ALTERNATIVE FINANCING FORMS
FOR ENTREPRENEURS AND INVESTORS

Author: Tatjana Anderer

Gründerin des FYB-Verlag
News

Hamburg/ Munich — Bain Capi­tal, one of the world’s leading private multi-asset invest­ment firms, and Aquila Group, a private invest­ment firm and pioneer in sustainable inves­t­ing, announce a signi­fi­cant part­ner­ship in the data center sector. As part of the colla­bo­ra­tion, Bain Capi­tal is acqui­ring an 80% stake in AQ Compute, the data center subsi­diary of Aquila Group. This stra­te­gic alli­ance, with a target invest­ment volume of seve­ral billion euros, is expec­ted to signi­fi­cantly acce­le­rate AQ Compute’s plans to deve­lop and operate sustainable data centers for hypers­cale and AI custo­mers across Europe. Foun­ded in 2020 by Aquila Group, AQ Comp ute offers modu­lar and AI-enab­led data center and colo­ca­tion services powered prima­rily by green energy. With signi­fi­cant invest­ment, the company laun­ched its first sustainable data center near Oslo in 2024 — with further projects plan­ned in Barce­lona, Milan and beyond. Bain Capi­tal is support­ing this growth with capi­tal invest­ment and global exper­tise in the data center indus­try, inclu­ding the successful deve­lo­p­ment of Bridge Data Centres in Asia. Toge­ther, the part­ners aim to build a leading Euro­pean data center plat­form with the goal of using green energy where­ver possible. 

Ali Haroon, a part­ner at Bain Capi­tal, said: “The Euro­pean data center market has an attrac­tive supply-demand imba­lance driven by strong cloud demand, the need for high perfor­mance compu­ting and AI deploy­ments, and data sove­reig­nty in the region. Through this part­ner­ship with Aquila Group, we bring a diffe­ren­tia­ted perspec­tive on rene­wa­ble energy to address the ever-growing power supply chal­lenges in this important part of Europe’s infra­struc­ture.” Rafael Coste Campos, a Mana­ging Direc­tor at Bain Capi­tal, said: “We are exci­ted to bring our deep exper­tise in the Euro­pean real estate sector and our diverse expe­ri­ence in buil­ding busi­nesses with complex infra­struc­ture services, tenant rela­ti­onships and talent acqui­si­tion to this plat­form. By lever­aging our global data center exper­tise, we are well posi­tio­ned to meet the needs of this ever-growing and criti­cally important sector and build a market-leading data center opera­tion in Europe.” Roman Ross­len­broich (photo: Aquila), co-foun­der and CEO of Aquila Group, commen­ted: “Through our part­ner­ship with Bain Capi­tal, we are well posi­tio­ned to expand AQ Compute’s capa­bi­li­ties and cement its role as a key player in Europe’s digi­tal infra­struc­ture. The rapid growth in data demand is both a chall­enge and an oppor­tu­nity — more data centers are essen­tial, but they must be sustainable. Aquila will invest seve­ral hundred million euros along­side Bain Capital’s larger commit­ment, with Aquila Capi­tal provi­ding co-invest­ment. Through an actively mana­ged 20% stake, we are helping AQ Compute grow in line with our long-term vision of sustainable infra­struc­ture. At the same time, we are unlo­cking syner­gies with Aquila Clean Energy, a leading deve­lo­per and inde­pen­dent produ­cer in the green energy sector.” Markus Holzer, Chair­man of AQ Compute, said: “At AQ Compute, we are uniquely posi­tio­ned to meet the growing demand for data proces­sing by combi­ning an inno­va­tive, AI-enab­led infra­struc­ture with a commit­ment to sustaina­bi­lity. The part­ner­ship with Bain Capi­tal acce­le­ra­tes our deve­lo­p­ment pipe­line and enables us to set new stan­dards for sustainable data center opera­ti­ons across Europe.” About Bain Capital

Bain Capi­tal is one of the world’s leading private alter­na­tive multi-asset invest­ment firms, crea­ting lasting value for our inves­tors, teams, busi­nesses and the commu­ni­ties in which we live. Since our foun­ding in 1984, we have lever­a­ged our know­ledge and expe­ri­ence to orga­ni­cally expand into nume­rous asset clas­ses, inclu­ding private equity, credit, public equity, venture capi­tal, real estate and other stra­te­gic focus areas. The firm has offices on four conti­nents, more than 1,750 employees and appro­xi­m­ately $185 billion in assets under manage­ment. About Aquila Group

Aquila Group, head­quar­te­red in Hamburg, Germany, is a private invest­ment firm that mana­ges a diverse port­fo­lio of compa­nies focu­sed on inno­va­tive solu­ti­ons across multi­ple sectors.

Since 2001, Aquila Group has been at the fore­front of iden­ti­fy­ing emer­ging trends and foste­ring inno­va­tion, parti­cu­larly in the areas of rene­wa­ble energy and sustainable infra­struc­ture, while actively inves­t­ing in the deve­lo­p­ment of new busi­nesses. As an inves­tor and deve­lo­per, Aquila Group remains commit­ted to crea­ting long-term value and driving solu­ti­ons that contri­bute to a more sustainable future. Aquila Group’s port­fo­lio includes asset manage­ment, indus­trial rene­wa­ble energy deve­lo­p­ment and inde­pen­dent power produc­tion (IPP) across Europe and Asia Paci­fic, as well as projects in data centers, green logi­stics and Spanish resi­den­tial real estate. With a tran­sac­tion volume of over EUR 25 billion and assets under manage­ment of EUR 15 billion, the company has a solid track record. With around 700 employees in 19 offices world­wide, Aquila Group is commit­ted to avoi­ding 1.5 billion tons of CO2 equi­va­lent over the life­time of its port­fo­lio by 2035. https://www.aquila-group.com

News

Berlin — capi­ton AG has successfully sold its stake in GRITEC TopCo GmbH (“GRITEC”) to Viess­mann Gene­ra­ti­ons Group (“Viess­mann”). GRITEC is the largest solu­tion provi­der for turn­key tech­no­logy buil­dings and stati­ons for energy, water and indus­trial infra­struc­ture in Germany. The company specia­li­zes in intel­li­gent infra­struc­ture solu­ti­ons and key compon­ents for the trans­for­ma­tion to a decen­tra­li­zed and green energy grid. As a leader in grid infra­struc­ture, GRITEC will play a key role in the green energy tran­si­tion in Europe. GRITEC offers compre­hen­sive solu­ti­ons for the deve­lo­p­ment, produc­tion and provi­sion of ready-to-connect, system-rele­vant infra­struc­ture solu­ti­ons in the form of tech­no­logy buil­dings, trans­for­mer stati­ons and the asso­cia­ted custo­mer services for the utility grid, e‑mobility, tele­com­mu­ni­ca­ti­ons, rail systems and indus­try sectors. These compon­ents are essen­tial for a nati­on­wide and stable energy supply, espe­ci­ally to meet the chal­lenges of an incre­asingly decen­tra­li­zed grid infra­struc­ture due to the tran­si­tion to rene­wa­ble ener­gies. GRITEC employs 1,300 people at six loca­ti­ons in Germany and the Czech Repu­blic. GRITEC had been a holding of the private equity company capi­ton AG since 2022. The tran­sac­tion is subject to appr­oval by the rele­vant anti­trust autho­ri­ties. In order to achieve climate neutra­lity by 2045, the share of rene­wa­ble ener­gies in Germany must be almost doubled by 2030 and the rate of expan­sion even tripled (source: Bundesregierung.de: “Anteil der erneu­er­ba­ren Ener­gien steigt”; acces­sed on 22.10.2024). As an intel­li­gent all-in-one solu­tion provi­der, GRITEC is ideally posi­tio­ned to provide and smartly inte­grate the neces­sary substa­ti­ons and tech­ni­cal buil­dings. Max Viess­mann, CEO of the Viess­mann Gene­ra­ti­ons Group (Photo © Viess­mann): “GRITEC plays a crucial role in the expan­sion of a nati­on­wide, smart and sustainable energy infra­struc­ture and we look forward to tapping into further growth poten­tial toge­ther. In order to achieve the important Euro­pean climate targets, we support inno­va­tive compa­nies that are commit­ted to scalable solu­ti­ons for redu­cing and saving CO2 emis­si­ons. Toge­ther with GRITEC and our ecosys­tem of medium-sized market leaders, we are taking respon­si­bi­lity to shape living spaces for future generations.” 

Volker Ernst & Thomas Sachers, Mana­ging Direc­tors of the GRITEC Group: “We are deligh­ted to have Viess­mann, a renow­ned and successful majo­rity share­hol­der, at our side, who will provide us with opti­mal support in imple­men­ting our next stra­te­gic and long-term goals. The fact that our corpo­rate cultures and mission state­ments fit toge­ther perfectly gives us great confi­dence in our future path to make an important contri­bu­tion to a sustainable future with our solu­ti­ons.” Thomas Brake, Direc­tor of capi­ton AG: “Toge­ther, we have been able to deve­lop GRITEC into a market leader in the field of energy infra­struc­ture in recent years and create a solid foun­da­tion for future growth. We would like to thank the Co-CEOs Volker Ernst, Thomas Sachers and the entire GRITEC team for this fanta­stic part­ner­ship and excep­tio­nal commit­ment.” Chris­toph Spors, Part­ner at capi­ton AG, adds: “We are deligh­ted to have found the perfect part­ner in Viess­mann to conti­nue GRITEC’s successful growth trajec­tory. We wish GRITEC and its employees all the best for the next chap­ter of the company under new ownership.” 

Consul­tant CAPITON: 

Houli­han Lokey as exclu­si­vely manda­ted M&A advi­sor, Milbank (sell-side coun­sel), honert (manage­ment coun­sel), Deloitte (finan­cial), Boston Consul­ting Group (commer­cial), Flick Gocke Schaum­burg (tax) and ERM (ESG).

About capi­ton AG

capi­ton (www.capiton.com) is an inde­pen­dent private equity fund mana­ger that mana­ges funds with a volume of 1.6 billion euros. Foun­ded in 1984 as an invest­ment company of a large insu­rance group, capi­ton became an inde­pen­dent part­ner­ship in 2004. Curr­ently, capi­ton invests from its latest fund capi­ton VI. capi­ton AG’s invest­ment port­fo­lio curr­ently compri­ses 19 medium-sized companies. 

About GRITEC Group

As a leading Euro­pean full-service provi­der for system-rele­vant infra­struc­ture solu­ti­ons, GRITEC has been secu­ring supplies in many areas of infra­struc­ture — such as elec­tri­city, gas, water, rene­wa­ble ener­gies, digi­ta­liza­tion, e‑mobility and indus­try — for over 60 years, making it a driver and enabler of the energy and mobi­lity transition.

About Viess­mann Gene­ra­ti­ons Group

Foun­ded in 1917, the inde­pen­dent family busi­ness Viess­mann is today a global, broadly diver­si­fied group. All acti­vi­ties are based on the corpo­rate mission state­ment “We create living spaces for future gene­ra­ti­ons” — this is the passion and respon­si­bi­lity that drives the members of the large global Viess­mann family every day. In line with this goal, Viess­mann offers compa­nies and co-crea­tors an ecosys­tem that goes beyond the heating indus­try and is commit­ted to the avoid­ance, reduc­tion and storage of CO2. 

 

News

Copen­ha­gen — Verdane, a Euro­pean private equity firm specia­li­zing in growth capi­tal, has announ­ced the successful final closing of the Verdane Idun II fund (“Idun II” or “the Fund”) at a hard cap of EUR 700 million. This is more than double the size of its prede­ces­sor fund with a volume of EUR 300 million. The Fund will invest in compa­nies focu­sed on the struc­tu­ral growth trend of decar­bo­niza­tion. The invest­ment focus of Idun II is on inves­t­ing in ambi­tious growth compa­nies that contri­bute to more sustainable social deve­lo­p­ment. Idun II is a fund clas­si­fied under Article 9 of the EU Finan­cial Infor­ma­tion Regu­la­tion, which will focus on invest­ments in the areas of energy tran­si­tion and resource effi­ci­ency that contri­bute to the decar­bo­niza­tion of the economy. The Idun funds each invest between 20 and 100 million euros in sustainable compa­nies. All Idun II invest­ments are linked to strict sustaina­bi­lity crite­ria in order to make their posi­tive impact on the envi­ron­ment measura­ble. This includes, for exam­ple, the goal of avoi­ding at least 5,000 tons of CO2 for every million euros inves­ted. Verdane has offices in Berlin, Copen­ha­gen, Helsinki, London, Munich, Stock­holm and Oslo. To ensure that Idun II only invests in compa­nies that have the poten­tial to be successful in a sustainable econo­mic envi­ron­ment, Verdane applies its own so-called “2040 test”. Further infor­ma­tion on the test can be found in Verdane’s current Sustaina­bi­lity Report 2023. Verdane successfully closed the Edda III mid-market growth buyout fund at the begin­ning of the year with a hard cap of 1.1 billion euros. This brought Verdane’s assets under manage­ment to over 8 billion euros. The third fund stra­tegy, Freya, which has been successful for more than 20 years, curr­ently invests through the Freya XI fund with a sophisti­ca­ted and broadly diver­si­fied mandate that invests in both company port­fo­lios and indi­vi­dual compa­nies. Verdane is a pioneer in sustainable invest­ments and has supported a total of 42 compa­nies in this area since 2003. The invest­ment company has deve­lo­ped a unique approach to measu­ring CO2 avoid­ance (more infor­ma­tion can be found in the corre­spon­ding white paper on Verdane’s home­page) and carries out a compre­hen­sive sustaina­bi­lity assess­ment for all compa­nies in the Idun port­fo­lio. Current invest­ments in the first Idun fund include NORNORM, a provi­der of inno­va­tive office furni­ture rental models that enable compa­nies to reduce their green­house gas emis­si­ons, and Scan­bio, a leading produ­cer of high-quality fish protein concen­tra­tes and oils that specia­li­zes in the recy­cling of resi­dual products and enables compa­nies to reduce the use of resource-inten­sive raw materials. 

Idun II has capi­tal commit­ments from inves­tors inclu­ding Nysnø Climate Invest­ments, the Norwe­gian state climate invest­ment fund, Banque de Luxem­bourg, the Euro­pean Invest­ment Fund, MN, a provi­der of fidu­ciary services to Dutch pension funds, the Finnish invest­ment company Tesi and Carbon Equity, a provi­der that enables private and profes­sio­nal inves­tors to invest in a diver­si­fied port­fo­lio of the world’s best climate funds. Other inves­tors in Idun II include seve­ral global private and public pension funds, leading univer­sity funds, foun­da­ti­ons, insu­rance compa­nies and family offices. The fund was closed within just five months. Most of the commit­ments for Idun II come from non-profit orga­niza­ti­ons and inves­tors commit­ted to the common good. — Verdane’s inter­na­tio­nal inves­tor base is growing conti­nuously. In total, inves­tors from more than 13 count­ries are parti­ci­pa­ting in Idun II. US inves­tors alone account for 29 percent of the capi­tal commit­ments. Verdane’s thema­tic invest­ment approach focu­ses on leading Euro­pean compa­nies in the fields of digi­ta­liza­tion and decar­bo­niza­tion of the economy. Verdane has consis­t­ently inves­ted in these two growing mega­trends and has backed 16 Euro­pean compa­nies with more than 600 million euros in the last twelve months. Verdane offers growth compa­nies a compre­hen­sive set of tools and in-depth indus­try know­ledge. With a team of more than 150 invest­ment profes­sio­nals and a local presence in the core Euro­pean markets, Verdane has exclu­sive access to the best tech­no­logy compa­nies in the region. In addi­tion, Verdane’s plat­form has a bench­mar­king tool with more than 100 million data points and a unique network of over 600 expe­ri­en­ced execu­ti­ves with exten­sive indus­try exper­tise. Verdane’s port­fo­lio compa­nies are further supported by Elevate, an in-house team of 35 opera­tio­nal experts with exten­sive know­ledge in all areas requi­red to scale growth compa­nies. Frida Einar­son, Part­ner, Inves­tor Rela­ti­ons at Verdane (photo © Verdane), said: “The fact that we have succee­ded in mobi­li­zing private capi­tal at scale in 2024 to build a more sustainable economy is not only good news for our indus­try, but also for our planet. We look forward to welco­ming exis­ting and new inves­tors to Idun II and are confi­dent that we will achieve both high returns and measura­ble and demons­tra­ble posi­tive effects for the climate.” Bjarne Kveim Lie, Foun­der and Mana­ging Part­ner of Verdane, said: “With Idun II, we want to show that it is possi­ble to deli­ver best-in-class returns for inves­tors while making an important contri­bu­tion to the decar­bo­niza­tion of our economy. We are convin­ced that decar­bo­niza­tion is a gene­ra­tio­nal mega­trend and we want to be the growth part­ner of choice for the compa­nies best posi­tio­ned to bene­fit from this trend and help them realize their full poten­tial.” “Our team of specia­lists in the field of decar­bo­niza­tion now compri­ses 13 experts, making it one of the largest in Europe. 

Supported by our 35-strong Elevate team, they bene­fit from the networks and expe­ri­ence of the entire company, which has helped sustainable Euro­pean growth compa­nies to scale over the past two deca­des. This enables us to further deepen our exper­tise in the struc­tu­ral growth trend of decar­bo­niza­tion and to support our port­fo­lio compa­nies in their growth with a local presence in the key markets of Nort­hern Europe. We are very plea­sed with the great confi­dence of our inves­tors and will do our utmost to meet their high expec­ta­ti­ons.” Verdane Idun II was advi­sed by Rede Part­ners, an inde­pen­dent fund­rai­sing advi­sor to the private equity indus­try, and legally by Andulf Advo­kat AB.

About Verdane

Verdane is an invest­ment company specia­li­zing in growth capi­tal that supports compa­nies with sustainable and tech­no­logy-based busi­ness models. Verdane invests as a mino­rity or majo­rity inves­tor in indi­vi­dual compa­nies or company port­fo­lios and focu­ses on two core themes: Digi­ta­liza­tion and decar­bo­niza­tion. Verdane’s funds have capi­tal commit­ments of more than 8 billion euros. Since 2003, the company has inves­ted in over 400 fast-growing compa­nies. Verdane has more than 150 employees, with offices in Berlin, Munich, Copen­ha­gen, Helsinki, London, Oslo and Stock­holm, and is commit­ted to being the best growth capi­tal part­ner in Europe. Verdane has a B‑Corporation certi­fi­ca­tion, which is conside­red the world’s most deman­ding in the area of sustaina­bi­lity. In addi­tion, the invest­ment company only supports compa­nies that pass the 2040 test. This exami­nes whether the company can be successful in a more sustainable econo­mic envi­ron­ment in the future. Verdane is also a share­hol­der in the Verdane Foun­da­tion, which focu­ses on two areas: Climate change and a fairer and inclu­sive society.

News

Miami (USA) — H.I.G. Capi­tal (“ H.I.G. ” or the firm “”), a leading global alter­na­tive asset manage­ment firm with USD 65 billion of capi­tal under manage­ment, announ­ced the closing of H.I.G. Capi­tal Part­ners VII (“ Fund VII ”). Fund VII was signi­fi­cantly over­sub­scri­bed and closed with USD 2 billion of capi­tal commit­ments and conti­nues the firm’s highly successful stra­tegy of reali­zing majo­rity invest­ments in U.S. middle market compa­nies. Since its incep­tion in 1993, H.I.G.’s private equity plat­form has inves­ted in middle market compa­nies with elements of busi­ness, indus­try or tran­sac­tion comple­xity that repre­sent signi­fi­cant oppor­tu­ni­ties for asym­me­tric risk/return. The firm is one of the largest and most active inves­tors in the middle markets and invests in a family of private equity funds focu­sed on the US, Europe and Latin America. Sami Mnaym­neh and Tony Tamer, H.I.G. Co-Foun­ders and Co-Execu­tive Chair­men commen­ted: “We have been disci­pli­ned in main­tai­ning our middle market focus and are extre­mely proud of the consis­tent results we have achie­ved for our inves­tors. Fund VII is well posi­tio­ned to deli­ver the same strong perfor­mance as its prede­ces­sor funds, driven by our scale, opera­tio­nal capa­bi­li­ties and value crea­tion play­book. ” Ricky Stokes, Mana­ging Direc­tor and Head of H.I.G. Capi­tal Part­ners USA, said, “Our dedi­ca­ted team of 68 profes­sio­nals is capi­ta­li­zing on oppor­tu­ni­ties in today’s macroe­co­no­mic envi­ron­ment. The current market vola­ti­lity plays to H.I.G.’s strengths in mana­ging complex dyna­mics through market cycles. Our scale and opera­tio­nal exper­tise give our team an advan­tage in captu­ring oppor­tu­ni­ties. Fund VII’s pipe­line is stron­ger than ever.” Jordan Peer Grif­fin, Execu­tive Mana­ging Direc­tor and Global Head of Capi­tal Forma­tion, commen­ted, “Fund VII was signi­fi­cantly over­sub­scri­bed by HIG’s exis­ting base of inves­tors who have long been support­ers of the firm and share our commit­ment to the Middle Market. Their support has exten­ded beyond Fund VII as inves­tors actively seek oppor­tu­ni­ties in the more attrac­tive middle market for private alter­na­ti­ves. We are grateful for the conti­nua­tion of our part­ner­ship that enab­led the closing of four H.I.G. funds in 2024, inclu­ding Fund VII, as well as H.I.G. Advan­tage Buyout Fund II, H.I.G. Europe Realty Part­ners III and H.I.G. Infra­struc­ture Part­ners I.” Fund VII was stron­gly supported by a diverse group of limi­ted part­ners, inclu­ding sove­reign wealth funds, public and corpo­rate pensi­ons, insu­rance and finan­cial insti­tu­ti­ons, endow­ments, foun­da­ti­ons, family offices and consul­tants in North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

About H.I.G.

H.I.G. Capi­tal is one of the world’s leading alter­na­tive invest­ment firms with $65 billion of capi­tal under manage­ment.* Head­quar­te­red in Miami with offices in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Ange­les, New York and San Fran­cisco in the U.S. and inter­na­tio­nal offices in Hamburg, London, Luxem­bourg, Madrid, Milan, Paris, Bogotá, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Dubai and Hong Kong, H.I.G. specia­li­zes in provi­ding both debt and equity capi­tal to middle-market compa­nies with a flexi­ble, value-added approach focu­sed on opera­ti­ons: — H.I.G.’s equity funds invest in manage­ment buy-outs, reca­pi­ta­liza­ti­ons and corpo­rate carve-outs of both profi­ta­ble and under­per­forming manu­fac­tu­ring and service compa­nies. — H.I.G.’s debt funds invest in senior, unitran­che and subor­di­na­ted debt finan­cing for compa­nies of all sizes, both on a primary (direct) basis and in the secon­dary markets. H.I.G. also mana­ges a publicly traded BDC, White­Horse Finance.
— H.I.G.’s real estate funds invest in value-add real estate that can bene­fit from impro­ved asset manage­ment practices.
— H.I.G. Infra­struc­ture focu­ses on value-add and core-plus invest­ments in the infra­struc­ture sector.
Since its incep­tion in 1993, H.I.G. has inves­ted in and mana­ged more than 400 compa­nies world­wide. The firm’s current port­fo­lio compri­ses more than 100 compa­nies with a total turno­ver of over USD 53 billion. www.hig.com.

News

Vienna (ÖS)/ Munich — The Linz-based steel and proces­sing group Voest­al­pine has sold its strugg­ling German subsi­diary Bude­rus Edel­stahl to the Munich-based finan­cial inves­tor Muta­res. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the purchase price. Muta­res specia­li­zes in restruc­tu­ring cases. The sale is subject to appr­oval by the compe­ti­tion autho­ri­ties. — The tran­sac­tion is expec­ted to be comple­ted by the end of the 4th calen­dar quar­ter of 2024. Foun­ded in 1731, Bude­rus Edel­stahl GmbH (“Bude­rus”) is a manu­fac­tu­rer of high-quality special steels with a focus on tool steel, engi­nee­ring steel, open-die forgings, closed-die forgings, hot-rolled strip, cold-rolled strip and semi-finis­hed rolled products, which it supplies to a wide range of custo­mers world­wide. Bude­rus is a market leader in the tool steel and engi­nee­ring steel segments and is known for its high-quality products. The company’s diver­si­fied custo­mer port­fo­lio with around 350 active custo­mers is spread across various sectors and end markets, such as light vehic­les, mecha­ni­cal engi­nee­ring, the truck indus­try and wind power. With around 1,100 employees, the company gene­ra­ted sales of around EUR 360 million in the 2023/2024 finan­cial year. Bude­rus has a highly indus­tria­li­zed produc­tion site in Wetz­lar with a maxi­mum annual proces­sing capa­city of around 360 kilo­tons. The company curr­ently employs 1,130 people. 

Johan­nes Laumann, CIO of Muta­res (photo © Muta­res), commen­ted: “With the acqui­si­tion of Bude­rus Edel­stahl, we are further streng­thening our Engi­nee­ring & Tech­no­logy segment in the area of steel compon­ents and secu­ring our own steel base. Thanks to our exis­ting product range and broad custo­mer struc­ture, Bude­rus Edel­stahl will also bene­fit in the future, redu­cing its depen­dence on indi­vi­dual market risks and thus posi­tio­ning itself more broadly for future growth within the Muta­res Group. In line with the current situa­tion at Bude­rus Edel­stahl, we will nego­tiate an appro­priate redun­dancy plan with the employee repre­sen­ta­ti­ves in the event of a possi­ble need to reduce the number of employees affec­ted. In order to opti­mize manu­fac­tu­ring proces­ses and further stream­line the cost struc­ture, we look forward to lever­aging the exper­tise of our in-house consul­tants in opti­mi­zing manu­fac­tu­ring proces­ses by imple­men­ting best prac­ti­ces from our port­fo­lio compa­nies.” Bude­rus Edel­stahl is Muta­res’ four­te­enth acqui­si­tion in 2024. Listed voest­al­pine AG is a leading global steel and tech­no­logy group with combi­ned mate­ri­als and proces­sing exper­tise. The globally active group of compa­nies compri­ses around 500 Group compa­nies and sites with 51,600 employees in more than 50 count­ries. In the finan­cial year 2023/24, the Group gene­ra­ted reve­nue of EUR 16.7 billion. 

Advi­sor to voest­al­pine AG: Gleiss Lutz 

Led by Dr. Alex­an­der Schwarz (Part­ner, Düssel­dorf) and Dr. Moritz Alex­an­der Riese­ner (Part­ner, both M&A, Munich). Dr. Ralf Mors­häu­ser (Part­ner, Munich), Kai Zimutta, Dr. Fabian Mumme, Dr. Phil­ipp Lucks, Thomas Felix Bald­zuhn (all Düssel­dorf), Dr. Tobias Falk­ner (Coun­sel), Jan Neumayer (all M&A, both Munich), Dr. Thomas Winzer (Part­ner), Dr. Tobias Abend (Coun­sel), Henrike West­phal (all Employ­ment, all Frank­furt), Dr. Gabriele Roßkopf (Part­ner), Dr. Silke Hoff­mann, Dr. Sima Samari (all Corpo­rate, all Stutt­gart), Dr. Jacob von Andreae (Part­ner), Dr. Lars Kind­ler (Coun­sel), Matthias Hahn, Dr. Nena Huse­mann (all Public Law, all Düssel­dorf), Dr. Matthias Werner (Part­ner), Dr. Feli­zi­tas Casper, Dr. Sebas­tian Girschick (all Munich), Dr. Chris­to­pher Noll (all IP/Tech, Stutt­gart), Dr. Tim Weber (Part­ner), Maxi­mi­lian Leisen­hei­mer, Michael Clever, (all Real Estate, all Frank­furt), Dr. Jenni­fer Hattaß (Anti­trust, Stutt­gart), Fried­rich Schlott (Coun­sel, Restruc­tu­ring, Düssel­dorf), Dr. Ocka Stumm (Part­ner, Frank­furt), Dr. Hanna Datzer (Düssel­dorf, both Tax). In-house, a voest­al­pine legal team led by Dr. Sabine Kelmayr-Tippow (Head of Legal, M&A and Compli­ance, voest­al­pine High Perfor­mance Metals) with the signi­fi­cant parti­ci­pa­tion of Chris­toph Hauser, Tamara Tomic and Victo­ria Raneg­ger assis­ted with the
transaction.

About Mutare

Muta­res is an inter­na­tio­nal private equity inves­tor focu­sed on special situa­tions. Muta­res concen­tra­tes on the acqui­si­tion of parts of large corpo­ra­ti­ons (carve-outs) and compa­nies in situa­tions of tran­si­tion. The aim is to leverage the deve­lo­p­ment poten­tial of the gene­rally low-earning target compa­nies as part of an active turn­around process and to lead them on a stable and profi­ta­ble growth path. To this end, the Muta­res team — from manage­ment to opera­tio­nal teams — has exten­sive opera­tio­nal indus­try and restruc­tu­ring expe­ri­ence from a large number of successful tran­sac­tions. Muta­res focu­ses on compa­nies with high deve­lo­p­ment poten­tial that alre­ady have an estab­lished busi­ness model — often combi­ned with a strong brand. The focus is on compa­nies with reve­nues of EUR 100 million to EUR 750 million. https://mutares.com

News

Heidelberg/ Munich — pare­tos, an AI (arti­fi­cial intelligence)-based decis­ion intel­li­gence startup from Heidel­berg, has secu­red 8.5 million euros in a Series A finan­cing round. The round is led by Acton Capi­tal, known for its invest­ments in compa­nies such as Etsy, Cyber­port and Home­ToGo. The exis­ting inves­tors UVC Part­ners and LEA Part­ners are also parti­ci­pa­ting. In addi­tion, well-known funds and angels such as Inter­face Capi­tal, led by Niklas Jansen (Blin­kist) and Chris­tian Reber (Wunder­list, Pitch), as well as the former Voda­fone CEO Hannes Amets­rei­ter are also provi­ding support. 

With the fresh capi­tal, pare­tos foun­ders Thors­ten Heilig and Fabian Rangplan to acce­le­rate growth: “Our plat­form usually deli­vers an ROI of over 100% in the first year and gene­ra­tes busi­ness impact in the milli­ons. With the support of our inves­tors, we want to further expand our tech­no­lo­gi­cal lead,” says Thors­ten Heilig, Co-Foun­der and CEO of pare­tos. “Many compa­nies in Germany and Europe are curr­ently under pres­sure. We provide them with a tool to over­come the pres­sing chal­lenges — from chan­ging custo­mer requi­re­ments and complex supply chains to cost and effi­ci­ency pres­su­res.” The global market for decis­ion intel­li­gence is expec­ted to grow by 25% annu­ally until 2030 and quadru­ple to 50 billion euros (source: Marketsand­Mar­kets). Decis­ion intel­li­gence descri­bes the use of AI to support, opti­mize or even auto­mate complex decis­i­ons based on data. In addi­tion to fore­casts, the aim is to derive recom­men­da­ti­ons for action and measu­res — espe­ci­ally in dyna­mic plan­ning and opera­ti­ons proces­ses. This is why many experts see this tech­no­logy as simi­larly rele­vant to gene­ra­tive AI. “With its paten­ted and highly inno­va­tive tech­no­logy and strong appli­ca­tion focus, pare­tos has the best chance of taking on an inter­na­tio­nal pionee­ring role,” says Andreas Unseld, Gene­ral Part­ner at UVC Part­ners. And Nils Seele, Part­ner at LEA Part­ners, adds: “Now that AI has been concep­tua­li­zed, it’s time for the trans­for­ma­tion. Anyone looking for ROIs in AI appli­ca­ti­ons will find them at pare­tos.” The inter­na­tio­nal market rese­arch insti­tute Gart­ner has singled out pare­tos as one of nine repre­sen­ta­tive Euro­pean decis­ion intel­li­gence provi­ders (out of 30 world­wide). The AI-based plat­form from pare­tos is alre­ady support­ing market leaders such as HelloFresh, the Otto Group, Faller Pack­a­ging, ARMEDANGELS and EDEKA with decis­ion-making in busi­ness-criti­cal proces­ses. About pare­tos

pare­tos is the leading AI-based decis­ion intel­li­gence plat­form for data-driven decis­ion-making proces­ses. It enables compa­nies to quickly and relia­bly analyze complex data, gene­rate opti­mi­zed fore­casts and decis­ion propo­sals and derive measu­res — thanks to a clear no-code user inter­face and simple inte­gra­tion solu­ti­ons, even without any previous data science know­ledge. pare­tos was foun­ded in mid-2020 by Fabian Rang (CTO; machine lear­ning and mathe­ma­tics expert) and Thors­ten Heilig (CEO; digi­tal entre­pre­neur, former COO moovel / REACH NOW). The vision: Anyone can make good decis­i­ons at any time. Using the latest deep lear­ning and machine lear­ning methods, the Heidel­berg-based start-up helps compa­nies to make the most of their busi­ness poten­tial. https://paretos.com About UVC Partners

UVC Part­ners is an early-stage venture capi­tal firm based in Munich and Berlin that invests in Euro­pean B2B start-ups in the fields of enter­prise soft­ware, arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence, deep tech, climate tech and mobi­lity. With more than €600 million in assets under manage­ment, the fund typi­cally invests between €1 million and €10 million initi­ally and up to €30 million in total per company. 

UVC Part­ners’ invest­ments include Flix, Isar Aero­space, planqc, Proxima Fusion, Reverion, Tacto, TWAICE, Deep­Drive and STABL. The port­fo­lio compa­nies bene­fit from the team’s exten­sive invest­ment and exit expe­ri­ence as well as from the close colla­bo­ra­tion with Unter­neh­mer­TUM, Europe’s leading center for inno­va­tion and entre­pre­neur­ship, in parti­cu­lar to acce­le­rate market entry. www.uvcpartners.com

About Acton Capital

Acton Capi­tal is an inter­na­tio­nal venture capi­tal firm based in Munich and Vancou­ver. Since 1999, the team has been inves­t­ing in tech­no­logy-based busi­ness models from Europe and North America. With more than two deca­des of expe­ri­ence and a deep under­stan­ding of digi­tal trans­for­ma­tion, Acton­Ca­pi­tal has helped over 100 start­ups build successful busi­nesses, inclu­ding global market leaders such as Alpha­Sights, Clio, Home­ToGo and Mambu. www.actoncapital.com.

About LEA Partners

LEA Part­ners supports foun­ders and manage­ment teams of B2B tech compa­nies at various stages of deve­lo­p­ment as an entre­pre­neu­rial equity part­ner and helps them to grow and achieve a leading market posi­tion. In addi­tion to deep-tech invest­ments such as Aleph Alpha or SmartS­teel Tech­no­lo­gies, market leaders such as sevDesk and Flip are also part of the LEAVC port­fo­lio. www.leapartners.de.

 

News

Munich/ Batten­berg (Eder) — Viess­mann Gene­ra­ti­ons Group (“Viess­mann”), a leading family-owned company with a 107-year history, and the invest­ment holding Armira have acqui­red a signi­fi­cant mino­rity stake in the Euro­pean phar­maceu­ti­cal deve­lo­per and manu­fac­tu­rer PharOS as part of a consor­tium. The invest­ment under­lines Viessmann’s stra­te­gic focus on long-term value crea­tion in indus­tries that are criti­cal to the well-being of future gene­ra­ti­ons. PharOS ensu­res access to high-quality and afforda­ble health­care in Europe. The Viess­mann holding company now holds around 27 percent of the shares in the gene­rics manu­fac­tu­rer, with Armira holding a further 13 percent. PharOS is a leading phar­maceu­ti­cal company that deve­lops, produ­ces and supplies gene­rics, over-the-coun­ter medi­ci­nes and value-added medi­ci­nes. The company, based in Meta­mor­fosi near Athens, specia­li­zes in parti­cu­lar in diffi­cult-to-produce gene­rics in criti­cal treat­ment areas. These include onco­logy and drugs for neuro­lo­gi­cal and cardio­me­ta­bo­lic dise­a­ses. With Euro­pean produc­tion capa­ci­ties and stable supply chains, PharOS is a stra­te­gic part­ner for leading phar­maceu­ti­cal compa­nies. The company has a global port­fo­lio of over 100 products and more than 9,200 marke­ting autho­riza­ti­ons. Drug shorta­ges are reaching histo­ric highs in the US, Europe and other markets due to a heavy reli­ance on phar­maceu­ti­cal products manu­fac­tu­red in Asia. This depen­dence leads to fragile supply chains, which are further strai­ned by geopo­li­ti­cal tensi­ons and regu­la­tory chal­lenges. Local produc­tion is ther­e­fore of crucial stra­te­gic importance for Europe. Max Viess­mann, CEO of Viess­mann: “Our entre­pre­neu­rial acti­vi­ties are aimed at stra­te­gi­cally promo­ting essen­tial areas that are crucial for the well-being of future gene­ra­ti­ons. Gene­rics are the foun­da­tion of afforda­ble global health­care. With our invest­ment in PharOS, we want to contri­bute to a stable, inde­pen­dent and resi­li­ent Euro­pean supply of afforda­ble and effec­tive thera­pies for life-threa­tening diseases.” 


Theo­dore Panag­o­pou­los, Part­ner at PharOS: “We are deligh­ted to have Viess­mann and Armira as new part­ners. Their long-term commit­ment to high-quality, afforda­ble and effec­tive health­care solu­ti­ons fits perfectly with our own mission. Toge­ther, we are ideally posi­tio­ned to further improve health­care world­wide.” PharOS is extre­mely well posi­tio­ned to play a leading role in the multi-billion dollar market for oral solid gene­rics, over-the-coun­ter medi­ci­nes and value-added medi­ci­nes. With a strong focus on inno­va­tion and rese­arch, the company offers an end-to-end solu­tion for complex products — from patent rese­arch to dossier deve­lo­p­ment, appr­oval and produc­tion. In this way, PharOS crea­tes added value for its custo­mers by proac­tively contri­bu­ting to the further deve­lo­p­ment of their product pipe­line. PharOS employs around 400 people and is led by an expe­ri­en­ced and dedi­ca­ted foun­ding team, which remains the majo­rity shareholder.

About Viess­mann Gene­ra­ti­ons Group

Foun­ded in 1917, the inde­pen­dent family-owned company Viess­mann is now a global, broadly diver­si­fied group. All acti­vi­ties are based on the corpo­rate mission state­ment “We create living spaces for future gene­ra­ti­ons” — this is the passion and respon­si­bi­lity that drives the members of the large global Viess­mann family every day. In line with this goal, Viess­mann offers compa­nies and co-crea­tors an ecosys­tem that is commit­ted to avoi­ding, redu­cing and storing CO2 beyond the heating industry.

About Armira

Armira is a leading Munich-based invest­ment holding company focu­sed on direct invest­ments in mid-sized, profi­ta­ble family busi­nesses and high-growth compa­nies in the DACH region, Nort­hern Italy and beyond. Armira is backed by an exclu­sive circle of inves­tors consis­ting of fami­lies, entre­pre­neurs and entre­pre­neu­rial capi­tal to foster trus­ted part­ner­ships with a long-term focus. 

About PharOS

PharOS is a phar­maceu­ti­cal company specia­li­zing in the deve­lo­p­ment, manu­fac­ture and supply of gene­rics and value-added medi­ci­nes. With a global port­fo­lio of over 100 products and more than 9,200 marke­ting autho­riza­ti­ons world­wide, PharOS is an important part­ner for the leading phar­maceu­ti­cal companies. 

Advi­sor Armira: YPOG 

Dr. Stephan Bank (Co-Lead, Corporate/Structuring), Part­ner, Berlin Dr. Helder Schnitt­ker (Co-Lead, Tax/Structuring), Part­ner, Berlin Jens Kretz­schmann (Tax/Structuring), Part­ner, Berlin/Hamburg Lenn­art Lorenz (Regu­la­tory), Part­ner, Hamburg.

About YPOG

YPOG is a law firm specia­li­zing in tax and commer­cial law, active in the core areas of funds, tax, banking + finance and tran­sac­tions. The YPOG team advi­ses a wide variety of clients. These include emer­ging tech­no­logy compa­nies and family-run medium-sized enter­pri­ses as well as corpo­ra­ti­ons and private equity/venture capi­tal funds. YPOG is one of the leading addres­ses for venture capi­tal, private equity and fund struc­tu­ring in Germany. Today, YPOG employs more than 150 expe­ri­en­ced lawy­ers, tax consul­tants, tax specia­lists and a notary in four offices in Berlin, Hamburg, Colo­gne and Munich. www.ypog.law

News

Berlin — YPOG has advi­sed global arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence (AI) company Aigno­stics on its recent $34 million Series B funding round. The round was led by ATHOS, with invest­ments from Mayo Clinic and growth funding from HTGF. Aigno­stics also recei­ved support from exis­ting inves­tors inclu­ding Welling­ton Part­ners, Boeh­rin­ger Ingel­heim Venture Fund, CARMA Fund and the VC Fund Tech­no­logy mana­ged by IBB Ventures. To date, Aigno­stics has raised over $55 million, demons­t­ra­ting inves­tor confi­dence in the company’s unique AI models and well-defi­ned commer­cial stra­tegy. Aigno­stics was foun­ded in 2018 and emer­ged in 2020 as a spin-off from Charité and the Berlin Insti­tute of Health. The AI company trans­forms complex multi­mo­dal patho­lo­gi­cal data into valuable insights. Follo­wing the closing of the latest funding round, Aigno­stics plans to deve­lop new product offe­rings for biophar­maceu­ti­cal custo­mers, drive growth in the US and deve­lop advan­ced basic models for patho­logy in colla­bo­ra­tion with the Mayo Clinic. The new funding will streng­then Aigno­stics’ capa­bi­li­ties in target funding, trans­la­tio­nal rese­arch and compa­n­ion diagno­stics (CDx) and support various stra­te­gic initia­ti­ves. “2024 was a pivo­tal year for us, which included an important stra­te­gic colla­bo­ra­tion with Bayer and the launch of our first basic model, RudolfV,” said Viktor Matyas, CEO and co-foun­der of Aigno­stics. “With Rudolf, we have gained the ability to rapidly deve­lop cost-effec­tive algo­rithms that can be trans­fer­red to the real world. With this new round of funding, we are turning our most popu­lar algo­rithms into products that will help usher in an era of truly gene­ra­lizable AI for compu­ta­tio­nal patho­logy.” About Aigno­stics

Aigno­stics is an arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence (AI) company that turns complex multi­mo­dal patho­logy data into trans­for­ma­tive insights. By combi­ning proprie­tary access to multi­mo­da­lity clini­cal data, indus­try-leading tech­no­lo­gies and rigo­rous science, Aigno­stics deve­lops world-class products and services for the next gene­ra­tion of precis­ion medi­cine. Through colla­bo­ra­tion with its biopharma part­ners, Aigno­stics supports drug disco­very, trans­la­tio­nal rese­arch, clini­cal trials and CDx deve­lo­p­ment. Foun­ded in 2018, Aigno­stics is a spin-off of Charité Berlin, one of the largest and most renow­ned univer­sity hospi­tals in the world. Aigno­stics is funded by leading inves­tors and has offices in Berlin and New York. www.aignostics.com.

Advi­sor Aigno­stics: YPOG

Dr. Martin Scha­per (Lead, Corporate/Transactions), Part­ner, Berlin Dr. Jonas von Kalben (Tran­sac­tions), Senior Asso­ciate, Berlin, Anja Schind­ler (Tran­sac­tions), Senior Asso­ciate, Berlin, Bene­dikt Kreu­der (Tran­sac­tions), Senior Asso­ciate, Berlin, Dr. Jacob Schrei­ber (Tran­sac­tions), Senior Asso­ciate, Munich About YPOG
YPOG is a specia­list law firm for tax and commer­cial law, active in the core areas of funds, tax, banking + finance and tran­sac­tions. The YPOG team advi­ses a wide variety of clients.

These include emer­ging tech­no­logy compa­nies and family-run medium-sized enter­pri­ses as well as corpo­ra­ti­ons and private equity/venture capi­tal funds. YPOG is one of the leading addres­ses for venture capi­tal, private equity and fund struc­tu­ring in Germany. Today, YPOG employs more than 150 expe­ri­en­ced lawy­ers, tax consul­tants, tax specia­lists and a notary in four offices in Berlin, Hamburg, Colo­gne and Munich. www.ypog.de

News

Munich — LOGEX Health­care Analy­tics has acqui­red InMed Gmbh, Ange­wandte Infor­ma­tik für medi­zi­ni­sches Control­ling based in Hamburg and its sister company in Switz­er­land. The commer­cial law firm Gütt Olk Feld­haus advi­sed LOGEX Health­care Analy­tics on these tran­sac­tions. LOGEX is a Euro­pean market leader in the field of health­care data analy­tics with head­quar­ters in Amster­dam. LOGEX offers its data-based SAAS solu­ti­ons and analy­tics prima­rily to hospi­tals in the areas of finan­cial analy­tics, opera­ting room perfor­mance assess­ment, pati­ent enga­ge­ment and real-world data. INMED is a leading company in Germany and Switz­er­land specia­li­zing in the opti­miza­tion of clini­cal manage­ment. INMED uses its SMART­lize! plat­form to provide hospi­tal manage­ment with stra­te­gic insights to improve clini­cal perfor­mance through medi­cal control­ling, stra­te­gic plan­ning and market posi­tion analy­sis. The insights are supported and linked by a compre­hen­sive bench­mark platform. 

Legal advi­sors LOGEX: 

Gütt Olk Feld­haus, Munich
Adrian von Prit­t­witz, LL.M. (LSE) (Photo, Part­ner, Corporate/M&A, Lead), Sophie Stef­fen (Asso­ciate, Corporate/M&A), Thomas Becker, LL.M. Eur. (Of Coun­sel, IP/IT/Data Protec­tion) Pusch Wahlig Work­place Law, Munich: Ingo Sappa (Part­ner), Anne Broll (Coun­sel; both Employ­ment Law)

Kind & Drews, Düssel­dorf: Dr. Ernesto Drews (Part­ner, Tax Law)

Adves­tra, Zurich: Dr. Alex­an­der von Jein­sen (Part­ner), Anna Capaul, Beau Visser (both Asso­cia­tes; all Corporate/M&A) About Gütt Olk Feld­haus:
Gütt Olk Feld­haus is a leading inter­na­tio­nal law firm based in Munich.

We provide compre­hen­sive advice on commer­cial and corpo­rate law. Our focus is on corpo­rate law, M&A, private equity and finan­cing. In these specia­list areas we also take on the litigation.

News

Frankfurt/ Bamberg — Rivean Capi­tal, a leading Euro­pean private equity firm, has acqui­red a majo­rity stake in Perbi­lity Holding GmbH, a leading provi­der of cloud-based human capi­tal manage­ment (HCM) soft­ware in Germany. The tran­sac­tion marks another signi­fi­cant plat­form invest­ment by Rivean Capi­tal in the tech­no­logy and soft­ware sector. Toge­ther with Perbility’s manage­ment team, Rivean Capi­tal will acquire the shares from the previous majo­rity share­hol­der Main Capi­tal Partners. 

Perbi­lity offers a compre­hen­sive range of HCM solu­ti­ons that cover the entire employee life­cy­cle from talent acqui­si­tion to talent manage­ment and orga­niza­tio­nal plan­ning. The company will achieve a turno­ver of EUR 29 million this year and also exceed the “Rule of 50”. Its more than 1,500 custo­mers include well-known compa­nies and orga­niza­ti­ons from the (semi-)public sector, inclu­ding nume­rous Volks­ban­ken and Raiff­ei­sen­ban­ken, savings banks, cities, public autho­ri­ties, foun­da­ti­ons and compa­nies from the B2B sector. Head­quar­te­red in Bamberg, Perbi­lity employs around 160 full-time staff in six offices in Germany and a near­sho­ring center in Turkey. 

“Toge­ther with Main Capi­tal Part­ners, Perbi­lity has demons­tra­ted an impres­sive growth trajec­tory, supported by stra­te­gic initia­ti­ves and a track record of M&A success. As the next stra­te­gic part­ner, Rivean Capi­tal will support Perbi­lity with exper­tise and further invest­ments to conti­nue its clear growth stra­tegy. Toge­ther we will streng­then Perbility’s market posi­tion in the German-spea­king region and expand its service offe­ring through further stra­te­gic add-on acqui­si­ti­ons,” says Matthias Wilcken, Senior Part­ner at Rivean Capital.

Andreas Meck, CEO of Perbi­lity, will remain in his role and signi­fi­cantly reinvest in the company. In addi­tion, the expan­ded manage­ment team will parti­ci­pate in the future deve­lo­p­ment of Perbility. 

“We are deligh­ted to have a strong and expe­ri­en­ced part­ner like Rivean Capi­tal at our side, who will support us with capi­tal and stra­te­gic exper­tise to achieve our growth targets. With this part­ner­ship, we are ideally posi­tio­ned to further expand our market posi­tion and acquire new custo­mers,” says Andreas Meck, CEO of Perbi­lity.

Growth and further expan­sion planned

The part­ner­ship with Rivean Capi­tal will enable Perbi­lity to further expand the HELIX plat­form and offer new modu­les and features to its exis­ting custo­mer base. Under Rivean Capital’s owner­ship, Perbi­lity plans to streng­then its orga­niza­tio­nal capa­bi­li­ties and further expand its sales team, which will enable the company to extend its reach in the (semi-)public and B2B markets and drive geogra­phic expan­sion in the DACH region — also through addi­tio­nal stra­te­gic add-on acquisitions. 

About Rivean Capital

Rivean Capi­tal is a leading Euro­pean private equity inves­tor specia­li­zing in mid-market tran­sac­tions in the German-spea­king region, the Bene­lux count­ries and Italy. The funds advi­sed by Rivean Capi­tal manage assets of over 5 billion euros. Since its foun­da­tion in 1982, Rivean Capi­tal has helped more than 250 compa­nies realize their growth ambi­ti­ons. The firm has an impres­sive track record of support­ing and scaling successful high-tech compa­nies with cross-border growth plans, inclu­ding expan­ding their market presence and opti­mi­zing opera­tio­nal excel­lence. Rivean Capi­tal is head­quar­te­red in Amster­dam and opera­tes addi­tio­nal offices in Brussels, Frank­furt am Main, Milan and Zug, provi­ding a strong local presence in key Euro­pean markets. 

About Main Capi­tal Partners

Main Capi­tal Part­ners is a leading soft­ware inves­tor in the Bene­lux, DACH, Nordics and the United States with appro­xi­m­ately €6 billion in assets under manage­ment. Main has more than 20 years of expe­ri­ence in streng­thening soft­ware compa­nies and works closely with the manage­ment teams in its port­fo­lio as a stra­te­gic part­ner to achieve profi­ta­ble growth and larger outstan­ding soft­ware groups. Main employs 75 people in its offices in The Hague, Düssel­dorf, Stock­holm, Antwerp and a branch in Boston. 

News

Munich — Verdane, an invest­ment company specia­li­zing in growth capi­tal, is acqui­ring a majo­rity stake in the soft­ware company Crops­ter. Verdane will support Crops­ter on its further growth path. Crops­ter offers soft­ware solu­ti­ons for use throug­hout the coffee value chain, from produ­cers, buyers and roas­ters to whole­sa­lers and retail­ers. Since the company was foun­ded in 2008, Crops­ter has steadily expan­ded its global presence and now works with leading coffee compa­nies in over 100 count­ries. Verdane’s funds have capi­tal commit­ments of more than 7.7 billion euros. Since 2003, the company with offices in Berlin, Munich, Copen­ha­gen, Helsinki, London, Oslo and Stock­holm has inves­ted in over 400 fast-growing compa­nies. The invest­ment in Crops­ter is the eleventh in the DACH region in the last 12 months and the fourth tran­sac­tion in Austria. Advi­sor Verdane: McDer­mott Will & Emery Hanno M. Witt, LL.M., Foto (Private Equity, Munich, lead), John Zukin (Private Equity, Chicago), Dr. Florian Schie­fer, Marcus Fischer (Coun­sel; both Tax, Frank­furt), Raminta Deres­ke­vici­ute (Inter­na­tio­nal Trade, London), Nico­lette Kost De Sèvres (Regu­la­tory, Paris/Washington, DC), Amy C. Pimen­tel (Data Protec­tion, Boston), Dr. Felix Ganzer (Private Equity, Frank­furt); Asso­cia­tes: Nicole Kaps, Marion Dalvai-König (both Private Equity, Munich), Elea­nor B. Atkins (IP, Washing­ton, DC), Michal Chaj­du­kow­ski (Inter­na­tio­nal Trade, London), Erin Kansy (Tran­sac­tional, Los Ange­les), Stavroula Niko­lai­dou (Regu­la­tory, Paris), Riley O’Far­rell (Tran­sac­tional, Chicago), Melis Solak­sub­asi (Employ­ment, Chicago). 

About McDer­mott Will & Emery

McDer­mott Will & Emery is a leading inter­na­tio­nal law firm with more than 1,400 lawy­ers in more than 20 offices in Europe, North America and Asia. Our lawy­ers cover the entire spec­trum of commer­cial and corpo­rate law with their advice. The German prac­tice is mana­ged by McDer­mott Will & Emery Rechts­an­wälte Steu­er­be­ra­ter LLP. https://www.mwe.com/de/

 

 

News

Paris — Sofyne Active Tech­no­logy and AG Solu­tion Group have joined forces with the support of Euro­pean private equity firm Water­land Private Equity. This stra­te­gic part­ner­ship between the two compa­nies specia­li­zing in the digi­tal trans­for­ma­tion of indus­try will enable the crea­tion of a leading Euro­pean IT service provi­der (ESN) to support its indus­trial custo­mers in their Indus­try 4.0 chal­lenges. Sofyne Active Tech­no­logy was foun­ded in 2005 in Lyon by Stéphane Lusoli and today has exten­sive know­ledge in the inte­gra­tion of MES/MOM/PLM soft­ware. This exper­tise enables the company to support inter­na­tio­nal indus­trial groups in the luxury, auto­mo­tive and energy sectors in their digi­tal trans­for­ma­tion to Indus­try 4.0. Sofyne Active Tech­no­logy is present in six Euro­pean count­ries (France, Switz­er­land, United King­dom, Portu­gal, Sweden, Poland) and is now the largest service provi­der for Dassault Systè­mes’ DELMIA APRISO soft­ware in Europe in terms of the number of consul­tants. The company has expe­ri­en­ced strong growth in recent years. AG Solu­tion was foun­ded in Antwerp in 2007 by Eric Billi­ard and Guy D’haese and brings its exper­tise in auto­ma­tion systems, process control, data manage­ment, opera­tio­nal intel­li­gence, MES/MOM solu­ti­ons, arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence, IT infra­struc­tures and OT secu­rity to indus­tries such as phar­maceu­ti­cals, chemi­cals, food and beverage and waste-to-energy. The company has 13 loca­ti­ons, eleven of which are in Europe (Belgium, Spain, France, the Nether­lands, Germany, Ukraine, Portu­gal) and two in the USA (New York, Hous­ton). As part of this Euro­pean part­ner­ship, the two compa­nies, opera­ting toge­ther under the name SAPHIR, are reaf­fir­ming their goal of beco­ming a leader in Indus­try 4.0 by 2030. The newly foun­ded group intends to acce­le­rate its inter­na­tio­nal expan­sion and also grow inor­ga­ni­cally. “Six months after Waterland’s entry, we have reached an important first mile­stone in our ambi­tion to become a Euro­pean market leader in the digi­tal trans­for­ma­tion of indus­try. Toge­ther, Sofyne Active Tech­no­logy and AG Solu­tion have a powerful team of over 400 engi­neers and consul­tants. By provi­ding our custo­mers with high-quality know­ledge, advice and services, toge­ther we will meet the incre­asingly complex requi­re­ments of Indus­try 4.0,” explains Stéphane Lusoli, CEO of Sofyne Active Tech­no­logy. “Follo­wing the success of our manage­ment buy-out two years ago, this colla­bo­ra­tion with Sofyne Active Tech­no­logy is a decisive step towards reali­zing our Vision 2030 and will enable us to offer our indus­trial custo­mers an even broa­der range of value-adding services in the MOM sector. We will also add auto­ma­tion, opera­tio­nal intel­li­gence and MES/MOM for cyber­se­cu­rity solu­ti­ons to Sofyne Active Technology’s offe­ring,” says Eric Billi­ard, CEO of AG Solu­tion.

“We are convin­ced of the stra­te­gic importance of this part­ner­ship. That is why we are commit­ted to support­ing Sofyne Active Tech­no­logy and AG Solu­tion throug­hout this trans­for­ma­tive project. This merger will bring real added value to both compa­nies’ clients, new service offe­rings and grea­ter exper­tise to meet the chal­lenges of digi­tal trans­for­ma­tion,” commen­ted Louis Huetz, Part­ner, and Pierre Naftal­ski, Invest­ment Direc­tor at Water­land.

Consul­tant Waterland/SAPHIR:

Legal advice: Argo (Henri Nelen, Thomas Van Hoor­nyck, Lena Pepa), AVA Law (Nico­las Valluet, Emeline Pilon), McDer­mott & Emery (Herschel Guez, Julien-Pierre Tannoury, Grégo­ire Andrieux), Mayer Brown (Patrick Teboul, Marion Minard, Antoine Buis­son), Levine Keszler (Serge Levine, Rebecca Zbili), Chevez, Ewin Coe (Alex­andre Terrasse) Finan­cing advice: Eight­Ad­vi­sory (Pieter Wygaerts, Gijs Kriger) Finan­cial due dili­gence: Eight­Ad­vi­sory (Chris­tian Van Craey­velt, Bram de Roo) Commer­cial due dili­gence: Roland Berger (Marie Lê de Narp, Dimi­tri Pierre-Justin) Finan­cing: AccessFi (Julien Pilet)

Consul­tant AG Solution:

Legal advice: Cottyn (Jan Vanders­nickt, Frede­rik Renders), Moore About Sofyne Active Technology

Foun­ded in 2005 in Lyon and specia­li­zing in digi­tal trans­for­ma­tion for indus­try, Sofyne Active Tech­no­logy has estab­lished a presence throug­hout Europe (France, Switz­er­land, UK, Portu­gal, Sweden, Poland). Sofyne Active Tech­no­logy offers a wide range of services to support leading indus­trial compa­nies in various sectors (luxury, auto­mo­tive, energy, etc.) in their digi­tal trans­for­ma­tion towards Indus­try 4.0. The company is parti­cu­larly sought after for its exper­tise in the inte­gra­tion of indus­trial data manage­ment systems. About AG Solution

AG Solu­tion, foun­ded in 2007, specia­li­zes in digi­tal trans­for­ma­tion for indus­try in Europe and the USA (Belgium, Spain, France, Nether­lands, Germany, Ukraine, Portu­gal, USA). AG Solu­tion has a broad custo­mer base in the food and beverage, phar­maceu­ti­cal, energy, chemi­cal indus­tries, among others, and has reco­gni­zed exper­tise in auto­ma­tion systems, process control, data manage­ment, opera­tio­nal intel­li­gence, AI, MES/MOM solu­ti­ons, IT infra­struc­ture and cyber­se­cu­rity. AG Solu­tion supports custo­mers as a stra­te­gic part­ner in the defi­ni­tion of opera­tio­nal envi­ron­ments, project plan­ning and the inte­gra­tion of state-of-the-art tech­no­lo­gies to achieve sustainable added value and measura­ble results.

About Water­land

Water­land is an inde­pen­dent private equity invest­ment company that supports compa­nies in reali­zing 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), France (Paris), Germany (Hamburg, Munich), Poland (Warsaw), the UK (London, Manches­ter), Ireland (Dublin), Denmark (Copen­ha­gen), Norway (Oslo), Spain (Barce­lona) and Switz­er­land (Zurich). Curr­ently, appro­xi­m­ately 14 billion euros in equity funds are under manage­ment. Water­land has consis­t­ently outper­for­med with its invest­ments since its incep­tion in 1999. The company ranks fourth globally in the HEC/Dow Jones Private Equity Perfor­mance Ranking (Janu­ary 2023) and seventh among global private equity compa­nies in the Preqin Consis­tent Perfor­mers in Global Private Equity & Venture Capi­tal Report 2022.

News

Munich — McDer­mott Will & Emery has advi­sed Eura­zeo Global Inves­tor as sole lender on the finan­cing of an acqui­si­tion of shares in the manage­ment consul­tancy UNITY AG by Deut­sche Betei­li­gungs AG (DBAG). DBAG is acqui­ring a control­ling stake in UNITY AG through a fund advi­sed by it. The previous share­hol­der, UNITY Inno­va­tion Alli­ance, acqui­res an almost equal stake. In addi­tion, UNITY AG employees are inves­t­ing directly in the company as part of the tran­sac­tion. The stra­te­gic part­ner­ship with DBAG will enable UNITY to make future acqui­si­ti­ons and M&A tran­sac­tions. UNITY Akti­en­ge­sell­schaft für Unter­neh­mens­füh­rung und Infor­ma­ti­ons­tech­no­lo­gie specia­li­zes in tech­no­logy consul­ting and digi­ta­liza­tion proces­ses. Around 400 consul­tants at 14 loca­ti­ons gene­ra­ted a total output of more than 72 million euros in 2023. The listed DBAG, based in Frank­furt am Main, tradi­tio­nally invests in well-posi­tio­ned medium-sized compa­nies with deve­lo­p­ment poten­tial, prima­rily in the DACH region. Eura­zeo, which is listed on Euron­ext Paris, is a global invest­ment company focu­sed on SMEs with assets under manage­ment of over EUR 35 billion inves­ted in more than 600 companies.

About DBAG

We invest in promi­sing compa­nies with a proven and scalable busi­ness model in the DACH region. Deve­lo­p­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties can result, for exam­ple, from streng­thening the stra­te­gic posi­tio­ning — for exam­ple through a broa­der product range or regio­nal expan­sion. Deve­lo­p­ment stra­te­gies often also include company acqui­si­ti­ons that acce­le­rate the trans­for­ma­tion of compa­nies or drive conso­li­da­tion in an indus­try. — Our focus is on invest­ments in compa­nies with an enter­prise value of between 50 and 250 million euros. Howe­ver, the struc­ture of our funds also allows us to struc­ture invest­ments with a company value of up to 400 million euros.
https://www.dbag.de Advi­sor Eura­zeo: McDer­mott Will & Emery, Munich Ludwig Zesch, Dr. Matthias Weis­sin­ger (both Finance, both lead), Dr. Maxi­mi­lian Meyer (Coun­sel, Tax Law, Frank­furt); Asso­cia­tes: Tim Becker, Romy Lanz (Düssel­dorf; both Finance); Eva Kanela (Tran­sac­tion Lawyer) 

About EURAZEO

Eura­zeo is a leading global invest­ment group mana­ging diver­si­fied assets of around €35 billion, inclu­ding €25 billion for insti­tu­tio­nal and private clients in the private equity, private debt, real estate and infra­struc­ture sectors.
The Group supports around 600 compa­nies, rely­ing on the commit­ment of its 400+ employees, its indus­try exper­tise, its privi­le­ged access to global markets through 13 offices in Europe, Asia and the United States, and its respon­si­ble, growth-based approach to value crea­tion. https://www.eurazeo.com

About McDer­mott Will & Emery

McDer­mott Will & Emery is a leading inter­na­tio­nal law firm with more than 1,400 lawy­ers in more than 20 offices in Europe, North America and Asia. Our lawy­ers cover the entire spec­trum of commer­cial and corpo­rate law with their advice. The German prac­tice is mana­ged by McDer­mott Will & Emery Rechts­an­wälte Steu­er­be­ra­ter LLP. https://www.mwe.com/de/

News

Frank­furt a.M. / India — Gibson Dunn has advi­sed seve­ral lenders of Heubach Group in connec­tion with its sale to Sudar­shan. The tran­sac­tion is subject to custo­mary closing condi­ti­ons, subject to regu­la­tory appr­ovals. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the purchase price.

The Heubach Group, based in Langels­heim and foun­ded in 1806, is an inter­na­tio­nal pigment manu­fac­tu­rer with 19 loca­ti­ons in Europe and America and around 3000 employees.

Sudar­shan Chemi­cal Indus­tries Limi­ted, foun­ded in 1952 and head­quar­te­red in Maha­rash­tra, India, is a leading color solu­ti­ons provi­der with a strong global reach of over 85 count­ries in the produc­tion of high perfor­mance colo­rants, an exten­sive range of orga­nic, inor­ga­nic and pearle­s­cent pigments and disper­si­ons. SCIL’s product offe­ring also includes clas­sic azo pigments, high perfor­mance pigments, effect pigments and pigment disper­si­ons. SCIL has manu­fac­tu­ring faci­li­ties in Roha and Mahad in India. SCIL opera­tes under 16 brands and has a dome­stic market share of 35% in its product category. 

Gibson Dunn’s M&A team, led by Frank­furt part­ners Dr. Dirk Ober­bracht and Dr. Jan Schu­bert, included coun­sel Dr. Aliresa Fatemi, as well as asso­cia­tes Vladi­mir Koncha­kov and Lisa Holl­fel­der (all Frank­furt). Part­ner Dr. Georg Weiden­bach and Asso­ciate Dr. Andreas Mild­ner (both Frank­furt) advi­sed on anti­trust law, Part­ner Benja­min Rapp (Frank­furt and Munich) and Asso­ciate Daniel Reich (Frank­furt) advi­sed on tax law aspects. 

Part­ner Sebas­tian Schoon and asso­ciate Bastiaan Wolters (both Frank­furt) advi­sed on finan­cing and restruc­tu­ring, supported by part­ner Lisa Stevens (London), coun­sel Ryan Sear­fo­orce (Hous­ton) and asso­cia­tes Peter Madden (Singa­pore), Jason Zhu, Abi Yussuf (both London), Tommy Schef­fer (New York) and Iris Hill Crab­tree (Hous­ton).

Advi­sors to the insol­vency admi­nis­tra­tor of the Heubach Group: McDer­mott Will & Emery, Düssel­dorf Dr. Matthias Kamp­s­hoff (lead), Dr. Marc Ober­hardt, Dr. Björn Biehl (Munich; all restructuring/distressed M&A), Carina Kant (anti­trust law, Düsseldorf/Cologne), Dr. Sandra Urban-Crell (employ­ment law), Dr. Pierre-André Brand (real estate law, Düsseldorf/Munich), Steitz Woitz, LL. Sandra Urban-Crell (employ­ment law), Dr. Pierre-André Brandt (real estate law, Düsseldorf/Munich), Stef­fen Woitz, LL.M. (IP/IT, Munich), Dr. Florian Schie­fer (tax law, Frank­furt); Asso­cia­tes: Tjark Pogoda (restructuring/distressed M&A), Lea Hauser (anti­trust law, Cologne)

About Gibson Dunn

Gibson, Dunn & Crut­cher LLP is one of the leading inter­na­tio­nal law firms and is ranked among the world’s top law firms in indus­try surveys and by major publi­ca­ti­ons. With more than 1,900 lawy­ers in 21 offices, the firm has a global presence in all major econo­mic regi­ons. Gibson Dunn’s offices are loca­ted in Abu Dhabi, Brussels, Century City, Dallas, Denver, Dubai, Frank­furt, Hong Kong, Hous­ton, London, Los Ange­les, Munich, New York, Orange County, Palo Alto, Paris, Beijing, Riyadh, San Fran­cisco, Singa­pore and Washing­ton, D.C.

About McDer­mott Will & Emery

McDer­mott Will & Emery is a leading inter­na­tio­nal law firm with more than 1,400 lawy­ers in more than 20 offices in Europe, North America and Asia. Our lawy­ers cover the entire spec­trum of commer­cial and corpo­rate law with their advice. The German prac­tice is mana­ged by McDer­mott Will & Emery Rechts­an­wälte Steu­er­be­ra­ter LLP. For more infor­ma­tion, please visit: https://www.mwe.com/de/

News

Paris (Fr) ‑Black­Fin Capi­tal Part­ners, the buyout fund specia­li­zing in finan­cial services, announ­ces the final closing of its €1.8 billion Black­Fin Finan­cial Services Fund IV. The new fund bene­fits from strong demand from insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors in Europe (45%), the US (45%) and Asia (10%) and signi­fi­cantly exceeds its initial target of €1.5 billion. The funds raised are 80% higher than those of the most recently laun­ched Black­Fin Finan­cial Services Fund III. The tran­sac­tion is still subject to the appr­oval of the Dutch Central Bank and the Dutch Finan­cial Markets Autho­rity. This means that the private equity company has an 80% higher invest­ment volume in this fund than in its prede­ces­sor, Black­Fin Finan­cial Services Fund III, which closed at EUR 985 million. The fund was backed by exis­ting Black­Fin inves­tors with a 100% re-invest­ment from exis­ting inves­tors and 25 new inves­tors. Black­Fin has a global base of inves­tors with very diverse profiles, inclu­ding pension funds, sove­reign wealth funds, funds of funds, insu­rance compa­nies and family offices. The closing of Fund IV brings BlackFin’s total assets under manage­ment for its comple­men­tary buyout and FinTech stra­te­gies to €4 billion. This conso­li­da­tes BlackFin’s posi­tion as Europe’s leading private equity inves­tor in the finan­cial services sector. With over 110 tran­sac­tions since its incep­tion in 2009, Black­Fin is by far the most active inves­tor in this sector in Europe. Fund IV will conti­nue BlackFin’s diffe­ren­tia­ted invest­ment policy in asset-light segments. Brokerage and insu­rance plat­forms, inde­pen­dent asset mana­gers, asset mana­gers, payment play­ers and provi­ders of finan­cial or back-office soft­ware bene­fit from a parti­cu­larly favorable envi­ron­ment. This takes account of consu­mers’ incre­asing need for advice on finan­cial products, the deve­lo­p­ment of new tech­no­lo­gies and chan­ging regu­la­tion. Black­Fin focu­ses on primary tran­sac­tions where the company acts as a key finan­cial spon­sor and provi­des unique opera­tio­nal support. These off-market tran­sac­tions are one of BlackFin’s parti­cu­lar areas of exper­tise, as is the execu­tion of very complex carve-outs of large finan­cial institutions. 

Fund IV has alre­ady made two investments

The new fund has alre­ady made initial invest­ments in OpGroen, a carve-out of Aon Nether­lands’ private insu­rance busi­ness, and will soon invest in IBS Capi­tal Allies, a leading inde­pen­dent asset mana­ger with €5 billion in assets under manage­ment. Since the closing of Fund III in 2019, Black­Fin has inves­ted heavily in its plat­form. New offices have been estab­lished in London and Amster­dam to expand BlackFin’s Euro­pean presence. It curr­ently employs 50 people, inclu­ding nine part­ners, in five offices. In 2022, the company also reached the closing of its second venture capi­tal fund speci­fi­cally focu­sed on FinTech. Black­Fin Tech II has €390 million in capi­tal, making it the largest FinTech-focu­sed B2B fund in Europe. Laurent Bouy­oux, Presi­dent and Foun­ding Part­ner of Black­Fin, said: “We foun­ded Black­Fin in 2009 with the convic­tion that the trans­for­ma­tion of the Euro­pean finan­cial sector towards a more compe­ti­tive envi­ron­ment was over­due and that inde­pen­dent compa­nies were compe­ting directly with incumb­ents or beco­ming their service provi­ders. 15 years later, our invest­ment thesis has fully mate­ria­li­zed with one of the best track records in Europe and a global base of high cali­ber inves­tors. We are proud to have taken this decisive step for our inves­tors and thank them for their loyal and growing support. With Fund IV, we will conti­nue to pursue the stra­tegy that has made our prede­ces­sor funds so successful.” Black­Fin Capi­tal worked with Rede Part­ners on the inter­na­tio­nal fund­rai­sing, Jasmin Capi­tal on the insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors in France and Will­kie Farr & Gallag­her LLP on the legal and regu­la­tory aspects.

About Black­Fin Capi­tal Partners

Foun­ded in 2009, Black­Fin Capi­tal Part­ners is an inde­pen­dent private equity firm specia­li­zing in finan­cial services in Europe. Black­Fin is owned and mana­ged by its nine part­ners, who have worked toge­ther for many years as execu­ti­ves, mana­gers and inves­tors in the Euro­pean finan­cial indus­try. The team consists of a total of 50 invest­ment profes­sio­nals in offices in Paris, Brussels, Amster­dam, Frank­furt and London. Backed by leading insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors in Europe, North America and Asia, Black­Fin Capi­tal Part­ners has over €4 billion under manage­ment through its venture capi­tal and buyout funds. www.blackfin.com/

 

News

Frank­furt am Main — The Frank­furt-based invest­ment company VR Equi­typ­art­ner (“VREP”) has exten­ded its invest­ment in Mr. Wash Auto­ser­vice AG, Essen, and provi­ded further mezza­nine finan­cing. The addi­tio­nal mezza­nine capi­tal is inten­ded to support a multi-year inten­sive invest­ment phase as growth finan­cing: The aim is to expand capa­ci­ties at exis­ting loca­ti­ons and to estab­lish further new loca­ti­ons. Mr. Wash, foun­ded in 1964, is today the market leader in the premium car wash sector with curr­ently 38 loca­ti­ons and around 2,000 employees throug­hout Germany. The range of services extends from exte­rior washing and inte­rior clea­ning to oil change and service station services. The company has recei­ved seve­ral awards for its service quality in recent years. VR Equi­typ­art­ner has been support­ing the family busi­ness in its conti­nuous growth since 2011 by provi­ding seve­ral mezza­nine tran­ches. The funds have been used for exten­sive invest­ments in tech­no­logy, the expan­sion of the range of services — parti­cu­larly in the area of inte­rior clea­ning — and the impro­ve­ment of service quality. Regu­lar custo­mer surveys ensure consis­t­ently high quality. Chris­tian Futter­lieb, Mana­ging Direc­tor of VR Equi­typ­art­ner: “We are deligh­ted to expand our long-stan­ding part­ner­ship and conti­nue to support the growth of Mr. Wash. The company has deve­lo­ped enorm­ously and has a stable, but also capi­tal-inten­sive busi­ness. Some­thing like this is gene­rally well suited for the use of mezza­nine capi­tal.” Richard Enning, CEO of Mr. Wash Auto­ser­vice AG, adds: “With VR Equi­typ­art­ner, we have had a relia­ble and uncom­pli­ca­ted part­ner who has supported and accom­pa­nied our growth stra­tegy for years. The mezza­nine capi­tal is an important compo­nent of our over­all finan­cing because it ideally comple­ments bank loans and our inter­nal finan­cing power — and thus supports the invest­ments in our growth.” About VR Equitypartner

VR Equi­typ­art­ner is one of the leading equity finan­ciers in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. 

The company supports medium-sized family busi­nesses in a goal-orien­ted manner and with deca­des of expe­ri­ence in the stra­te­gic solu­tion of complex finan­cing issues. Invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties include growth and expan­sion finan­cing, corpo­rate succes­sion or share­hol­der chan­ges. VR Equi­typ­art­ner offers majo­rity and mino­rity invest­ments as well as mezza­nine finan­cing. As a subsi­diary of DZ BANK, the central insti­tu­tion of the coope­ra­tive banks in Germany, VR Equi­typ­art­ner consis­t­ently puts the sustaina­bi­lity of corpo­rate deve­lo­p­ment ahead of short-term exit thin­king. VR Equitypartner’s port­fo­lio curr­ently compri­ses around 40 commit­ments with an invest­ment volume of EUR 400 million. Morewww.vrep.de. The VR Equi­typ­art­ner tran­sac­tion team:
Tim Feld, Jens Schöf­fel, Chris­toph Simmes, Jens Osthoff

News

Munich — Kirk­land & Ellis advi­ses BC Part­ners on the IPO of Sprin­ger Nature.
The offe­ring consists of new shares from a capi­tal increase of EUR 200 million and the sale of exis­ting shares held by BC Part­ners. Sprin­ger Nature’s shares have been traded in the Prime Stan­dard segment of the Frank­furt Stock Exch­ange since Octo­ber 4, 2024 (ticker symbol: SPG). The market capi­ta­liza­tion is around € 4.9 billion. Sprin­ger Nature’s IPO was a success. Sprin­ger Nature is a leading global publisher for rese­arch, health and educa­tion. The company is owned by compa­nies control­led by the Georg von Holtz­brinck publi­shing group and funds advi­sed by BC Part­ners. A Kirk­land team had alre­ady advi­sed BC Part­ners on the exten­sion of the invest­ment in Sprin­ger Nature in 2021. 

Advi­sor BC Part­ners: Kirk­land & Ellis, Munich

Attila Oldag (Lead, Private Equity/M&A; photo © Kirk­land), Dr. Anna Schwan­der (Capi­tal Markets); Asso­ciate: Dr. Tamara Zehen­t­bauer (Private Equity/M&A) About Kirk­land

With more than 3,500 lawy­ers in 21 cities in the US, Europe, the Middle East and Asia, Kirk­land & Ellis is one of the leading law firms for high-cali­ber legal services. The German team specia­li­zes in private equity, M&A, restruc­tu­ring, corpo­rate and capi­tal markets, finan­cing and tax law.

www.kirkland.com.

News

Düssel­dorf — In order to streng­then the start-up ecosys­tem in North Rhine-West­pha­lia, NRW.BANK has inves­ted EUR 15 million in Grün­der­fonds Ruhr II in the first closing. The Essen-based early-stage fund raised a total of EUR 31 million from inves­tors. The invest­ment focus is on inno­va­tive, tech­no­logy-orien­ted start-ups from the Ruhr area and neigh­bor­ing regi­ons. “In order to shape the future in North Rhine-West­pha­lia, we need a faster pace of inno­va­tion and more ideas from inno­va­tive start-ups. This needs to be finan­ced,” says Johanna Anto­nie Tjaden-Schulte, Member of the Mana­ging Board of NRW.BANK (photo © NRW.BANK). “With our parti­ci­pa­tion in Grün­der­fonds Ruhr II, we want to do even more to promote the poten­tial that exists in the Ruhr region with its dense rese­arch land­scape and urban envi­ron­ment.” Grün­der­fonds Ruhr II is mana­ged by Ruhr­grün­der Manage­ment GmbH under the leader­ship of Ann-Chris­tin Kortenbrede and Jan Gräfe. Both have exten­sive expe­ri­ence in support­ing young growth compa­nies and are actively shaping the stra­te­gic direc­tion of the fund. The aim is to acquire further fund commit­ments over the next twelve months in order to reach the target volume of 50 million euros. In coope­ra­tion with Initia­tiv­kreis Ruhr and NRW.BANK, Grün­der­fonds Ruhr offers not only early-stage finan­cing but also a strong part­ner network, direct access to the indus­try and valuable know-how for start-ups. The fund focu­ses on compa­nies from the chemi­cals and new mate­ri­als, energy and indus­try, life scien­ces and health­care, logi­stics and digi­tal economy sectors. Initia­tiv­kreis Ruhr and NRW.BANK initia­ted the first edition of Grün­der­fonds Ruhr with a volume of EUR 34.5 million in 2017. To date, invest­ments have been made in ten inno­va­tive start-ups. Further infor­ma­tion on NRW.BANK’s start-up support can be found at www.nrwbank.de/gruender and www.nrwbank.de/venture Further infor­ma­tion on Grün­der­fonds Ruhr can be found at www.gruenderfonds-ruhr.com

About NRW.BANK — Deve­lo­p­ment Bank for North Rhine-Westphalia

NRW.BANK is the deve­lo­p­ment bank for North Rhine-West­pha­lia. In close part­ner­ship with its owner, the state of North Rhine-West­pha­lia, it helps to ensure that inno­va­tive start-ups receive the right start-up support. Because: No good idea in North Rhine-West­pha­lia should fail because of finan­cing. To achieve this goal, NRW.BANK provi­des a compre­hen­sive range of equity capi­tal. This covers the entire life cycle of compa­nies: from the pre-seed, start-up and early stages through to the growth and later stages. It places a parti­cu­lar focus on the trans­for­ma­tion topics of sustaina­bi­lity and digi­ta­liza­tion. NRW.BANK also stimu­la­tes the deve­lo­p­ment of the venture capi­tal and private equity market through its acti­vi­ties as an inves­tor in third-party mana­ged funds. In addi­tion to capi­tal, NRW.BANK also provi­des start-ups with its network and know-how.

News

Paris — Aerleum, an inno­va­tive climate-tech start-up specia­li­zing in the capture and use of CO₂, announ­ces the successful comple­tion of its $6 million seed finan­cing led by 360 Capi­tal and HTGF, with parti­ci­pa­tion from Norrs­ken, Bpifrance and Marble. The funding will acce­le­rate the indus­tria­liza­tion of Aerleum’s novel tech­no­logy that converts atmo­sphe­ric CO₂ and low-carbon hydro­gen into synthe­tic fuels (e‑fuels) and chemi­cals, moving sectors that are diffi­cult to decar­bo­nize towards a carbon-neutral future. Aerleum’s breakth­rough solu­tion captures CO₂ in a reac­tor and converts it using proprie­tary bifunc­tional mate­ri­als and precis­ion heating. The company’s tech­no­logy elimi­na­tes some of the most energy-inten­sive steps in the value chain, enab­ling compe­ti­tive, scalable produc­tion of e‑fuels and chemi­cals while drama­ti­cally redu­cing green­house gas emis­si­ons. Aerleum has set itself the most ambi­tious target on the market in terms of time to achieve price parity with fossil fuels. The start-up aims to offer indus­tries such as ship­ping, avia­tion and chemi­cals a viable path to decar­bo­niza­tion without compro­mi­sing on cost or scala­bi­lity. Sébas­tien Fiedo­row, co-foun­der and CEO of Aerleum: “Our mission has been clear from the start: to make e‑fuels as afforda­ble and acces­si­ble as fossil fuels­With this seed round, we are taking a big step forward in scaling our tech­no­logy to meet the urgent need for decar­bo­niza­tion. We intend to trans­form entire indus­tries and enable them to achieve net zero emis­si­ons faster and more effi­ci­ently.” Aerleum not only addres­ses the urgency of the climate crisis, but also solves the econo­mic chal­lenges typi­cally asso­cia­ted with clean energy solu­ti­ons. Unlike tradi­tio­nal proces­ses, which are costly and loca­tion-bound, Aerleum’s inno­va­tion can be deployed globally. It opti­mi­zes co-loca­tion for low-carbon hydro­gen sourcing and provi­des a viable alter­na­tive to fossil fuels for indus­tries around the world. Aerleum’s initial focus is on e‑methanol, a clean, high-energy fuel that is rapidly gaining accep­tance as an important alter­na­tive to fossil fuel in the marine and avia­tion sectors. E‑methanol offers signi­fi­cant bene­fits by redu­cing green­house gas emis­si­ons, lowe­ring air pollut­ants and serving as an excel­lent energy carrier as it remains liquid at ambi­ent tempe­ra­ture, making it easy to trans­port and store. The global e‑methanol market is expec­ted to grow signi­fi­cantly as the ship­ping and avia­tion indus­tries are under incre­asing pres­sure to reduce CO2 emis­si­ons. Aerleum is well posi­tio­ned to lead this transformation. 

What’s next for Aerleum?

With the seed funding secu­red, Aerleum will launch its first full-scale pilot plant. The company will work closely with key indus­try play­ers and custo­mers to deploy its tech­no­logy in sectors where emis­si­ons reduc­tions are criti­cal. “Aerleum’s vision is to trans­form indus­tries and create a circu­lar carbon economy where the CO₂ in the air beco­mes a resource,” said Steven Bardey, co-foun­der and CTO of Aerleum. Reco­gni­tion and support

Aerleum has alre­ady achie­ved great reco­gni­tion and won pres­ti­gious awards, inclu­ding the CMA CGM “Climate Inno­va­tion Chall­enge” Award, the Tech­nip Ener­gies “Clean Mari­time Chall­enge”, the EDF Pulse 2024 Chall­enge, the Prix Pépite and most recently the 2024 i‑lab State Inno­va­tion Chall­enge. The company has recei­ved exten­sive finan­cial support from Bpifrance and the Grand Est region, which has been instru­men­tal in helping Aerleum achieve its mile­sto­nes. In addi­tion, Aerleum is supported by programs such as Air Liquide’s Acce­lair, CMA CGM’s ZEBOX and Semia, all of which provide valuable support in scaling the inno­va­tive solu­tion. “We were exci­ted by Aerleum’s vision of a world where oil is repla­ced by CO2 in the air. This vision is ancho­red in reality, as demons­tra­ted by the first systems and the commer­ci­ally sound busi­ness model, and it paves the way for large-scale appli­ca­ti­ons,” explain Alex­andre Mord­acq and Fran­çois Tison of 360 Capi­tal. “What really sets Aerleum apart is the powerful combi­na­tion of breakth­rough tech­no­logy and a vision to replace pollu­ting chemi­cals like metha­nol with a sustainable, carbon-neutral alter­na­tive. This vision fits perfectly with HTGF’s commit­ment to foste­ring inno­va­tion that not only drives busi­ness growth, but also contri­bu­tes to a more sustainable planet. In just one year, the team has demons­tra­ted remar­kable speed, execu­tion and signi­fi­cant tech­ni­cal mile­sto­nes that unders­core its ability to scale quickly. We look forward to support­ing Aerleum on the next stage of their jour­ney,” says Timo Bertsch from HTGF (photo © TimoBertsch). 

About Aerleum

Foun­ded in 2023 as a spin-off from venture studio Marble, Aerleum is a pionee­ring climate tech­no­logy company at the fore­front of carbon capture and utiliza­tion. Aerleum’s breakth­rough tech­no­logy captures CO₂ from the atmo­sphere and converts it into synthe­tic fuels and chemi­cals. This provi­des a scalable and cost-effec­tive solu­tion for indus­tries looking to intro­duce alter­na­ti­ves to fossil fuel products. Aerleum’s mission is to acce­le­rate the global tran­si­tion to a carbon-neutral economy by giving indus­try the tools to decar­bo­nize without compro­mi­sing perfor­mance or cost effi­ci­ency. About 360 Capital

360 Capi­tal is a venture capi­tal firm that invests in inno­va­tive deept­ech and early-stage digi­tal compa­nies across Europe. The firm has a 25-year track record of helping talen­ted tech­no­logy entre­pre­neurs deve­lop ambi­tious and disrup­tive busi­nesses across a wide range of sectors. 360 Capi­tal is led by a diverse and expe­ri­en­ced team of profes­sio­nals based in Paris and Milan and mana­ges €500 million in assets and an active port­fo­lio of over 60 companies.
More infor­ma­tion: http://www.360cap.vc/ About Marble

Marble is a climate tech­no­logy venture studio that works with scien­tists, engi­neers and opera­tors to create compa­nies that solve tough climate problems. Since its foun­ding in 2021, Marble has alre­ady laun­ched six compa­nies working in clean chemi­cals, geolo­gi­cal hydro­gen, carbon capture, low-carbon concrete and weather control. Further infor­ma­tion: www.marble.studio

About the HTGF — High-Tech Gründerfonds

HTGF is one of the leading and most active early-stage inves­tors in Germany and Europe, finan­cing start-ups in the fields of deep tech, indus­trial tech, climate tech, digi­tal tech, life scien­ces and chemi­cals. With its expe­ri­en­ced invest­ment team, HTGF supports start-ups in all phases of their deve­lo­p­ment into inter­na­tio­nal market leaders. HTGF invests in the pre-seed and seed phase and can make signi­fi­cant invest­ments in further finan­cing rounds. Across all funds, HTGF has over EUR 2 billion under manage­ment. Since its foun­da­tion in 2005, it has finan­ced more than 750 start-ups and reali­zed over 180 successful exits.
Fund inves­tors in the public-private part­ner­ship include the German Fede­ral Minis­try for Econo­mic Affairs and Climate Protec­tion, KfW Capi­tal as well as 45 compa­nies and family offices.
Further infor­ma­tion can be found at HTGF.de or on Linke­dIn.

News

Munich — Astera Legal has advi­sed Quadriga Capi­tal on the finan­cing of sales­tech group. The fresh capi­tal provi­des sales­tech group with a flexi­ble frame­work for future acqui­si­ti­ons, invest­ments and expan­sion projects, allo­wing the group to further drive its growth stra­tegy and streng­then its posi­tion in the indus­try. The finan­cing was provi­ded by Eura­zeo Global Inves­tor SAS. sales­tech group acqui­res three leading compa­nies in the field of blen­ded lear­ning and soft­ware-based lear­ning expe­ri­ence. Acqui­si­tion under­lines stra­te­gic goal of provi­ding compre­hen­sive solu­ti­ons for digi­tal trans­for­ma­tion in sales and marke­ting. The Frank­furt-based sales­tech group deve­lops and imple­ments tech­no­lo­gies to support and auto­mate sales proces­ses. Its range of services includes solu­ti­ons for data analy­sis, CRM inte­gra­tion and other tools desi­gned to make sales acti­vi­ties more effi­ci­ent. To this end, the company acts as a plat­form for future growth and conti­nuously invests in leading tech­no­logy and consul­ting compa­nies in the mobi­lity, finance, energy and retail sectors. Quadriga Capi­tal is a leading mid-market private equity fund that invests in estab­lished mid-market compa­nies in the health­care, tech­no­logy-enab­led services and smart indus­tries sectors. With the plan­ned acqui­si­ti­ons, Quadriga Capi­tal aims to provide the tech world with a plat­form for long-term, value-crea­ting inno­va­tion and sustainable global growth 

Advi­sor Quadriga Capi­tal: Astera Legal

Dr. Bernd Egbers, photo (Part­ner, leading) Phil­ipp Hogrefe (Senior Asso­ciate) Daniel Kries­mair (Asso­ciate); Clau­dia Kupka (Tran­sac­tion Analyst)

Advi­sor to Eura­zeo Global Inves­tor SAS: Good­win Proc­ter LLP

Winfried Carli (Part­ner, leading), Folko Moroni (Senior Asso­ciate), Rebecca Stöck­lein (Asso­ciate).

About Astera Legal

Astera Legal is a high-end boutique law firm specia­li­zing in advi­sing on all types of dome­stic and inter­na­tio­nal complex finan­cing struc­tures. The expe­ri­en­ced team is one of the leading acqui­si­tion finance units in Germany with an excel­lent track record. Clients include private equity firms, credit funds and finan­cial insti­tu­ti­ons as well as natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal compa­nies. With its inter­na­tio­nal network, Astera Legal offers a genuine alter­na­tive to large law firms. www.astera-legal.com

News

Hamburg — HEUKING has advi­sed Five Arrows and CGE Part­ners (CGE) on their invest­ment in Intact, a leading provi­der of end-to-end audit work­flow soft­ware for certi­fi­ca­tion bodies, stan­dard setters and, more recently, enter­pri­ses. The manage­ment and the previous majo­rity share­hol­der, tech­no­logy inves­tor IMCap Part­ners, will retain a stake in the company. Intact digi­ti­zes complex work­flows in the certi­fi­ca­tion proces­ses. The company enables its custo­mers to seam­lessly manage all their core opera­tio­nal proces­ses from audit plan­ning and audit execu­tion to certi­fi­ca­tion appr­oval and invoi­cing in a modu­lar Soft­ware-as-a-Service (SaaS) tool. CGE and Five Arrows are working with Thomas Lorber (co-foun­der and CEO of Intact) and his exten­ded manage­ment team to support the next phase of Intact’s ambi­tious growth trajec­tory while main­tai­ning its highly custo­mer-centric approach.
The finan­cial terms of the invest­ment were not disc­lo­sed. “We are deligh­ted to welcome both Five Arrows and CGE Part­ners as inves­tors in Intact. With their strong track record of foste­ring the growth and scaling of inno­va­tive tech­no­logy compa­nies, we are confi­dent that this part­ner­ship will propel us forward. Toge­ther, we will further streng­then our capa­bi­li­ties by stra­te­gi­cally inves­t­ing in our products, services and inter­na­tio­nal expan­sion, deli­ve­ring even grea­ter value to our custo­mers, employees and stake­hol­ders world­wide,” commen­ted Thomas Lorber, co-foun­der and CEO of Intact. “We have been follo­wing Intact for seve­ral years and have been deeply impres­sed by the company’s deve­lo­p­ment to date. It is rightly reco­gni­zed as a leading provi­der of end-to-end audit work­flow soft­ware and counts some of the largest and most deman­ding certi­fi­ca­tion bodies and stan­dard setters among its custo­mers,” commen­ted Five Arrows. “We are deligh­ted to support the next phase of Intact’s exci­ting growth trajec­tory as certi­fi­ca­tion bodies and stan­dard setters look to moder­nize and digi­tize their work­flows. We share the team’s vision that Intact can bring grea­ter produc­ti­vity, accu­racy and trans­pa­rency to the certi­fi­ca­tion market,” commen­ted CGE Part­ners. “At the time of our invest­ment, Intact was a small, very specia­li­zed and highly inno­va­tive soft­ware company in the field of Test­ing, Inspec­tion and Certi­fi­ca­tion, which fits perfectly with our invest­ment profile. Over the past six years, we have supported the company’s successful growth trajec­tory by inves­t­ing in the orga­niza­tion and provi­ding access to our network and opera­tio­nal exper­tise, all with a strong sense of part­ner­ship,” added IMCap Part­ners. Advi­sor Five Arrows: HEUKING Dr. Jörg Schewe, photo © Heuking (lead, M&A/corporate),
Dr. Henrik Lay (tax law),
Dr. Frede­rik Wiemer (anti­trust law),
Chris­toph Proch­nau (M&A/corporate), all Hamburg,
Martin Karwatzki, LL.M. (Insu­rance Law), Cologne,
Caro­line Frohn­wie­ser, Hamburg,
Sarah Radon, LL.M. (both M&A/Corporate), Düsseldorf,
Simon Pommer, LL.M. (Tax Law), Hamburg

News

Chicago/ Frankfurt/ Munich — Subject­Well, a US-based provi­der of digi­tal pati­ent recruit­ment solu­ti­ons, has acqui­red Trials24. This stra­te­gic part­ner­ship will provide pati­ents world­wide with access to inno­va­tive forms of treat­ment. McDer­mott Will & Emery advi­sed Subject­Well compre­hen­si­vely on this tran­sac­tion. Trials24, head­quar­te­red in Munich, acce­le­ra­tes pati­ent recruit­ment for clini­cal trials world­wide and helps CROs and biophar­maceu­ti­cal compa­nies to find pati­ents who are not within reach of their sites. CROs stands for Clini­cal Rese­arch Orga­niza­tion, which takes over tasks in the plan­ning and execu­tion of clini­cal trials. Subject­Well is a port­fo­lio company of Wind­rose Health Inves­tors. Wind­rose invests in compa­nies that specia­lize in services in the health­care indus­try and acqui­red Subject­Well in April 2024. 

Advi­sor Subject­Well: McDer­mott Will & Emery

Holger Ebers­ber­ger (Munich), Dr. Felix Ganzer, photo © MWE (Frank­furt; both lead), Jarrett Szczesny (Chicago; all Private Equity), Jana Grieb (Health­care), Dr. Chris­tian Rolf (Employ­ment), Dr. Florian Schie­fer (Tax; all Frank­furt), Dr. Claus Färber (Coun­sel, IT, Munich); Asso­cia­tes: Dr. Armin Teymouri (Private Equity, Munich), Dr. Lea Hach­meis­ter (Health­care), Constanze Götz (Public Law; both Frank­furt), Janek Joos­ten (Employ­ment Law, Düssel­dorf) With over 160 lawy­ers in 21 offices, McDermott’s Private Equity prac­tice is one of the most active PE law firms world­wide. The prac­tice has been ranked among the top 5 PE firms in health­care by Pitch­book for six conse­cu­tive years and is among the top 10 for PE buyouts and other PE deals. Bloom­berg ranks McDer­mott among the Top 10 Global Mid-Market PE Firms, while The Deal ranks the firm 7th among PE Law Firms. Further infor­ma­tion can be found at pe.mwe.com.

About McDer­mott Will & Emery

McDer­mott Will & Emery is a leading inter­na­tio­nal law firm with more than 1,400 lawy­ers in more than 20 offices in Europe, North America and Asia. Our lawy­ers cover the entire spec­trum of commer­cial and corpo­rate law with their advice. The German prac­tice is mana­ged by McDer­mott Will & Emery Rechts­an­wälte Steu­er­be­ra­ter LLP. https://www.mwe.com/de/

News

Milan/London/Paris/Munich — Ambi­enta SGR SpA (“Ambi­enta”) announ­ces that its plat­form company Cap Vert Group (“Cap Vert”), one of the French market leaders in pruning, has acqui­red N2B Arro­sage (“N2B Arro­sage”). N2B Arro­sage is also based in France and specia­li­zes in the manage­ment of irri­ga­tion systems for urban green spaces. Ambi­enta is one of the largest and leading asset mana­gers in Europe with a focus on envi­ron­men­tal sustaina­bi­lity. N2B Arro­sage designs, installs and main­ta­ins irri­ga­tion systems. The company was foun­ded in 1986, is based in the capi­tal region of Île-de-France and employs more than 30 people. N2B Arro­sage is an estab­lished player in the Île-de-France region, serving a large number of private custo­mers. With the acqui­si­tion of N2B Arro­sage, Cap Vert is expan­ding its water divi­sion and signi­fi­cantly broa­de­ning its offe­ring for private custo­mers in this market segment. The market for irri­ga­tion systems is growing conti­nuously. This growth is mainly driven by muni­ci­pa­li­ties that are expan­ding green spaces and other unsea­led areas in response to global warm­ing in order to achieve a cooling effect in cities. The acqui­si­tion of N2B Arro­sage streng­thens Cap Vert’s ability to respond to these needs and manage large-scale projects. The Cap Vert Group, in line with Ambienta’s invest­ment stra­tegy, contri­bu­tes posi­tively to the company’s envi­ron­men­tal impact metrics — redu­cing CO2 emis­si­ons, preser­ving biodi­ver­sity and, thanks to the acqui­si­tion of N2B Arro­sage, saving water. Smart auto­ma­tic irri­ga­tion enables an opti­mi­zed water flow taking into account para­me­ters such as tempe­ra­ture and humi­dity; for urban green spaces, smart auto­ma­tic irri­ga­tion also contri­bu­tes to the preser­va­tion of vege­ta­tion and biodi­ver­sity as well as to lowe­ring the tempe­ra­ture through water evapo­ra­tion and tran­spi­ra­tion of plants. This also indi­rectly redu­ces CO2 emis­si­ons, as less air condi­tio­ning and venti­la­tion of indoor spaces is requi­red by lowe­ring the outdoor tempe­ra­ture. Eric Girot, CEO of Cap Vert, commen­ted: “We are very plea­sed to welcome N2B Arro­sage to the Cap Vert Group. We are confi­dent that this part­ner­ship will signi­fi­cantly streng­then our service offe­ring and client port­fo­lio by combi­ning our market leader­ship with N2B’s exper­tise in water manage­ment.” Gwen­aëlle Le Ho Dagu­zan, Part­ner at Ambi­enta, added: “The acqui­si­tion of N2B Arro­sage fits perfectly with our long-term stra­tegy for Cap Vert, seam­lessly alig­ning with our ambi­tion to expand the Group’s presence in promi­sing markets such as water manage­ment, while enhan­cing the over­all service port­fo­lio. This tran­sac­tion under­lines our commit­ment to sustainable growth through targe­ted acqui­si­ti­ons that deli­ver real value to Cap Vert’s custo­mers and part­ners.” About Ambi­enta
Ambi­enta is a Euro­pean envi­ron­men­tal sustaina­bi­lity inves­tor specia­li­zing in private equity, public markets and private credit. 

Eric Girot, CEO of Cap Vert, commen­ted: “We are very plea­sed to welcome N2B Arro­sage to the Cap Vert Group. We are confi­dent that this part­ner­ship will signi­fi­cantly streng­then our service offe­ring and client port­fo­lio by combi­ning our market leader­ship with N2B’s exper­tise in water manage­ment.” Gwen­aëlle Le Ho Dagu­zan, Part­ner at Ambi­enta, added: “The acqui­si­tion of N2B Arro­sage fits perfectly with our long-term stra­tegy for Cap Vert, seam­lessly alig­ning with our ambi­tion to expand the Group’s presence in promi­sing markets such as water manage­ment, while enhan­cing the over­all service port­fo­lio. This tran­sac­tion under­lines our commit­ment to sustainable growth through targe­ted acqui­si­ti­ons that deli­ver real value to Cap Vert’s custo­mers and part­ners.” About Ambi­entaAmbi­enta is a Euro­pean envi­ron­men­tal sustaina­bi­lity inves­tor specia­li­zing in private equity, public markets and private credit.

From Milan, London, Paris and Munich, Ambi­enta mana­ges assets of more than 3 billion euros. The focus is on inves­t­ing in private and publicly traded compa­nies that are driven by envi­ron­men­tal mega­trends and whose products or services improve resource effi­ci­ency and envi­ron­men­tal protec­tion. Ambi­enta has made 75 private equity invest­ments to date. In the public equity sector, Ambi­enta has laun­ched one of the world’s largest abso­lute return funds fully focu­sed on envi­ron­men­tal sustaina­bi­lity and mana­ges a whole range of other sustainable invest­ment products from low-risk multi-asset funds to long-only equity funds. Ambi­enta has also recently laun­ched a private credit stra­tegy, which — as with the other asset clas­ses — focu­ses on envi­ron­men­tal sustaina­bi­lity. www.ambientasgr.com

News

Lever­ku­sen — The state-owned oil company Adnoc from the United Arab Emira­tes intends to take over the German plas­tics group Cove­s­tro for 11.7 billion euros.
Adnoc is offe­ring 62 euros per share and also plans to buy new shares worth almost 1.2 billion euros via a capi­tal increase.
Lever­ku­sen-based Bayer floa­ted its plas­tics divi­sion Cove­s­tro on the stock exch­ange in 2015 and cashed in.
Arab inves­tors are now inte­res­ted in the German company.
The state-owned oil company Adnoc from the United Arab Emira­tes wants to take over the German plas­tics group Covestro.
Accor­ding to its own state­ments, the poten­tial Arab buyer is offe­ring 62 euros per share and valuing the shares in the DAX-listed company at 11.7 billion euros.
The company from Abu Dhabi is also conside­ring buying shares worth almost EUR 1.2 billion from the Lever­ku­sen-based company in a capi­tal increase.
Toge­ther with Covestro’s debt of around three billion euros, Adnoc ther­e­fore intends to invest almost 16 billion euros.
The take­over had been expec­ted for some time.
Covestro’s manage­ment supports the offer. 

News
Eschborn/ San Francisco/ Singa­pore — TPG Rise Climate, a fund specia­li­zing in climate invest­ments as part of TPG’s global impact inves­t­ing plat­form, and GIC, a leading global inves­tor, today signed an agree­ment to acquire Techem Group.
The company will be acqui­red from its exis­ting majo­rity owner Part­ners Group, one of the largest private markets invest­ment mana­gers acting on behalf of its clients, and co-inves­tors CDPQ and Onta­rio Teachers’ Pension Plan.
The total value of the tran­sac­tion is EUR 6.7 billion.
The tran­sac­tion is expec­ted to close in the first half of 2025, subject to custo­mary condi­ti­ons and regu­la­tory approvals.
The purchase price will be paid in two tran­ches, one at closing of the tran­sac­tion and the remai­ning amount in July 2027.
TPG Rise Climate is one of the world’s largest private equity funds for global climate solu­ti­ons and invests in compa­nies that are signi­fi­cantly driving decarbonization.
Techem repres­ents the largest tran­sac­tion for the fund to date.
GIC is making a signi­fi­cant mino­rity investment.
— Link­la­ters advi­sed the fund TPG Rise Climate and the inves­tor GIC on the acqui­si­tion of the Techem Group.
Foun­ded in 1952, Techem has built one of the largest digi­tal energy services plat­forms in the industry.
Techem is active in 18 count­ries and services more than 13 million homes with over 62 million digi­tal meters.
As a relia­ble, long-term part­ner, Techem supports the real estate indus­try and private land­lords in impro­ving their energy effi­ci­ency in a low-invest­ment and ‑inva­sive manner and in sustain­ably redu­cing energy consump­tion, costs and CO2 emissions.
Techem’s services help to drive the long-term decar­bo­niza­tion of the real estate sector, which accounts for around 40% of carbon dioxide (CO2) emis­si­ons worldwide. 
“With TPG and GIC, we are gaining strong new part­ners who bring with them the digi­ta­liza­tion and plat­form exper­tise that will help us make decisive progress in imple­men­ting our corpo­rate stra­tegy. Toge­ther, we want to further expand and advance our posi­tion as the leading plat­form for the digi­ta­liza­tion and decar­bo­niza­tion of the buil­ding sector in Europe and beyond,” says Matthias Hart­mann, CEO of Techem.
Looking ahead, he says: “Techem has deve­lo­ped into a leading provi­der of a broad range of digi­tal solu­ti­ons with strong growth and a powerful, agile orga­niza­tion. We are very grateful to Part­ners Group and its co-inves­tors CDPQ and Onta­rio Teachers’ for their trust and colla­bo­ra­tion in deve­lo­ping the company over the past years and look forward to buil­ding on this success with TPG and GIC.” “Techem’s tech­no­logy, trans­pa­rent consump­tion data and opti­mi­zed solu­ti­ons for tenants, mana­gers and owners are making a signi­fi­cant contri­bu­tion to redu­cing costs and impro­ving the envi­ron­men­tal impact of proper­ties across Europe,” says
Ed Beck­ley, Mana­ging Part­ner of TPG Rise Climate, based in London.
“Energy consump­tion in buil­dings could be signi­fi­cantly redu­ced if effi­ci­ency and demand were better mana­ged. We look forward to support­ing the Techem team in driving and acce­le­ra­ting the reduc­tion of real estate emis­si­ons at scale.” Ang Eng Seng, Chief Invest­ment Offi­cer, Infra­struc­ture at GICsays: “Techem is an estab­lished energy service provi­der with a proven track record. Buil­ding level meter­ing is incre­asingly in demand in conti­nen­tal Europe as consu­mers and regu­la­tors conti­nue to focus on energy effi­ci­ency. We look forward to support­ing the company’s contin­ued growth toge­ther with TPG and its manage­ment.” Further expan­ding a strong digi­tal plat­form Thanks to its strong deve­lo­p­ment in recent years, Techem has excee­ded the one billion euro reve­nue mark — with further growth poten­tial through new digi­tal services and an incre­asingly compre­hen­sive decar­bo­niza­tion offering.
Techem will build on this foun­da­tion with its new part­ners TPG and GIC and further expand its ‘One Digi­tal Plat­form’ in order to tap into considera­ble energy effi­ci­ency poten­tial in the buil­ding sector through exten­sive digi­ta­liza­tion, opti­mize opera­tio­nal proces­ses and increase the living comfort of residents.
Techem will also bene­fit from TPG’s exper­tise in effec­tive decar­bo­niza­tion in achie­ving its own ambi­tious sustaina­bi­lity goals and thus build on the successful efforts of the previous year.
As recently as August, Techem recei­ved an outstan­ding rating of 9.6 — “Negli­gi­ble Risk” — in an ESG risk rating from Morning­star Sustai­na­ly­tics, a global provi­der of ESG data, studies and ratings.
This puts Techem in the top 3 percent of over 16,000 inter­na­tio­nal compa­nies asses­sed. Advi­sors to the funds TPG Rise Climate and GIC: Link­la­ters lead coun­sel Andreas Müller and Dr. Ralph Drebes (both part­ners, Private Equity/M&A, Frankfurt). 

About Techem Techem is a leading service provi­der for smart and sustainable buildings.
The company’s services cover the topics of energy manage­ment and resource protec­tion, healthy living and process effi­ci­ency in real estate.
The company was foun­ded in 1952, is now active in 18 count­ries with over 4,000 employees and services more than 13 million homes.
Techem offers increased effi­ci­ency along the entire value chain of heat and water in real estate as well as rege­ne­ra­tive supply concepts and solutions.
As the market leader in the wire­less remote recor­ding of energy consump­tion in homes, Techem conti­nues to drive forward networ­king and digi­tal proces­ses in real estate.
Modern multi-sensor devices and wire­less smoke alarms with remote inspec­tion, meter­ing point opera­tion, char­ging infra­struc­ture for elec­tro­mo­bi­lity and services for impro­ving the quality of drin­king water in proper­ties complete the port­fo­lio of solu­ti­ons for the resi­den­tial and commer­cial real estate industry.
For more infor­ma­tion, please visitwww.techem.comÜber TPG Rise Climate TPG Rise Climate is the specia­li­zed climate invest­ment stra­tegy of TPG’s global impact inves­t­ing plat­form, which has USD 19 billion under management.
TPG Rise Climate makes climate-rela­ted invest­ments that bene­fit from the deep exper­tise of TPG’s invest­ment profes­sio­nals, stra­te­gic rela­ti­onships with climate-focu­sed compa­nies in the exis­ting TPG port­fo­lio, and a global network of execu­ti­ves and advisors.
The fund takes a broad approach to invest­ment types, from growth equity to value-added infra­struc­ture, and focu­ses on climate solu­ti­ons in the follo­wing themes: clean elec­trons, clean mole­cu­les and mate­ri­als, and nega­tive emissions.
For more infor­ma­tion, please visit www.therisefund.com/tpgriseclimate. About GIC GIC is a leading global invest­ment company estab­lished in 1981 to secure Singapore’s finan­cial future.
As the mana­ger of Singapore’s foreign reser­ves, we take a long-term, disci­pli­ned invest­ment approach and are uniquely posi­tio­ned globally across a wide range of asset clas­ses and active strategies.
These include equi­ties, fixed income, real estate, private equity, venture capi­tal and infrastructure.
Our long-term approach, multi-asset capa­bi­li­ties and global network make us an inves­tor of choice.
We strive to add signi­fi­cant value to our investments.
Head­quar­te­red in Singa­pore, we have a global talent group of over 2,300 employees in 11 major finan­cial cities and invest in over 40 countries.
www.gic.com.sg About Part­ners Group Part­ners Group is a leading global private markets invest­ment mana­ger with around 1,800 profes­sio­nals and appro­xi­m­ately USD 150 billion in assets under management.
The firm offers invest­ment programs and custo­mi­zed offe­rings in private equity, private credit, infra­struc­ture, real estate and royalties.
With its roots in Switz­er­land and its US head­quar­ters in Colo­rado, Part­ners Group stands out from other firms in the indus­try. The company uses its diffe­ren­tia­ted culture and opera­tio­nally focu­sed approach to iden­tify attrac­tive invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties and deve­lop compa­nies and assets into market leaders. www.partnersgroup.com

News
Hamburg — YPOG provi­ded compre­hen­sive legal advice to Quan­tum Systems on the expan­sion of its Series B finan­cing round to over €100 million.
The round was led by new inves­tors Notion Capi­tal and Porsche SE.
Exis­ting inves­tors also parti­ci­pa­ted again.
Quan­tum Systems has deve­lo­ped a clear compe­ti­tive advan­tage through its state-of-the-art drones with inte­gra­ted arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence (AI).
By combi­ning hard­ware, soft­ware and AI, the company is trans­forming busi­ness opera­ti­ons and impro­ving effi­ci­ency in various indus­tries, inclu­ding mining, cons­truc­tion, agri­cul­ture, utili­ties, public safety and defense.
In all of these sectors, the coll­ec­tion, analy­sis and proces­sing of sensor data from the air offers decisive advantages.
With the addi­tio­nal funds of almost 40 million euros now raised — the origi­nal Series B brought Quan­tum Systems 63.3 million euros — the Munich-based company intends to drive forward its global expan­sion and invest in the further deve­lo­p­ment of arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence (AI) and software.
The capi­tal will enable the company to expand its produc­tion capa­ci­ties and invest more in rese­arch and development.
In addi­tion to Notion Capi­tal and Porsche Auto­mo­bil Holding SE, the exis­ting inves­tors also parti­ci­pa­ted again.
Porsche SE should not be confu­sed with Porsche AG: While SE is respon­si­ble for the asset manage­ment of the Porsche Piech family, AG is respon­si­ble for the auto­mo­bile produc­tion of sports cars as a subsi­diary of the VW Group. About Quan­tum Systems Quan­tum Systems specia­li­zes in the deve­lo­p­ment, design and produc­tion of small unman­ned aerial systems (sUAS).
The company’s elec­tric verti­cal take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft are desi­gned for maxi­mum flight endu­rance and versa­ti­lity, provi­ding users with a seam­less user experience.
Inte­gra­ting cutting-edge soft­ware capa­bi­li­ties such as edge compu­ting and real-time AI-powered data proces­sing, Quan­tum Systems builds next-gene­ra­tion UAS for secu­rity, defense, public safety, commer­cial and geogra­phic opera­ti­ons custo­mers across Europe.
www.quantum-systems.com.
In Octo­ber 2023, the YPOG team has alre­ady advi­sed Quan­tum Systems on the first round of Series B financing.
Advi­sors Quan­tum Systems: Dr. Adrian Haase (Lead, Tran­sac­tions), Part­ner, Hamburg Dr. Benja­min Ullrich (Tran­sac­tions), Part­ner, Berlin Alex­an­dra Stei­fen­sand (Tran­sac­tions), Asso­ciate, Berlin/Hamburg Dr. Gerrit Breet­holt (Tran­sac­tions), Asso­ciate, Hamburg About YPOG YPOG is a specia­list law firm for tax and commer­cial law, active in the core areas of funds, tax, banking + finance and transactions.
The YPOG team advi­ses a wide variety of clients. These include emer­ging tech­no­logy compa­nies and family-run medium-sized enter­pri­ses as well as corpo­ra­ti­ons and private equity/venture capi­tal funds. YPOG is one of the leading addres­ses for venture capi­tal, private equity and fund struc­tu­ring in Germany. The firm and its part­ners are reco­gni­zed natio­nally and inter­na­tio­nally by JUVE, Best Lawy­ers, Legal 500, Focus, Cham­bers and Part­ners and Leaders League. 
News

Möglin­gen (D)/ London (UK) — Thoma Bravo, a leading soft­ware invest­ment company with more than $160 billion in assets under manage­ment, has announ­ced the acqui­si­tion of a majo­rity stake in the USU product business.
— The combi­na­tion of Thoma Bravo’s exten­sive expe­ri­ence and invest­ment exper­tise in soft­ware with USU’s product port­fo­lio is expec­ted to acce­le­rate the company’s growth and deve­lo­p­ment of inno­va­tive solu­ti­ons for customers.
The exis­ting manage­ment team will conti­nue to lead the USU product business.
The tran­sac­tion is Thoma Bravo’s second invest­ment in Germany within a year and demons­tra­tes the company’s commit­ment to the German enter­prise soft­ware market.
— Benja­min Strehl, curr­ently Co-CEO of USU Soft­ware AG, will become CEO of the USU product business.
Bern­hard Ober­schmidt beco­mes a member of the Manage­ment Board.
The USU product busi­ness provi­des custo­mers world­wide with IT manage­ment solu­ti­ons for mana­ging diffe­rent IT envi­ron­ments and workflows.
As a stra­te­gic part­ner, the company enables its custo­mers to reduce costs, increase produc­ti­vity and manage growing tech­no­lo­gi­cal complexity.
Thoma Bravo will support the USU product busi­ness with its exten­sive network and indus­try expe­ri­ence to expand its product port­fo­lio and geogra­phi­cal presence.
The aim is to estab­lish the USU product busi­ness as a leading pan-Euro­pean provi­der of IT manage­ment solutions.
“With its exper­tise in soft­ware, a culture of colla­bo­ra­tion and a passion to invest in trans­for­ma­tive tech­no­lo­gies, Thoma Bravo is the right part­ner to expand our offe­ring and support our growth ambi­ti­ons. Toge­ther we can create more value for our custo­mers by further deve­lo­ping the USU plat­form and our range of IT solu­ti­ons and expan­ding our part­ner program,” said Bern­hard Ober­schmidt, CEO of USU Soft­ware AG. “We are very exci­ted to invest in USU. We want to build on the company’s impres­sive deve­lo­p­ment, strong commit­ment to its custo­mers and product focus, and support the team as it conti­nues to scale,” said David Tse, Senior Vice Presi­dent at Thoma Bravo.
“We look forward to working with Bern­hard, Benja­min and the entire team to further grow the busi­ness through inno­va­tion and M&A.” “Our invest­ment in USU is the second tran­sac­tion in the DACH region within a year. We see Germany as a signi­fi­cant growth market with strong tech­no­lo­gies and are exci­ted to support this ecosys­tem with another invest­ment,” said Irina Hemmers (photo © Thoma Bravo), Part­ner at Thoma Bravo.
“Thoma Bravo’s invest­ment in the USU product busi­ness fits perfectly with our stra­tegy of part­ne­ring with market-leading soft­ware compa­nies to drive trans­for­ma­tive growth.”
Thoma Bravo will invest in the USU product busi­ness along­side USU Soft­ware AG to acce­le­rate the company’s growth.
USU foun­der Udo Strehl and the Strehl family will also remain invol­ved in the USU product busi­ness and help shape its further growth trajectory.
The busi­ness with leading products for IT service manage­ment, IT asset manage­ment, IT opera­ti­ons manage­ment and know­ledge manage­ment will be mana­ged as an inde­pen­dent unit in the future.
The tran­sac­tion is part of Thoma Bravo’s stra­te­gic expan­sion in the German market and under­lines its focus on inves­t­ing in the growth of inno­va­tive soft­ware compa­nies across Europe.
Subject to regu­la­tory appr­ovals, the tran­sac­tion is expec­ted to be comple­ted by the end of the year. Advi­sor USU: USU was advi­sed by Guggen­heim as sole invest­ment banker, Heuking as legal advi­sor and RSM Ebner Stolz with the finan­cial fact book.
Thoma Bravo is supported by Raymond James as finan­cial advi­sor and Kirk­land & Ellis as legal advi­sor. About Thoma Bravo Thoma Bravo is one of the largest soft­ware inves­tors in the world with more than $160 billion in assets under manage­ment as of June 30, 2024. With private equity, growth equity and credit stra­te­gies, the company invests in growth-orien­ted, inno­va­tive compa­nies opera­ting in the soft­ware and tech­no­logy sectors. Thoma Bravo lever­a­ges its deep indus­try know­ledge and proven stra­te­gic and opera­tio­nal capa­bi­li­ties to part­ner with its port­fo­lio compa­nies to imple­ment best prac­ti­ces in opera­ti­ons and drive growth initiatives.
Over the past 20+ years, the firm has acqui­red or inves­ted in more than 490 compa­nies with an enter­prise value of over $265 billion, inclu­ding both control­ling and non-control­ling invest­ments. The company has bran­ches in Chicago, London, Miami, New York and San Fran­cisco. thomabravo.com. About USU Soft­ware AG As a leading provi­der of soft­ware and services for IT and custo­mer service manage­ment, USU enables orga­niza­ti­ons to master the demands of today’s digi­tal world.
Global orga­niza­ti­ons use our solu­ti­ons to cut costs, become more agile and reduce risk — with smar­ter services, simp­ler work­flows and better collaboration.
With more than 45 years of expe­ri­ence and loca­ti­ons world­wide, the USU team brings custo­mers into the future.
The USU Digi­tal Consul­ting busi­ness unit remains a wholly owned subsi­diary of USU Soft­ware AG.
http://www.usu.com

News

Hamburg — EIC Fund is inves­t­ing in the start-up Mind­Peak GmbH toge­ther with German lead inves­tor ZEISS Ventures, Hamburg-based Inno­Ven­tu­re­Fund, APEX Ventures and AI.Fund, among others.
The invest­ment was made as an equity invest­ment as part of a Series A finan­cing round under the “Hori­zon Europe Program”.
The finan­cing round had a total volume of 15.3 million US dollars.
EIC was compre­hen­si­vely advi­sed by Oppen­hoff on this tran­sac­tion. Mind­Peak, based in Hamburg, deve­lops auto­ma­tion tools for image diagno­sis using state-of-the-art arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence and deep learning.
The tools are based on AI algo­rithms and support cancer experts in making relia­ble diagno­ses. The EIC Fund is the special fund of the Euro­pean Inno­va­tion Coun­cil and thus the central invest­ment vehicle of the Euro­pean Commis­sion. It serves to imple­ment the Euro­pean Commission’s EIC Acce­le­ra­tor program, which supports inno­va­tive and sustainable Euro­pean growth compa­nies. The EIC Fund is advi­sed by the Euro­pean Invest­ment Bank. The EIC (Euro­pean Inno­va­tion Coun­cil) was foun­ded in the context of the pilot project “Hori­zon 2020 — the Frame­work Programme for Rese­arch and Inno­va­tion” and was successfully contin­ued in 2021 with the launch of the “Hori­zon Europe Programme”. With a dura­tion from 2021 to 2027 and a total budget of up to €95.5 billion, it is one of the largest funding programs for rese­arch and inno­va­tion world­wide. In 2023, the EIC Fund supported over 100 invest­ment rounds in deep tech compa­nies and secu­red co-invest­ments from 280 other inves­tors worth EUR 1.2 billion.
Oppen­hoff has regu­larly advi­sed the EIC Fund on its invest­ments in German start-ups since 2021. Advi­sor EIC: Oppen­hoff & Part­ner lead Dr. Caro­lin Roßko­then and Myriam Baars-Schil­ling, photo (both Corpo­rate / M&A),Dr.
Martin Bial­luch (Corpo­rate) and Dr. Fee Mäder (IP).
Oppen­hoff regu­larly advi­ses compa­nies in the venture capi­tal sector, most recently advi­sing the EIC Fund on a USD 62 million Series A finan­cing round of Reverion, on the EUR 53 million Series B finan­cing round of Infi­nite Roots and SellerX on the acqui­si­tion of KW-Commerce. About Oppen­hoff & Part­ner The full-service law firm Oppen­hoff deve­lops indus­try-speci­fic solu­ti­ons for natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal corpo­ra­ti­ons, large owner-mana­ged compa­nies, insti­tu­ti­ons, stra­te­gic inves­tors and finan­cial investors.
More than 100 lawy­ers advise clients throug­hout Germany in all important areas of commer­cial and tax law. Oppen­hoff & Part­ner Rechts­an­wälte Steu­er­be­ra­ter mbB (“Oppen­hoff”) is a part­ner­ship company regis­tered in the part­ner­ship regis­ter of the Essen Local Court with the regis­tra­tion number PR 1850 and its regis­tered office in Colo­gne. A list of the part­ners autho­ri­zed to repre­sent the company is available at https://www.oppenhoff.eu/de/allgemeine-seiten/impressum.html.

Subscribe newsletter

Here you can read about the latest transactions, IPOs, private equity deals and venture capital investments, who has raised a new fund, how Buy & Build activities are going.

Get in touch

Contact us!
fyb [at] fyb.de

Send email