EMH Partners acquire majority stake in AVANTGARDE

Munich — McDer­mott Will & Emery has provi­ded compre­hen­sive legal advice to funds advi­sed by EMH Part­ners on the acqui­si­tion of a majo­rity stake in AVANTGARDE Gesell­schaft für Kommu­ni­ka­tion (AVANTGARDE). The sellers of the shares are the growth inves­tor AFINUM and the AVANTGARDE manage­ment team, which will conti­nue to hold a signi­fi­cant stake in the company.

AVANTGARDE is Germany’s leading service provi­der in the field of brand expe­ri­ence. In addi­tion to its head­quar­ters in Munich, the Group is repre­sen­ted at five other loca­ti­ons in Germany as well as in Austria, Switz­er­land, Great Britain, Dubai, China and Brazil. Its custo­mers are prima­rily inter­na­tio­nal blue-chip compa­nies. In fiscal year 2018, AVANTGARDE gene­ra­ted fee reve­nue of more than 80 million euros.

EMH Part­ners is a Euro­pean invest­ment company by entre­pre­neurs for entre­pre­neurs, foun­ded by brot­hers Sebas­tian and Maxi­mi­lian Kuss (photo left). The next-gene­ra­­tion private equity firm bridges the gap between venture capi­tal and buyout funds by support­ing the growth of medium-sized compa­nies with capi­tal and digi­tiza­tion exper­tise. With its seventh invest­ment in total, EMH is ente­ring the brand expe­ri­ence market segment. Previous invest­ments advi­sed by EMH include Brain­lab, a global leader in soft­­ware-enab­­led medi­cal tech­no­logy; Occhio, a leading German manu­fac­tu­rer of high-quality light­ing; and Design Offices, the German indus­try leader in corpo­rate coworking.

Advi­sors to EMH Part­ners: McDer­mott Will & Emery
Dr. Niko­laus von Jacobs (Lead Part­ner)Dr. Tobias Kopp­mann (both Private Equity, Munich), Dr. Germar Enders, Dr. Nadine Hartung (both Coun­sel, both Private Equity, Munich), Stef­fen Woitz (IP Liti­ga­tion, Munich), Nina Siewert (Tax, Frank­furt), Marcus Fischer (Coun­sel, Tax, Frank­furt), Dr. Thomas Gennert, Dr. Sandra Urban-Crell (both Labor Law, Düssel­dorf), Dr. Oliver Hahn­elt (Finance, Frank­furt), Niko­las Kout­sós (Coun­sel, Finance, Düssel­dorf). Oliver Hahn­elt (Finance, Frank­furt), Niko­las Kout­sós (Coun­sel, Finance, Düssel­dorf); Asso­cia­tes: Matthias Wein­gut, Robert Feind, Frank Weiss (all Private Equity, Munich), Colin Winter­berg, Jose­pha Hettich (both Labor Law, Düssel­dorf), Dr. Richard Gräbe­ner, Dr. Philip Uecker (both IP Liti­ga­tion, Munich and Düsseldorf)

Inhouse: Dirk Kramer (Gene­ral Counsel)