Author: Tatjana Anderer

BOSTON and LONDON — Advent Inter­na­tio­nal (“Advent”), one of the world’s largest and most expe­ri­en­ced private equity firms, today announ­ced that fund­rai­sing for the Advent Inter­na­tio­nal GPE IX Limi­ted Part­ner­ship Fund (“GPE IX” or the “Fund”) has closed. The fund reached its maxi­mum volume of $17.5 billion (15.6 billion euros) and had alre­ady excee­ded its target of $16 billion (14.3 billion euros) after six months. Advent’s previous fund, GPE VIII, closed in 2016 with a volume of $13 billion (€12 billion).

The same stra­tegy will be pursued for GPE (Global Private Equity) IX as for its eight prede­ces­sor funds; funds will be inves­ted prima­rily in Europe and North America, but also selec­tively in Asia and Latin America, in buy-outs, carve-outs, public-to-private tran­sac­tions and growth financing.
Sector specia­liza­tion has been at the core of Advent’s invest­ment approach since its incep­tion, and the GPE IX fund will also focus on the five core indus­tries in which the firm has exten­sive expe­ri­ence and know­ledge: (1) finan­cial services and busi­ness services; (2) health­care; (3) indus­tri­als and chemi­cals; (4) retail, consu­mer goods and leisure indus­tries; and (5) media and tele­com­mu­ni­ca­ti­ons. Advent recently announ­ced plans to streng­then its commit­ment to the tech­no­logy sector by expan­ding its tech­no­logy invest­ment team and opening a new office in the San Fran­cisco Bay Area.

“The successful fund­rai­sing for GPE IX is an important mile­stone for Advent and increa­ses the capi­tal base available to us for invest­ments in Germany,” said Ranjan Sen (photo), Mana­ging Part­ner at Advent Inter­na­tio­nal in Frank­furt. “The funds raised will allow us to conti­nue our proven stra­tegy of part­ne­ring with manage­ment teams to drive sustainable busi­ness growth.”

Ronald Ayles, Mana­ging Part­ner at Advent Inter­na­tio­nal in Frank­furt, added: “Advent has been inves­t­ing in Germany for almost 30 years and has actively supported the value growth of 30 compa­nies with more than 3.1 billion euros. Germany offers a wide range of oppor­tu­ni­ties for an invest­ment company like Advent, which has a strong commit­ment to the markets in which it operates.”

“We are very plea­sed with the strong inte­rest in GPE IX from exis­ting and new inves­tors,” said David Mussa­fer, Mana­ging Part­ner at Advent Inter­na­tio­nal in Boston. “The corner­sto­nes of our success are our proven sector focus, our global presence, our private part­ner­ship model, and the exten­sive opera­tio­nal resour­ces we bring to our investments.”
“Our global team is a key advan­tage in finding and execu­ting attrac­tive invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties around the world,” said James Brock­lebank, Mana­ging Part­ner at Advent in London. “We have exten­sive expe­ri­ence in execu­ting complex tran­sac­tions such as corpo­rate spin-offs. This is where we can bring our resour­ces and exper­tise to create value in these dyna­mic businesses.”

Exten­sive resour­ces to support manage­ment teams
Advent has more than 195 invest­ment and port­fo­lio support specia­lists world­wide. GPX IX is inves­ted by a team of 157 experts in Europe, North America and Asia. They can draw on the exper­tise of 40 specia­lists from Advent’s Latin Ameri­can Private Equity Fund program, as well as a global network of world-class opera­tio­nal resour­ces. This also includes more than 115 exter­nal Opera­ting Part­ners and Opera­ti­ons Advi­sors, former execu­ti­ves with in-depth indus­try and tech­ni­cal expertise.

Through this plat­form, Advent provi­des manage­ment teams with resour­ces and exper­tise to help them grow reve­nue and execute value crea­tion stra­te­gies. Since 2005, port­fo­lio compa­nies in which Advent has held an inte­rest for at least one year have achie­ved average annual reve­nue and EBITDA growth of 14 and 15 percent, respectively.

GPE IX saw high demand from exis­ting inves­tors. More than 90 percent of the commit­ted capi­tal came from the limi­ted part­ners of previous Advent funds.

Strong track record over three decades
Advent’s GPE program has a long track record of acqui­si­ti­ons and dispo­sals over seve­ral fund gene­ra­ti­ons and various econo­mic or private equity cycles. Since 1990, 258 invest­ments have been made in 31 count­ries, of which about 213 have been fully or largely realized.
Across all its funds, Advent has inves­ted $44 billion (€36 billion) in more than 345 private equity tran­sac­tions in 41 count­ries. The company’s current port­fo­lio compa­nies gene­ra­ted annual sales of $50 billion (44 billion euros) and employed more than 290,000 people at year-end.

Recent IPOs and company sales in the GPE program include Ammer­aal Beltech, Bojan­gles’, Coti­viti, Genoa Health­care, KMD, lulu­le­mon athle­tica (partial exit), Mondo Mine­rals, MORSCO and Nexi (IPO, partial exit).

Recent invest­ments in the GPE program include Aimbridge Hospi­ta­lity, BioDuro, Deut­sche Fach­pflege Group, INNIO (form­erly GE Distri­bu­ted Power), Laird, Manjushree Tech­no­pack, Prisma Medios de Pago, Walm­art Brazil and Zentiva.

In addi­tion to the GPE program, Advent is curr­ently inves­t­ing a sixth private equity fund focu­sed on buy-outs and growth finan­cing in Latin America. The 2015 vintage fund, LAPEF VI, has $2.1 billion in assets.
This press release is neither an offer nor a soli­ci­ta­tion of an offer nor an invi­ta­tion or soli­ci­ta­tion to invest in any fund of Advent Inter­na­tio­nal. Invest­ments in Advent Inter­na­tio­nal funds are available solely on the basis of and subject to the terms of the rele­vant fund docu­ments and appli­ca­ble laws.

About Advent Interantional
Foun­ded in 1984, Advent Inter­na­tio­nal (“Advent”) is one of the world’s largest and most expe­ri­en­ced invest­ment compa­nies. The company mana­ges appro­xi­m­ately $36 billion (€31 billion) in assets, exclu­ding $17.5 billion (€15.6 billion) raised under GPE IX (as of Septem­ber 31, Decem­ber 2018).

About Advent Inter­na­tio­nal Germany
Advent Inter­na­tio­nal GmbH was foun­ded in Germany in 1991 and advi­ses Advent with its Frank­furt-based team of consul­tants. Advent is also one of the leading private equity compa­nies in Germany and has been inves­t­ing in Euro­pean compa­nies since 1990. To date, Advent Inter­na­tio­nal GmbH has advi­sed on invest­ments of appro­xi­m­ately EUR 3.1 billion in 30 port­fo­lio compa­nies. Advent Inter­na­tio­nal GmbH’s consul­ting focus is on the follo­wing core sectors: Finan­cial Services and Busi­ness Services; Health­care; Chemi­cals; Retail, Consu­mer Goods and Leisure Indus­tries; and Media and Telecommunications.

Over the past decade, Advent’s invest­ments have included Innio, a global leader in recipro­ca­ting gas engi­nes for power gene­ra­tion and gas compres­sion; Deut­sche Fach­pflege Gruppe (DFG), the largest provi­der of out-of-hospi­tal inten­sive care in Germany; Concar­dis Payment Group, a leading provi­der of digi­tal payment solu­ti­ons and part of the Nets Group; allnex, the leading global manu­fac­tu­rer of resin coatings for the paint and coatings indus­try; Douglas Holding, Europe’s leading cosme­tics retailer; GFKL, a leading provi­der of receiv­a­bles manage­ment in Germany; and Median Klini­ken, a leading provi­der of inde­pen­dent reha­bi­li­ta­tion clinics.
After more than 35 years of inter­na­tio­nal invest­ment acti­vity, Advent remains true to its invest­ment approach of gene­ra­ting sustainable reve­nue and profit growth for its port­fo­lio compa­nies by working in part­ner­ship with manage­ment teams. www.adventinternational.com

Kürten (Germany) / Wille­br­oek (Belgium) — AVS Verkehrs­si­che­rung (“AVS”), a port­fo­lio company of Triton Fund IV, has signed an agree­ment to acquire a majo­rity stake in Fero Group (“Fero”), a leading provi­der in Belgium of tempo­rary traf­fic manage­ment, from the foun­ding Haerens family. The Fero Group consists of Fero Signa­li­sa­tie and its sister compa­nies Admibo, Sign­a­route, Signco and Safe­ty­bloc. The tran­sac­tion is subject to appr­oval by the anti­trust autho­ri­ties. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the purchase price.

Fero was foun­ded in 2001. The family-owned and opera­ted company provi­des services in tempo­rary traf­fic manage­ment, pave­ment marking, traf­fic signs, traf­fic manage­ment systems and main­ten­ance of public plan­ters and baskets. Custo­mers mainly include cons­truc­tion, utility and tele­com­mu­ni­ca­ti­ons compa­nies as well as the Belgian govern­ment. Fero employs more than 300 people at seven sites in Fland­ers and one in Wallonia.

Triton has exten­sive exper­tise in road safety services and has inves­ted in compa­nies in this sector across Europe, for exam­ple in Ramud­den in the Nordic count­ries and Chevron TM in the UK, and now with Fero in Belgium. “This tran­sac­tion was very stron­gly supported by Triton and under­lines our commit­ment to invest in the future growth and profi­ta­ble deve­lo­p­ment of Fero. It is another important step in expan­ding our inter­na­tio­nal presence in the occu­pa­tio­nal health and safety services sector,” said Nadia Meier-Kirner, Invest­ment Advi­sory Profes­sio­nal at Triton.

Luc Hendriks, Opera­ting Part­ner at Triton, added, “We look forward to support­ing manage­ment and staff as respon­si­ble owners with our exten­sive indus­try exper­tise and experience.”

“This tran­sac­tion is another important step in our inter­na­tio­nal expan­sion. Fero enjoys a good repu­ta­tion among custo­mers for fast service and highly profes­sio­nal services. This makes Fero a great part­ner that fits ideally with our Euro­pean stra­tegy “, says Dirk Schö­nauer, COO Inter­na­tio­nal of AVS.

“We are exci­ted to part­ner with AVS. Our compa­nies share the same way of thin­king and doing busi­ness. Toge­ther we can offer even better services tail­o­red to the demand of our custo­mers in Belgium “, add Freek & Friso Haerens, Co-CEO of Fero Group. The exis­ting share­hol­ders of Fero will remain share­hol­ders of the Group and direc­tors of Fero.

About AVS
Traf­fic safe­tyAVS Verkehrs­si­che­rung is a leading specia­list provi­der of traf­fic safety services in Germany. The company is head­quar­te­red in Kürten, Germany, and offers all essen­tial services rela­ted to road safety projects. These range from initial plan­ning and obtai­ning permits to complete site cons­truc­tion and safety aspects. AVS has a nati­on­wide presence with 17 loca­ti­ons across Germany and employs around 650 people.Further infor­ma­tion: www.avs-verkehrssicherung.de

About Fero
The Fero Group was foun­ded in 2001 and has become a house­hold name in the world of tempo­rary traf­fic manage­ment. The family-owned company is a full-service provi­der for its custo­mers, from tende­ring, plan­ning, place­ment and main­ten­ance to comple­tion and billing. Fero provi­des services to various clients in the govern­ment and cons­truc­tion outsour­cing sectors. As one of the leading provi­ders of tempo­rary traf­fic manage­ment, Fero has a repu­ta­tion for always helping custo­mers quickly and profes­sio­nally. Infor­ma­tion: https://www.feronv.be/; https://www.signco.be/; http://www.admibo.be/; http://www.signaroute.be/nl

About Triton
Since its foun­ding in 1997, Triton has laun­ched nine 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 over the long term by working in partnership.Triton and its manage­ment strive to gene­rate posi­tive change and growth through the sustainable impro­ve­ment of opera­tio­nal proces­ses and struc­tures. Curr­ently, Triton’s port­fo­lio includes 38 compa­nies with total sales of around EUR 14.9 billion and appro­xi­m­ately 72,000 employees.For further infor­ma­tion, please visit: www.triton-partners.de.

Frank­furt a. M. — Funds advi­sed by Triton (“Triton”) and Luxinva, a wholly owned subsi­diary of the Abu Dhabi Invest­ment Autho­rity (“ADIA”), have successfully comple­ted the acqui­si­tion of 100% of IFCO from Austra­lian Secu­ri­ties Exch­ange listed Brambles Limi­ted. Triton and ADIA have equal stakes in the investment.

IFCO is the world’s leading provi­der of reusable pack­a­ging solu­ti­ons for fresh food, serving custo­mers in more than 50 count­ries. IFCO has a global pool of more than 290 million reusable plas­tic contai­ners (RPCs) used for more than 1.3 billion ship­ments of fresh fruits and vege­ta­bles, meat, poul­try, seafood, eggs, bread and other items each year. (Photo: © Triton).

About ADIA
Foun­ded in 1976, ADIA is a globally diver­si­fied invest­ment insti­tu­tion that invests on behalf of the Govern­ment of Abu Dhabi as part of a stra­tegy focu­sed on long-term value crea­tion. ADIA has been inves­t­ing in private equity since 1989 and has built a signi­fi­cant in-house team of specia­lists with expe­ri­ence in asset products, geogra­phies and sectors. Through its exten­sive rela­ti­onships across the indus­try, Private Equi­ties invests in private equity and credit products globally, often along­side exter­nal part­ners, and in extern­ally mana­ged primary and secon­dary funds.

The company’s philo­so­phy is to build long-term, colla­bo­ra­tive rela­ti­onships with its part­ners and manage­ment teams to maxi­mize value and support the imple­men­ta­tion of agreed strategies.

About Triton
Since its foun­ding in 1997, Triton has laun­ched nine 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.

Curr­ently, Triton’s port­fo­lio includes 38 compa­nies with total sales of around EUR 14.9 billion and appro­xi­m­ately 72,000 employees.For further infor­ma­tion, please visit: www.triton-partners.de.

Gelsenkirchen/Krefeld — Water­land Private Equity conti­nues its buy&build stra­tegy at its port­fo­lio company Reha­con: fysio­con­cept is alre­ady the fourth acqui­si­tion for Reha­con within a few weeks. With a wide range of physio­the­rapy services, fysio­con­cept is one of the largest provi­ders in the Krefeld area. With this part­ner­ship, the Reha­con Group is streng­thening its regio­nal presence in the Lower Rhine region. At the same time, the Group intends to work with fysio­con­cept to further conso­li­date the prac­tice network, broa­den its service port­fo­lio and enter into addi­tio­nal colla­bo­ra­ti­ons with clinics.

The seller of fysio­con­cept is foun­der and CEO Jos Beulen. He will remain asso­cia­ted with the Group in a leading posi­tion and will conti­nue to accom­pany its further deve­lo­p­ment in the future. Water­land had acqui­red Reha­con in Janu­ary 2019 and assis­ted in the acqui­si­tion of Hamburg-based therapy center Anita Brüche in April. The tran­sac­tion, the details of which have been agreed not to be disc­lo­sed, is expec­ted to be comple­ted in early July.

fysio­con­cept main­ta­ins four loca­ti­ons in Krefeld, inclu­ding a physi­cal therapy prac­tice for the local Malte­ser Hospi­tal, its own private pati­ent loca­tion, and an Olym­pic base in the Krefeld area. The total of more than 80 employees treat over 12,000 pati­ents per year, both as outpa­ti­ents and inpa­ti­ents. Fysio­con­cept services include Exten­ded Outpa­ti­ent Physi­cal Therapy (EAP), jaw treat­ment, physio­the­rapy, lympha­tic drai­nage, medi­cal trai­ning, occu­pa­tio­nal therapy, osteo­pa­thy, and manual, neuro­lo­gi­cal and physi­cal therapy. With the latest acqui­si­tion, the treat­ment spec­trum of the entire Reha­con Group will be expan­ded to include offe­rings for compe­ti­tive athle­tes, for exam­ple. For fysio­con­cept employees, addi­tio­nal exten­sive trai­ning and further educa­tion oppor­tu­ni­ties open up. Inte­gra­tion into the Reha­con Group means even more flexi­bi­lity for thera­pists in their acti­vi­ties and choice of location.

Today, Reha­con is one of the leading provi­ders of physio­the­rapy services and therapy offe­rings in Europe. Nati­on­wide, the company opera­tes more than 120 therapy centers and employs over 800 people. The group gene­ra­tes annual sales of around 36 million euros at last count.

Jos Beulen, foun­der and mana­ging direc­tor of fysio­con­cept, welco­mes the part­ner­ship: “Also as part of the Reha­con Group, we stand for high-quality and indi­vi­dual physio­the­ra­peu­tic treat­ment. At the same time, pati­ents and employees bene­fit from Rehacon’s nati­on­wide presence and the asso­cia­ted new opportunities.”

Michael Reeder, foun­der and mana­ging direc­tor of Reha­con, empha­si­zes: “Reha­con is now even more present in the Lower Rhine region thanks to the part­ner­ship with fysio­con­cept. The inte­gra­tion into our group shows: We are consis­t­ently pursuing our course and want to grow further by inte­gra­ting addi­tio­nal complex and successful therapy centers in the highly frag­men­ted market for physiotherapy.”

Dr. Cars­ten Rahlfs (photo copy­right Water­land), Part­ner at Water­land: “Buy & build stra­te­gies are a key success factor for Water­land. We part­ner with well-posi­tio­ned entre­pre­neurs opera­ting in frag­men­ted markets with conso­li­da­tion poten­tial to help them expand rapidly. The clear objec­tive is to turn these compa­nies into successful market leaders by making acqui­si­ti­ons to expand their offe­rings. With fysio­con­cept, Reha­con can further expand its part­ner­ships with clinics in the region. Follo­wing the acqui­si­tion of the Anita Brüche Therapy Center in Hamburg a few weeks ago, the inte­gra­tion of fysio­con­cept into Reha­con is another key step towards achie­ving our stra­te­gic goal.”

As the majo­rity share­hol­der in Reha­con, the inde­pen­dent invest­ment company Water­land has exten­sive expe­ri­ence in the health­care market. In addi­tion to MEDIAN, the leading private provi­der in Germany with more than 120 reha­bi­li­ta­tion clinics, the company port­fo­lio also includes the ATOS clinic group, which specia­li­zes in ortho­pe­dics, and the care service provi­der Schö­nes Leben. Finally, Water­land also has a signi­fi­cant stake in Hanse­fit, a leading network asso­cia­tion for company sports and health services with more than 1,400 affi­lia­ted fitness studios.

About Water­land
Water­land is an inde­pen­dent private equity invest­ment firm that helps compa­nies realize their growth plans. With substan­tial finan­cial support and indus­try exper­tise, Water­land enables its port­fo­lio compa­nies to achieve acce­le­ra­ted growth both orga­ni­cally and through acqui­si­ti­ons. Water­land has offices in the Nether­lands (Bussum), Belgium (Antwerp), Germany (Hamburg, Munich), Poland (Warsaw), the UK (Manches­ter), Denmark (Copen­ha­gen) and Switz­er­land (Zurich). Curr­ently, six billion euros in equity funds are under management.

Water­land has consis­t­ently outper­for­med its invest­ments since its foun­ding in 1999 and has regu­larly ranked among the top three leading private equity firms world­wide in past HEC/Dow Jones Private Equity Perfor­mance Rankings.

Kleinostheim/ Munich — The invest­ment company Gimv has acqui­red a majo­rity stake in Smart Battery Solu­ti­ons GmbH(SBS). Accor­ding to Gimv, this is inten­ded to conti­nue SBS’s strong growth course in the dyna­mic battery market, streng­then its staff and expand its produc­tion capa­ci­ties. P+P Pöllath + Part­ners provi­ded compre­hen­sive legal and tax advice to the buyer Gimv. Photo: Sven Oleow­nik Part­ner — Head Gimv Germany.

Smart Battery Solu­ti­ons GmbH, based in Klein­ost­heim in Lower Fran­co­nia, was foun­ded in 2010 and today employs around 50 people. The company deve­lops, produ­ces and sells lithium-ion battery systems in the low-voltage range of up to 60 volts. The product range extends from the custo­mi­zed assem­bly of cells produ­ced by third parties to the deve­lo­p­ment and produc­tion of intel­li­gent energy storage systems and char­ging tech­no­lo­gies. In addi­tion, SBS has deve­lo­ped seve­ral proprie­tary battery manage­ment systems that control the opera­tion of batte­ries and ensure their safe use.

SBS products are used in nume­rous eMobi­lity appli­ca­ti­ons, such as e‑bikes, e‑scooters, water­craft or drones.

Advi­sor Gimv: P+P Pöllath + Partners
P+P Pöllath + Part­ners provi­ded compre­hen­sive legal and tax advice to the purcha­ser Gimv with the follo­wing multi­di­sci­pli­nary and multi­site team:
Dr. Tim Kauf­hold (Part­ner, M&A/Private Equity, Munich)
Dr. Nico Fischer (Part­ner, Tax Law, Munich)
Daniel Wied­mann, LL.M. (Asso­cia­ted Part­ner, Anti­trust Law, Frankfurt)
Dr. Verena Sten­zel (Senior Asso­ciate, M&A/Private Equity, Munich)
Chris­tine Funk, LL.M. (Senior Asso­ciate, M&A/Private Equity, Frankfurt)
Matthias Ober­bauer (Asso­ciate, M&A/Private Equity, Munich)

Munich — DLA Piper has advi­sed the French invest­ment fund “The Invest­ment and Support Fund for Busi­nesses in Africa” (FISEA) in the case of an invest­ment in the Zambian bank AB Bank Zambia Ltd.(ABZ) with a total volume of 25 million Zambian Kwacha (approx. EUR 1.6 million). Further share­hol­ders of ABZ are Access­Hol­ding Micro­fi­nance Ltd, Inter­na­tio­nal Finance Corpo­ra­tion (IFC) and the Kredit­an­stalt für Wieder­auf­bau (KfW). Upon comple­tion of the tran­sac­tion, FISEA will hold a total equity inte­rest of 22.5% in ABZ.

FISEA belongs to the Agence Fran­çaise de Déve­lo­pe­ment (AFD) and is mana­ged by its subsi­diary Prop­arco. This specia­li­zes in private sector deve­lo­p­ment and invests in compa­nies, banks, micro­fi­nance insti­tu­ti­ons and invest­ment funds opera­ting in sub-Saha­ran Africa. With an invest­ment target of EUR 250 million, FISEA is one of the key compon­ents of the French initia­tive to promote growth and employ­ment in Africa.

ABZ is the only bank that finan­ces SMEs and micro-entre­pre­neurs in Zambia. At the end of 2017, total assets amoun­ted to EUR 24 million. ABZ opera­tes through a network of seven bran­ches, employs 419 people and has 14,754 borrowers.

The DLA Piper team led by part­ner Simon Vogel also included senior asso­ciate Michael Rebholz (both Corporate/Private Equity, Munich).

Munich — ARQIS advi­sed Liberta Part­ners, a Munich-based multi-family holding company, on its new invest­ment struc­ture as well as on the first closing of its second fund. Behind the capi­tal commit­ments tota­ling more than EUR 50 million are prima­rily entre­pre­neurs and wealthy private individuals.

Dr. Peter Franke, foun­ding part­ner of Liberta Part­ners: “We are proud of the strong recep­tion from exis­ting and new inves­tors who support our stra­tegy. Our core compe­tence remains the active, entre­pre­neu­rial and inno­va­tive deve­lo­p­ment of our port­fo­lio compa­nies, espe­ci­ally with the diverse digi­tal oppor­tu­ni­ties our world offers today.”

Liberta Part­ners was foun­ded in 2016 and invests in compa­nies in German-spea­king count­ries with clear opera­tio­nal deve­lo­p­ment poten­tial, espe­ci­ally in group spin-offs and succes­sion situa­tions. These are actively deve­lo­ped and bene­fit from the inno­va­tive entre­pre­neu­rial under­stan­ding of Liberta Part­ners. The Liberta Part­ners team curr­ently consists of nine profes­sio­nals from the areas of M&A, opera­ti­ons and legal

Advi­sors to Liberta Part­ners: ARQIS Rechts­an­wälte (Munich)
Mauritz von Einem, Photo (Lead; Corporate/Tax), Prof. Dr. Chris­toph von Einem, Dr. Chris­tof Schnei­der, Elisa­beth Falte­rer (all Corporate)

Flick Gocke Schaum­burg (Munich): Chris­tian Schatz (Regu­la­tion)

Frank­furt a. M. — Funds mana­ged by Ardian have acqui­red shares of UniCre­dit Bank AG and the management’s invest­ment company in Swan­Cap Part­ners GmbH. Ardian had prevai­led in the bidding process. Management’s affi­liate reta­ins a mino­rity inte­rest and a control­ling inte­rest with respect to Swan­Cap. P+P Pöllath + Part­ners advi­sed the Swan­Cap manage­ment on both tran­sac­tional and fund law issues. Curr­ently, Swan­Cap mana­ges appro­xi­m­ately EUR 3 billion in private equity investments.

UniCre­dit Bank AG had sold part of its private equity port­fo­lio in 2013 to funds advi­sed by Swan­Cap with its own back-invest­ment in Swan­Cap and with the parti­ci­pa­tion of the then senior manage­ment of UniCredit’s private equity divi­sion. P+P was also active in this sale as well as in the launch of the Swan­Cap funds.

Swan­Cap is an inde­pen­dent invest­ment manage­ment and advi­sory plat­form with offices in Munich, Luxem­bourg, Milan and New York. Swan­Cap specia­li­zes in private equity buyouts and has predo­mi­nantly insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors. Curr­ently, Swan­Cap mana­ges appro­xi­m­ately EUR 3 billion in private equity investments.

Ardian is a private invest­ment house with appro­xi­m­ately USD 90 billion in assets under manage­ment or advi­sory across Europe, the Ameri­cas and Asia. Ardian intends to further expand SwanCap’s market posi­tion with its proven Swan­Cap Management.

Advi­sors to Swan­Cap Part­ners: P+P Pöllath + Partners 
Dr. Eva Nase (Part­ner, Lead Part­ner, Corporate/M&A, Munich)
Jens Hörmann (Part­ner, M&A/Private Equity, Munich)
Dr. Peter Bujot­zek, LL.M. (Part­ner, Private Funds, Frank­furt am Main)
Jasmin Wagner (Senior Asso­ciate, Corporate/M&A, Munich)
Thies Jacob, LL.M. (Auck­land) (Asso­ciate, M&A/Private Equity, Munich)
André Blischke (Asso­ciate, Private Funds, Frank­furt am Main)

Munich — SCHEMA, a port­fo­lio company of IK Invest­ment Part­ners has acqui­red 73% of the shares in TID Infor­ma­tik GmbH. The SCHEMA Group thus expands its previous 27% share in TID Infor­ma­tik to 100%.

As a new wholly owned subsi­diary of the SCHEMA Group, TID Infor­ma­tik will conti­nue to operate on the market as an inde­pen­dent company along­side SCHEMA Consul­ting and SCHEMA Systems. The current mana­ging direc­tors Robert Schä­fer and Rafi Boud­jakdjian will conti­nue to lead TID Infor­ma­tik GmbH as mana­ging directors.

TID Infor­ma­tik GmbH was foun­ded in 1992 by Robert Schä­fer as a service provi­der in the field of tech­ni­cal docu­men­ta­tion. Today, TID Infor­ma­tik is a successful and fast-growing soft­ware company offe­ring CATA­LOG­crea­tor®, the market-leading soft­ware plat­form for elec­tro­nic spare parts busi­ness, service infor­ma­tion systems and portals. The head­quar­ters of TID Infor­ma­tik GmbH is in Inning am Ammer­see, further­more the company has a branch office in Amberg. TID Infor­ma­tik employs 50 people at both loca­ti­ons and plans to grow further in the coming years.
SCHEMA and TID, as well as the respec­tive manage­ment, are convin­ced that an even more inten­sive stra­te­gic coope­ra­tion can addi­tio­nally streng­then the alre­ady curr­ently impres­sive growth of both companies.

IK Invest­ment Part­ners is a Euro­pean private equity firm with an invest­ment focus on the Nordic count­ries, the DACH region and France/Benelux. Since 1989, IK has laun­ched funds with a cumu­la­tive equity volume of almost €10 billion and inves­ted in more than 125 Euro­pean compa­nies. The IK Funds support compa­nies with signi­fi­cant growth poten­tial and their manage­ment teams in deve­lo­ping busi­ness models for the future, streng­thening the compa­nies’ market posi­tion and thus crea­ting outstan­ding long-term deve­lo­p­ment potential.

Advi­sor TID: Concen­tro Manage­ment AG 
Michael Raab (Part­ner), Sebas­tian Mink (Prin­ci­pal), Julia Albert (Consul­tant), Julian Schie­ner (Consul­tant)

Advi­sors to IK Invest­ment Part­ners: Shear­man & Sterling
Shear­man & Ster­ling previously advi­sed on the finan­cing of the 2018 acqui­si­tion of SCHEMA Group. The Shear­man & Ster­ling team included Part­ner Winfried M. Carli and Asso­ciate Andreas Breu (both Germany-Finance).

About Concen­tro AG
Concen­tro Manage­ment AG is a medium-sized consul­ting company with a focus on M&A consul­ting, mainly in tran­si­tion situa­tions, restruc­tu­ring consul­ting and corpo­rate manage­ment. With 35 employees at four loca­ti­ons in Germany, Concen­tro works in an imple­men­ta­tion and success-orien­ted manner. The aim is to gene­rate added value for the custo­mer through an indi­vi­dual consul­ting service.

About Shear­man & Sterling
Shear­man & Ster­ling is an inter­na­tio­nal law firm with 23 offices in 13 count­ries and appro­xi­m­ately 850 lawy­ers. In Germany, Shear­man & Ster­ling is repre­sen­ted at the Frank­furt office. The firm is one of the inter­na­tio­nal market leaders in advi­sing on complex cross-border tran­sac­tions. World­wide, Shear­man & Ster­ling prima­rily advi­ses inter­na­tio­nal corpo­ra­ti­ons and large natio­nal compa­nies, finan­cial insti­tu­ti­ons, and large mid-sized compa­nies. For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.shearman.com.

Munich — DPE Deut­sche Private Equity (DPE) has sold its mino­rity stake in Webtrekk GmbH to US-based Mapp Digi­tal US, LLC, San Diego. Mapp is one of the world’s largest provi­ders of marke­ting tech­no­logy. With now more than 140 employees, Webtrekk has estab­lished itself as one of the market-leading premium custo­mer analy­tics plat­forms in Europe since DPE parti­ci­pa­ted with growth finan­cing in 2014. Webtrekk supports its custo­mers in under­stan­ding and analy­zing the beha­vior of their website and app users across devices and apply­ing it speci­fi­cally to marke­ting measu­res. Webtrekk’s custo­mers include, for exam­ple, ProSiebenSat1 Media AG, Flix­Bus, Porsche and ING. The tran­sac­tion is still subject to the usual reser­va­tions — inclu­ding appr­oval by the compe­ti­tion authorities.

Mapp provi­des digi­tal marke­ting solu­ti­ons that combine custo­mer acqui­si­tion and reten­tion on a simple plat­form with inte­gra­ted cross-chan­nel capa­bi­li­ties. Head­quar­te­red in San Diego with global offices in eight count­ries, Mapp is a port­fo­lio company of Marlin Equity Part­ners, a global invest­ment firm with over $6.7 billion in assets under management.

Advi­sors to Mapp Digi­tal US/ Marlin Equity Part­ners: Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek
A team led by Dr. Marc Scheu­ne­mann advi­sed U.S. marke­ting tech­no­logy company Mapp Digi­tal US, LLC on its acqui­si­tion of Webtrekk, the German market leader for marke­ting analy­tics and custo­mer intel­li­gence. The seller is DPE Deut­sche Private Equity and other co-inves­tors. The tran­sac­tion is expec­ted to close in the second quar­ter of 2019. The closing of the tran­sac­tion is still subject to appr­oval by the rele­vant anti­trust authorities.

Infra­struc­ture inves­tor 3i buys rail vehicle leasing company Disa Assets from Dutch state rail opera­tor Neder­lands Spoor­we­gen. Disa owns 54 diesel trains, which it leases to Abel­lio on a long-term basis. Follo­wing the purchase of the company, 3i has refi­nan­ced the Disa busi­ness with money from insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors. Nothing is known about the value of the transaction.

The acqui­si­tion of Disa in the bidding process was closely tied to the successful refi­nan­cing of the leasing company. The new inves­tors include Meag Munich Ergo Asset Manage­ment, the joint asset mana­ger of Munich Re and the Ergo Group, and Sumitomo Mitui Banking Corpo­ra­tion (SMBC). The latter contri­bu­tes to the finan­cing mix with a tradi­tio­nal bank loan, while Meag invests in bonds issued by Disa. The refi­nan­cing replaces a Kfw-Ipex loan finan­cing at an early stage.

The asset mana­ger is looking for alter­na­tive long-term invest­ments in view of the low inte­rest rates that can be reali­zed on the capi­tal market. This is the second time that the subsi­diary of the two insu­r­ers has inves­ted in rail vehic­les. The risk-rela­ted higher inte­rest rates on these assets result from the fact that the vehic­les can run for 24 years, but the public trans­port contracts that guaran­tee their use only run for 12 years. So the inves­tors are specu­la­ting that the vehic­les will be used again afterwards.

Abel­lio was awarded the conces­sion to operate the network in Central Germany in 2015 and has been opera­ting it since the end of 2018. With nine million train kilo­me­ters, the contract is one of the largest in German local rail passen­ger trans­port (SPNV). Abel­lio is also a subsi­diary of the Dutch state railroads.

Advi­ses 3i Euro­pean Opera­tio­nal Projects Funds: Ashurst (Frank­furt)
Dr. Bene­dikt von Schor­le­mer (Corporate/M&A), Derk Opitz (Finan­cing; both lead), Dr. Maxi­mi­lian Uibe­lei­sen (Infrastructure/M&A), Holger Mlynek (Infrastructure/Public Commer­cial Law), Dr. Philip Cavail­lès; Asso­cia­tes: Jan van Kisfeld, Jan Ischreyt (all Corporate/M&A)

Advi­sor Neder­landse Spoorwegen/NS Finan­cial Services
Clif­ford Chance (Munich): Markus Muhs (Lead; Corporate/Private Equity), Dr. Chris­tof Häfner (Banking), Thors­ten Sauer­he­ring, Dr. Domi­nik Engl (both Tax; the latter three Frank­furt); Asso­cia­tes: Dr. Wenzel Rich­ter, Konstan­tin Heil­mann (both Corporate/Private Equity)

Inhouse Law (Utrecht): Bart van Hors­sen, Michel Hoogen­dorn, Ronald Klein Wassink, Osman Aksoycan