ti­ons in which DBAG has inves­ted since 2013. In addi­tion, there were seven corpo­rate acqui­si­ti­ons of these share­hol­dings. “The market for these compa­nies is driven by incre­asing end-custo­mer demand for faster Inter­net connec­tions, which require exis­ting networks to be upgraded or newly built,” says Tors­ten Grede, spokes­man for DBAG’s Manage­ment Board, describ­ing the attrac­tive market envi­ron­ment for this invest­ment. This also includes the trend toward high-perfor­mance fiber-optic connec­tions right into the home.

Advi­sors to BTV braun tele­Com: P+P Pöllath + Partners
P+P part­ner Dr. Barbara Koch-Schulte (photo) provi­ded legal and tax advice to the manage­ment of BTV braun in connec­tion with the transaction.

Munich / Heiters­heim — PARAGON PARTNERS acqui­res majo­rity stake in inpro­tec AG to support the company’s future growth
PARAGON PARTNERS acqui­res a majo­rity stake in inpro­tec AG from the two share­hol­ders and mana­gers, Dr. Andreas Baran­yai and Pierre Schwerdt­fe­ger. The tran­sac­tion is still subject to appr­oval by the rele­vant autho­ri­ties. The two members of the Manage­ment Board will conti­nue to hold signi­fi­cant stakes in the company and will remain opera­tio­nally respon­si­ble for the manage­ment and further deve­lo­p­ment of the company. PARAGON will support the orga­nic and inor­ga­nic growth course of inpro­tec AG with addi­tio­nal resources.

inpro­tec AG, based in Heiters­heim, Germany, offers its custo­mers many years of exper­tise as the leading supplier of indus­trial contract drying and granu­la­tion based on spray drying, spray granu­la­tion, fluid bed coating as well as matrix encap­su­la­tion. As a specia­list in this field, inpro­tec is the cont­act of choice for the realiza­tion of inno­va­tive and complex produc­tion proces­ses as well as for closing inter­nal capa­city gaps. In recent years, the company has worked with more than 2,500 diffe­rent start­ing mate­ri­als and inter­me­dia­tes across indus­tries, serving custo­mers in a wide range of indus­tries (consu­mer goods, feed, cosme­tics, plas­tic additives).

inpro­tec AG opera­tes two produc­tion faci­li­ties in Heiters­heim and Genthin and curr­ently employs a total of appro­xi­m­ately 240 people. With the support of PARAGON, inpro­tec AG will consis­t­ently conti­nue the growth course of the past years and invest in the deve­lo­p­ment of addi­tio­nal produc­tion capacities.

“It is impres­sive to see how Messrs. Baran­yai and Schwerdt­fe­ger have built up and estab­lished inpro­tec AG over the past almost 20 years and deve­lo­ped it into the clear market leader in fluid bed granu­la­tion. Today, the company is excel­lently posi­tio­ned to grow both orga­ni­cally and through stra­te­gic acqui­si­ti­ons,” explains Marco Atto­lini (photo), Mana­ging Part­ner at PARAGON PARTNERS.

Shear­man & Ster­ling advi­sed a banking syndi­cate consis­ting of Commerz­bank, Bremer Kredit­bank and ODDO BHF on the finan­cing of the acqui­si­tion of a majo­rity stake in inpro­tec AG by funds advi­sed by Para­gon Part­ners. — The Shear­man & Ster­ling team included Part­ner Dr. Matthias Weis­sin­ger and Tran­sac­tion Specia­list Marina Kieweg (both Germany-Finance).

About PARAGON PARTNERS
PARAGON PARTNERS is a private equity firm specia­li­zing in invest­ments in medium-sized compa­nies in Germany, Switz­er­land and Austria with over EUR 650 million in equity under manage­ment. PARAGON invests in estab­lished, medium-sized compa­nies with signi­fi­cant opera­tio­nal value enhance­ment poten­tial in order to sustain­ably expand the market posi­tion of its port­fo­lio compa­nies as an active share­hol­der. The aim is to enhance the opera­ting perfor­mance of the port­fo­lio compa­nies and promote their sustainable growth. PARAGON PARTNERS is based in Munich.

About Shear­man & Sterling
Shear­man & Ster­ling is an inter­na­tio­nal law firm with 22 offices in 13 count­ries and appro­xi­m­ately 850 lawy­ers. In Germany, Shear­man & Ster­ling is repre­sen­ted at the Frank­furt office. The firm is one of the inter­na­tio­nal market leaders in advi­sing on complex cross-border tran­sac­tions. World­wide, Shear­man & Ster­ling prima­rily advi­ses inter­na­tio­nal corpo­ra­ti­ons and large natio­nal compa­nies, finan­cial insti­tu­ti­ons, and large mid-sized companies.

Frank­furt am Main — Bird & Bird LLP has advi­sed the BTV Group on the sale of a majo­rity stake in the opera­ting busi­ness of BTV braun tele­Com AG (BTV) to Deut­sche Betei­li­gungs AG (DBAG). BTV is a group of trading and service compa­nies that deve­lop, produce and distri­bute compon­ents for the cons­truc­tion of cable and fiber optic networks.

In the course of a manage­ment buyout, DBAG ECF, a fund advi­sed by DBAG, will acquire the majo­rity of shares in four opera­ting compa­nies of the BTV Group. These will be sold as part of a succes­sion plan by the company foun­der and share­hol­der of BTV, Thomas Braun, who will conti­nue to be respon­si­ble for the manage­ment of the companies.

The closing of the purchase agree­ment is sche­du­led for July 2018. The rele­vant anti­trust autho­ri­ties still have to approve the tran­sac­tion. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the purchase price.

BTV braun tele­Com AG was advi­sed by the follo­wing Bird & Bird lawy­ers: Part­ner Dr. Hans Peter Leube, Lead (Corporate/M&A, Frank­furt), Asso­cia­tes Mari­anne Nawroth (Corporate/M&A, Frank­furt), Laura Müller (Corporate/M&A, Düssel­dorf), Chyn­gyz Timur (Corporate/M&A, Frank­furt), Part­ner Dr. Barbara Geck and Asso­ciate Daniela Gudat (both Labor Law, Frankfurt).

DBAG was advi­sed by Holger Ebers­ber­ger (Ashurst).

End

Back­ground:
Dr. Hans Peter Leube was previously on the side of DBAG in seve­ral tran­sac­tions and refi­nan­cings (most recently in the acqui­si­tion of the vitro­net Group and the Netz­kon­tor-Nord Group). The fact that he now nego­tia­ted on the seller’s side is due in parti­cu­lar to his exper­tise from his opera­tio­nal in-house time at Tele­co­lum­bus. This tran­sac­tion is another “proof-point” for Bird & Bird’s sector focus stra­tegy and our corpo­rate team’s strong exper­tise in Tech & Comms / Fiber Optics.

About Bird & Bird
Bird & Bird is an inter­na­tio­nal law firm that advi­ses in parti­cu­lar compa­nies and insti­tu­ti­ons that are shaping and being chan­ged by new tech­no­lo­gies and digi­ta­liza­tion. We combine world-class legal exper­tise with deep indus­try know­ledge and a refres­hin­gly crea­tive mind­set to help clients achieve their busi­ness goals. We have over 1,200 lawy­ers in 28 offices in Europe, the Middle East and Asia Paci­fic and main­tain close rela­ti­onships with law firms in other parts of the world.

Frank­furt a. M. — Shear­man & Ster­ling advi­sed PINOVA Capi­tal on the finan­cing of the acqui­si­tion of Sauter Fed ern GmbH (“Sauter Federn”), a leading manu­fac­tu­rer of tech­ni­cal springs.

Sauter Federn, head­quar­te­red in Furt­wan­gen, Germany, has specia­li­zed in the deve­lo­p­ment and manu­fac­ture of custo­mi­zed spring solu­ti­ons for more than 80 years.

PINOVA Capi­tal is a Munich-based, inde­pen­dent invest­ment company for equity finan­cing of fast-growing, inno­va­tive medium-sized compa­nies in German-spea­king count­ries. Shear­man & Ster­ling has regu­larly advi­sed PINOVA Capi­tal on finan­cing matters in the past, inclu­ding the finan­cing of the acqui­si­tion of Utimaco, Human Solu­ti­ons, Deuro­wood and WEETECH.

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

About PINOVA Capital
PINOVA covers the entire equity spec­trum from growth capi­tal to succes­sion solu­ti­ons in the context of majo­rity or mino­rity share­hol­dings. With two funds, around €300 million in finan­cing is available for corpo­rate invest­ments, provi­ded by insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors with a long-term invest­ment horizon.

About Shear­man & Sterling
Shear­man & Ster­ling is an inter­na­tio­nal law firm with 22 offices in 13 count­ries and appro­xi­m­ately 850 lawy­ers. In Germany, Shear­man & Ster­ling is repre­sen­ted at the Frank­furt office. The firm is one of the inter­na­tio­nal market leaders in advi­sing on complex cross-border tran­sac­tions. World­wide, Shear­man & Ster­ling prima­rily advi­ses inter­na­tio­nal corpo­ra­ti­ons and large natio­nal compa­nies, finan­cial insti­tu­ti­ons, and large mid-sized compa­nies. For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.shearman.com.

Berlin — Shear­man & Ster­ling advi­sed capi­ton on the finan­cing of the acqui­si­tion of a majo­rity stake in Magix Soft­ware, a leading global deve­lo­per and provi­der of video, music and photo editing software.

capi­ton is an inde­pen­dent, owner-mana­ged private equity company that mana­ges a total fund volume of € 1.1 billion and invests in larger medium-sized compa­nies in Germany, Austria and Switz­er­land in the context of manage­ment buy-outs and expan­sion finan­cing. Magix is a primary tran­sac­tion and the first compo­nent of capiton’s increased acti­vity in the area of digi­tal busi­ness models.

Head­quar­te­red in Berlin, Magix has addi­tio­nal deve­lo­p­ment sites in Dres­den and Madi­son (USA). Magix has been active in the video and music editing soft­ware market for more than twenty years and can ther­e­fore draw on a very broad and loyal custo­mer base.

Advi­sor capi­ton: Shear­man & Sterling
The Shear­man & Ster­ling team included part­ner Winfried M. Carli, asso­cia­tes Odilo Wall­ner and Maria Iorno (all Germany-Finance).

About capi­ton
In our view, private equity is more than just inves­ted money. We assume respon­si­bi­lity with every invest­ment: for our inves­tors’ money as well as for the compa­nies and their employees. We invest in a variety of sectors, with some we consider parti­cu­larly attrac­tive. Across all indus­tries, we take a detailed, case-by-case look at each invest­ment oppor­tu­nity and analyze risks and oppor­tu­ni­ties. Another focus is our specia­liza­tion in medium-sized busi­nesses. Even though the size of our invest­ment pools has grown steadily in recent years, the invest­ments remain within the usual range for medium-sized compa­nies. It is important for us to be in agree­ment with our inves­tees in terms of direc­tion and goal. We pursue the same goal as they do: success with long-term solid busi­ness concepts that open up growth pros­pects for everyone.

About Shear­man & Sterling
Shear­man & Ster­ling is an inter­na­tio­nal law firm with 22 offices in 13 count­ries and appro­xi­m­ately 850 lawy­ers. In Germany, Shear­man & Ster­ling is repre­sen­ted at the Frank­furt office. The firm is one of the inter­na­tio­nal market leaders in advi­sing on complex cross-border tran­sac­tions. World­wide, Shear­man & Ster­ling prima­rily advi­ses inter­na­tio­nal corpo­ra­ti­ons and large natio­nal compa­nies, finan­cial insti­tu­ti­ons, and large mid-sized compa­nies. For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.shearman.com.

Mannheim/ Stutt­gart — The inter­na­tio­nally active manage­ment consul­tancy Homburg & Part­ner advi­sed BWK GmbH Unter­neh­mens­be­tei­li­gungs­ge­sell­schaft on the acqui­si­tion of a mino­rity stake in Xactools GmbH and conduc­ted the commer­cial due diligence.

In addi­tion to BWK, the main share­hol­der is the mana­ging part­ner Thomas Erb. Xactools was foun­ded in 2012 and is a company specia­li­zing in the produc­tion of complex auto­ma­tion solu­ti­ons in the field of measu­re­ment and test­ing tech­no­logy. Thanks to its high level of tech­ni­cal know-how and inno­va­tive ability, the company has been able to estab­lish an estab­lished custo­mer base with well-known auto­mo­tive suppli­ers and well-known mecha­ni­cal engi­nee­ring compa­nies over the past few years.

Xactools distin­gu­is­hes itself through custo­mi­zed produc­tion of special machi­nes for measu­ring and test­ing tech­no­logy. The incre­asing comple­xity of many end products requi­res incre­asing quality assu­rance and quality proofs in combi­na­tion with higher effi­ci­ency in manu­fac­tu­ring. Measu­re­ment systems enable compa­nies to detect defects in the product and in produc­tion and to docu­ment them. These high demands are met by Xactools GmbH, which deve­lops ever more complex and accu­rate measu­ring and test­ing systems.

About Homburg & Partner
Homburg & Part­ner (H&P) is a specia­li­zed manage­ment consul­tancy with a focus on market stra­tegy, sales and pricing. The Private Equity Compe­tence Center combi­nes metho­do­lo­gi­cal and indus­try exper­tise to support compa­nies along the entire invest­ment process. In doing so, H&P focu­ses on the follo­wing seven indus­tries in parti­cu­lar with commer­cial due dili­gence and value enhance­ment projects:
1. auto­mo­tive (espe­ci­ally tier 1 and tier 2 suppliers)
2. cons­truc­tion and buil­ding mate­ri­als (ever­y­thing around the building)
3. chemis­try (espe­ci­ally specialty chemistry)
4. health­care (espe­ci­ally medi­cal tech­no­logy, phar­maceu­ti­cals and OTC)
5. indus­trial goods and mecha­ni­cal engi­nee­ring (in parti­cu­lar compo­nent suppli­ers and service providers)
6. consu­mer invest­ment goods
7. infor­ma­tion & commu­ni­ca­tion tech­no­logy (espe­ci­ally software)

The commer­cial due dili­gence was perfor­med by the Private Equity Compe­tence Center:
Alex­an­der Lüring (Part­ner CC Private Equity)
Felix Pleu­ger (Consul­tant CC Private Equity)

Frank­furt — Shear­man & Ster­ling advi­sed frost­krone Group, a port­fo­lio company of Emeram Capi­tal Part­ners (“EMERAM”), on the finan­cing of its acqui­si­tion of Piz’­Wich, a specialty manu­fac­tu­rer of on-the-go frozen snack products. Sellers include Piz’­wich Manage­ment and the French private equity invest­ment company Ardian.

Piz’­wich is a manu­fac­tu­rer of white-label frozen snack products for super­mar­kets, hyper­mar­kets, airline cate­rers and food service provi­ders. Head­quar­te­red in Bulgné­ville, France, the company main­ta­ins stra­te­gic part­ner­ships with largely inter­na­tio­nal players.

EMERAM is an inde­pen­dent Munich-based invest­ment company for German-spea­king medium-sized compa­nies. Funds advi­sed by EMERAM provide capi­tal for the further deve­lo­p­ment of compa­nies with a fund volume of €350 million. EMERAM sees itself as a long-term busi­ness deve­lo­p­ment part­ner for compa­nies in the five sectors of consu­mer goods, retail, indus­trial goods, services and health­care. Shear­man & Ster­ling previously advi­sed EMERAM in 2017 on the finan­cing of the acqui­si­tion of frost­krone Group.

Advi­sor frost­krone Group: Shear­man & Sterling
Led by part­ner Winfried M. Carli, photo (Germany-Finance), part­ner Pierre-Nico­las Ferrand (Paris-Finance), part­ner Dr. Matthias Weis­sin­ger, asso­ciate Maria Iorno and tran­sac­tion specia­list Marina Kieweg (all Germany-Finance).

About Shear­man & Sterling
Shear­man & Ster­ling is an inter­na­tio­nal law firm with 22 offices in 13 count­ries and appro­xi­m­ately 850 lawy­ers. In Germany, Shear­man & Ster­ling is repre­sen­ted at the Frank­furt office. The firm is one of the inter­na­tio­nal market leaders in advi­sing on complex cross-border tran­sac­tions. World­wide, Shear­man & Ster­ling prima­rily advi­ses inter­na­tio­nal corpo­ra­ti­ons and large natio­nal compa­nies, finan­cial insti­tu­ti­ons, and large mid-sized compa­nies. For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.shearman.com.