Author: Tatjana Anderer

Hamburg — Fiel­mann Ventures GmbH, a wholly owned subsi­diary of Fiel­mann A, has acqui­red around 20 per cent of the shares in augmen­ted reality specia­list Fitting­Box S.A. as part of a capi­tal increase. The stra­te­gic invest­ment in the French tech­no­logy company is a consis­tent step in Fielmann’s digi­tiza­tion stra­tegy. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the exact purchase price.

Marc Fiel­mann (photo), Chair­man of the Manage­ment Board of Fiel­mann AG: “With 13 patents, Fitting­Box is the world leader in the field of 3D fitting of glas­ses and sunglas­ses. With this invest­ment, we are deepe­ning our stra­te­gic coope­ra­tion. Toge­ther we are working on the online purchase of glas­ses in Fiel­mann quality. This requi­res inno­va­tive tech­no­lo­gies such as
the 3D try-on, but also the milli­me­ter-precise 3D fitting of glas­ses. This is how Fiel­mann is digi­tiz­ing the opti­cal indus­try to the bene­fit of custo­mers without compro­mi­sing on quality.”

Thomas Rützel, Mana­ging Direc­tor of Fiel­mann Ventures GmbH: “Our invest­ment in Fitting­Box is the result of a detailed analy­sis. Fitting­Box has deve­lo­ped a 3D fitting tech­no­logy that is clearly supe­rior to all rele­vant alter­na­ti­ves. This tech­no­logy is a key compo­nent in the digi­tal plat­form that Fiel­mann Ventures is deve­lo­ping with part­ners for the opti­cal industry.”

Benja­min Hakoun, Mana­ging Direc­tor and co-foun­der Fitting­Box S.A.: “We are thril­led to have Fiel­mann, one of the world’s leading opti­cal compa­nies, as our stra­te­gic part­ner. Thanks to the invest­ment, we can deve­lop our tech­no­logy solu­ti­ons even faster and open up new sales markets.
Our two compa­nies are united by a strictly custo­mer-orien­ted corpo­rate culture. Toge­ther, we will further expand FittingBox’s posi­tion as the leading tech­no­logy solu­tion for omnich­an­nel eyewear purcha­sing, accom­pany­ing the wearer throug­hout the entire custo­mer jour­ney, online and in-store. We are very plea­sed to have Squair Law as our legal advi­sor and CapM Advi­sors as our finan­cial advi­sor in closing this investment.
have supported.”

Ariel Chou­kroun, CTO and co-foun­der Fitting­Box S.A.: “Fiel­mann has deca­des of expe­ri­ence, knows the needs of spec­ta­cle wearers like no other company. This puts Fitting­Box in a posi­tion to align our tech­no­logy solu­ti­ons even better with the wishes of the custo­mers. On the one hand, spec­ta­cle wearers bene­fit from this, and on the other hand, of course, our custo­mers, i.e. retail­ers and manu­fac­tu­r­ers, also bene­fit. Kreaxi and LBO France remain share­hol­ders in Fitting­Box. They have enab­led the growth of our company with their early investments.”

In the next few weeks, Fiel­mann will inte­grate the 3D fitting into the new omnich­an­nel consul­ting process
in the test market Austria, is test­ing the solu­tion both in its bran­ches and online. The roll­out of the new system in Germany will follow in 2019.

About Fiel­mann Ventures GmbH
Fiel­mann Ventures GmbH was foun­ded in August 2012 as an inde­pen­dent subsi­diary of Fiel­mann AG based in Hamburg. Fiel­mann Ventures deve­lops and promo­tes products, tech­no­lo­gies and sustainable busi­ness models for the future of the opti­cal industry.

About Fiel­mann AG
Fiel­mann stands for eyewear fashion at a fair price, opera­tes over 700 bran­ches across Europe. 24 million people wear glas­ses from Fiel­mann; in Germany, the listed family company sells every second pair of glas­ses. Fiel­mann covers all levels of value crea­tion in optics, is a desi­gner, manu­fac­tu­rer and optician.

About Fitting­Box S.A.
Foun­ded in 2006, Fitting­Box (www.fittingbox.com) is the world’s leading provi­der of augmen­ted reality tech­no­logy such as 3D try-on for eyeglas­ses and sunglas­ses. The company is head­quar­te­red in Toulouse, France, and also opera­tes a sales company in Miami, USA. Fitting­Box deve­lops inno­va­tive tech­no­logy solu­ti­ons and digi­tal content for the opti­cal indus­try, has the world’s largest data­base of frame photos and 3D models. In the more than 10-year history of the company, Fitting­Box has alre­ady recei­ved nume­rous awards and prizes in the field of rese­arch and innovation.

Stutt­gart — Stutt­gart-based invest­ment company Finexx has star­ted inves­t­ing from its first fund closed in mid-Novem­ber 2018. In 2017, Finexx had alre­ady acqui­red mino­rity shares in the welding specia­list WIDOSas a co-part­ner of the Hanno­ver Finanz Group, and now the first majo­rity share­hol­ding has been reali­zed with GSE Vertrieb Biolo­gi­sche Nahrungs­er­gän­zung & Heil­mit­tel GmbH from Saar­brü­cken. The tran­sac­tion, which has alre­ady been comple­ted, took place as part of a succes­sion plan: The seller of the shares is foun­der and mana­ging direc­tor Michael Gracher; the two other mana­ging direc­tors remain on board and conti­nue to be among the share­hol­ders. GSE has been on the market since 1994 and deve­lops and distri­bu­tes food supple­ments on an orga­nic certi­fied basis through natu­ral food retailers.

The volume of Finexx Fund I is 35 million euros, most of which comes from insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors such as insu­rance compa­nies and pension funds. Invest­ments are made across all sectors in small and medium-sized enter­pri­ses (SMEs) with sales of 10 million euros or more. Further prere­qui­si­tes are sustainable earning power and cash flow based on a successful busi­ness model as well as a quali­fied manage­ment team. Finexx commits five to 20 million euros of equity capi­tal in each case.

Finexx Mana­ging Direc­tor Matthias Heining: “GSE is excel­lently posi­tio­ned in the market. Toge­ther with the accom­plished manage­ment and dedi­ca­ted employees, we now want to move to the next stage of deve­lo­p­ment — this includes an expan­sion of product deve­lo­p­ment, sales, inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion and online busi­ness. We see excel­lent future pros­pects for GSE in view of incre­asingly health-conscious and orga­nic-orien­ted consumers.”

Such a growth stra­tegy is in line with Finexx’s invest­ment philo­so­phy: “In addi­tion to long-term orien­ted, relia­ble busi­ness models, we are prima­rily concer­ned with profes­sio­nal further deve­lo­p­ment,” explains Dr. Markus Seiler, also Mana­ging Direc­tor of Finexx. “We see oursel­ves as an insti­tu­tio­nal family share­hol­der who speaks the language of family-run compa­nies and who brings indus­try expe­ri­ence, user know­ledge and an excel­lent network to the table without inter­fe­ring in day-to-day opera­ti­ons.” Dr. Seiler, for exam­ple, has many years of expe­ri­ence as a mana­ging direc­tor in family-owned and group compa­nies in the indus­trial and tech­no­logy sectors (inclu­ding GEA Group and Brand Group); Heining was mana­ging direc­tor of the renow­ned invest­ment company BWK in Stutt­gart and in various family-owned compa­nies for seve­ral years. Toge­ther, they combine 30 years of tech­ni­cal and commer­cial exper­tise and can point to signi­fi­cant succes­ses. “In the current envi­ron­ment, we still see a lot of poten­tial and need to support exci­ting compa­nies and successful entre­pre­neurs with drive — we expect to see more tran­sac­tions,” Heining said.

About Finexx
Finexx GmbH Unter­neh­mens­be­tei­li­gun­gen, based in Stutt­gart, is a consul­ting company foun­ded in 2013 that specia­li­zes in estab­lished medium-sized compa­nies. Typi­cal fields of acti­vity are growth and acqui­si­tion finan­cing as well as the support of chan­ges in the share­hol­der struc­ture and succes­sion planning.

Finexx invests long-term funds (equity capi­tal of between 5 and 50 million euros), mainly in the form of majo­rity share­hol­dings, in compa­nies from the German-spea­king region, inclu­ding insu­rance compa­nies and pension funds. These have sales of EUR 10 million or more, a quali­fied manage­ment team, and can demons­trate sustainable earnings power and cash flow based on a successful busi­ness model.

The team has many years of indus­trial and manage­ment expe­ri­ence as well as profound know-how in the invest­ment sector — both are brought to bear for the successful further deve­lo­p­ment of compa­nies and in the asso­cia­ted change proces­ses. Finexx supports manage­ment by provi­ding active commer­cial and tech­ni­cal advice without inter­fe­ring with day-to-day opera­ti­ons, as well as a cross-indus­try network. www.finexx.de

Frank­furt a. M. — A mid-cap fund advi­sed by Triton (Triton Smal­ler Mid-Cap Fund, “TSM”) has acqui­red a majo­rity stake in NORRES Group. With a team led by Dr. Pär Johans­son, Part­ner at the Colo­gne office, Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek provi­ded legal advice to Triton in connec­tion with the acqui­si­tion. The aim of the part­ner­ship is to expand NORRES’ expan­sion strategy.

NORRES is a manu­fac­tu­rer of indus­trial hoses with head­quar­ters in Gelsen­kir­chen and produc­tion sites in Germany, China and the USA. The indus­trial hoses are used for pneu­ma­tic convey­ing of various types of media such as solids, gases as well as liquids in diffe­rent indus­tries. Around 300 employees work for the company, which was foun­ded in 1889.

“We want to support NORRES by inves­t­ing in acce­le­ra­ted growth and the contin­ued inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion of the company. We look forward to working with the manage­ment team and contri­bu­ting our exper­tise and available resour­ces to further our shared vision of an even stron­ger company,” said Peder Prahl (pictu­red), Direc­tor of Gene­ral Part­ners for the Triton Funds.

About Triton
The Triton funds invest in medium-sized compa­nies based in Europe and support their posi­tive deve­lo­p­ment. They focus on compa­nies in the indus­trial, services and consu­mer goods/healthcare sectors.

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 36 compa­nies with total sales of around EUR 12.7 billion and appro­xi­m­ately 82,000 employees. — The Triton funds are advi­sed by expe­ri­en­ced invest­ment profes­sio­nals based in Germany, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Italy, the UK, the US, China, Luxem­bourg and Jersey. www.triton-partners.de

About NORRES
NORRES was foun­ded in 1889 and focu­ses on the deve­lo­p­ment, produc­tion and sale of indus­trial hoses for pneu­ma­tic convey­ing of diverse media types (e.g. solids, gases and liquids) for a variety of end markets (inclu­ding fume and dust extra­c­tion, agri­cul­ture, food & phar­maceu­ti­cals, plas­tics and wood proces­sing). The company is head­quar­te­red in Gelsen­kir­chen, Germany, and employs appro­xi­m­ately 300 people at three produc­tion sites (D, CN, USA) and five sales and warehouse loca­ti­ons (CZ, FR, PL, TW, GB).

Advi­sor to Triton: Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek
Dr. Pär Johans­son, Dr. Phil­ipp Jansen (both lead), Dr. Chris­toph Schork, LL.M., Tim Remmel, LL.M., (all Private Equity, Corporate/M&A), Dr. Verena Hoene, LL.M. (IP/IT), Dr. Sascha Sche­wiola (Labor Law), all Colo­gne; Dr. Kai Bandilla, Sen Gao (both Corporate/M&A), Fabian G. Gaffron (Tax), Dr. Frede­rik Wiemer (Anti­trust), all Hamburg; Mathis Dick, LL.M. (Real Estate), Düsseldorf

The team led by Colo­gne-based part­ner Dr. Pär Johans­son had alre­ady advi­sed Triton on the acqui­si­tion of BFC Group in Febru­ary 2018.

Munich, Germany — AHT, the global market leader in commer­cial plug-in refri­ge­ra­tion and free­zer systems for food retail­ers, is being sold by private equity inves­tor Bridge­point to Daikin Europe N.V., a subsi­diary of Daikin Indus­tries Ltd. in Japan.

The company, head­quar­te­red in Rottenmann/Styria, Austria, is present in over 100 count­ries with its core products — ready-to-plug-in refri­ge­ra­tion and free­zer systems for the food retail sector. Commer­cial refri­ge­ra­tion equip­ment with built-in compres­sor (plug-in) is gradu­ally repla­cing equip­ment with exter­nal refri­ge­ra­tion compres­sor and is the fastest growing segment in the commer­cial food refri­ge­ra­tion and free­zer market. The advan­ta­ges of plug-in units are lower total cost of owner­ship as well as shorter instal­la­tion times. AHT looks back on an instal­led base of more than one million devices. In addi­tion to the sale of products, the company’s range of services includes the provi­sion of compre­hen­sive plan­ning, instal­la­tion and main­ten­ance services. The company’s four produc­tion sites are loca­ted in Austria, China, Brazil and the USA.

Bridge­point acqui­red AHT in Novem­ber 2013. The company gene­ra­ted net sales of €481 million for 2017 and has achie­ved average sales growth of 12% per year over the past 10 years.

Michael Davy, Part­ner at Bridge­point and Chair­man of AHT’s Board of Direc­tors, said, “AHT has evol­ved in recent years from a largely Euro­pean-focu­sed company to a global leader in its segment that conti­nues to expand its foot­print to include other attrac­tive inter­na­tio­nal markets. The company has been instru­men­tal in the indus­try-wide shift from units with exter­nal refri­ge­ra­tion compres­sors to plug-in systems. The latter are easier for custo­mers to install compared to tradi­tio­nal systems and are less expen­sive as well as more envi­ron­men­tally friendly to operate. We wish the company contin­ued success under its new owner­ship as it conti­nues to expand geogra­phi­cally and grow its product portfolio.”

Under Bridge­point, signi­fi­cant invest­ments have been made in the company. In the past three years alone, over 70 million euros have been inves­ted in the deve­lo­p­ment of new products, the expan­sion of produc­tion in Austria, and the estab­lish­ment of the new produc­tion faci­li­ties in Brazil and the USA. The expan­sion of produc­tion capa­city in China has also enab­led AHT to reduce its manu­fac­tu­ring costs while further expan­ding its market share in Europe.

Market obser­vers believe that plug-in refri­ge­ra­tion systems will conti­nue to outper­form the over­all global refri­ge­ra­tion market. This is due to the growing accep­tance of these systems, the upco­ming repla­ce­ment cycle of alre­ady instal­led equip­ment, and the incre­asing consu­mer demand for frozen and refri­ge­ra­ted food.

Frank Elsen, Mana­ging Direc­tor of AHT, added: “We have deve­lo­ped stron­gly since the invest­ment by Bridge­point more than four years ago and are now a market leader in our segment. We will not rest on our laurels and are plea­sed to have Daikin as our new owner, a part­ner who under­stands our busi­ness very well. Daikin supports our inno­va­tion stra­tegy and plan­ned further inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion, espe­ci­ally in emer­ging markets, which will allow us to offer AHT’s tech­no­logy and after-sales service to addi­tio­nal new custo­mer groups in our target markets in Asia and Latin America.”

Masa­tsugu Minaka, Presi­dent of Daikin Europe, said: “With this tran­sac­tion, Daikin adds AHT cooling systems to its compre­hen­sive range of proprie­tary air condi­tio­ning products, services and solu­ti­ons. This will enable Daikin to offer the complete range of air condi­tio­ning and cooling systems from a single source in the future. Refri­ge­ra­tion and free­zing systems are of great importance for one of the world’s most signi­fi­cant socie­tal chal­lenges — the shelf life of food and the reduc­tion of food waste, espe­ci­ally in emer­ging and deve­lo­ping count­ries. The cooling systems sector offers great poten­tial to our exis­ting advan­ced tech­no­lo­gies in energy conser­va­tion, heat exch­an­gers and refri­ge­ra­tion control.”

Advi­sors Bridge­point: Bridge­point was advi­sed on this tran­sac­tion by JP Morgan on M&A, PwC on finan­cing and tax, and Fresh­fields on legal.

About Bridge­point
Bridge­point is an inter­na­tio­nal private equity firm. With assets under manage­ment of 18 billion euros and capi­tal raised of over 28 billion euros, the company focu­ses on acqui­ring well-mana­ged compa­nies in growth sectors. Bridgepoint’s stra­tegy is to support busi­nesses and manage­ment teams by inves­t­ing in expan­sion, opera­tio­nal trans­for­ma­tion, or conso­li­da­tion through acquisitions.

Frank­furt am Main — Fina­tem, a leading inde­pen­dent invest­ment company focu­sing on German medium-sized compa­nies, sells SCHOLLENBERGER Kampf­mit­tel­ber­gung GmbH (“Schol­len­ber­ger” or “Schol­len­ber­ger Group”) to SOCOTEC Group, Guyan­court, France (“SOCOTEC” or “SOCOTEC Group”). The SOCOTEC Group is one of the leading Euro­pean service provi­ders in the field of measu­re­ment, test­ing and certi­fi­ca­tion of cons­truc­tion and infra­struc­ture projects. SOCOTEC gene­ra­tes annual sales of EUR 700 million in 25 count­ries with 200,000 custo­mers and employs around 7,000 people. Dr. Boris Töller and Klaus Löhle will conti­nue to be respon­si­ble for the manage­ment of the Schol­len­ber­ger Group after the take­over by SOCOTEC.

The Schol­len­ber­ger Group, with around 400 employees at its head­quar­ters in Celle and 8 other loca­ti­ons, is the market leader in Germany and Austria in the field of civi­lian explo­sive ordnance dispo­sal. The group offers its custo­mers all services rela­ted to the tech­ni­cal explo­ra­tion and unco­ve­ring of warfare agents in endan­ge­red areas. In Germany and Austria, it is a compul­sory legal obli­ga­tion for the deve­lo­per to ensure that the soil is free of explo­sive ordnance before any work is carried out.

In 2016, the Schol­len­ber­ger Group was acqui­red by Fina­tem and the mana­ging direc­tors of the Schol­len­ber­ger Group Klaus Löhle and Dr. Boris Töller, as part of a manage­ment buy-out from the Celler Brun­nen­bau Group, and was supple­men­ted in 2018 by GeoFact GmbH, Bonn, which specia­li­zes in geophy­si­cal analy­sis services. “Our common goal was to deve­lop Schol­len­ber­ger into the clear market and, above all, quality leader in the field of explo­sive ordnance dispo­sal,” Fina­tem part­ner Eric Jung­blut points out. “Toge­ther with Fina­tem, we at Schol­len­ber­ger have intro­du­ced indus­trial stan­dards in the areas of sales and resource manage­ment and control­ling that are leading and trend-setting in the explo­sive ordnance dispo­sal indus­try,” elabo­ra­tes Dr. Boris Töller, mana­ging part­ner of the Schol­len­ber­ger Group.

“The posi­tive deve­lo­p­ment of the Schol­len­ber­ger Group is another exam­ple of our successful invest­ment and value enhance­ment stra­tegy. We focus our invest­ments on compa­nies with unique selling propo­si­ti­ons and abso­lute quality stan­dards in growing markets, where we see deve­lo­p­ment poten­tial that we can leverage toge­ther,” explains Fina­tem Mana­ging Direc­tor Dr. Robert Hennigs .

The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the details of the transaction.

Company Profile Finatem
As an inde­pen­dent part­ner-mana­ged invest­ment company based in Frank­furt, Fina­tem invests in compa­nies with busi­ness acti­vi­ties or know-how, parti­cu­larly in Germany, Austria and Switz­er­land, through majo­rity share­hol­dings. The focus is on medium-sized compa­nies from tradi­tio­nal indus­tries with a sales volume of between EUR 25 million and EUR 125 million and a clear growth poten­tial. With its exis­ting exten­sive natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal expe­ri­ence in private equity and indus­try, Fina­tem is a relia­ble part­ner for its port­fo­lio compa­nies and supports them in the chal­lenges of market globalization.

Albdruck/ Zug (CH) — INVISION has acqui­red a majo­rity stake in the German family-owned company ABC Design GmbH as part of a succes­sion plan. The members of the foun­ding Fischer family remain invol­ved and conti­nue to play key opera­tio­nal roles.

ABC Design is the leading manu­fac­tu­rer of strol­lers and access­ories in the German market. The company, based in Albbruck DE, sells station wagons, sports strol­lers, car seats, high chairs and access­ories, cove­ring a wide range of needs for young fami­lies. Thanks to the strong team in Albbruck and with the help of long-stan­ding and stable supplier rela­ti­onships, ABC Design can offer high-quality strol­lers at fair prices. In-house quality manage­ment enables ABC Design to guaran­tee the highest stan­dards of safety and quality, which are appre­cia­ted by specia­list dealers and end custo­mers alike. This is confirmed by the good custo­mer response as well as by Stif­tung Waren­test, which places ABC Design strol­lers in the top ranks as a price-perfor­mance leader.

The foun­ders Eva & Diet­mar Fischer built up the successful company from 1989 to 2011 and mana­ged it both opera­tio­nally and stra­te­gi­cally. In 2011, their son Bernd Fischer joined the manage­ment team, while Eva Fischer contin­ued to help shape the company in the area of design and Diet­mar Fischer as an advi­sory board member.

The foun­ding family will conti­nue to hold a stake in the company along­side INVISION and will conti­nue to perform all opera­tio­nal roles as before. Under the leader­ship of the two mana­ging direc­tors Bernd Fischer and Jörg Zehe, the focus conti­nues to be on the conti­nuous streng­thening of the market leader­ship in Germany and the expan­sion into promi­sing inter­na­tio­nal markets.

Eva & Diet­mar Fischer, foun­ders and co-part­ners of ABC Design, comment: “We are happy to have found a relia­ble and strong part­ner in INVISION, who is moti­va­ted to successfully conti­nue the company in the same style and with the same culture.”

Bernd Fischer, mana­ging part­ner of ABC Design, adds: “INVISION is a part­ner who is just as convin­ced of ABC Design’s busi­ness model as we are and who is looking to the future with joy and verve. The focus of further deve­lo­p­ment is on conti­nuous growth with an uncom­pro­mi­sing focus on quality and price, but now with a strong co-part­ner at our side.”

Martin Spirig, Part­ner at INVISION (Photo) says: “We are thril­led that with ABC Design we are once again able to parti­ci­pate in a leading medium-sized company in Baden-Würt­tem­berg. We parti­cu­larly appre­ciate the Fischer family’s contin­ued active role as co-part­ners and in the opera­tio­nal manage­ment of the company. For INVISION, the focus is always on ensu­ring that the company succes­sion is a good solu­tion for the foun­ding family, manage­ment, employees, custo­mers and suppli­ers. Toge­ther with the Fischer family, we have succee­ded in doing this with ABC Design.”

About ABC Design
ABC Design (www.abc-design.de) designs, deve­lops, sources, markets and sells strol­lers in a variety of styles. Foun­ded in 1989, the family-owned company has estab­lished itself as the market leader in Germany thanks to its strikin­gly good price-perfor­mance ratio. ABC Design is active on a variety of commu­ni­ca­tion chan­nels and can thus address and serve whole­sa­lers, retail­ers and end custo­mers alike. The company employs around 40 people, most of whom are active at the head­quar­ters in Albbruck DE.

About Invi­sion
Since its foun­da­tion in 1997, Invi­sion has successfully deve­lo­ped into one of the leading invest­ment compa­nies for corpo­rate succes­sion and growth finan­cing in Europe. Invi­sion has inves­ted more than EUR 750 million of equity in over 50 compa­nies during this time, achie­ving sustainable value growth. Invi­sion sees itself as an entre­pre­neu­rial part­ner for foun­ders, entre­pre­neurs and manage­ment teams. In its enga­ge­ments, Invi­sion places parti­cu­lar empha­sis on under­stan­ding the speci­fic needs of compa­nies and entre­pre­neurs and deve­lo­ping custo­mi­zed solu­ti­ons. Invi­sion invests in estab­lished medium-sized compa­nies, espe­ci­ally in succes­sion constel­la­ti­ons. www.invision.ch.

Frank­furt — Jones Day advi­sed Aurora Resur­gence on the sale of Alltub Group (“Alltub”) to One Equity Part­ners. Terms of the tran­sac­tion were not disc­lo­sed. Aurora Resur­gence is a subsi­diary of Aurora Capi­tal Group, a Los Ange­les-based private equity firm that mana­ges over $3 billion in assets,

Foun­ded in 2005 as a spin-off of alumi­num produ­cer Alcan, Alltub is a market leader in specialty alumi­num and lami­nate pack­a­ging for the cosme­tics, phar­maceu­ti­cal, food and indus­trial markets. Head­quar­te­red in Amster­dam, the group opera­tes a global manu­fac­tu­ring and distri­bu­tion plat­form with loca­ti­ons in the Czech Repu­blic, France, Germany, Italy and Mexico, serving major custo­mers around the globe. With sales of over 150 million euros in 2017 and more than 1,400 employees, the group has grown steadily in recent years.

“It has been a great expe­ri­ence working with Alltub and insti­tu­ting a number of successful initia­ti­ves that have resul­ted in growth and profit expan­sion,” said Andrew Fohrer, Prin­ci­pal at Aurora Resur­gence. “We are plea­sed to have parti­ci­pa­ted in Alltub’s tremen­dous success and appre­ciate the efforts of Oliver Hoell and his team in deli­ve­ring a great result for our inves­tors. Today’s tran­sac­tion repres­ents a terri­fic outcome for the busi­ness and we wish the team all the best as they enter an exci­ting new chap­ter of growth.”

“It has been a privi­lege to part­ner with Aurora, and we are grateful for the opera­tio­nal exper­tise and stra­te­gic guidance they have provi­ded us over the past seven years,” said Oliver Hoell, CEO of Alltub. “The dedi­ca­tion of our skil­led work­force will allow us to conti­nue expan­ding into new markets and deli­ve­ring custo­mer satis­fac­tion. We look forward to working with One Equity Part­ners as we enter this new phase in our deve­lo­p­ment and put our ambi­tious growth plans into action.”

“One Equity Part­ners has signi­fi­cant expe­ri­ence in the pack­a­ging indus­try and a nota­ble track record of buil­ding successful compa­nies,” said Johann-Melchior von Peter, Senior Mana­ging Direc­tor at One Equity Part­ners. “Alltub fits perfectly into our port­fo­lio. With a resi­li­ent busi­ness model and the clear poten­tial to become a world-leading tube and aero­sol player, Alltub is an ideal plat­form for buy-and-build oppor­tu­ni­ties in a conso­li­da­ting market.”

Lincoln Inter­na­tio­nal acted as exclu­sive finan­cial advi­sor and Jones Day acted as legal advi­sor to Aurora and Alltub.

The Jones Day team was led by My Linh Vu-Grégo­ire, photo (Part­ner, M&A, Frankfurt/ Amsterdam/ Paris). The follo­wing addi­tio­nal Jones Day attor­neys were invol­ved in the tran­sac­tion: Dr. Sascha H. Schmidt (Of Coun­sel, Banking, Finance & Secu­ri­ties, Frank­furt), Dr. Holger Neumann (Part­ner, Public Law and Regu­la­tion, Frank­furt), Chris­tian A. Krebs (Part­ner, M&A, Frank­furt), Dr. Johan­nes Zöttl (Part­ner, Anti­trust, Düssel­dorf), Markus Hamann (Of Coun­sel, Public Law and Regu­la­tion, Frank­furt), Bastiaan Kout (Asso­ciate, M&A, Amster­dam), Menno Geusens (Asso­ciate, M&A, Amster­dam) as well as lawy­ers from Jones Day’s offices in London, Milan, Mexico City, Munich, Paris, Pitts­burgh and Washington.

About Jones Day
Jones Day is a global law firm with more than 2,500 lawy­ers in 43 offices on 5 conti­nents. Our firm philo­so­phy is charac­te­ri­zed by a focus on long-term, sustainable client service, mutual respect and seam­less colla­bo­ra­tion among the attor­neys in our part­ner­ship, outstan­ding legal exper­tise in all prac­tice areas and juris­dic­tions, and shared values that put our clients’ inte­rests first.

London - IK Invest­ment Part­ners is acqui­ring a majo­rity stake in Dort­mund-based Infra­data Group through IK VIII Funds from Water­land Private Equity Fund V (“Water­land”).

Foun­ded in 2004 in the Nether­lands, Infra­data is a leading Euro­pean provi­der of cyber­se­cu­rity and secure network solu­ti­ons. Beyond the Nether­lands, the company is repre­sen­ted in Germany, the UK, France, Belgium, Poland and the USA and is pursuing ambi­tious growth plans. Infra­data is bene­fiting from two mega­trends, the rising volume of data and the increase in cyber secu­rity thre­ats. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the finan­cial details of the transaction.

As part of the tran­sac­tion, Infradata’s foun­der and CEO, Leon de Keij­zer will tran­si­tion to the Board of Direc­tors. Nino Tomov­ski, curr­ently Inter­na­tio­nal Vice Presi­dent, will be appoin­ted CEO of Infra­data as of Janu­ary 1, 2019.

Norman Bremer (foto), Part­ner at IK Invest­ment Part­ners said: “Our decis­ion to back Infra­data was driven by two promi­nent mega­trends, namely the increase of cyber­se­cu­rity thre­ats in recent years, and rising data consump­tion. We are exci­ted to be back­ing a manage­ment team with a fanta­stic track record and a highly inno­va­tive service offe­ring. We are espe­ci­ally impres­sed with the company’s multi-coun­try foot­print and its outstan­ding people. We look forward to helping expand Infradata’s capa­bi­li­ties both through orga­nic and acqui­si­tive growth oppor­tu­ni­ties and buil­ding it into a truly Euro­pean leader.”

About Infra­data
Foun­ded by Leon de Keij­zer in 2004, Infra­data is a leading pan-Euro­pean provi­der of secure networ­king and cyber­se­cu­rity solu­ti­ons. The company is head­quar­te­red in Leiden, the Nether­lands. For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.infradata.com.

About IK Invest­ment Partners
IK Invest­ment Part­ners (“IK”) is a Pan- Euro­pean private equity firm focu­sed on invest­ments in the Nordics, DACH region, France, and Bene­lux. Since 1989, IK has raised more than €9.5 billion of capi­tal and inves­ted in over 116 Euro­pean compa­nies. IK funds support compa­nies with strong under­ly­ing poten­tial, part­ne­ring with manage­ment teams and inves­tors to create robust, well-posi­tio­ned busi­nesses with excel­lent long-term prospects.

About Water­land Private Equity
Water­land is an inde­pen­dent private equity invest­ment group that acts as an active share­hol­der in its port­fo­lio compa­nies, play­ing a key role in their stra­te­gic and opera­tio­nal deve­lo­p­ment, growth and perfor­mance. Water­land has offices in Belgium (Antwerp), the Nether­lands (Bussum), UK (Manches­ter), Germany (Munich and Hamburg), Denmark (Copen­ha­gen), Switz­er­land (Zurich) and Poland (Warsaw) and curr­ently mana­ges €6 billion of inves­tor commit­ments. To date, Water­land has made invest­ments in over 470 companies.

Munich — Reed Smith has advi­sed Munich-based MIG Fonds, one of the leading VC inves­tors, as well as other share­hol­ders such as GA Asset Fund on the sale of all shares in Dres­den-based Siltec­tra GmbH to Infi­neon Tech­no­lo­gies AG. The purchase price was appro­xi­m­ately EUR 124 million.

Siltec­tra GmbH is an inno­va­tive company foun­ded in 2010 in the field of deve­lo­p­ment of wafe­ring tech­no­lo­gies and rela­ted process equip­ment for the cleavage of semi­con­duc­tor mate­ri­als. With a patent port­fo­lio of more than 50 patent fami­lies, Siltec­tra has deve­lo­ped a process that allows crystal­line mate­ri­als to be sepa­ra­ted with mini­mal mate­rial loss compared to stan­dard sawing tech­no­logy (“cold split tech­no­logy”). Infi­neon will use cold split tech­no­logy to split sili­con carbide (SiC) wafers, doubling the number of chips from one wafer.

MIG Verwal­tungs AG (MIG AG) is one of Germany’s leading VC inves­tors with over EUR 1 billion in capi­tal under manage­ment. The MIG funds provide young compa­nies with the finan­cial resour­ces they need to start up and finance growth in the high-tech and life science sectors. Curr­ently, MIG AG’s invest­ment port­fo­lio consists of 24 companies.

Advi­sor to MIG Fonds / consor­tium of sellers: Reed Smith
Led by Florian Hirsch­mann (photo ) and Silvio McMi­ken (Private Equity/Venture Capi­tal), Thomas Gierath (M&A/Tax), Tilman Siebert (Anti­trust), Dr. Alex­an­der Klett (IP) (all Munich), Dr. Anette Gaert­ner (IP, Frank­furt), Tobias Schulz and Siling Zhong-Ganga (M&A/Corporate), Vikto­ria Ritter (M&A/Tax), and Dr. Chris­toph Mikyska (IP) (all Munich).
Bardehle Pagen­berg: Prof. Dr. Peter Chro­c­ziel, Michael Kobler, Joachim Mader and Tobias Kauf­mann. Invest­ment Bank: Cowen & Company LLC (New York)
Advi­sors to Infi­neon Tech­no­lo­gies AG: Dr. Horst Meyer, Corpo­rate Legal Coun­sel, Vice Presi­dent (Lead Legal); Julia Halasz, Senior Direc­tor, Mergers & Acqui­si­ti­ons; Michael Frie­din­ger, Vice Presi­dent Infi­neon Tech­no­lo­gies AG (Finance); Gleiss Lutz (Legal, Munich and Frankfurt).

About Reed Smith
Reed Smith is one of the leading inter­na­tio­nal law firms with more than 1,700 lawy­ers in 28 offices in Europe, the United States, the Middle East and Asia.

Frank­furt am Main — The private equity inves­tor One Equity Part­ners (“OEP”) has acqui­red the ALLTUB Group (“ALLTUB”) from Aurora Resur­genceacqui­red. Allen & Overy LLP advi­sed One Equity Part­ners (“OEP”) in connec­tion with the finan­cing of the acqui­si­tion of ALLTUB Group (“ALLTUB”). Jones Day has Advi­sedAurora Resur­gence, an affi­liate of Aurora Capi­tal Group, a Los Ange­les-based private equity firm mana­ging over $3 billion in assets, on the sale of Alltub Group (“Alltub”) to One Equity Part­ners. — The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the terms of the transaction.

ALLTUB is the world leader in flexi­ble alumi­num tubes for pack­a­ging products in the phar­maceu­ti­cal, cosme­tics and food sectors, as well as for indus­try. The company has six produc­tion sites in France, Germany, Italy, the Czech Repu­blic and Mexico, employs 1,400 people world­wide and gene­ra­tes annual sales of more than 150 million euros.

OEP is a private equity inves­tor with offices in New York, Chicago and Frank­furt and over $7 billion in assets under manage­ment, inves­t­ing prima­rily in successful middle-market compa­nies in North America and Europe active in the indus­trial, health­care and tech­no­logy sectors.

The inter­na­tio­nal Allen & Overy team advi­sed on the complex finan­cing struc­ture of the tran­sac­tion, consis­ting of a unitran­che finan­cing in the form of bonds, provi­ded by Part­ners Group.

Advi­sors to One Equity Part­ners: Allen Overy
The inter­na­tio­nal Allen & Overy team advi­sed on the complex finan­cing struc­ture of the tran­sac­tion, consis­ting of a unitran­che finan­cing in the form of bonds provi­ded by Part­ners Group.
The Allen & Overy team was led by part­ner Thomas Neubaum and coun­sel Bianca Engel­mann and also included senior asso­ciate David J. Schmidt, asso­ciate Enda Jordan and tran­sac­tion support lawy­ers Anasta­siya-Evan­ge­lina Wiegand (all Frank­furt) and Ange­lika Pikulska (Munich, all banking and finance). The inter­na­tio­nal team included: Part­ner Jean-Chris­to­phe David, Senior Asso­ciate ;Asha Sinha and Asso­ciate Dorian Le (all Banking and Finance), Part­ners Dan Lauder (Inter­na­tio­nal Capi­tal Markets), Mathieu Vignon (Tax, all Paris) and Stefano Senn­hau­ser (Milan), Coun­sel Silvie Horack­ova (Prague, both Banking and Finance), Senior Asso­ciate Lorraine Mira­mond (Paris, Inter­na­tio­nal Capi­tal Markets), Asso­cia­tes Gijs Kerst­jens (Amster­dam), David Bujgl (Prague, both Banking and Finance), Virgi­nie Chatté (Paris), Char­lotte Hoff (Amster­dam, both Tax), Juriste Thibault Debrai-Malot (Paris, Corpo­rate) and Peer­point Consul­tants Jacque­line Bell and Caro­lijn Ulmer (both Amster­dam, both Banking and Finance).

Advi­sorAu­rora Resur­gence: Jones Day
The Jones Day team was led by My Linh Vu-Grégo­ire (Part­ner, M&A, Frankfurt/Amsterdam/Paris). The follo­wing addi­tio­nal Jones Day attor­neys were invol­ved in the tran­sac­tion: Dr. Sascha H. Schmidt (Of Coun­sel, Banking, Finance & Secu­ri­ties, Frank­furt), Dr. Holger Neumann (Part­ner, Public Law and Regu­la­tion, Frank­furt), Chris­tian A. Krebs (Part­ner, M&A, Frank­furt), Dr. Johan­nes Zöttl (Part­ner, Anti­trust, Düssel­dorf), Markus Hamann (Of Coun­sel, Public Law and Regu­la­tion, Frank­furt), Bastiaan Kout (Asso­ciate, M&A, Amster­dam), Menno Geusens (Asso­ciate, M&A, Amster­dam) as well as lawy­ers from Jones Day’s offices in London, Milan, Mexico City, Munich, Paris, Pitts­burgh and Washington.

Frank­furt am Main — Allen & Overy LLP has advi­sed private equity inves­tor One Equity Part­ners (“OEP”) in connec­tion with the finan­cing of the acqui­si­tion of ALLTUB Group (“ALLTUB”), the global market leader in alumi­num packaging.

The inter­na­tio­nal Allen & Overy team advi­sed on the complex finan­cing struc­ture of the tran­sac­tion, consis­ting of a unitran­che finan­cing in the form of bonds, provi­ded by Part­ners Group.

ALLTUB is the world leader in flexi­ble alumi­num tubes for pack­a­ging products in the phar­maceu­ti­cal, cosme­tics and food sectors, as well as for indus­try. The company has six produc­tion sites in France, Germany, Italy, the Czech Repu­blic and Mexico, employs 1,400 people world­wide and gene­ra­tes annual sales of more than 150 million euros.

OEP is a private equity inves­tor with offices in New York, Chicago and Frank­furt and over $7 billion in assets under manage­ment, inves­t­ing prima­rily in successful middle-market compa­nies in North America and Europe active in the indus­trial, health­care and tech­no­logy sectors.

The Allen & Overy team was led by part­ner Thomas Neubaum and coun­sel Bianca Engel­mann and also included senior asso­ciate David J. Schmidt, asso­ciate Enda Jordan and tran­sac­tion support lawy­ers Anasta­siya-Evan­ge­lina Wiegand (all Frank­furt) and Ange­lika Pikulska (Munich, all banking and finance). The inter­na­tio­nal team included: Part­ner Jean-Chris­to­phe David, Senior Asso­ciate Asha Sinha and Asso­ciate Dorian Le (all Banking and Finance), Part­ners Dan Lauder (Inter­na­tio­nal Capi­tal Markets), Mathieu Vignon (Tax, all Paris) and Stefano Senn­hau­ser (Milan), Coun­sel Silvie Horack­ova (Prague, both Banking and Finance), Senior Asso­ciate Lorraine Mira­mond (Paris, Inter­na­tio­nal Capi­tal Markets), Asso­cia­tes Gijs Kerst­jens (Amster­dam), David Bujgl (Prague, both Banking and Finance), Virgi­nie Chatté (Paris), Char­lotte Hoff (Amster­dam, both Tax), Juriste Thibault Debrai-Malot (Paris, Corpo­rate) and Peer­point Consul­tants Jacque­line Bell and Caro­lijn Ulmer (both Amster­dam, both Banking and Finance).