ALTERNATIVE FINANCING FORMS
FOR ENTREPRENEURS AND INVESTORS

Author: Tatjana Anderer

Gründerin des FYB-Verlag
News

Zurich — Proven­tis Part­ners, one of the largest inde­pen­dent M&A advi­sory firms in the DACH region, under­pins its successful growth course with another key person­nel appoint­ment: Dr. Jan-Phil­ipp (JP) Pfander beco­mes a new part­ner in the Zurich office and will drive the stra­te­gic expan­sion of the tran­sac­tion busi­ness as well as the advi­sory services in the chemi­cal sector toge­ther with Dr. Uwe Nickel.

Prior to joining Proven­tis Part­ners, Jan-Phil­ipp Pfander was Mana­ging Direc­tor at Moelis & Company. He headed EMEA Chemi­cals and Mate­ri­als there. Until 2015, he was Mana­ging Direc­tor at J.P.Morgan and respon­si­ble for EMEA Chemi­cals. From 2001 to early 2007, he was head of the Euro­pean Chemi­cals sector at Lehman Brot­hers. Jan-Phil­ipp Pfander began his career at McKin­sey & Company.

In a career span­ning more than 30 years, Jan-Phil­ipp Pfander has advi­sed on a wide range of global and regio­nal M&A and capi­tal markets tran­sac­tions in chemi­cals and rela­ted sectors for stra­te­gists and finan­cial inves­tors. Among others, Jan-Phil­ipp Pfander has advi­sed Evonik, Symrise, Nouryon, Lonza, Marquardt & Bahls, Syngenta, Brenn­tag, ADNOC, Altana and Lanxess in the past.

At Proven­tis Part­ners, Jan-Phil­ipp Pfander will consis­t­ently expand the range of services for clients in the chemi­cal indus­try toge­ther with Uwe Nickel. He will contri­bute his many years of expe­ri­ence in M&A and corpo­rate finance as well as his proven exper­tise in the chemi­cal indus­try to the support of M&A proces­ses. He stands for the hands-on approach coupled with a long expe­ri­ence in invest­ment banking and stra­te­gic consulting.

“We are very appre­cia­tive to have such an expe­ri­en­ced chemi­cal expert as Jan-Phil­ipp Pfander join Proven­tis Part­ners as an M&A and indus­try specia­list. Jan-Phil­ipp brings to us a deep under­stan­ding of the needs of compa­nies in almost all sectors of the chemi­cal indus­try and knows how to trans­late the chal­lenges of these indus­tries into oppor­tu­ni­ties for our clients. His expe­ri­ence in invest­ment banking, his deal track record and last but not least his large network perfectly comple­ment Proven­tis’ exper­tise in the global chemi­cal indus­try. Thus, we gene­rate a unique selling propo­si­tion in the chemi­cal M&A advi­sory segment”, explai­ned Uwe Nickel, Mana­ging Part­ner of Proven­tis Part­ners Zurich.

“I am plea­sed to join Proven­tis Part­ners to further deve­lop the chemis­try exper­tise toge­ther with Uwe Nickel and the exis­ting team. We are buil­ding on an excel­lent repu­ta­tion of the company as a respon­si­ble, stra­te­gic part­ner for medium-sized compa­nies.” “Deli­ve­ring solu­tion-orien­ted, inno­va­tive and inde­pen­dent M&A and corpo­rate finance advice to stra­te­gists and finan­cial inves­tors — regio­nally active and globally connec­ted, is the goal,” says Jan-Phil­ipp Pfander. “The new role combi­nes my many years of expe­ri­ence in inter­na­tio­nal M&A and corpo­rate finance advi­sory with Proven­tis Part­ners’ exis­ting expe­ri­ence in mana­ging chemi­cal compa­nies, thus comple­men­ting each other ideally.”

“I expect a sustained increase in tran­sac­tion volu­mes in the sector over the next few years, due to the shift in supply chains, and the chan­ges in demand for chemi­cals and mate­ri­als that will accom­pany the “Green Revo­lu­tion”. My goal with Proven­tis Part­ners is to provide the ideal consul­ting services for our clients in this chal­len­ging environment.”

In the chemi­cal sector, Proven­tis Part­ners alre­ady has a long track record and is an active member of the global Merger Alli­ance. Thanks to Jan-Phil­ipp Pfander’s contri­bu­tion, Proven­tis Part­ners will conti­nue to expand the chemi­cal sector inter­na­tio­nally as a focus sector since 2020.

About Dr. Jan-Phil­ipp (JP) Pfander

Born in Frank­furt, he star­ted his career at McKin­sey & Company in Hamburg. After 10 years of top manage­ment consul­ting to chemi­cal and indus­trial compa­nies on stra­tegy, port­fo­lio manage­ment, M&A and perfor­mance opti­miza­tion, he joined Lehman Brot­her in London in 2001 in the M&A team and became Head of Chemi­cals Sector for Europe. At the begin­ning of 2007, he joined J.P.Morgan as Sector Head EMEA Chemi­cals. In mid-2015, Jan-Phil­ipp Pfander became Part­ner and Mana­ging Direc­tor at Moelis & Company with respon­si­bi­lity for Chemi­cals and Mate­ri­als in the EMEA region.

Dr. Jan-Phil­ipp (JP) Pfander studied micro­bio­logy at the Tech­ni­cal Univer­sity of Munich and holds a PhD in busi­ness admi­nis­tra­tion from the Univer­sity of Oldenburg.

About Proven­tis Partners

Proven­tis Part­ners is a part­ner-led M&A advi­sory firm whose clients include a majo­rity of mid-sized family busi­nesses, corpo­rate subsi­dia­ries and private equity funds. With more than 30 M&A advi­sors, Proven­tis Part­ners is one of the largest inde­pen­dent M&A consul­tancies in the German-spea­king region and looks back on 20 years of M&A expe­ri­ence and more than 300 comple­ted tran­sac­tions. The M&A advi­sors with offices in Zurich, Hamburg, Colo­gne and Munich are active in the sectors Indus­tri­als & Chemi­cals, Busi­ness Services, Consu­mer & Retail, TMT, Health­care and Energy & Sustaina­bi­lity. Exclu­sive member­ship in Mergers Alli­ance — an inter­na­tio­nal part­ner­ship of leading M&A specia­lists — enables Proven­tis Part­ners to assist clients in 30 count­ries in key markets world­wide. Mergers Alli­ance members, with over 200 M&A profes­sio­nals, provide Proven­tis Part­ners, and thus its clients, with unique access to local markets in Europe, North America, Latin America, Asia and Africa. www.proventis.com

News

Berlin — The Chinese company Sino Biophar­maceu­ti­cal Limi­ted is buying Softhale NV. Softhale is a priva­tely held Belgian company focu­sed on the deve­lo­p­ment of products for the treat­ment of respi­ra­tory dise­a­ses. Its next-gene­ra­tion Soft Mist Inha­la­tion (“SMI”) device is based on diffe­ren­tia­ted tech­no­logy and enables more effi­ci­ent drug depo­si­tion in the lungs.

The tran­sac­tion volume is USD 110 million and addi­tio­nal payments rela­ted to regu­la­tory and commer­cial milestones.

An inter­na­tio­nal team of Baker McKen­zie lawy­ers provi­ded compre­hen­sive advice to Sino Biophar­maceu­ti­cal Limi­ted on all legal and regu­la­tory aspects of the tran­sac­tion, with the agree­ment gover­ned by German law. The M&A nego­tia­ti­ons were led by Dr. Thors­ten Seidel in Berlin. The due dili­gence on the Belgian company was led by Baker McKen­zie Brussels under the leader­ship of Domi­ni­que Maes.

“With the successful closing of the tran­sac­tion, we were able to support our client in the imple­men­ta­tion of its growth stra­tegy. With this acqui­si­tion, our client gains a stra­te­gic hub in Europe on its way to beco­ming a major deve­lo­per of inno­va­tive respi­ra­tory products for China and the global market,” commen­ted Dr. Thors­ten Seidel, Part­ner Baker McKenzie.

Sino Biophar­maceu­ti­cal, toge­ther with its subsi­dia­ries, is a leading inno­va­tive rese­arch and deve­lo­p­ment (“R&D”) focu­sed phar­maceu­ti­cal conglo­me­rate in China. Sino Biopharmaceutical’s busi­ness compri­ses a fully inte­gra­ted chain of phar­maceu­ti­cal products that includes a number of inno­va­tive R&D plat­forms and pipe­lines, a range of smart manu­fac­tu­ring faci­li­ties, and a strong distri­bu­tion infrastructure.

Softhale is a Belgian phar­maceu­ti­cal company specia­li­zing in the deve­lo­p­ment of SMI (Soft Mist Inha­la­tion) devices (vapor inha­lers) and rela­ted phar­maceu­ti­cal products for the deli­very of drugs to the lungs.

Baker McKenzie’s global Corporate/M&A team advi­ses on more cross-border tran­sac­tions than any other law firm. Most recently, Baker McKen­zie advi­sed Para­gon on the sale of Novu­mIP to Ques­tel Group, TA Asso­cia­tes on the acqui­si­tion of a majo­rity stake in IGEL, Embra­cer on the acqui­si­tion of Easy­brain Limi­ted, SK Tele­com on a joint venture with Deut­sche Tele­kom, Chr. Hansen Holding A/S in its acqui­si­tion of Jenne­wein Biotech­no­lo­gie GmbH, DBAG in an invest­ment in conga­tec Holding AG, SAP in the sale of its SAP Digi­tal Inter­con­nect commu­ni­ca­ti­ons unit to Sinch AB, Air Liquide in the sale of the Schülke Group to Swedish finan­cial inves­tor EQT, METRO AG in the sale of its China busi­ness and the estab­lish­ment of a stra­te­gic part­ner­ship with Wumei, Bayer AG in the sale of its majo­rity stake in chemi­cal park opera­tor Currenta, and Evonik in the sale of its methacry­la­tes group to Advent International.

Legal advi­sor Sino Biophar­maceu­ti­cal Limi­ted: Baker McKenzie
Lead: Corporate/M&A: Dr. Thors­ten Seidel (Part­ner, Berlin)
Other lawy­ers invol­ved: Corporate/M&A: Domi­ni­que Maes (Part­ner, Brussels), Kim Stas (Coun­sel, Brussels), Derek Poon (Part­ner, Hong Kong), Bruno Schroé (Asso­ciate, Brussels), Holger Engel­kamp (Coun­sel, Berlin)
Employ­ment: Dr. Matthias Köhler (Part­ner, Berlin), Tatjana Serbina (Asso­ciate, Berlin)
IP: Dr. Rembert Niebel (Part­ner, Frankfurt)

About Baker McKenzie

Baker McKen­zie advi­ses clients to successfully deal with the chal­lenges of globa­liza­tion. We solve complex legal problems across natio­nal borders and legal fields. Our unique culture — grown over 70 years — enables our 13,000 employees to under­stand local markets while opera­ting inter­na­tio­nally. We use the trus­ting and friendly coope­ra­tion in our inter­na­tio­nal network for the bene­fit of our clients.

In Germany, around 200 lawy­ers with proven profes­sio­nal exper­tise and inter­na­tio­nal expe­ri­ence repre­sent the inte­rests of their clients at the offices in Berlin, Düssel­dorf, Frankfurt/Main and Munich. As one of the leading German law firms, Baker McKen­zie advi­ses natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal compa­nies and insti­tu­ti­ons in all areas of commer­cial law.

News

Frank­furt am Main — Deut­sche Betei­li­gungs AG (DBAG) invests in R+S Group AG (R+S), a provi­der of tech­ni­cal buil­ding equip­ment. DBAG acqui­res the shares of the previous majo­rity share­hol­der, conzima Cons­truc­tion GmbH, invests 15 million euros and enters into a long-term invest­ment. Haspa Betei­li­gungs­ge­sell­schaft für den Mittel­stand mbH, which has alre­ady been a share­hol­der of R+S since 2010, will conti­nue to hold an inte­rest as a mino­rity share­hol­der. The Board of Manage­ment of R+S will also acquire shares. The tran­sac­tion is subject to a finan­cing contin­gency and regu­la­tory appr­oval; closing is expec­ted in April.

Expan­ded offe­ring through long-term investments

DBAG has expan­ded its offe­ring to mid-market compa­nies to include equity invest­ments that it can hold in the port­fo­lio for longer than the matu­rity limits of conven­tio­nal private equity funds allow. DBAG ther­e­fore does not enter into such invest­ments as a co-inves­tor along­side the DBAG funds it initia­tes, but finan­ces them exclu­si­vely with funds from its own balance sheet. In this context, DBAG supports fast-growing compa­nies as a mino­rity share­hol­der and acqui­res majo­rity stakes in compa­nies with opera­tio­nal chal­lenges. In both cases, sustainable corpo­rate deve­lo­p­ment requi­res a longer holding period than in the buyout busi­ness. A first long-term parti­ci­pa­tion was agreed in Septem­ber 2020:
Haus­held AG deve­lops intel­li­gent meter solu­ti­ons for elec­tri­city networks — DBAG has since accom­pa­nied the company’s growth as a mino­rity shareholder.

R+S Group AG: Three inde­pen­dent busi­ness units

R+S is one of the leading compa­nies in tech­ni­cal buil­ding equip­ment. R+S imple­ments, controls and main­ta­ins projects for muni­ci­pa­li­ties, health care, indus­try and ship­buil­ding in parti­cu­lar. R+S is a full-service provi­der; its range of services includes elec­tri­cal system cons­truc­tion, energy and control tech­no­logy, and heating/air condi­tio­ning and venti­la­tion tech­no­logy. Among the better-known current projects are the cons­truc­tion of the new Termi­nal 3 at Frank­furt Airport and an exten­sion for Frank­furt Univer­sity Hospi­tal. Tech­ni­cal buil­ding equip­ment accounts for just over 50 percent of sales. The company’s offe­ring is supple­men­ted by two orga­niza­tio­nally inde­pen­dent busi­ness units — person­nel services and a high-perfor­mance elec­tri­cal trade. In 2020, R+S gene­ra­ted around 360 million euros in sales. The company employs 3,000 people at 30 loca­ti­ons in Germany, inclu­ding around 500 at its head­quar­ters in Fulda (Hesse).

In recent years, R+S had grown mainly through corpo­rate acqui­si­ti­ons. Howe­ver, plan­ned syner­gies could not be achie­ved because the inte­gra­tion of the acqui­red compa­nies was not driven forward quickly enough. This had a nega­tive impact on earnings, as did a number of major projects that were not suffi­ci­ently profi­ta­ble. In addi­tion, promi­sing new cons­truc­tion projects were post­po­ned due to the pande­mic — this has affec­ted current capa­city utiliza­tion. R+S has an attrac­tive custo­mer base and a high order back­log. The market envi­ron­ment is good: The trend towards so-called smart buil­dings and energy-effi­ci­ent buil­dings ensu­res contin­ued growth and expands the market espe­ci­ally for elec­tri­cal buil­ding equip­ment, which R+S mainly offers. The reor­ga­niza­tion of the company, which is alre­ady well advan­ced, is to be comple­ted in the coming years to enable further profi­ta­ble sales growth. Corpo­rate acqui­si­ti­ons should then also contri­bute to this again. DBAG streng­thens the equity and thus acce­le­ra­tes the successful reor­ga­niza­tion of the company.

“We are inves­t­ing in a company in the core indus­trial services sector and with an attrac­tive market posi­tion that has crea­ted good condi­ti­ons for successful further deve­lo­p­ment over the past two years,” said Jannick Hune­cke, photo, member of the DBAG Manage­ment Board on the occa­sion of the signing of the contract on Friday. “DBAG has been very successful in inves­t­ing in compa­nies with simi­lar busi­ness models in the past and will use its expe­ri­ence to further advance R+S as a long-term partner.”

Ralph Burk­hardt, Chair­man of the Board of Manage­ment of R+S Group AG, empha­si­zes not only the finan­cial contri­bu­tion but above all the substan­tive contri­bu­tion of DBAG: “With our new share­hol­ders, we are well posi­tio­ned to expand our range of services to include further trades and to turn more stron­gly to custo­mers in parti­cu­larly promi­sing industries.”

About DBAG

Deut­sche Betei­li­gungs AG, a listed company, initia­tes closed-end private equity funds and invests — predo­mi­nantly along­side DBAG funds — in well-posi­tio­ned medium-sized compa­nies with poten­tial. One focus for many years has been indus­try. An incre­asing propor­tion of equity invest­ments are in compa­nies in the growth sectors of broad­band tele­com­mu­ni­ca­ti­ons, IT services/software and health­care. The long-term, value-enhan­cing entre­pre­neu­rial invest­ment approach makes DBAG a sought-after invest­ment part­ner in the German-spea­king region. Assets mana­ged and advi­sed by the DBAG Group amount to 2.5 billion euros.

News

Berlin — SMP has again advi­sed the startup SellerX in the course of a capi­tal increase. The total volume of the exten­ded finan­cing round amounts to appro­xi­m­ately 26 million euros and comes from lead inves­tor 83North as well as exis­ting inves­tors Felix Capi­tal, Cherry Ventures and other well-known busi­ness angels. Just a few months ago, SellerX announ­ced the successful comple­tion of a €100 million equity and debt finan­cing led by Sili­con Valley-based VC Triple­Point Capi­tal, among others.

In the mean­time, the Berlin-based company has bought up around 20 Amazon stores and is now plan­ning to use the fresh capi­tal to further expand its opera­ting busi­ness. At least 50 more stores are to follow in the next year and a half. SellerX was compre­hen­si­vely legally advi­sed by SMP part­ner Martin Scha­per toge­ther with Martyna Sabat and Matthias Kres­ser. The team had alre­ady provi­ded legal support to the FBA buyer in the previous finan­cing at the end of 2020 and also worked closely with Tomasz Krzy­wi­cki, Gene­ral Coun­sel of SellerX, on this transaction.

About SellerX

SellerX is a VC-funded startup that buys and builds out Amazon stores. With its growing and diver­si­fied port­fo­lio of FBA (Fulfill­ment by Amazon) sellers, SellerX aims to further opti­mize and grow its acqui­red busi­nesses to estab­lish sustainable consu­mer brands in the home, garden and pet supply cate­go­ries. Art supplies, DIY tools, nutri­tio­nal supple­ments, beauty products, baby products and fitness tools are also part of SellerX’s diverse port­fo­lio. The Berlin-based company was foun­ded in 2020 by Phil­ipp Trie­bel and Malte Horeys­eck (photo ) and says it curr­ently employs around 120 people at its sites in Germany, the UK and the US.

About SMP

SMP is a specia­list tax and commer­cial law firm opera­ting in the core areas of corpo­rate, funds, liti­ga­tion, tax and tran­sac­tions. SMP’s attor­neys and tax advi­sors repre­sent 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. Since its foun­da­tion in 2017, SMP has become one of the leading addres­ses for venture capi­tal, private equity and fund struc­tu­ring in Germany. The firm and its part­ners are natio­nally and inter­na­tio­nally ranked by JUVE, Best Lawy­ers, Legal 500, Focus, and Cham­bers and Part­ners. Today, SMP employs more than 60 expe­ri­en­ced lawy­ers, tax advi­sors and tax specia­lists in three offices in Berlin, Hamburg and Colo­gne. www.smp.law

News

Berlin — SMP advi­sed early-stage inves­tor 42CAP on its invest­ment in Vien­nese biotech startup Allcyte. As lead inves­tor of an inter­na­tio­nal inves­tor consor­tium, 42CAP inves­ted toge­ther with Air Street Capi­tal (UK), Amino Coll­ec­tive (Germany), VP Venture Part­ners (Switz­er­land) and PUSH Ventures (Austria) in the course of the growth financing.

Allcyte, which specia­li­zes in cancer therapy, has so far used its process to treat blood cancers. Howe­ver, accor­ding to the company, expan­sion to other cancer types is alre­ady plan­ned. “Instead of trying to extra­po­late infor­ma­tion from DNA, we’re taking actual cancer cells and test­ing directly on them to see what works,” Niko­las Krall, co-foun­der and CEO of Allcyte, told U.S. Fortune maga­zine. For the multi­tude of rapidly perfor­med “micro­ex­pe­ri­ments,” the startup uses AI image reco­gni­tion to deter­mine how cells respond to each drug.

“It is fasci­na­ting to see how alre­ady today in modern cancer therapy the use of arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence in inter­ac­tion with biome­di­cine can help to directly deter­mine and in this way maxi­mize the degree of effi­cacy of diffe­rent treat­ments and to speci­fi­cally advance drug deve­lo­p­ment,” says Jens Kretz­schmann. “We hope that this invest­ment has laid the foun­da­tion for further revo­lu­tio­nary succes­ses of the company in the fight against cancer,” adds Frede­rik Gärtner.

42CAP recei­ved legal and tax advice from an SMP team led by Frede­rik Gärt­ner, Jens Kretz­schmann, and Martyna Sabat. Previously, SMP assis­ted the venture capi­ta­list in a number of finan­cing rounds as well as in the launch of its second venture capi­tal fund generation.

About 42CAP
42CAP inves­tors Alex Meyer and Thomas Wilke invest very early in young compa­nies with global ambi­ti­ons. They built one of Europe’s largest SaaS compa­nies them­sel­ves with eCir­cle and sold the profi­ta­ble company to Teradata (NYSE:TDC) in 2012. The 42CAP credo Peers amongst Entre­pre­neurs reflects their invest­ment approach to support data and tech­no­logy-driven busi­ness models, product-driven foun­ders and sustainable busi­ness deve­lo­p­ment. This back­ground is appre­cia­ted by foun­ders such as Nico­las Reboud (SHINE, Paris), Inigo Ijuan­tegui (Ontruck, Madrid) and Alex­an­der Igels­böck (Adve­rity, Vienna).

Allcyte
Allcyte is a biotech startup based in Vienna. Using AI-assis­ted image analy­sis, Allcyte has deve­lo­ped a method to gene­rate actionable insights into the func­tional acti­vity of drugs and drug candi­da­tes directly in viable, primary tissue samples from human cancer pati­ents at the single-cell level. The company thus enables physi­ci­ans to treat cancer pati­ents with the most promi­sing drug at the right time, when clas­si­cal gene­tics-driven precis­ion medi­cine fails to provide precise answers. It also enables phar­maceu­ti­cal compa­nies to select the most promi­sing drug candi­da­tes for clini­cal deve­lo­p­ment in the right pati­ent popu­la­ti­ons to maxi­mize clini­cal trial success rates and pati­ent bene­fit. Allcyte star­ted in 2017 as a spin-off of the Vienna-based CeMM Rese­arch Center for Mole­cu­lar Medi­cine. Foun­ded by Berend Snij­der, Gregory Vladi­mer, Niko­laus Krall and Giulio Superti-Furga, the company curr­ently employs around 30 people.

About SMP
SMP is a specia­list tax and commer­cial law firm opera­ting in the core areas of corpo­rate, funds, liti­ga­tion, tax and tran­sac­tions. SMP’s attor­neys and tax advi­sors repre­sent 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. Since its foun­da­tion in 2017, SMP has become one of the leading addres­ses for venture capi­tal, private equity and fund struc­tu­ring in Germany. The firm and its part­ners are natio­nally and inter­na­tio­nally ranked by JUVE, Best Lawy­ers, Legal 500, Focus, and Cham­bers and Part­ners. Today, SMP employs more than 60 expe­ri­en­ced lawy­ers, tax advi­sors and tax specia­lists in three offices in Berlin, Hamburg and Colo­gne. www.smp.law

Consul­tant 42CAP: SMP
Dr. Frede­rik Gärt­ner (Corpo­rate), Asso­ciate Partner
Jens Kretz­schmann (Taxes), Partner
Dr. Martyna Sabat (Corpo­rate), Associate

News

Chemnitz/Munich/New York — Staff­base, a leading provi­der of digi­tal solu­ti­ons for inter­nal corpo­rate commu­ni­ca­ti­ons, and Gene­ral Atlan­tic, a leading global growth inves­tor, have agreed on a stra­te­gic part­ner­ship: Gene­ral Atlan­tic is leading a €122 million ($145 million) finan­cing round for the Chem­nitz, Germany-based start-up to help it grow inter­na­tio­nally and further expand its global leader­ship posi­tion. Of the exis­ting inves­tors, Insights Part­ners and e.ventures are parti­ci­pa­ting in the finan­cing round; KIZOO and Capna­mic Ventures remain inves­ted. As part of the part­ner­ship, Achim Berg (photo), Opera­ting Part­ner at Gene­ral Atlan­tic and Presi­dent of the digi­tal asso­cia­tion BITKOM, will join Staffbase’s Advi­sory Board.

Foun­ded in 2014 in Chem­nitz, Germany, Staff­base has become a fast-growing and award-winning provi­der of employee apps, inter­nal email news­let­ter tools, and modern intra­nets to improve employee commu­ni­ca­ti­ons. The products are used in over 1,000 orga­niza­ti­ons by a total of more than 8 million people and regu­larly win awards. Custo­mers include Adidas, Audi, BHP, Deut­sche Post DHL, Grou­pon, Hita­chi, Ikea, Johns Hopkins Univer­sity, McKes­son, Paula­ner, Suncor, Viess­mann and Volvo.

The Staff­base plat­form enables compa­nies to commu­ni­cate with all their employees in a timely and effec­tive manner: from the crea­tion of messa­ges in the corpo­rate design to the fast and relia­ble publi­ca­tion of messa­ges and the measu­re­ment of the impact of commu­ni­ca­tion measu­res. Staffbase’s solu­ti­ons enable more effec­tive onboar­ding, higher enga­ge­ment and grea­ter employee iden­ti­fi­ca­tion with their employer. More and more compa­nies see inter­nal commu­ni­ca­tion as an essen­tial stra­te­gic task that can be used to guide and involve employees in the digi­tal trans­for­ma­tion. In parti­cu­lar, the Covid 19 pande­mic and the asso­cia­ted proli­fe­ra­tion of a hybrid work envi­ron­ment has once again high­ligh­ted the importance of targe­ted and agile inter­nal communications.

Dr. Martin Böhrin­ger, co-foun­der and CEO of Staff­base: “Our vision is to bring all employees of a company toge­ther through strong inter­nal commu­ni­ca­tion and a common mission. To achieve this, we support execu­ti­ves and commu­ni­ca­tion profes­sio­nals in large compa­nies with the leading digi­tal plat­form for successful employee commu­ni­ca­tion, which we conti­nue to expand at high speed. The part­ner­ship with Gene­ral Atlan­tic will help us further realize this goal, not least in North America. But also crucial for us is the strong local team in Germany, which will support us with its expertise.”

Dr. Chris­tian Figge, Mana­ging Direc­tor at Gene­ral Atlan­tic: “Staff­base is a global pioneer in the field of soft­ware speci­fi­cally desi­gned for inter­nal commu­ni­ca­ti­ons. We have been follo­wing this exci­ting company for some time and are now looking forward to support­ing the foun­ding and manage­ment team in expan­ding their global market leader­ship. Staff­base is an excel­lent exam­ple of how broad the base of inno­va­tive compa­nies with global ambi­tion now is in Germany.”

Staff­base has 450 employees in eleven loca­ti­ons, with head­quar­ters in Chem­nitz and offices in London, New York, Vancou­ver, Amster­dam and Berlin. In early March, the company merged with Bananatag, the leading Cana­dian provi­der of inter­nal corpo­rate commu­ni­ca­ti­ons. The combi­ned company is one of the world’s largest, highest reve­nue and fastest growing provi­ders of advan­ced inter­nal commu­ni­ca­ti­ons soft­ware. The merger added a native solu­tion for email commu­ni­ca­tion to the estab­lished employee app and intra­net plat­form, as well as deeper inte­gra­ti­ons with Slack and Micro­soft 365 colla­bo­ra­tion tools, inclu­ding Micro­soft Teams and SharePoint.

Staff­base

Staff­base is one of the world’s leading and fastest growing provi­ders of employee apps and modern intra­nets to improve employee commu­ni­ca­tion in large and inter­na­tio­nal compa­nies. The mobile version allows employ­ers to secu­rely reach their employees where­ver they are — in the office, at home, on the factory floor, or on the road. The plat­form gives the work­force better access to corpo­rate infor­ma­tion and digi­tal work­place tools. With head­quar­ters in Chem­nitz and offices in New York, Amster­dam, London, Vancou­ver, Kelowna, Munich, Leip­zig, Berlin, Dres­den and Colo­gne, Staff­base enables inter­nal commu­ni­ca­tion that reaches all employees. Staff­base has more than 1000 custo­mers world­wide — inclu­ding DHL, T‑Systems, Viess­mann, Adidas, Paula­ner, MAN Truck & Bus SE and Audi. For more infor­ma­tion, visit staffbase.com.

Gene­ral Atlantic

Gene­ral Atlan­tic is a leading inter­na­tio­nal growth capi­tal inves­tor that provi­des capi­tal and stra­te­gic support to compa­nies with high growth poten­tial. Foun­ded in 1980, the company combi­nes a colla­bo­ra­tive global approach, indus­try-speci­fic exper­tise, a long-term invest­ment hori­zon and a deep under­stan­ding of growth drivers with outstan­ding manage­ment teams to create excep­tio­nal busi­ness models world­wide. Gene­ral Atlantic’s team includes more than 175 invest­ment profes­sio­nals in New York, Amster­dam, Beijing, Green­wich, Hong Kong, Jakarta, London, Mexico City, Mumbai, Munich, Palo Alto, São Paulo, Shang­hai and Singa­pore. www.generalatlantic.com

News

Copen­ha­gen, Denmark — London-based SME growth inves­tor Magenta Part­ners today announ­ced that it has led a major Series A funding round for Moto­sumo, a fast-growing at-home indoor cycling plat­form that offers live inter­ac­tive clas­ses from any bike. Magenta led the finan­cing round with parti­ci­pa­tion from exis­ting investors.

Tom Matthews, mana­ging part­ner of Magenta, says their exten­sive evalua­tion iden­ti­fied Moto­sumo as a unique offe­ring in a crow­ded market. “Our team of experts has reviewed nume­rous soft­ware and hard­ware plat­forms in the Connec­ted Fitness space over the past 18 months. We believe Moto­sumo is an outstan­ding offe­ring capa­ble of leading the evolu­tion in the home fitness market. It is the only plat­form of its kind that is hard­ware agno­stic, which opens up signi­fi­cant growth oppor­tu­ni­ties across geogra­phies,” said Matthews, whose team at Magenta has an exten­sive back­ground in fitness, inclu­ding previous invest­ments in LA Fitness, The Gym Group, Pure Gym and Viva Gym.

Moto­sumo, a Danish fit-tech company foun­ded in 2015, offers a global program of live indoor cycling clas­ses with world-class instruc­tors. Motosumo’s inno­va­tive tech­no­logy means users can join the plat­form from home, with any bike and a cell phone or tablet. Even the simp­lest setup can be connec­ted to enjoy a fully inter­ac­tive class.

With subscrip­ti­ons start­ing at just $12.99 per month, Moto­sumo offers an afforda­ble alter­na­tive to the many expen­sive play­ers in the market that require consu­mers to purchase equip­ment and wait weeks for deli­very to get started.

“Imme­diate access, an inter­ac­tive expe­ri­ence and global reach are important factors for growth, and Moto­sumo has all three,” says Moto­sumo co-foun­der and CEO Kres­ten Juel Jensen. “Our plat­form works with any bike, so users don’t have to invest in new equip­ment and can access a work­out imme­dia­tely. Moto­sumo cour­ses include inter­ac­tive games with live fitness metrics, and our trai­ners inter­act with parti­ci­pants in real time. We are exci­ted about the part­ner­ship with Magenta. Their invest­ment and stra­te­gic vision and support will help drive our expe­ri­ence and expansion.”

“Even before the COVID pande­mic, consu­mer demand for home exer­cise opti­ons was growing. The past year has drasti­cally chan­ged the land­scape of the fitness indus­try. Connec­ted fitness at home has become a major bene­fi­ci­ary, and Moto­sumo was alre­ady ahead of the curve and uniquely posi­tio­ned to drive rapid adop­tion of our home exer­cise solu­tion,” said Juel Jensen.

This round of Series A funding will allow Moto­sumo to double the number of its trai­ners on four conti­nents (Europe, North America, Asia and Austra­lia), expand its tech­ni­cal team and signi­fi­cantly increase its marke­ting efforts. Magenta typi­cally invests between GBP5 million and GBP20 million in each oppor­tu­nity. Your invest­ment in Moto­sumo is the first step in a possi­ble long-term, working partnership.

Magenta Mana­ging Part­ner Chase Emson alre­ady makes Moto­sumo clas­ses part of his daily work­out at home, “Moto­sumo is a fanta­stic expe­ri­ence. It is the only real live and inter­ac­tive offer for those who have an indoor bike at home. Having taken some of the clas­ses, I can say from perso­nal expe­ri­ence that Moto­sumo is fun and enter­tai­ning — and I’m most exci­ted about the results I’m getting from my trai­ning,” Emson said.

Inves­tors in Moto­sumo from previous rounds include Danish venture capi­tal fund Prom­en­tum Equity Part­ners and PreSeed Ventures, one of Denmark’s largest inno­va­tion incubators.

About Moto­sumo

Moto­sumo is a live inter­ac­tive plat­form for home cycling cour­ses that works with any statio­nary bike. The company was foun­ded by a Danish team of engi­neers and astro­phy­si­cists who harnes­sed the power of smart­phone motion sensors to gene­rate live fitness metrics, such as cadence, on each bike. They deve­lo­ped an app to make a fun, inter­ac­tive work­out and commu­nity expe­ri­ence acces­si­ble to almost anyone. Early on, Moto­sumo became a popu­lar main­stay in gyms and fitness centers. In response to the growing demand for at-home work­out opti­ons, Moto­sumo has evol­ved the plat­form for indi­vi­dual users and part­ne­red with a network of world-class trai­ners to create a global offe­ring of daily live clas­ses. For just $12.99 per month, anyone can enjoy the same intense, inter­ac­tive fitness expe­ri­ence at home. To turn any bike into a world-class work­out expe­ri­ence, visit www.motosumo.com.

About Magenta Partners

Magenta Part­ners LLP is a UK-based private equity advi­sory firm foun­ded in 2008, specia­li­zing in entre­pre­neur-led growth invest­ments. Since its incep­tion, Magenta has inves­ted in consu­mer-focu­sed compa­nies such as Pure Gym, JoJo Maman Bebe, Maker&Son and North Ameri­can Guitar Company. A criti­cal element of Magenta’s invest­ment style is the ability to work with manage­ment teams to achieve alignment around a common goal. Magenta funds are backed by successful entre­pre­neurs, and the manage­ment team itself brings expe­ri­ence in running and growing successful venture-backed compa­nies. www.magentapartners.com

Prom­en­tum Equity Partners

Prom­en­tum Equity Part­ners is a Danish private equity fund estab­lished in 2016 as a colla­bo­ra­tion between Prom­en­tum Capi­tal and Alter­na­tive Equity Part­ners. www.promentumequity.dk

PreSeed Ventures

For more than two deca­des, PreSeed Ventures has scou­ted, mento­red and funded Danish success stories such as Vivino, Trust­pi­lot and Lunar. www.preseedventures.dk

News

Frank­furt a.M. — McDer­mott Will & Emery advi­ses Fried­rich Vorwerk Group SE on its successful IPO in the Prime Stan­dard segment of the Frank­furt Stock Exchange.

A total of 9.2 million shares were placed at a price of 45 euros per share. Of this amount, 2.0 million came from a capi­tal increase and 6.0 million from the holdings of the exis­ting share­hol­ders MBB SE and ALX Betei­li­gungs­ge­sell­schaft mbH. In addi­tion, 1.2 million shares were allot­ted to exis­ting share­hol­ders under an over-allot­ment option. The total place­ment volume thus amounts to 414 million euros. The first day of trading on the Regu­la­ted Market of the Frank­furt Stock Exch­ange is expec­ted to be March 25, 2021.

The IPO was supported by Beren­berg and Jeffe­ries as Joint Global Coor­di­na­tors and by Hauck & Aufhäu­ser as Joint Bookrunner.

“The IPO gives us the oppor­tu­nity to play a decisive role in shaping the energy tran­si­tion and, in parti­cu­lar, to expand in the growing markets for hydro­gen and the expan­sion of elec­tri­city high­ways,” says Torben Klein­feldt, CEO of the Vorwerk Group and share­hol­der, explai­ning the company’s decis­ion to go public.

Fried­rich Vorwerk is a leading provi­der of energy infra­struc­ture solu­ti­ons for gas, elec­tri­city and hydro­gen appli­ca­ti­ons. Fried­rich Vorwerk plans to use the gross proceeds of 90 million euros from the newly issued shares to signi­fi­cantly expand its busi­ness over the next few years, parti­cu­larly in the areas of elec­tri­city and clean hydrogen.

McDer­mott has a long-stan­ding client rela­ti­onship with the medium-sized, family-owned invest­ment company MBB SE. McDer­mott alre­ady advi­sed MBB subsi­diary Aumann AG on its IPO in 2017.

Advi­sors to Fried­rich Vorwerk Group SE: McDer­mott Will & Emery, Frankfurt
Simon Weiß, Joseph W. Marx (both Capi­tal Markets, both Lead), Dr. Phil­ipp Gren­ze­bach (Corpo­rate, Düssel­dorf), Edwin C. Lauren­son (Senior Coun­sel, Capi­tal Markets, San Francisco/New York); Asso­cia­tes: Isabelle Müller, Elena Platte, LL.M., Chris­toph Schä­fer, Tom Schä­fer (all Corporate)

About McDer­mott Will & Emery
McDer­mott Will & Emery is a leading inter­na­tio­nal law firm. With over 1,200 attor­neys, we are repre­sen­ted in 21 loca­ti­ons world­wide: Atlanta, Boston, Brussels, Chicago, Dallas, Düssel­dorf, Frank­furt a. M., Hous­ton, Colo­gne, London, Los Ange­les, Miami, Milan, Munich, New York, Orange County, Paris, San Fran­cisco, Sili­con Valley, Washing­ton, D.C. and Wilm­ing­ton. The German prac­tice is mana­ged by McDer­mott Will & Emery Rechts­an­wälte Steu­er­be­ra­ter LLP. www.mwe.com

News

Frank­furt a. Main — ec4u and BULPROS join forces under the majo­rity parti­ci­pa­tion of Silver­fleet Capi­tal to offer their custo­mers a new gene­ra­tion of digi­tal cloud expe­ri­ence services. Shear­man & Ster­ling advi­sed Silver­fleet Capi­tal on the finan­cing provi­ded by Ares for the acqui­si­tion of ec4u and BULPROS.

ec4u and BULPROS join forces to offer their custo­mers a new gene­ra­tion of digi­tal cloud expe­ri­ence services. The joint plat­form will employ around 1,400 people at 25 sites in a total of eleven countries.

ec4u, head­quar­te­red in Karls­ruhe, and BULPROS, head­quar­te­red in Sofia, Bulga­ria, have alre­ady been working toge­ther as part­ners in the field of digi­tal cloud solu­ti­ons since 2018. The foun­ders and exis­ting manage­ment teams of both compa­nies will remain on board as share­hol­ders and will conti­nue to manage the merged company. The merger is subject to the custo­mary regu­la­tory approval.

ec4u was foun­ded in 2000 and specia­li­zes in the digi­tal trans­for­ma­tion of busi­ness-criti­cal proces­ses in the areas of marke­ting, sales, service and e‑commerce across the entire custo­mer life­cy­cle. The company offers its custo­mers consul­ting services, tech­ni­cal imple­men­ta­tion, and ongo­ing deve­lo­p­ment and opera­tion of CRM systems. ec4u has successfully comple­ted a total of more than 800 trans­for­ma­tion projects, prima­rily in Germany, Austria and Switz­er­land. The company employs more than 400 experts at seve­ral Euro­pean locations.

BULPROS, foun­ded in 2010, is a provi­der of digi­tal trans­for­ma­tion services. This includes digi­tal solu­ti­ons imple­men­ta­tion, cyber­se­cu­rity, cloud migra­tion and mana­ged services, and tech­no­logy services. BULPROS opera­tes world­wide and employs more than 1,000 people at 20 loca­ti­ons in Europe and North America. The company has been named as one of the fastest growing tech­no­logy compa­nies by leading indus­try analysts — inclu­ding Deloitte’s Tech­no­logy Fast 50 in CE report and the Finan­cial Times 100 Europe.

In addi­tion to their highly compe­ti­tive service port­fo­lios and the high level of exper­tise of their employees, the two compa­nies also have strong rela­ti­onships with stra­te­gic tech­no­logy part­ners such as Sales­force, Micro­soft, SAP, Oracle, IBM, Cisco and Snowflake.

The invest­ment in ec4u and BULPROS builds on Silver­fleet Capital’s exten­sive expe­ri­ence with compa­nies in the tech­no­logy sector: Tech­no­lo­gi­cal change is a key macro trend under­pin­ning Silver­fleet Capital’s invest­ment approach. The private equity firm’s recent invest­ments include Trust­Quay, a provi­der of trust, corpo­rate and fund admi­nis­tra­tion services, and Coll­ec­tia, a credit manage­ment services plat­form. Previous successful invest­ments in this area include Phase One, Ipes and TMF.

“ec4u and BULPROS are leaders in the market for cloud-based, digi­tal solu­ti­ons for enter­pri­ses. This is a market that is very attrac­tive and offers high growth poten­tial. We are plea­sed to be able to support them in the future to fully exploit this poten­tial,” comm­ents Dr. Chris­tian Süss, Part­ner at Silver­fleet Capi­tal.

“Both ec4u and BULPROS have strong stra­te­gic part­ner­ships with the leading play­ers in the digi­tal plat­form space. We will support both compa­nies in explo­ring further coope­ra­tion and expan­sion oppor­tu­ni­ties,” adds Joachim Braun (photo), Part­ner at Silver­fleet Capi­tal.

At Silver­fleet, Dr. Chris­tian Süss, Joachim Braun, Benja­min Hubner and Jenni­fer Regehr were respon­si­ble for the tran­sac­tion. The invest­ment company was advi­sed on the tran­sac­tion by Latham & Watkins (Corpo­rate & Tax Legal), Shear­man & Ster­ling (Finance Legal), Nauta­Du­tilh (Legal), PwC (Finan­cial), wdp (IT), Grant Thorn­ton (Tax), Kambou­rov (Legal), Noerr (Legal), Schön­herr (Legal), Bär & Karrer (Legal), Kear­ney (Commer­cial) and MD Advi­sors (Debt Advi­sory). Funding was provi­ded by Ares.

About Silver­fleet Capital
Silver­fleet Capi­tal is an inde­pen­dent pan-Euro­pean private equity firm that invests in middle-market compa­nies and is a long-stan­ding client of Shear­man & Sterling.

The Shear­man & Ster­ling team led by part­ner Winfried M. Carli included asso­cia­tes Andreas Breu and Daniel Wagner (all Munich-Finance).

About Shear­man & Sterling
Shear­man & Ster­ling is an inter­na­tio­nal law firm with 25 offices in 13 count­ries and appro­xi­m­ately 850 lawy­ers. In Germany, Shear­man & Ster­ling has offices in Frank­furt and Munich. The firm is one of the inter­na­tio­nal market leaders in advi­sing on complex cross-border tran­sac­tions. World­wide, Shear­man & Ster­ling prima­rily advi­ses inter­na­tio­nal corpo­ra­ti­ons and large natio­nal compa­nies, finan­cial insti­tu­ti­ons, and large mid-sized compa­nies. For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.shearman.com.

News

Güters­loh — House­hold and commer­cial appli­ance manu­fac­tu­rer Miele has acqui­red a majo­rity stake in Otto Wilde Gril­lers GmbH, a leading manu­fac­tu­rer of grills. Miele was advi­sed on the tran­sac­tion by a cross-loca­tion M&A team from the law firm BRANDI Rechts­an­wälte, led by Güters­loh part­ners Dr. Franz Tepper (photo) and Dr. Cars­ten Chris­to­phery. The tran­sac­tion was carried out by way of a share deal. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the purchase price.

By acqui­ring 75.1% of the shares in the specia­list for gas barbe­cu­e­ing, the world-renow­ned Miele house­hold appli­ance group is further expan­ding its exper­tise in the field of outdoor cooking. In addi­tion to expan­ding the port­fo­lio, further inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion is on the joint agenda.

Foun­ded in 2015 in Düssel­dorf, Germany, the family-owned company Otto Wilde Gril­lers deve­lops, builds and sells high-end grills along with access­ories. The devices are produ­ced by manu­fac­tu­ring part­ners in Germany and China. The company curr­ently employs 30 people.

Miele has many years of exper­tise in the deve­lo­p­ment, produc­tion and global marke­ting of premium built-in appliances.

BRANDI Rechts­an­wälte conti­nuously advi­ses Miele on tran­sac­tions and corpo­rate law issues, in parti­cu­lar on invest­ments in and acqui­si­ti­ons of start-ups. The advice on the invest­ment in Otto Wilde Gril­lers covered the due dili­gence, the purchase agree­ment, the invest­ment agree­ment and the nego­tia­ti­ons in the context of the transaction.

Advi­sors to Otto Wilde Gril­lers: LACORE Rechts­an­wälte, Berlin

Advi­sor Miele: BRANDI Attor­neys Gütersloh/Paderborn/Bielefeld
Dr. Franz Tepper (photo), Part­ner (Co-Lead, Corporate/M&A), Gütersloh
Dr. Cars­ten Chris­to­phery, Part­ner (Co-Lead, Corporate/M&A), Gütersloh
Dr. Nils Wigging­haus, Part­ner (Corporate/M&A), Gütersloh
Eva-Maria Gott­schalk, Part­ner (Corporate/M&A), Gütersloh
Dr. Sörren Kiene, Part­ner (Commer­cial), Gütersloh
Dr. Sandra Vyas, Part­ner (Employ­ment Law), Paderborn
Dr. Chris­toph Rempe, Part­ner (IP/IT, Anti­trust Law), Bielefeld
Meike Pott­hast, Asso­ciate (Labor Law), Paderborn

Advi­sors to Otto Wilde Gril­lers GmbH: LACORE Rechts­an­wälte, Berlin
Nata­lie Vahsen, Part­ner (Corporate/M&A)
Stefa­nie Berges, Asso­ciate (Corporate/M&A)
Paola Leiva, Asso­ciate (Corporate/M&A)

News

Berlin — Fixico, Europe’s leading digi­tal car repair plat­form, announ­ces a €5 million expan­sion of its Series A funding round, closing it with a total of €12 million. The round is led by Auto­tech Venture. All exis­ting inves­tors, inclu­ding Fin Capi­tal, conti­nue to actively parti­ci­pate. In addi­tion, Fixico welco­mes Madrid-based Mundi Ventures to its inves­tor base. To date, Fixico has raised a total of €19.3 million. The new funds will acce­le­rate Fixico’s product deve­lo­p­ment, streng­then its presence in Germany and drive its expan­sion in Europe.

Digi­ta­liza­tion boost for the proces­sing of car repairs
Fixico is a fast-growing and award-winning Dutch tech company that aims to rede­fine the auto repair indus­try. In this field, which reflects a 120 billion euro market in Europe alone, time seems to have stood still and disrup­tion is long over­due. The repair process is time-consum­ing, inef­fi­ci­ent, and invol­ves nume­rous phone calls, emails, and physi­cal inspec­tions that are always the same — no matter what type of damage or vehicle is invol­ved. Howe­ver, modern vehic­les are beco­ming more and more tech­ni­cally sophisti­ca­ted, making repairs more complex. Not every work­shop can do that. It ther­e­fore takes a tail­o­red approach to find the right workshop.

Fixico provi­des a digi­tal plat­form that makes vehicle damage repair seam­less for drivers, insu­r­ers and fleet owners, and enables intel­li­gent match­ma­king for diffe­rent types of vehicle damage and suita­ble repair shops. The plat­form provi­des a seam­less and much more effi­ci­ent repair assign­ment process. Custo­mers can thus quickly and easily iden­tify the best repair shop for their claim, taking into account criti­cal factors such as avai­la­bi­lity, exper­tise and price.

Fixico curr­ently works with over 150 leading compa­nies in the fleet, rental, insu­rance and leasing indus­tries. Through a cross-border and unique market­place network, the plat­form provi­des access to more than 2,500 work­shops. Fixico is curr­ently repre­sen­ted in six count­ries: Germany, the Nether­lands, Belgium, Luxem­bourg, France and South Africa.

“Last year was tough for the auto repair indus­try. But even in the midst of a global pande­mic, Fixico was able to grow by 300%. This Series A round expan­sion gives us enough momen­tum to conti­nue our growth trajec­tory and become the digi­tal leader of the auto repair indus­try in Europe. In the next quar­ter, we will launch in three more Euro­pean count­ries: Italy, Austria and Denmark. In all likeli­hood, we will add three to five more count­ries to our expan­sion plans after that, with the UK and Spain at the top of our wish list. We are very exci­ted to now have Mundi Ventures on board, as they have tremen­dous know­ledge and access to a vast and cross-border insu­rance and mobi­lity network,” says Derk Rood­huy­zen de Vries, CEO and co-foun­der of Fixico.

Simon Roth­man beco­mes new member of the Execu­tive Board
Upon comple­tion of the finan­cing round, Simon Roth­man will be appoin­ted to Fixico’s Super­vi­sory Board. Roth­man is known as an early pioneer of online market­places and network effect compa­nies. He joined eBay when it was still a small U.S. auction house for coll­ec­ti­bles and helped scale the company to nearly 200 million users and gene­rate more than $40 billion in annual revenue.

During his time at eBay, Roth­man foun­ded eBay Motors. Within six years, he built eBay Motors into a global company with annual sales of 14 billion U.S. dollars and made it the world’s number one auto­mo­tive marketplace.

Simon Roth­man is a long-time angel inves­tor and venture capi­ta­list with a passion for market­places and mobi­lity. Roth­man served as an early stage board member at Tesla, Cargu­rus, Convoy and Nuro. He is also an advi­sor and/or angel inves­tor in successful tech­no­logy compa­nies such as Lyft, Lime, Getaround, Aurora, Fiverr and Poshmark.

“During my time at eBay Motors as well as at Tesla, I perso­nally deve­lo­ped a great passion for market­places and mobi­lity. It is now a unique oppor­tu­nity to find a company as promi­sing as Fixico, which sits at the inter­sec­tion of the market­place and the mobi­lity sector. From my perspec­tive, Fixico’s use of network dyna­mics to connect repair shops with vehicle owners has the poten­tial to funda­men­tally change the auto repair indus­try,” explains Simon Roth­man as a newly appoin­ted member of Fixico’s super­vi­sory board.

About Fixico
Fixico (https://fixico-business.com/de) is Europe’s leading repair manage­ment plat­form for car damage. Since its foun­ding in 2014 by Derk Rood­huy­zen de Vries, the portal has helped car owners and busi­ness part­ners quickly and conve­ni­ently find the ideal repair shop for their car and save on repair costs. Fixico thus digi­ti­zes and simpli­fies the entire repair manage­ment process for fleet, car rental, insu­rance and leasing compa­nies. Working with over 150 leading compa­nies and a network of more than 2,500 master craft­smen, the Dutch company offers stress-free, fast repairs and compe­ti­tive prices. More than 200,000 claims have alre­ady been sett­led via the compa­ri­son plat­form throug­hout Europe. The 60-strong team alre­ady enables hundreds of compa­nies — inclu­ding part­ners such as Lease­Plan, AXA, Avis, Sixt and Aon — to handle car repairs more effi­ci­ently and cost-effec­tively in 6 count­ries (Germany, the Nether­lands, Belgium, Luxem­bourg, France and South Africa) and conti­nues to expand across Europe. Fixico is supported by a group of leading investors.

About Mundi Ventures
Mundi Ventures is a venture capi­tal firm that invests prima­rily in tech­no­logy-based compa­nies with B2B busi­ness models during the A or B round. The VC’s head­quar­ters are loca­ted in Madrid. There are bran­ches in Barce­lona, London and Seattle.

News

Hamburg — DLA Piper has advi­sed Germany-based multi­na­tio­nal TRUMPF Group on the acqui­si­tion of the global busi­ness of Lantek Sheet Metal Solutions.

TRUMPF is one of the world’s leading compa­nies for machine tools, lasers and elec­tro­nics for indus­trial appli­ca­ti­ons. In fiscal 2019/20, the company gene­ra­ted sales of 3.5 billion euros with around 14,300 employees.

Lantek is a leading global provi­der of soft­ware systems and solu­ti­ons for compa­nies in the sheet metal working sector, and is repre­sen­ted in 14 countries.

The inter­na­tio­nal DLA Piper team on this tran­sac­tion was led jointly by part­ner Teresa Zueco (Corpo­rate, Madrid) and the German Coun­try Mana­ging Part­ner Dr. Benja­min Para­mes­wa­ran, Photo (Corporate/M&A, Hamburg) — who is also DLA Piper’s global Client Rela­ti­onship Part­ner for the TRUMPF Group — supported by a core team consis­ting of Corpo­rate Asso­cia­tes Héctor Gómez, Alejan­dra Casta­ñeda and Carlos Fuerte (all Madrid). DLA Piper’s cross-border team also included colle­agues from more than ten juris­dic­tions, inclu­ding the UK, the US, France, Germany and China.

TRUMPF was advi­sed in-house by Dewi Kusuma (in-house counsel).

About DLA Piper

DLA Piper is one of the world’s leading commer­cial law firms, with offices in more than 40 count­ries in Africa, Asia, Austra­lia, Europe, the Middle East, and North and South America. In Germany, DLA Piper is repre­sen­ted by more than 250 lawy­ers at its offices in Frank­furt, Hamburg, Colo­gne and Munich. In certain juris­dic­tions, this infor­ma­tion may be conside­red attor­ney adver­ti­sing. www.dlapiper.com

News

Munich — EMERAM Capi­tal Part­ners, one of the leading private equity firms for medium-sized compa­nies in the German-spea­king region, is leading an inves­tor consor­tium, inclu­ding the private equity firm Gimv, to take the digi­tal company sofa­tu­tor into its next growth phase. This replaces the previous shareholders.

sofa­tu­tor is the most compre­hen­sive digi­tal educa­tion plat­form for students in the German-spea­king world for grades 1 to 12 (K‑12). Number of users increased to more than one million students in 2020, the year of success. Further digi­tal lear­ning offe­rings and inte­gra­tion into school opera­ti­ons repre­sent a key growth lever. sofa­tu­tor plans to close the gap in online lear­ning and improve access to first-class educa­tion with further inno­va­tive offe­rings. In this way, the strong growth of recent years is to be continued.

Foun­ded in 2008, the company curr­ently has more than one million users. In addi­tion, sofa­tu­tor is now used by around 25 percent of all teachers throug­hout Germany, as well as in the German states of Saxony and Bremen. sofa­tu­tor thus sees itself as the most compre­hen­sive provi­der of digi­tal lear­ning assis­tance in Germany, Austria and Switz­er­land, a market with a total of more than eleven million students.

The product and service port­fo­lio of sofa­tu­tor includes a wide range of more than 11,000 videos as well as exer­ci­ses and work­s­heets for 14 diffe­rent school subjects. Students can flexi­bly access mate­ri­als and have a real-time chat on home­work with quali­fied teachers through sofatutor’s web-based plat­form or app.

Dr. Chris­tian Näther, Foun­ding Part­ner of EMERAM Capi­tal Part­ners, says: “Good educa­tion is a signi­fi­cant factor for a country’s society. That is why we want to support sofa­tu­tor in conti­nuously expan­ding its lear­ning offe­ring. Alre­ady, sofa­tu­tor is expe­ri­en­cing high demand for its digi­tal lear­ning offe­rings, which has been further streng­the­ned by home­schoo­ling and COVID-19. We would like to conti­nue this success story.” Matthias Ober­meyr, Part­ner at EMERAM Capi­tal Part­ners, adds: “Thanks to its compre­hen­sive digi­tal offe­rings, inno­va­tive strength and good value for money, sofa­tu­tor alre­ady has a strong market posi­tion. An expan­sion of this digi­tal product offe­ring as well as the further deve­lo­p­ment of digi­tal lear­ning models also offers signi­fi­cant growth potential.”

Stephan Bayer, CEO of sofa­tu­tor and foun­der of the company, explains: “With more than one million users and the large network of teachers who inte­grate sofatutor’s digi­tal lear­ning content into their lessons, sofa­tu­tor has long been the leading provi­der of digi­tal lear­ning services. With the new inves­tor consor­tium, we now have another strong inves­tor group at our side that will very compe­tently accom­pany and support the company in the next growth phase. Inno­va­tive digi­tal lear­ning offe­rings will conti­nue to form our DNA in the future. We want to support schools, teachers and students not only in the after­noons, but also provide digi­tal lear­ning content in the mornings when schools are in session.”

Dr. Sven Oleow­nik, Part­ner and Head of Germany at the Euro­pean invest­ment company Gimv, which specia­li­zes in growth companies.With its invest­ment in sofa­tu­tor, Gimv rein­forces its ambi­tion to invest in future-orien­ted compa­nies along the funda­men­tal consu­mer trends of digi­ta­liza­tion, sustaina­bi­lity and conve­ni­ence. Toge­ther with EMERAM, Gimv supports an excel­lently mana­ged company whose digi­tal offe­ring perfectly addres­ses the United Nati­ons goals of high-quality educa­tion and digi­tal inno­va­tion. Koen Bouck­aert, Mana­ging Part­ner and Head Consu­mer at Gimv, added: “We are ther­e­fore parti­cu­larly plea­sed to allo­cate part of our recently laun­ched Sustainable Bond to sofatutor’s growth story and thus make a signi­fi­cant contri­bu­tion to the company’s development.”

Advi­sor to the inves­tor consor­tium around EMERAM and Gimv:
IEG Invest­ment Banking Group (M&A), GLNS and McDer­mott (Legal), PwC (Finan­cial, Tax and Commer­cial) and Xperify (Tech/Marketing) advised.

The tran­sac­tion is subject to custo­mary condi­ti­ons, inclu­ding appr­oval by the compe­ti­tion autho­ri­ties. Further finan­cial details will not be disclosed.

News

Munich — Munich-based Rebike Mobi­lity GmbH, opera­tor of two e‑bike plat­forms, has successfully closed its Series B finan­cing round. BayBG Baye­ri­sche Betei­li­gungs­ge­sell­schaft was invol­ved as lead inves­tor. The exis­ting inves­tors Vorwerk Ventures and STS Ventures also parti­ci­pa­ted in the Series B round. The debt portion was arran­ged by Maturus Finance.
image002.jpg

With the fresh capi­tal, the startup, which was foun­ded in 2018 and more than doubled its annual reve­nue again in 2020 to nearly €7 million, is further expan­ding its service and deve­lo­ping its plat­forms and e‑bike port­fo­lio. The company sells used premium e‑bikes in mint condi­tion via the plat­form www.rebike.de.

Via the portal www.ebike.abo.de, the company rents out new brand-name e‑bikes or S‑pedelecs for three to 18 months.

“With the eBike subscrip­tion, we enable people to get on or switch to an e‑bike. Also our offer of cheap used e‑bikes on rebike.de meets the nerve of the time. As a result, our busi­ness has deve­lo­ped very dyna­mi­cally. Now is the right time to further expand our market posi­tion and scale our busi­ness. With BayBG, we have gained another finan­ci­ally strong inves­tor who will accom­pany us in the long term,” explain Rebike foun­ders Thomas Bernik and Sven Erger (photo).

“We see enorm­ous poten­tial in the company, the market and the product,” says Otto Hopf­ner, Senior Invest­ment Mana­ger at BayBG, describ­ing the reasons for the invest­ment. “The facts speak for them­sel­ves. Accor­ding to the German Bicy­cle Indus­try Asso­cia­tion (ZIV), nearly two million elec­tric bicy­cles were sold in 2020, 43.4 percent more than in the previous year. E‑bikes are the means of trans­por­ta­tion of the moment, as more and more people want to get around sustain­ably and healt­hily. We are very much looking forward to shaping tomorrow’s mobi­lity toge­ther with Rebike and making e‑bikes available to everyone.”

Dirk Meurer, Mana­ging Part­ner of Vorwerk Ventures, also sees his invest­ment confirmed: “Rebike Mobi­lity has been able to conti­nuously and very successfully build up and expand its busi­ness since it was foun­ded just over two years ago. An outstan­ding perfor­mance by the entire team, which impres­si­vely proves that Rebike is on the right track with its corpo­rate stra­tegy. We conti­nue to see strong poten­tial and are ther­e­fore happy to be part of the Series B round.”

About Rebike Mobi­lity GmbH

Rebike Mobi­lity GmbH, Munich is an e‑mobility startup foun­ded in 2018. The inno­va­tive busi­ness model offers the right solu­tion for every need: used, as-new premium eBikes (www.rebike1.de) at a reasonable price, an attrac­tive eBike subscrip­tion model (www.ebike-abo.de) and eBike rental stati­ons (www.rebike-verleih.de) in popu­lar vaca­tion regi­ons. The product port­fo­lio exclu­si­vely includes e‑bikes and S‑pedelecs from leading brand manu­fac­tu­r­ers. The company’s own value chain means that the life cycle of each indi­vi­dual e‑bike can be signi­fi­cantly exten­ded, making an important contri­bu­tion to climate protec­tion. Foun­ders and mana­ging direc­tors are Sven Erger, long-time moun­tain biker and connois­seur of the bike scene, and Thomas Bernik, successful serial entre­pre­neur. www.rebike.de.

About BayBG Venture Capital

With its venture capi­tal team, BayBG Baye­ri­sche Betei­li­gungs­ge­sell­schaft mbH, Munich (BayBG), invests in Series A finan­cing rounds and later in tech start-ups. Curr­ently, the venture capi­tal port­fo­lio consists of over 30 tech­no­logy compa­nies. With an inves­ted volume of 310 million euros, BayBG is one of the largest invest­ment compa­nies in Germany. In addi­tion to venture capi­tal for start-ups, BayBG offers medium-sized compa­nies equity capi­tal (equity and / or mezza­nine) across all company phases and finan­cing occa­si­ons. BayBG thus enables the imple­men­ta­tion of inno­va­tion and growth projects, the opti­miza­tion of the capi­tal struc­ture or the regu­la­tion of company successions.

Advi­sor BayBG: LUTZ | ABEL Rechts­an­walts PartG mbB
The consul­ting team around Jan-Phil­lip Kunz, LL.M. (lead manage­ment) consis­ted of Dr. Bern­hard Noreisch, LL.M. (both VC / M&A, Munich), Dr. Corne­lius Renner (IT Law and Data Protec­tion, Berlin), Clau­dia Knuth and Xenia Verspohl (both Labor Law, Berlin), Ute Schenn and Nina There­sia Mutsch­ler (both Commer­cial, Stutt­gart) and Katha­rina Kend­ziur (Regu­la­tory, Munich).

News

Luxem­bourg — The second Triton Mittel­stands­fonds (“TSM II”) has successfully closed at €815 million due to strong inves­tor demand, signi­fi­cantly excee­ding the target of €600 million. The fund is the second invest­ment vehicle advi­sed by Triton to focus on invest­ments in low market capi­ta­liza­tion compa­nies. It follows the first Triton Mittel­stands­fonds (“TSM I”), which closed in 2017 with a volume of €448 million.

All fund­rai­sing was done virtually and recei­ved exten­sive pled­ges from exis­ting and new insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors from around the world.

Peder Prahl, Direc­tor of the Gene­ral Part­ner for the Triton Funds, said, “I would like to thank all of our exis­ting and new inves­tors for their support and trust. With TSM II, we will conti­nue to invest in smal­ler and mid-sized compa­nies and in the same sectors and regi­ons as the larger company-focu­sed fund Triton V. Our goal is to create better compa­nies and help them reach their full potential.

TSM II will typi­cally acquire a majo­rity stake in compa­nies that require an equity invest­ment of between €40 million and €100 million. The fund will build on the TSM I invest­ment stra­tegy and invest in compa­nies that are leaders in their niche but are not yet reali­zing their full poten­tial. Triton will work with manage­ment to create value through further profes­sio­na­liza­tion, expan­sion and digi­tiza­tion of the businesses.

Andi Klein (photo) , Mana­ging Part­ner and Head of TSM, added: “Triton has more than 20 years of expe­ri­ence with invest­ments in small and medium-sized compa­nies. We help manage­ment teams realize the full poten­tial of their busi­nesses by future-proofing the stra­te­gic, opera­tio­nal or finan­cial course and lever­aging the broad Triton plat­form, inclu­ding access to an exten­sive network of indus­try and opera­tio­nal experts. A key focus of TSM is to acce­le­rate growth and scale through digi­tiza­tion, buy-and-build and inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion, where our know-how, indus­try exper­tise and inter­na­tio­nal network can create signi­fi­cant value.”

The TSM team consists of 18 invest­ment advi­sory profes­sio­nals focu­sed on sourcing, evalua­ting and deve­lo­ping compa­nies in the Triton region, prima­rily in the German-spea­king and Nordic count­ries and the Bene­lux countries.

About Triton

Since its foun­ding in 1997, Triton has laun­ched ten funds and focu­sed on compa­nies in the indus­trial, services, consu­mer goods and health­care sectors.

The Triton funds invest in medium-sized compa­nies based in Europe and support their posi­tive deve­lo­p­ment. Triton’s goal is to successfully deve­lop its port­fo­lio compa­nies in the long term by working toge­ther as partners.

Triton and its manage­ment strive to gene­rate posi­tive change and growth through the sustainable impro­ve­ment of opera­tio­nal proces­ses and struc­tures. At present, Triton’s port­fo­lio includes 47 compa­nies with total sales of around EUR 18.4 billion and around 101,400 employees . www.triton-partners.de

 

News

Hamburg / Werl — Menold Bezler has advi­sed the specia­list and retail book­sel­ler A. Stein’sche Medi­en­gruppe GmbH from Werl on the acqui­si­tion of ims Inter­na­tio­na­ler Medien Service GmbH & Co. KG based in Hamburg.

The A. Stein’sche Medi­en­gruppe, which has been in exis­tence since 1713, is thus conti­nuing its stra­te­gic expan­sion stra­tegy and further expan­ding its B2B busi­ness in parti­cu­lar. With the take­over, the loca­tion in Hamburg with 42 jobs as well as the company name will be retai­ned. The manage­ment will be taken over jointly by the current Mana­ging Direc­tor Phil­ipp Woer­mann and Alex­an­der Stein, Mana­ging Part­ner of A. Stein’sche Mediengruppe.

ims was foun­ded in 2007 as a joint venture between Axel Sprin­ger and the press whole­sa­ler PVG Group GmbH & Co. KG and was a subsi­diary of the PVG Group from 2015. The busi­ness acti­vi­ties cover the area of analog and digi­tal specia­list media procu­re­ment and use in compa­nies and the public sector.

Follo­wing the acqui­si­tion of Haufe Disco­very (now LSL) and Thieme subsi­diary froh­berg in 2020, Menold Bezler also provi­ded legal and tax advice to A. Stein’sche Medi­en­gruppe in connec­tion with this transaction.

Advi­sors to A. Stein’sche Medi­en­gruppe GmbH: Menold Bezler (Stutt­gart)
Jens Schmelt, Photo (Part­ner, Corporate/M&A), Nico Haldy (Part­ner), Clemens Mauch (both Tax)

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

News

Frank­furt a.M. — Good­win has advi­sed JMI Equity on a stra­te­gic growth invest­ment in Canto, a leading provi­der of digi­tal asset manage­ment software.

Foun­ded in Berlin in 1990, Canto, which now has offices in San Fran­cisco and Frank­furt, will use the addi­tio­nal funds to expand its sales teams, opti­mize product deve­lo­p­ment and drive growth in its target markets.

JMI Equity is a growth equity firm focu­sed on inves­t­ing in leading soft­ware compa­nies. Since its foun­ding in 1992, JMI Equity has inves­ted in more than 155 compa­nies, successfully comple­ted more than 105 exits and raised more than $6 billion in commit­ted capital.

Good­win advi­sed JMI Equity with a team of lawy­ers in the U.S. and Frank­furt led by private equity part­ners Joshua Klatz­kin (Washing­ton, DC), Amy Keller (San Fran­cisco) and Gregor Klenk (Frank­furt).

Advi­sors JMI Equity: Good­win Frank­furt a.M./Washington
Joshua Klatz­kin (Washing­ton, DC), Amy Keller (San Fran­cisco), Gregor Klenk (Frank­furt; all Lead, all Private Equity); Heiko Penn­dorf (Tax), Felix Krue­ger (Coun­sel, Tax; both Frank­furt); Asso­cia­tes: Joana Pamu­kova, Chris­tina Papa­di­mi­triou, Caro­lin Kefer­stein, Stefan Rieg­ger (Trai­nee; all Private Equity, Frank­furt) and other Good­win lawy­ers from the Boston, New York, San Fran­cisco, Santa Monica, Sili­con Valley and Washing­ton, DC offices.

News

Munich — Funds advi­sed by Equis­tone Part­ners Europe (“Equis­tone”) are selling their majo­rity stake in Oikos Group, a leading Euro­pean provi­der of prefa­bri­ca­ted houses head­quar­te­red in Schlüch­tern, Hesse. The buyer of the group is West Street Capi­tal Part­ners VIII, a fund mana­ged by Gold­man Sachs.

Equis­tone had acqui­red the group of compa­nies — consis­ting of the Bien-Zenker, Hanse Haus and Living Haus brands — at the begin­ning of 2018 and targe­ted the group’s growth stra­tegy as well as the areas of digi­ta­liza­tion and opera­tio­nal excel­lence. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the purchase price or further details of the tran­sac­tion. The sale is still subject to the usual appr­oval by the rele­vant authorities.

The Oikos Group is one of the leading B2C provi­ders of single-family and two-family homes with a focus on crea­ting future-proof and sustainable living space and combi­nes the Bien-Zenker, Hanse Haus and Living Haus brands under one roof. Thanks to its multi-brand stra­tegy, the Group has an excel­lent posi­tio­ning in the market for prefa­bri­ca­ted houses and is able to serve a wide variety of custo­mer groups with future-orien­ted cons­truc­tion methods and indi­vi­dual living concepts: From shell cons­truc­tion to ready-to-occupy living solu­ti­ons, Oikos offers its custo­mers houses at all stages of produc­tion as well as the highest quality and sustaina­bi­lity stan­dards. The group, which is parti­cu­larly active in the core markets of Germany, Austria, the UK and Switz­er­land, curr­ently employs around 1,300 people and increased its sales to more than 400 million euros in 2020.

Bien-Zenker, foun­ded in 1906, has estab­lished itself as one of the market leaders and best-known manu­fac­tu­r­ers of prefa­bri­ca­ted houses in Germany and is also one of the pioneers in prefa­bri­ca­ted energy-saving houses. Head­quar­te­red in Schlüch­tern, Hesse, the company has a nati­on­wide sales network throug­hout Germany and has posi­tio­ned itself stron­gly with its inno­va­tive prefa­bri­ca­ted house solu­ti­ons, parti­cu­larly in the mid-price segment. With the launch of the inde­pen­dent Living Haus brand in 2015, the company expan­ded its range of products to include the quality-conscious but more price-sensi­tive prefa­bri­ca­ted house concept.

Hanse Haus, based in Ober­leich­ters­bach in Lower Fran­co­nia, is one of the pioneers in Germany in the cons­truc­tion of turn­key prefa­bri­ca­ted houses. Since its foun­ding in 1929, the company has evol­ved from a carpenter’s busi­ness into a full-service provi­der of high-quality living solu­ti­ons, serving prima­rily the mid-range and higher price segments with its product portfolio.

Equis­tone acqui­red majo­rity stakes in Bien-Zenker and Hanse Haus in Janu­ary 2018. By estab­li­shing a best-prac­tice approach between the compa­nies, a group with a shared vision was crea­ted. In recent years, Equis­tone has successfully supported the growth of the various brands under the Oikos Group umbrella, not least by conti­nuously streng­thening opera­tio­nal excel­lence and expan­ding digi­ta­liza­tion, parti­cu­larly in the areas of sales and custo­mer journey.

Stefan Maser, Part­ner at Equis­tone, says: “In the past years, Oikos Group has deve­lo­ped excel­lently. The initia­ti­ves driven toge­ther with the manage­ment have streng­the­ned the company sustain­ably. As a result, Oikos has succee­ded in further expan­ding its market-leading posi­tion vis-à-vis compe­ti­tors and also in further incre­asing sales.”

Marco Hammer, CEO of Oikos Group, adds: “Toge­ther with Equis­tone, we have been able to streng­then our leading posi­tion across Europe, targe­ting key areas such as digi­ta­liza­tion as well as the expan­sion of our compe­ten­cies in ESG and a sustainable marke­ting stra­tegy. We look forward to conti­nuing this successful growth path with Gold­man Sachs in the future.

“With a strong and inno­va­tive product and brand port­fo­lio, Oikos has successfully estab­lished itself as a leading Euro­pean manu­fac­tu­rer of prefa­bri­ca­ted houses. We are exci­ted to invest in the future of sustainable home buil­ding with Oikos and to support Oikos’ growth ambi­ti­ons,” added Mike Ebel­ing, Mana­ging Direc­tor of Gold­man Sachs. “We are impres­sed with the high quality and leader­ship of the Oikos manage­ment team, led by Marco Hammer, and are very exci­ted about our joint partnership.”

Stefan Maser, David Zahnd and Tanja Berg are respon­si­ble for the tran­sac­tion on the part of Equistone.

Equis­tone was advi­sed on the tran­sac­tion by Alan­tra (M&A and Debt), Boston Consul­ting Group (Commer­cial), Ernst & Young (Finan­cial + Tax), Latham & Watkins (Legal) and ERM (Envi­ron­men­tal).
West Street Capi­tal Part­ners VIII, a fund mana­ged by Gold­man Sachs, was advi­sed on the tran­sac­tion by Gold­man Sachs Invest­ment Banking Divi­sion (M&A), Roland Berger (Commer­cial), Deloitte (Finan­cial), Ernst & Young (Tax), Fresh­fields Bruck­haus Derin­ger (Legal), Allen & Overy (Legal Debt), Herter & Co (Debt), ERM (Envi­ron­men­tal), Aon (Insu­rance) and Arup and CBRE (Tech­ni­cal) advised.

About Equis­tone Part­ners Europe
Equis­tone Part­ners Europe is one of the most active Euro­pean equity inves­tors with a team of more than 40 invest­ment specia­lists in seven offices in Germany, Switz­er­land, the Nether­lands, France and the UK. Equis­tone prima­rily invests in estab­lished medium-sized compa­nies with a good market posi­tion, above-average growth poten­tial and an enter­prise value of between EUR 50 and 500 million. Since its foun­da­tion, equity has been inves­ted in around 160 tran­sac­tions in the DACH region and the Nether­lands, mainly mid-market buy-outs. The port­fo­lio curr­ently compri­ses over 40 compa­nies across Europe, inclu­ding around 20 active holdings in Germany, Switz­er­land and the Nether­lands. Equis­tone is curr­ently inves­t­ing from its sixth fund, which closed in March 2018 with €2.8 billion.

For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.equistonepe.de.

About Oikos Group
For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.oikos-group.de.

News

Munich — Para­gon sells Novu­mIP to Ques­tel. As part of the tran­sac­tion, Para­gon is inves­t­ing in the Ques­tel Group in addi­tion to its exis­ting share­hol­ders. The acqui­si­tion is subject to anti­trust clearance and appr­oval by Bafin.

Novu­mIP was crea­ted by the merger of PAVIS and Nova­graaf in 2019. The aim of this was to offer the two compa­nies’ custo­mers an even broa­der range of IP consul­ting, manage­ment and tech­no­logy-based services and to become the central point of cont­act for all IP-rela­ted inqui­ries, along the entire value chain.

Ques­tel is a leading global IP solu­ti­ons provi­der with an end-to-end inte­gra­ted plat­form of soft­ware and tech­no­logy-based services that address the needs of corpo­ra­ti­ons and law firms throug­hout the IP lifecycle.

“After the combi­na­tion of PAVIS and Nova­graaf to form Novu­mIP, the merger with Ques­tel is the next step on the way to beco­ming the leading global provi­der of end-to-end IP solu­ti­ons,” elabo­ra­tes Dr. Krischan von Moel­ler, Mana­ging Part­ner at Para­gon, adding, “We would like to thank Rein­hard Ottway (Execu­tive Board Member, Novum IP), Lutgarde Liezen­berg (CEO, Nova­graaf) and Thomas Gruber (CEO, PAVIS), their manage­ment team and all employees for their contri­bu­tion and extra­or­di­nary commit­ment over the past years.” Max Moser von Fils­eck, Prin­ci­pal at Para­gon, adds “Toge­ther we have achie­ved great succes­ses in the past years, which serve as a basis for conti­nuing and further acce­le­ra­ting the strong growth momen­tum, which toge­ther with Ques­tel will gain even more momentum. ”

Para­gon and Novu­mIP were supported in the tran­sac­tion by Alva­rez & Marsal (Finan­cial), Baker McKen­zie (Law), KPMG (Tax) and Roth­schild (M&A).

About Nova­graaf
For more than 130 years, Nova­graaf has been helping well-known brands and inno­va­tive compa­nies around the world build their compe­ti­tive advan­tage. As one of the leading IP consul­tancies in Europe, Nova­graaf specia­li­zes in the protec­tion and global manage­ment of IP rights, inclu­ding trade­marks, patents, designs, domain names and copy­rights. Nova­graaf is head­quar­te­red in the Nether­lands and has 18 offices world­wide. In 2020, Nova­graaf acqui­red Thom­sen Tram­pe­dach — a firm that excels at provi­ding clients with tail­o­red legal exper­tise, effi­ci­ency-enhan­cing admi­nis­tra­tive services and proac­tive commer­cial insights. www.novagraaf.com.

About PAVIS
PAVIS is a leading global provi­der of IP manage­ment services. For more than 40 years, PAVIS has been a valuable part­ner for law firms and corpo­rate IP depart­ments with large IP port­fo­lios. Inno­va­tive tech­ni­cal solu­ti­ons, relia­ble proces­ses and a high level of auto­ma­tion have made PAVIS one of the most effi­ci­ent and relia­ble IP manage­ment service provi­ders. PAVIS has a focus on patent and trade­mark rene­wals. The subsi­diary PAVIS Payments is offi­ci­ally licen­sed as a regu­la­ted payment service provi­der under the Payment Services Super­vi­sion Act (Zahlungs­diens­te­auf­sichts­ge­setz — ZAG) and is thus able to provide all services in compli­ance with the legal requi­re­ments. www.pavis.com.

About Ques­tel
Questel’s mission is to faci­li­tate the deve­lo­p­ment of inno­va­tion in an effi­ci­ent, safe and sustainable manner. Ques­tel is a provi­der of compre­hen­sive end-to-end intellec­tual property solu­ti­ons. The company offers a compre­hen­sive soft­ware suite for sear­ching, analy­zing and mana­ging inven­ti­ons and IP assets. Ques­tel also provi­des services along the entire IP life­cy­cle, inclu­ding prior art sear­ches, patent draf­ting, inter­na­tio­nal filings, trans­la­ti­ons and rene­wals. These solu­ti­ons, combi­ned with Questel’s IP cost manage­ment plat­form, provide their clients with an average savings of 30–60% over the entire patent prose­cu­tion budget. www.questel.com.

Advi­sor to Ques­tel, IK Invest­ment Part­ners, Eura­zeo and Raise Inves­tis­se­ment: Will­kie Farr & Gallagher
The multi­di­sci­pli­nary Will­kie team from two offices was coor­di­na­ted by Paris-based part­ner Eduardo Fernan­dez (Corpo­rate) and led in Frank­furt by part­ner Dr. Kamyar Abrar (Corpo­rate).

About Para­gon
Para­gon is an owner-mana­ged invest­ment company and has been inves­t­ing in medium-sized compa­nies in German-spea­king count­ries since its foun­da­tion in 2004. Para­gon works closely with its port­fo­lio compa­nies to ensure sustainable growth and improve opera­tio­nal proces­ses. The invest­ment port­fo­lio covers various indus­tries and curr­ently compri­ses 14 compa­nies. Para­gon is based in Munich and curr­ently mana­ges €1.2 billion in equity. More infor­ma­tion can be found at www.paragon.de.

Legal advi­sor PARAGON PARTNERS: Baker McKenzie
Lead: Corporate/M&A:
Dr. Ingo Strauss (Part­ner), Dr. Heiko Gotsche (Part­ner, both Düsseldorf)
Other lawy­ers involved:
Corporate/M&A: Manuel Metz­ner (Coun­sel, Frank­furt), Juan Garcia Jacob­sen (Asso­ciate, Düssel­dorf), Lena von Richt­ho­fen (Senior Asso­ciate, Düssel­dorf), Jana Upschulte (Senior Asso­ciate, Düssel­dorf), Dr. Richard Stefan­ink (Asso­ciate, Düssel­dorf), Celina Zaim (Asso­ciate, Düssel­dorf), Denise Tayler (Asso­ciate, Frankfurt)
IT: Dr. Holger Lutz (Part­ner, Frank­furt), Simone Rieken (Senior Asso­ciate, Frankfurt)
Public Law: Anahita Thoms (Part­ner, Düssel­dorf), Alex­an­der Ehrle (Asso­ciate, Berlin)
Anti­trust: Dr. Nico­las Kredel (Part­ner, Düssel­dorf), Dr. Florian Kotman (Asso­ciate, Düssel­dorf), Dr. Jonas Brueck­ner (Coun­sel, Berlin)
Labor Law: Dr. Chris­tian Reichel (Part­ner, Frank­furt), Dr. Sebas­tian F. Pfrang (Asso­ciate, Frankfurt)
Real Estate: Dr. Daniel Bork (Senior Asso­ciate, Düsseldorf)
Tax: Chris­toph Becker (Part­ner, Frank­furt), Ariane Schaaf (Coun­sel, Frankfurt)
IP: Nadine Neumeier (Senior Asso­ciate, Frankfurt)
Banking & Finance: Phil­ipp Thimm (Asso­ciate, Frankfurt)
Commer­cial: Joachim Fröh­lich (Coun­sel, Munich)

Other Baker McKen­zie offices: Attor­neys from Baker McKen­zie offices in Belgium, Nether­lands, UK, France, Switzerland.

News

Colo­gne, Germany — Trading app Next­mar­kets has raised around €25 million ($30 million) in another finan­cing (FinanceFwd repor­ted). The round was led by publicly traded Cryp­to­logy Asset Group, Europe’s largest publicly traded crypto invest­ment company, in which Chris­tian Anger­mayer is a share­hol­der. Accor­ding to the commer­cial regis­ter, the invest­ment company Finlab AG has also inves­ted again.

With the fresh capi­tal, the Colo­gne-based company intends to grow further in a market that has so far been led prima­rily by the U.S. model Robin­hood and its German coun­ter­part Trade Republik.

Next­mar­kets was foun­ded in 2014 by the two brot­hers Manuel and Domi­nic Heyden. The startup first made a name for itself by having profes­sio­nal trad­ers give invest­ment tips via the app. Mean­while, the startup has a secu­ri­ties trading bank license and offers about 7,000 stocks and 1,000 ETFs that can be traded via the app free of charge.

With stock market coaches, the Colo­gne-based company wants to stand out from the compe­ti­tion. Paypal co-foun­der Peter Thiel had alre­ady inves­ted in Next­mar­kets in 2016. The enter­prise value is esti­ma­ted at appro­xi­m­ately 58 million euros ($70 million). For compa­ri­son: Robin­hood is about to go public, Trade Repu­blic is valued at around 600 million euros. For Next­mar­kets is curr­ently said to have about 40 employees.

News

Rostock — In its Series A, Rostock-based insu­rance startup Heps­ter has recei­ved about €8.4 million ($10 million). New entrants are London-based fintech VC Element Ventures and Paris-based sumup inves­tor Seven­ven­ture Part­ners. The former share­hol­ders Mittel­stän­di­sche Betei­li­gungs­ge­sell­schaft Meck­len­burg-Vorpom­mern and GPS Ventures have also joined in.

The startup by Hanna Bach­mann, Chris­tian Range and Alex­an­der Hornung, which is just under five years old, offers insu­rance, such as acci­dent or theft insu­rance, to more than 700 corpo­rate custo­mers from the mobi­lity, sports, elec­tri­cal equip­ment and travel sectors.

Since its launch in spring 2017, the Rostock-based insur­tech has alre­ady convin­ced more than 700 part­ners and around 70,000 custo­mers of its insu­rance products.

heps­ter deve­lops indi­vi­dual and tailor-made insu­rance products based on the needs of today’s people as well as the busi­ness models of our part­ners. Special atten­tion is paid by heps­ter to flexi­ble and trans­pa­rent contract design as well as uncom­pli­ca­ted insu­rance conclu­sion in order to ensure an opti­mal custo­mer expe­ri­ence. Close coope­ra­tion with various reinsu­r­ers enables fast product solu­ti­ons tail­o­red to the needs of the coope­ra­tion part­ners. On the one hand, insu­rance poli­cies can be booked in the online store with just a few clicks and comple­tely digi­tally. On the other hand, the insu­rance products can be inte­gra­ted seam­lessly and comple­tely digi­tally into exis­ting and new proces­ses with the help of various interfaces.

About Element Ventures LLP
Element Ventures LLP, based in London, UK, opera­tes as a venture capi­tal company. The Company provi­des invest­ment in early-stage, high poten­tial, and growth start-up companies.

News

Wismar — Herbert Smith Freeh­ills has advi­sed PEARL Infra­struc­ture Capi­tal as majo­rity share­hol­der on an invest­ment toge­ther with Wismar Pellets to finance the plan­ned biomass coge­nera­tion plant in Wismar. For PEARL, the tran­sac­tions mark its entry into the German biomass market. PEARL comple­ted the final closing in March 2020 with a total volume of 280 million euros (invest­ment capa­city approx. 1.2 billion euros).

The biomass coge­nera­tion plant, jointly deve­lo­ped by Green Invest­ment Group (GIG) and Wismar Pellets, will gene­rate up to 18 MWe of elec­tri­city and 27 MWth of heat, supp­ly­ing local manu­fac­tu­rer Wismar Pellets and sawmill ILIM Nordic Timber. The plant is expec­ted to be opera­tio­nal in Q4 2022.

PEARL Infra­struc­ture Capi­tal is a private equity invest­ment fund focu­sed on the energy and green tran­si­tion in Europe. PEARL comple­ted the final closing in March 2020 with a total volume of 280 million euros (invest­ment capa­city of appro­xi­m­ately 1.2 billion euros); invest­ments will be made in Euro­pean rene­wa­ble energy gene­ra­tion faci­li­ties such as biomass coge­nera­tion plants, waste recy­cling and water cycle management.

Advi­sor PEARL Infra­struc­ture Capi­tal: Herbert Smith Freehills
Silke Gold­berg (Corporate/Energy, London), Dr. Marius Boewe (Energy Law, Düssel­dorf; both Lead), Dr. Chris­toph Nawroth, Dr. Sebas­tian Schü­rer (Coun­sel; both Corporate/M&A, both Düssel­dorf), Kai Liebrich (Finance), Thomas Kess­ler (Real Estate), Dr. Stef­fen C. Hörner (Tax; all Frank­furt); Asso­cia­tes: Anne Ecken­roth (Foreign Lawyer), Kris­tin Kattwin­kel (both Energy Law, both Düssel­dorf), Dr. Julius Brandt (Consul­tant, Frank­furt), Stefa­nie Strahl (both Corpo­rate; Düssel­dorf), Dr. Hannes Jacobi, Dr. Galina Matjusch­kin (both Finance, both Frank­furt), Gelena Minkov, Yvonne Spatz, Chris­tina Friess, Ja Yeon Youm (Profes­sio­nal Support Lawyer; all Real Estate), Tatiana Guens­ter (Tax; all Frank­furt), Martin Bitt­ner, Sam Cund­all, Jannis Bille, Ania Sharp, Julia Osten­dorf (Trai­nee Soli­ci­tor), Tara Theiss (Para­le­gal; all Corporate/Energy), Elinor Richard­son (Dispu­tes; all London)

News

Zurich — Funds advi­sed by Equis­tone Part­ners Europe (“Equis­tone”) are acqui­ring the Franke Water Systems divi­sion, a divi­sion of the Franke Group and a leading Euro­pean manu­fac­tu­rer and supplier of kitchen and sani­tary faucets for the resi­den­tial, public and commer­cial sectors. Thors­ten Klap­p­roth, form­erly CEO of Hans­g­rohe SE and WMF AG, is invol­ved in the tran­sac­tion as co-inves­tor. The seller of the Franke Water Systems Divi­sion, which consists of the two busi­ness units KWC Group (“KWC”) and WS Commer­cial Group (“WSC”), is Franke Holding AG (“Franke Group”). The exis­ting manage­ment team will conti­nue to drive the company’s growth stra­tegy in the future. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose details of the tran­sac­tion, which is still subject to appr­oval by the rele­vant compe­ti­tion authorities.

Franke Water Systems is a divi­sion of the Franke Group, foun­ded in 1911 in Rorschach, Switz­er­land, a leading global supplier of solu­ti­ons and equip­ment for dome­stic kitchens, private bath­rooms, semi-public/­pu­blic wash­rooms, profes­sio­nal system cate­ring and coffee prepa­ra­tion. Franke Water Systems was estab­lished as an inde­pen­dent divi­sion of the Franke Group and consists of the two busi­ness units KWC and WSC. Franke Water Systems has produc­tion sites and compe­tence centers in Europe, the United Arab Emira­tes and Asia. In 2020, the company recor­ded sales of more than 192 million Swiss francs with around 900 employees.

KWC is the Swiss market leader for resi­den­tial sani­tary, resi­den­tial kitchen and commer­cial kitchen fittings, head­quar­te­red in Unter­kulm. The tradi­tio­nal company offers its custo­mers solu­ti­ons from the medium to the luxury price segment. Thanks in parti­cu­lar to the high-quality mate­ri­als and work­man­ship of its products, as well as the inno­va­tive design and a promise of quality “Made in Switz­er­land”, the company enjoys great popu­la­rity among instal­lers and architects.

WSC offers its custo­mers high-quality stain­less steel fittings and compon­ents for the commer­cial and (semi-)public sani­tary sector. WSC products are used in wash­rooms of public faci­li­ties such as office and admi­nis­tra­tion buil­dings, sports stadi­ums as well as hotels and hospi­tals, among others. WSC has inter­na­tio­nal loca­ti­ons and is distin­gu­is­hed, among other things, by its compre­hen­sive and high-quality product port­fo­lio as well as its high level of service competence.

Equis­tone supports the carve-out of Franke Water Systems from the Franke Group. Toge­ther with Thors­ten Klap­p­roth, form­erly CEO of Hans­g­rohe SE and WMF AG, and the exis­ting manage­ment team, Equis­tone will drive the expan­sion of the inter­na­tio­nal busi­ness as well as the orga­nic and inor­ga­nic growth of Franke Water Systems — buil­ding on the solid busi­ness deve­lo­p­ment in recent years. A parti­cu­lar focus will be on further deve­lo­ping the inno­va­tive product range and expan­ding the company’s strong brand positioning.

“We are deligh­ted about the inves­tors’ confi­dence in the manage­ment team. Toge­ther with Equis­tone, we want to conti­nue to offer our custo­mers high-quality solu­ti­ons for kitchens and sani­tary faci­li­ties and successfully deve­lop Franke Water Systems,” says Patrick Trutt­mann, CFO of Franke Water Systems.

“Franke Water Systems has excel­lent people on its team and enjoys an excel­lent market posi­tion in key Euro­pean markets, as well as great poten­tial for further profi­ta­ble growth,” says Thors­ten Klapproth.

“The Euro­pean market for kitchen and sani­tary products has been deve­lo­ping very satis­fac­to­rily for years. Franke Water Systems is ideally posi­tio­ned to play an important role in this market envi­ron­ment. With Thors­ten Klap­p­roth, we were able to gain a proven indus­try expert with many years of expe­ri­ence, who has repea­tedly proven that it is possi­ble to successfully deve­lop strong brands with enthu­si­a­stic employees and inno­va­tive products — both orga­ni­cally and inor­ga­ni­cally,” says Stefan Maser, Part­ner at Equis­tone Part­ners Europe.

Stefan Maser, David Zahnd and Roman Emanuel Hegglin are respon­si­ble for the tran­sac­tion on the part of Equistone.

Advi­sor Equistone:
Munich Stra­tegy (Commer­cial), tkhd (Commer­cial), KPMG (Finan­cial), Bär & Karrer (Legal, Tax), ERM (Envi­ron­ment), Marsh/Kessler (Insu­rance), GCA Altium (Debt Advi­sory) and Enqcor (M&A Advisory).

About Equis­tone Part­ners Europe
Equis­tone Part­ners Europe is one of the most active Euro­pean equity inves­tors with a team of more than 40 invest­ment specia­lists in seven offices in Germany, Switz­er­land, the Nether­lands, France and the UK. Equis­tone prima­rily invests in estab­lished medium-sized compa­nies with a good market posi­tion, above-average growth poten­tial and an enter­prise value of between EUR 50 and 500 million. Since its foun­da­tion, equity has been inves­ted in around 160 tran­sac­tions in the DACH region and the Nether­lands, mainly mid-market buy-outs. The port­fo­lio curr­ently compri­ses over 50 compa­nies across Europe, inclu­ding around 20 active holdings in Germany, Switz­er­land and the Nether­lands. Equis­tone is curr­ently inves­t­ing from its sixth fund, which closed in March 2018 with €2.8 billion.

News

Amsterdam/ Munich/ Berlin — Digi­tal busi­ness banking plat­form Penta Fintech GmbH (“Penta”) has closed a top-up Series B+ finan­cing round. Lead inves­tor was ABN AMRO Ventures along­side exis­ting inves­tors finleap, HV Capi­tal, RTP Global, Presight Capi­tal, S7V and VR Ventures.

This is the third round of finan­cing after Penta closed two rounds of finan­cing with new inves­tors last year. The total invest­ment now amounts to EUR 30 million.

Penta is the digi­tal plat­form for busi­ness banking for small and medium-sized enter­pri­ses as well as solo self-employed and free­lan­cers. Within minu­tes, busi­nesses can digi­tally apply for a busi­ness account and receive a German IBAN, debit cards, digi­tal expense manage­ment and many other finan­cial solu­ti­ons. As an offi­cial DATEV market­place part­ner, Penta also enables the trans­fer of accoun­ting data via the offi­cial inter­face to DATEV. Penta says it has well over 25,000 custo­mers. The company is head­quar­te­red in Berlin with another office in Belgrade.

ABN AMRO Ventures is the corpo­rate venture capi­tal arm of ABN AMRO Bank in the Nether­lands, head­quar­te­red in Amster­dam. The focus is on stra­te­gic invest­ments in tech­no­logy compa­nies that are rele­vant for the bank and the digi­tal trans­for­ma­tion of its products and services. The fund has a total volume of EUR 150 million and a port­fo­lio of now 15 compa­nies, inclu­ding 1 successful exit.

Advi­sors to ABN AMRO Ventures: POELLATH P+P Partners

Chris­tian Tönies, LL.M. Eur. (Part­ner, M&A/VC, Munich/Berlin)
Dr. Sebas­tian Gerlin­ger, LL.M. (Coun­sel, Lead Part­ner, M&A/VC, Munich/Berlin)
Markus Döll­ner (Senior Asso­ciate, M&A/VC, Munich)

News

Munich/ Karlsruhe/ Boulder — Brand­Ma­ker, foun­ded in 2008 and head­quar­te­red in Karls­ruhe, is a manu­fac­tu­rer of soft­ware in the areas of marke­ting opera­ti­ons and marke­ting resource manage­ment and has deve­lo­ped a SaaS plat­form that enables large orga­niza­ti­ons in parti­cu­lar to control, opti­mize and auto­mate the entire marke­ting value chain. The plat­form redu­ces the comple­xity of marke­ting by enab­ling smooth coor­di­na­tion of marke­ting processes.

US finan­cial inves­tor Rubicon Tech­no­logy Part­ners was foun­ded in 2012 as a mid-cap private equity firm focu­sed on part­ne­ring with foun­ders and manage­ment teams of enter­prise soft­ware companies.

Foun­ded in 2008, Karls­ruhe-based Brand­Ma­ker has deve­lo­ped a SaaS plat­form that enables large orga­niza­ti­ons in parti­cu­lar to manage, opti­mize and auto­mate the entire marke­ting value chain. The plat­form redu­ces marke­ting comple­xity by elimi­na­ting silos and enab­ling smooth coor­di­na­tion of marke­ting processes.

Advi­sors to Rubicon Tech­no­logy Part­ners: P+P Pöllath + Partners

Otto Haber­stock, M.C.J. (Part­ner, Lead Part­ner, M&A, Private Equity)
Gerald Herr­mann (Part­ner, Tax Law)
Daniel Wied­mann, LL.M. (Asso­cia­ted Part­ner, Anti­trust, Regulatory)
Dr. Laura Grei­mel (Coun­sel, M&A, Private Equity)
Chris­tine Funk, LL.M. (Senior Asso­ciate, M&A, Private Equity, IP/IT)
Benja­min Aldeg­ar­mann, LL.M. (Senior Asso­ciate, M&A, Private Equity)
Marina Hennings (Asso­ciate, Real Estate Law)
Dr. Moritz Klein (Senior Asso­ciate, M&A, Private Equity)

Advi­sor to share­hol­ders of Brand­Ma­ker GmbH: King & Wood Mallesons

Dr. Michael Roos, Markus Herz, Lorenz Liebsch, Simon Brandt (PSL) (all Corporate/M&A)
Markus Hill, Rüdi­ger Knopf, Vikto­ria Rosbach (all tax)

News

Berlin, March 5, 2021 — SMP advi­sed a fund mana­ged by Dutch Rhein Manage­ment B.V. (Rhein Invest) on the acqui­si­tion of Spie­gel Insti­tut Holding GmbH & Co KG, Spie­gel Insti­tut Mann­heim GmbH & Co KG, Spie­gel Insti­tut Ingol­stadt GmbH and Spie­gel Insti­tut Shang­hai Co Ltd (toge­ther Spie­gel Insti­tut) in the course of a manage­ment buy-in. The previous owners of Spie­gel Insti­tut will retain a stake in the company and will conti­nue to support the manage­ment in an advi­sory capacity.

Rhein Invest was accom­pa­nied by a team led by Jörn Wöbke and Moritz Diek­gräf. SMP’s scope of advice in this tran­sac­tion included corpo­rate and tax advice on the acqui­si­tion as well as on the future group struc­ture and the corpo­rate and tax struc­tu­ring with regard to the manage­ment parti­ci­pa­tion as well as the return parti­ci­pa­tion of the sellers. The parties agreed not to disc­lose the purchase price or further details of the transaction.

About Rhein Invest
Rhein Invest is a Dutch invest­ment company focu­sed on majo­rity invest­ments in profi­ta­ble, small and medium-sized enter­pri­ses (SMEs) in the indus­trial, busi­ness services, soft­ware, agri­cul­tu­ral tech­no­logy and leisure sectors in the Nether­lands and Germany. Parti­cu­lar empha­sis is placed on a strong DNA, expan­da­ble market posi­tion and prono­un­ced inno­va­tive strength of the investments.

The Mirror Institute
The Spie­gel Insti­tute is an inter­na­tio­nally opera­ting rese­arch and consul­ting insti­tute for consu­mer rese­arch and user expe­ri­ence consul­ting. Foun­ded as early as 1950 by Prof. Dr. Bernt Spie­gel as the first market psycho­logy insti­tute in Germany, it now has loca­ti­ons in Mann­heim, Ingol­stadt, Stutt­gart, Hamburg, Munich and Shang­hai. From there, the Spie­gel Insti­tute is active world­wide for its renow­ned custo­mers. By inclu­ding the user and consu­mer perspec­tive in the deve­lo­p­ment process of products and services, the Spie­gel Insti­tute thus actively contri­bu­tes to the success of its custo­mers, which prima­rily include global players.

About SMP
SMP is a specia­list tax and commer­cial law firm opera­ting in the core areas of corpo­rate, funds, liti­ga­tion, tax and tran­sac­tions. SMP’s attor­neys and tax advi­sors repre­sent 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. Since its foun­da­tion in 2017, SMP has become one of the leading addres­ses for venture capi­tal, private equity and fund struc­tu­ring in Germany. The firm and its part­ners are natio­nally and inter­na­tio­nally ranked by JUVE, Best Lawy­ers, Legal 500, Focus, and Cham­bers and Part­ners. Today, SMP employs more than 60 expe­ri­en­ced lawy­ers, tax advi­sors and tax specia­lists in three offices in Berlin, Hamburg and Colo­gne. www.smp.law

Consul­tant Rhein Invest: SMP
Dr. Jörn Wöbke, Photo (Lead/M&A/Corporate Law), Partner
Dr. Moritz Diek­gräf (Co-Lead/M&A/Corporate Law), Associate
Dr. Malte Berg­mann (Taxes), Partner
Ann-Kris­tin Loch­mann (Taxes), Senior Associate
Moritz von Saß (M&A/Corporate Law), Rese­arch Associate

News

Berlin, March 2021 — The Ameri­can-French luxury inves­tor L Catter­ton has acqui­red a stake in BIRKENSTOCK. The indi­rect share­hol­ders of the Birken­stock Group, Chris­tian and Alex Birken­stock, retain an econo­mic inte­rest. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the details of the agree­ment. The tran­sac­tion is subject to appr­oval by the rele­vant compe­ti­tion authorities.

The stra­te­gic part­ner­ship with L Catter­ton is the next step for the global life­style brand BIRKENSTOCK to conti­nue to grow stron­gly in future markets such as China and India. In Europe and America, BIRKENSTOCK will further streng­then its leading market posi­tion by inves­t­ing in its German sites and expan­ding produc­tion, logi­stics and sales. In addi­tion, further deve­lo­p­ment of the direct-to-consu­mer busi­ness and expan­sion of the company’s own e‑commerce plat­forms are planned.

Deloitte provi­ded compre­hen­sive support to Birken­stock GmbH & Co KG during the prepa­ra­tion of the entry of an inves­tor and the imple­men­ta­tion of a bidding process until the successful sale to the stra­te­gic part­ner L Catter­ton. Thanks to the inter­di­sci­pli­nary coope­ra­tion of Deloitte Legal’s legal advi­sors with Deloitte experts from the Tax and Finan­cial Advi­sory areas and the compre­hen­sive consu­mer goods indus­try exper­tise, the rele­vant aspects for this complex tran­sac­tion were covered. Seam­less coope­ra­tion with the teams of the Ameri­can invest­ment bank Gold­man Sachs, which was brought in to find an inves­tor, also contri­bu­ted to the success of the transaction.

Advi­sor Birken­stock Group: Deloitte Legal
Dr. Julia Peter­sen (Part­ner, Corporate/M&A, Berlin, Lead), Chris­to­fer Mellert (Part­ner, Corporate/M&A, Düssel­dorf), Albrecht Kind­ler (Part­ner, Corporate/M&A, Düssel­dorf), Dr. Klaus Pilz (Coun­sel, Corporate/M&A, Berlin), Dr. Juliane Wert­her-Bontje (Coun­sel, Corporate/M&A Berlin), Dr. Moritz Erkel (Asso­ciate, Corporate/M&A, Berlin), Nata­lia Vost (Asso­ciate, Corporate/M&A, Berlin) Dr. Char­lotte Sander (Part­ner Labor Law, Hano­ver), Alex­an­der Deja (Asso­ciate, Labor Law, Hano­ver), Felix Skala, LL.M. (Part­ner, Anti­trust Law, Hamburg), Katha­rina Zicker­mann, LL.M. (Asso­ciate, Anti­trust, Hamburg), Sebas­tian von Rueden (Part­ner, IT/IP, Düssel­dorf), Sonja Baier (Asso­ciate, IT/IP Düssel­dorf) Deloitte Tax: Stefan Grube (Part­ner, MP Tax & Legal Deloitte Germany, Düssel­dorf), Olga Metcher (Direc­tor, Düssel­dorf), Ann-Pascale Horst­mann (Consul­tant, Düssel­dorf), Marc Puls (Senior Mana­ger, Düssel­dorf), Chris­tian Dohm­gans (Senior Mana­ger, Düssel­dorf) Deloitte Finan­cial Advi­sory: Kars­ten Holl­asch (Part­ner, Sector Lead Consu­mer Indus­try Deloitte Germany, Dussel­dorf) Roland Basler (Direc­tor, Dussel­dorf), Caro­lin Kopy­ciok (Mana­ger, Dussel­dorf), Jaque­lien Ursprung (Senior Mana­ger, Dussel­dorf); Felix Bauchro­witz (Mana­ger) and Julian Opfer­kuch (Senior) For USA: Gibbons P.C.: Terry Myers, Frank Cannone, Peter Flagel Invest­ment Bank: Gold­man Sachs

News

Frank­furt a.M. — The brow­ser provi­der Brave has acqui­red the search engine Tail­cat. Tail­cat is an open search engine built on an inde­pen­dent index that does not coll­ect IP addres­ses or use perso­nal data to improve search results.

Tail­cat was deve­lo­ped by the team previously respon­si­ble for the search and brow­ser products at Cliqz, a Hubert Burda Media holding.

Tail­cat is inten­ded to act as the foun­da­tion for Brave Search. Brave Search and the Brave brow­ser provide an inde­pen­dent, privacy-friendly alter­na­tive to big-tech brow­sers and search engines.

Advi­sor Brave Soft­ware, Inc.: Good­win, Frank­furt a.M./Silicon Valley
Gregor Klenk, Photo (Part­ner, Private Equity, Frank­furt), Anthony J. McCus­ker (Part­ner, Tech­no­logy, Sili­con Valley; both Lead), Heiko Penn­dorf (Part­ner, Tax, Frank­furt), Caro­lin Kefer­stein (Asso­ciate, Private Equity, Frank­furt), Chris­tina Papa­di­mi­triou (Asso­ciate, Private Equity, Frank­furt), Eliza­beth Tele­fus (Asso­ciate, Tech­no­logy, Sili­con Valley)

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