Elms­horn — The share­hol­ders and foun­ders of The Quality Group GmbH (“TQG”), based in Elms­horn near Hamburg, are selling their shares to CVC Fund VIII, which is mana­ged by CVC Capi­tal Part­ners (“CVC”). All exis­ting share­hol­ders parti­ci­pate indi­rectly in the company as future mino­rity share­hol­ders. Menold Bezler advi­sed The Quality Group GmbH on this transaction.

TQG is a specia­list in sports nutri­tion such as protein powders, dietary supple­ments and low-sugar foods and was formed at the end of 2020 by the merger of seve­ral compa­nies, mainly known for the brands “ESN” and “MORE NUTRITION”. TQG employs a total of around 360 people. Distri­bu­tion is largely online via the company’s own store, social media and part­ner­ships with influen­cers, as well as food retail­ers. The share­hol­ders Benja­min Burk­hardt and Chris­tian Wolf will remain opera­tio­nally active in the company.

CVC is a leading private equity firm and has been active in the German market for more than 30 years. Toge­ther with the foun­ders, CVC intends to conti­nue TQG’s growth path via the expan­sion of logi­stics, an expan­ded product port­fo­lio and the inter­na­tio­nal CVC network.

A Menold Bezler team led by Vladi­mir Cutura advi­sed the share­hol­ders of TQG on all legal aspects of the tran­sac­tion. The firm alre­ady advi­sed TQG in Decem­ber 2020 on the merger of the compa­nies behind “ESN” and “MORE NUTRITION” and on the subse­quent acqui­si­tion of GOT 7 Nutri­tion GmbH & Co KG.

Advi­sors to The Quality Group GmbH: Menold Bezler (Stutt­gart)

Vladi­mir Cutura (Part­ner, Lead), Thomas Futte­rer, Nicole Brandt, LL.M, Dr. Kars­ten Gschwandt­ner (Part­ner), Jens Schmelt (Part­ner), Hans­jörg Frenz, LL.M. (Part­ner), Dr. Jan Nehring-Köppl (all Corporate/M&A), Dr. Julia Schnei­der (Part­ner), Markus Kleinn (both IP), Dr. Jochen Bern­hard (Part­ner), Eliana Koch-Heint­ze­ler, Daniel Klass (all Anti­trust), Dr. Aris Joann­idis (Part­ner), Dr. Monika König (Part­ner), Dr. Caro­lin Reichert (Part­ner), Dr. Markus Augen­schein, Isabelle Hörner, Janina Dinke­la­ker (all Commer­cial), Dr. Frie­der Werner (Part­ner), Alex­an­dra Heidel­ber­ger (both Labor Law), Marc Ehrmann, LL.M. (Part­ner), Elisa Dyballa (both Real Estate Law), Stef­fen Foll­ner (Part­ner, Banking & Finan­cing), Dr. Cars­ten Ulbricht (Part­ner), Vari­nia Iber, Caro­lin Nemec (all IT Law), Nico Haldy (Part­ner), Clemens Mauch, Sarah Roßmann (all Tax), Jan Schmei­sky (Part­ner, Auditing)

Advi­sor CVC: Will­kie Farr & Gallagher

Lead part­ners Georg Linde and Dr. Matthias Schudlo; part­ners Patrick Meiisel, Sebas­tian Fitz­Ge­rald, Dr. Jasmin Dett­mar; coun­sel Timo­thy Sawyer; and asso­cia­tes Phil­ipp Oehler­king, Sebas­tian Bren­ner and Xian­rui Wang.

About Menold Bezler

Menold Bezler is a part­ner­ship-struc­tu­red commer­cial law firm based in Stutt­gart. More than 120 profes­sio­nals offer legal advice, tax advice, audi­ting and busi­ness manage­ment advice from a single source. Our clients include well-known medium-sized compa­nies, listed corpo­ra­ti­ons, the public sector and its compa­nies as well as non-profit orga­niza­ti­ons. More at www.menoldbezler.de.

About CVC

CVC is a leading private equity and invest­ment advi­sory firm with a network of 25 offices throug­hout Europe, Asia and the U.S. and appro­xi­m­ately €123 billion of assets under management.