Author: Tatjana Anderer

Munich/ London — CANCOM SE has acqui­red The Orga­nised Group Ltd, parent company of UK IT solu­ti­ons provi­der OCSL. The total volume of the tran­sac­tion is appro­xi­m­ately €32 million, of which appro­xi­m­ately €29 million will be paid in cash. The remai­ning part will be sett­led by issuing 12.5 percent of the shares of the acqui­ring British subsi­diary of CANCOM SE to OCSL execu­ti­ves who conti­nue to work for the company. Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek provi­ded legal support for the tran­sac­tion toge­ther with the British law firm Stevens & Bolton LLP.

OCSL is a UK provi­der of cloud and on-premise IT solu­ti­ons. With more than 200 employees, the group of compa­nies gene­ra­ted sales of over 78 million euros in the last fiscal year.

In the future, OCSL will act as a base for the CANCOM Group’s acti­vi­ties in the United King­dom. Syner­gies can be lever­a­ged through the combi­ned use of OCSL’s and CANCOM’s product port­fo­lios, capa­bi­li­ties and part­ner rela­ti­onships. The acqui­si­tion makes CANCOM Group a major player in the country’s IT market.

CANCOM SE is a global, listed provi­der of IT infra­struc­ture and IT services with conso­li­da­ted reve­nues of well over €1 billion and nearly 3,000 employees. The company, head­quar­te­red in Munich, accom­pa­nies compa­nies into the digi­tal future as a “Digi­tal Trans­for­ma­tion Part­ner”. The range of solu­ti­ons includes consul­ting, imple­men­ta­tion and services.

Most recently, Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek advi­sed CANCOM SE in spring 2018 on the acqui­si­tion of UCC and mana­ged services provi­der Ocean Intel­li­gent Commu­ni­ca­ti­ons, which now opera­tes under the name CANCOM Colla­bo­ra­tion and Communication.

Advi­sors to CANCOM SE: Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek, Munich
Boris Dürr, photo (lead, M&A),
Marcel Greu­bel (Corporate/M&A),
Chris­tian Schild, LL.M. (M&A),
Astrid Well­hö­ner, LL.M. (labor law)
Dr. Rein­hard Siegert (Antitrust/Distribution Law)
Dr. Ruth Schnei­der (Antitrust/Distribution Law), all Munich

Katlen­burg-Lindau/ Hamburg — Taylor Wessing, led by Frank­furt-based part­ners Hassan Sohbi (photo ) and Michael Sinhart, advi­sed Omni­Guide Holdings Inc, a leading US medi­cal tech­no­logy company, on the acqui­si­tion of LISA Laser Products OHG, a tech­no­logy leader in surgi­cal lasers based in Katlen­burg-Lindau. The acqui­si­tion was also accom­pa­nied for Omni­Guide by the US commer­cial law firm Wilson Sonsini Good­rich & Rosati. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose details of the acquisition.

Omni­Guide specia­li­zes in the deve­lo­p­ment of medi­cal devices that use advan­ced laser tech­no­lo­gies to help remove tumors from pati­ents through precise surgi­cal proce­du­res while preser­ving healthy tissue. For its part, Omni­Guide is part of the port­fo­lio of Orbi­Med, a leading global invest­ment firm focu­sed on the health­care sector and head­quar­te­red in New York.

LISA Laser Products OHG, based in Katlen­burg-Lindau, Germany, has in turn been regarded as a bench­mark for surgi­cal laser systems since its foun­da­tion in 1989, parti­cu­larly in the deve­lo­p­ment of holmium and thulium lasers. Espe­ci­ally in the field of urology, products deve­lo­ped by LISA-Laser and comple­men­tary products such as laser fibers, endo­sco­pes and access­ories have become an important form of therapy.

The acqui­si­tion enables the compa­nies to combine LISA Laser’s Thulium and Holmium laser tech­no­lo­gies with OmniGuide’s CO2 lasers in the inte­rest of successfully trea­ting patients.

Hamburg — With the support of Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek ’s M&A team, Hamburg-based ATH Alto­naer-Tech­no­lo­gie-Holding GmbH — owner of KROENERT GmbH & Co KG — acqui­red all shares in Coatema Coating Machi­nery GmbH, based in Dorma­gen. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the purchase price.

KROENERT and Coatema are machine and plant manu­fac­tu­r­ers in the coating and conver­ting indus­try and global leaders in their respec­tive market segments. The merger of the compa­nies under ATH crea­tes an alli­ance with a broad product port­fo­lio for coating appli­ca­ti­ons and high inno­va­tive strength.

Both compa­nies and brands will remain inde­pen­dent and conti­nue to operate from their respec­tive loca­ti­ons. Thus, the previous mana­ging part­ners Dr. Andreas Giess­mann and Detlef Dieke will also conti­nue to act as mana­ging direc­tors of Coatema.

Dr. Tarik Vardag, Mana­ging Direc­tor of ATH and KROENERT, empha­si­zes: “As a leading manu­fac­tu­rer of custo­mi­zed coating and lami­na­ting systems, the merger will enable us to further expand our inter­na­tio­nal market posi­tion and, above all, set new tech­no­lo­gi­cal stan­dards. We are convin­ced by Coatema’s product range and inno­va­tive strength, which are supported in parti­cu­lar by the close networ­king with rese­arch and deve­lo­p­ment faci­li­ties. KROENERT and Coatema comple­ment each other ideally and I am very plea­sed about the future cooperation.”

Under the umbrella of ATH Alto­naer-Tech­no­lo­gie-Holding GmbH, the compa­nies KROENERT, DRYTEC and ZAE provide inno­va­tive tech­no­lo­gies, effi­ci­ent machi­nes and drive systems for custo­mers world­wide. ATH is head­quar­te­red in Hamburg and employs a total of around 390 people.

The consul­tancy was carried out in coope­ra­tion with ECOVIS Hansea­ti­sche Mittel­stands Treu­hand GmbH (WP/StB Dr. Hans-Werner Kort­mann and WP/StB Astrid Busch).

Advi­sor ATH: Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek
Dr. Stefan Duhn­krack, Photo (Lead Part­ner / M&A),
Dr. Hans Henning Hoff (Corpo­rate, Real Estate),
Dr. Stefan Brett­hauer (Commer­cial),
Dr. Chris­tina Etzel (Public Law),
Dr. Johan-Michel Menke, LL.M. (labor law), all Hamburg
Dr. Anton Horn (IP), Düsseldorf

Wupper­tal — GESCO AG, listed in the Prime Stan­dard, has taken over Sommer & Strass­bur­ger GmbH & Co KG, Bretten. Foun­ded in 1973, the company designs and manu­fac­tures process plants, espe­ci­ally for the phar­maceu­ti­cal, food, water tech­no­logy and chemi­cal industries.

As a high-end stain­less steel proces­sor, Sommer & Strass­bur­ger has posi­tio­ned itself as a tech­no­lo­gi­cally leading supplier in the rele­vant custo­mer indus­tries with its own brands Asep­tra­Line, Filtra­Line and Membra­Line for process vessels, filter and membrane housings. At the ACHEMA trade fair in June 2018, the company also presen­ted the Resi­Line product line, a new type of corro­sion-resistant membrane housing made of poly­mer-coated stain­less steel for the passage of subs­tances with a high salt or chlo­rine content, for example.

GESCO AG takes over 100 % of the shares, the owner Michael Hilpp remains active in the company as mana­ging direc­tor. With around 125 employees, Sommer & Strass­bur­ger gene­ra­tes sales of just under €20 million. Within GESCO Group, the company is allo­ca­ted to the Produc­tion Process Tech­no­logy segment. The acqui­si­tion is subject to appr­oval by the anti­trust authorities.

Sommer & Strass­bur­ger has deca­des of expe­ri­ence, inten­sive mate­ri­als know-how and its own system deve­lo­p­ment. The company has the process engi­nee­ring exper­tise to under­stand its custo­mers’ proces­ses and deve­lop func­tion­ally relia­ble solu­ti­ons. A high level of verti­cal inte­gra­tion, inclu­ding in-house surface treat­ment, offers high-end quality for the respec­tive custo­mer industries.

Michael Hilpp: “In order to ensure the success and contin­ued exis­tence of my company, I have trans­fer­red it to an indus­trial group. In doing so, GESCO, as a long-term orien­ted owner, secu­res my succes­sion and actively supports me with its indus­trial exper­tise in the next growth steps. My company reta­ins its inde­pen­dence and at the same time bene­fits from the support of GESCO AG as well as from the exch­ange with its sister compa­nies — an ideal constel­la­tion in my opinion.”

Ralph Rumberg, Spokes­man of the Execu­tive Board of GESCO AG: “Sommer & Strass­bur­ger has consis­t­ently deve­lo­ped from a contract manu­fac­tu­rer to a focu­sed supplier with its own product range over the past 20 years. The company serves deman­ding custo­mers in attrac­tive markets with high-quality tech­no­logy — all in all, a true hidden cham­pion that is an excel­lent fit for GESCO Group. We look forward to inte­gra­ting Sommer & Strass­bur­ger quickly and actively deve­lo­ping it further toge­ther with Mr. Hilpp.”

About GESCO
GESCO AG is an indus­trial group with market and tech­no­logy leading compa­nies in the capi­tal goods indus­try with a focus on produc­tion process tech­no­logy, resource tech­no­logy, health and infra­struc­ture tech­no­logy and mobi­lity tech­no­logy. As a company listed in the Prime Stan­dard, GESCO AG gives private and insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors access to a port­fo­lio of hidden cham­pi­ons in the German indus­trial SME sector.

Frank­furt am Main — ALANTRA advi­sed United Digi­tal Group (UDG), a leading German digi­tal marke­ting agency, on the sale of its perfor­mance marke­ting divi­sion (M&PM) to Omni­com Media Group Germany GmbH. ALANTRA’s Frank­furt team supported UDG toge­ther with ALANTRA’s US TMT (Tech­no­logy, Media and Tele­coms) specia­lists in the imple­men­ta­tion of this stra­te­gic decis­ion. The tran­sac­tion is still subject to appr­oval by the rele­vant compe­ti­tion authorities.

As part of a struc­tu­red sales process, the ALANTRA team presen­ted the M&PM divi­sion to the world’s leading agency networks and consul­tancies as well as finan­cial inves­tors. The successful dive­st­ment unders­cores ALANTRA’s exten­sive expe­ri­ence and exper­tise in the digi­tal agency, digi­tal consul­ting and digi­tal marke­ting market, which is worth around $300 billion world­wide. This is ALANTRA’s third tran­sac­tion in this sector in Germany and the fifte­enth world­wide in the past five years. After the dives­ti­ture, M&PM will conti­nue to provide perfor­mance marke­ting services to UDG through a stra­te­gic part­ner­ship with Omni­com Media Group.

Marcus H. Starke, CEO of UDG United Digi­tal Group, said: “We are deligh­ted to have found the ideal new owner for M&PM in Omni­com Media Group. ALANTRA’s inte­gra­ted global team has been a valued part­ner in this process and has deli­vered on each of the objec­ti­ves we defi­ned for this mandate. ALANTRA’s deep indus­try exper­tise, successful posi­tio­ning of M&PM, and estab­lished rela­ti­onships with poten­tial acqui­rers clearly set them apart from the compe­ti­tion. UDG and M&PM’s manage­ment are extre­mely plea­sed with the outcome of the transaction.”

UDG’s M&PM divi­sion is one of the last remai­ning large and focu­sed perfor­mance marke­ting provi­ders and a premium part­ner of Google in Germany. It takes an inte­gra­ted approach to compre­hen­sive perfor­mance marke­ting solu­ti­ons with a focus on SEO, SEA, affi­liate, social media adver­ti­sing and digi­tal analy­tics. M&PM employs more than 150 people at three loca­ti­ons in Germany.

About Alan­tra
Alan­tra is a global invest­ment banking and asset manage­ment firm focu­sed on the mid-market segment with offices in Europe, the US, Asia and Latin America.
With over 300 experts, the Invest­ment Banking unit provi­des inde­pen­dent advice on M&A, corpo­rate finance, loan port­fo­lios and capi­tal market transactions.
The Asset Manage­ment unit mana­ges assets of around four billion euros in the asset clas­ses private equity, active funds, private debt, real estate and wealth management.

The successful dive­st­ment unders­cores ALANTRA’s exten­sive expe­ri­ence in the digi­tal agency, digi­tal consul­ting and digi­tal marke­ting market, which is worth around $300 billion world­wide. This is ALANTRA’s third tran­sac­tion in this sector in Germany and the fifte­enth world­wide in the past five years.

Leverkusen/ Düssel­dorf — Bayer has signed an agree­ment with LEO Pharma for the sale of Bayer’s global prescrip­tion derma­to­logy busi­ness. The port­fo­lio to be acqui­red includes bran­ded prescrip­tion products for the topi­cal treat­ment of acne, fungal skin infec­tions and rosacea, as well as a range of topi­cal stero­ids with annual sales of over EUR 280 million (2017).

LEO Pharma will acquire the world­wide product rights except for Afgha­ni­stan and Paki­stan and will take over the sales and marke­ting orga­niza­tion in 14 count­ries as well as a produc­tion faci­lity in Segrate, Italy. In total, around 450 employees will trans­fer to LEO Pharma as part of the tran­sac­tion. The acqui­si­tion is subject to the fulfill­ment of custo­mary closing condi­ti­ons, inclu­ding clearance by the compe­ti­tion authorities.

Advi­sors to Bayer: Henge­ler Muel­ler advi­ses Bayer on the transaction
The part­ners Dr. Chris­tian Wentrup (photo ) and Dr. Matthias Hent­zen (both lead, M&A/Corporate), Dr. Thors­ten Mäger (Anti­trust) (all Düssel­dorf) as well as Coun­sel Dr. Gunther Wagner (Tax, Munich) and Asso­cia­tes PD Dr. Gerrit Forst, Dr. Florian Hass­ner and Richard Suer­mann (all M&A/Corporate, Düssel­dorf) are active.

Bonn, Munich — As the first seed inves­tor in the Munich-based fintech startup givve, HTGF sells its shares to the French, inter­na­tio­nally opera­ting, Up group in a multi-million exit.
Foun­ded in 2010, the sale will give the startup a much larger deve­lo­p­ment oppor­tu­nity in the finan­cial services sector. As a tech­no­lo­gi­cal market leader, givve has been able to gene­rate enorm­ous value deve­lo­p­ment and win well-known custo­mers since 2016.

givve: More than 250,000 card users in Germany
Fintech givve is alre­ady estab­lished in the employee loyalty market in Germany: More than 6,000 corpo­rate custo­mers use the givve cards. This works like a prepaid card that employ­ers can use to reward their employees while also enjoy­ing tax bene­fits for non-cash bene­fits. There are alre­ady more than 250,000 card users in Germany.

Up group offers loyalty programs, incen­tive and payment solu­ti­ons, among others. The Up group employs more than 3,400 people. The parent company is a cooperative.

givve tech­no­logy: machine lear­ning and auto­ma­ted payment processing
Above all, the inte­gra­tion at the Up group offers givve grea­ter oppor­tu­ni­ties for deve­lo­p­ment. The tech­no­logy deve­lo­ped in-house by givve includes auto­ma­ted payment auction matching proces­ses that save staff capa­city in payment proces­sing. Moreo­ver, these proces­ses are constantly impro­ving through machine learning.

Until now, givve tech­no­logy has only been used in the area of employee reten­tion. The Up group offers a much wider range of services, which opens up a grea­ter variety of possi­ble applications.

Up goup: New stra­te­gic investor
The acqui­si­tion by the Up group will not change anything for givve custo­mers for the time being. And the brand will also be retai­ned for the time being.

Patrick Löff­ler, Co-Foun­der and CEO of givve: “We could­n’t think of a better stra­te­gic inves­tor than the Up group. Not only do they under­stand our busi­ness very well, they are also active in far more busi­ness areas than we are. givve will bene­fit greatly from this large network and the exper­tise it provides.”

HTGF: Seed inves­tor reco­gni­zes technology’s poten­tial early on
HTGF reco­gni­zed the promi­sing FinTech tech­no­logy in givve at an early stage and sees the FinTech and block­chain sector as an incre­asingly signi­fi­cant and growing market with high deve­lo­p­ment poten­tial in the future.

Jens Baum­gärt­ner, Invest­ment Mana­ger of HTGF: “The foun­ding team has always convin­ced through the conti­nuous pursuit of long-term and stra­te­gic busi­ness goals. The tran­sac­tion comes at exactly the right time and opens up enorm­ous oppor­tu­ni­ties for the team to grow even faster with their mature technology.”

About givve
The company was foun­ded in 2010 by Patrick Löff­ler (CEO) and Alex­an­der Klai­ber (CTO). The givve prepaid credit card is the most flexi­ble voucher in the world and can be used at more than 30 million accep­tance points around the globe.

As a mone­tary addi­tio­nal bene­fit from the employer, the givve prepaid credit card is a smart way to increase wages. Compa­nies have the option of provi­ding their employees with tax-free bene­fits in kind amoun­ting to 44 euros. With the givve card, which can be desi­gned in the company’s corpo­rate design, employees can use this amount as they wish. Thus, givve offers compa­nies an advan­ced and sustainable tool for employee reten­tion and moti­va­tion as well as for incre­asing employer attrac­ti­ve­ness and is employee moti­va­tion that pays off. www.givve.com

About Up group
Up connects people, compa­nies and regi­ons by deve­lo­ping manage­ment, rela­ti­onship and tran­sac­tion plat­forms. Up deve­lops inte­gra­ted solu­ti­ons that meet the needs of diffe­rent part­ners, custo­mers and users. Up faci­li­ta­tes access to food, culture, leisure, educa­tion, home care, social assis­tance, expense manage­ment, and incen­tive and loyalty systems through its solu­ti­ons. With 3,465 employees and opera­ti­ons in 19 count­ries, Up is present in the daily lives of 26.6 million people world­wide. In 2017, total sales amoun­ted to 494 million euros. Up is an inde­pen­dent group whose parent company is a coope­ra­tive and parti­ci­pa­tory company. www.up.coop

Frank­furt a. M. — The U.S. services company Genpact acqui­res the Munich-based consul­ting firm Barkawi. Henge­ler Muel­ler, Latham & Watkins, Noerr and Baker Hostet­ler advised.

Genpact has signed an agree­ment to acquire Barkawi Manage­ment Consul­tants. Genpact is a global services company listed on the New York Stock Exch­ange and specia­li­zing in digi­tal transformation.

Barkawi Manage­ment Consul­tants was foun­ded in Munich in 1994 and is a global consul­ting firm specia­li­zing in supply chain manage­ment, supply chain tech­no­logy and after­sa­les services with over 200 employees in offices in Munich, Vienna, Riyadh, Dubai, Shen­zhen, Shang­hai and Atlanta. The merger of Barkawi Manage­ment Consul­tants with Genpact’s Supply Chain Service Line crea­tes ’ ”Barkawi Manage­ment Consul­tants — A Genpact Company”, a global provi­der of manage­ment consul­ting, mana­ged services and digi­tal transformation.

As part of the tran­sac­tion, Noerr provi­ded tax advice to Barkawi’s limi­ted part­ners in the prepa­ra­tion and during the tran­sac­tion. The Noerr team was led by Munich tax law part­ner Dr. Cars­ten Heinz. Noerr invol­ved the US law firm Baker Hostet­ler for the US tax issues.

Advi­sor Genpact: Henge­ler Mueller
Dr. Daniel Wiegand, Part­ner, Lead, M&A, Munich, Dr. Bernd Wirbel, Part­ner, Lead, M&A, Düssel­dorf, Dr. Chris­tian Hoefs, Part­ner, Labor Law, Frank­furt, Dr. Alf-Henrik Bischke, Part­ner, Anti­trust, Düssel­dorf, Dr. Markus Ernst, Coun­sel, Tax, Munich, Patrick H. Wilke­ning, Coun­sel, IP, Düssel­dorf, Dr. Andrea Schlaffge, IP, Düsseldorf
Asso­cia­tes: Dr. Maxi­mi­lian Schauf (M&A, Düssel­dorf), Dr. Achim Speng­ler, Dr. Vero­nika Wimmer (both M&A, Munich), Vicki Treib­mann (Labor Law), Dr. Anja Balitzki (Anti­trust Law), Dr. Maxi­mi­lien Wosgien (IP) (all Düssel­dorf), Dr. Sebas­tian Adam (Tax, Frankfurt)

Advi­sors­Bar­kawi: Latham & Watkins LLP
Dr. Rainer Trau­gott, Lead, Part­ner, Corporate/M&A, Munich, Dr. Nils Röver, Part­ner, Corporate/M&A, Hamburg, Dr. Thomas Fox, Part­ner, Tax, Munich, Dr. Chris­tian Engel­hardt, Coun­sel, IP/IT, Hamburg
Asso­cia­tes: Dr. Michael Schweppe, Corinna Freu­den­ma­cher (Corporate/M&A, Munich), Dr. Chris­tine Watz­in­ger (Tax Law, Munich)

On US tax law: Baker Hostetler 
Paul Schmidt, John D. Bates

Advi­sors to the limi­ted part­ners of Barkawi Manage­ment Consul­tant GmbH & Co: Noerr LLP
Dr. Cars­ten Heinz, Lead, Tax, Berlin/Munich, Peter Scheuch, Tax, Dres­den, Michael Tommaso, Tax, Berlin, Dr. Uwe Brend­ler, Corpo­rate M&A, Dresden

Berlin / Munich / Hamburg — The Scout24 AG (“Scout24″ or “the Group”), a leading opera­tor of digi­tal market­places focu­sing on real estate and auto­mo­tive in Germany and other selec­ted Euro­pean count­ries, has ente­red into an agree­ment to acquire all shares in the FFG FINANZCHECK Finanz­por­tale GmbH (“FINANZCHECK.de”), a German online compa­ri­son portal for consu­mer loans. Scout24 acqui­res FINANZCHECK.de from Acton Capi­tal Part­ners, btov Part­ners, High­land Europe, Harbour­Vest Part­ners as well as from the foun­der and CEO and other inves­tors (toge­ther the “Sellers”). The closing is subject to anti­trust appr­oval and is expec­ted within the next four to six weeks. The tran­sac­tion is based on a conside­ra­tion of €285 million, free of cash and debt. The purchase price is paid enti­rely in cash.

FINANZCHECK.de opera­tes an online plat­form for consu­mer finance and offers users a fast and effi­ci­ent compa­ri­son of consu­mer loans in real time. In addi­tion, FINANZCHECK.de coope­ra­tes with affi­liate websites, point-of-sale finan­cing part­ners and part­ner networks in Germany via its own consu­mer finance tech­no­logy plat­form. In terms of market share and market posi­tio­ning in the online compa­ri­son of consu­mer loans, FINANZCHECK.de is one of the top three portals in Germany. Using an uncom­pli­ca­ted online query, credit offers and credit-rela­ted products from all major provi­ders on the market can be compared within minu­tes. For credit inqui­ries on install­ment loans, car loans and debt resche­du­ling loans, credit advi­sors are available on request in addi­tion to online inquiry — seven days a week and free of charge.

Through this acqui­si­tion of high stra­te­gic importance, Scout24 will in future work with one of the leading indus­try provi­ders to be able to offer users an outstan­ding user expe­ri­ence and help them save time and money in their search for the right consu­mer loan. Banks and finan­cial insti­tu­ti­ons can also be provi­ded with a cost-effec­tive and scalable way to offer their services to loan seekers. FINANZCHECK.de has built its successful busi­ness on its own tech­no­logy plat­form with machine lear­ning capa­bi­li­ties and API connec­tions (Appli­ca­tion Programming Inter­face) to the most rele­vant finan­cial service provi­ders in Germany.

The market for online consu­mer loan compa­ri­sons is a fast-growing market, bene­fiting both from a good over­all deve­lo­p­ment of the more than 80 billion euros in new consu­mer loans gran­ted in Germany and from a progres­sive shift in consu­mer loan tran­sac­tions from offline chan­nels to online. Over the period from 2015 to 2022, the market share of consu­mer loans gene­ra­ted through online compa­ri­son is expec­ted to double.

With an average annual growth rate of around 35% over the last three years, FINANZCHECK.de can demons­trate a strong growth history and gene­ra­ted reve­nues of more than 35 million euros in the fiscal year ending Decem­ber 2017. This brings the volume of loans broke­red since the company was foun­ded in 2012 to more than EUR 3.5 billion. In addi­tion, with more than 20 finan­cial insti­tu­ti­ons connec­ted to its tech­no­logy plat­form via API, FINANZCHECK.de has compre­hen­sive market coverage with regard to the main provi­ders of consu­mer finance.

The acqui­si­tion of FINANZCHECK.de is an important stra­te­gic step to support users during their consu­mer jour­ney and to imple­ment Scout24’s motto “Inspi­ring your best decis­i­ons” — perfectly comple­men­ted by FINANZCHECK.de’s motto “enab­ling for money”. The acqui­si­tion builds on the alre­ady well-estab­lished and successful busi­ness part­ner­ship between the two compa­nies in broke­ring consu­mer finan­cing for car seekers on the AutoScout24 and FinanceScout24 platforms.

Since the IPO in Octo­ber 2015, Scout24 has alre­ady acqui­red and successfully inte­gra­ted seve­ral other compa­nies from its Euro­pean core markets, such as Auto­Trader B.V. in the Nether­lands or Gebrauchtwagen.at in Austria, which were a perfect stra­te­gic fit and at the same time contri­bu­ted to the expan­sion of the market posi­tion. In this respect, FINANZCHECK.de with its strong and estab­lished brand is a perfect comple­ment to the exis­ting busi­ness and contri­bu­tes signi­fi­cantly to the scope and reach of the market network — which in turn also bene­fits the future deve­lo­p­ment of FINANZCHECK.de.

“The acqui­si­tion of FINANZCHECK.de is another major step in the digi­tiza­tion of the Consu­mer Jour­ney within the Scout24 market network. It is a perfect fit for our busi­ness, and we are convin­ced that this stra­te­gic move will enable us to expand Consu­mer Services sales growth to the EUR 250 million mark in the medium term. In addi­tion to opera­tio­nal syner­gies and reve­nue contri­bu­tion, we also gain an even deeper under­stan­ding of user needs to the point of tran­sac­tion. With insight into user life­cy­cles and an under­stan­ding of when a user will start their next search for a new car or home, we can gain very valuable insights for our busi­ness. These will help us stra­te­gi­cally align our offe­ring so we can build more bridges to future user touch­points,” empha­si­zes Gregory Ellis, CEO of Scout24 AG, the high stra­te­gic value and leverage of the tran­sac­tion, which will help close the gaps in cove­ring the consu­mer jour­ney along the value chains of the real estate and auto­mo­tive businesses.

“We are deligh­ted to have Scout24 on board as our new parent company. This new alli­ance builds on an alre­ady very good coope­ra­tion within the frame­work of our long-stan­ding affi­liate part­ner­ship,” says Moritz Thiele, CEO and foun­der of FINANZCHECK.de.

The Manage­ment Board of Scout24 sees considera­ble oppor­tu­ni­ties to drive growth in this segment through the expan­sion of the Consu­mer Services divi­sion to include FINANZCHECK.de. This is prima­rily due to a more inte­gra­ted service offe­ring on the Scout24 plat­forms, with which Scout24 can accom­pany the consu­mer jour­ney to a grea­ter extent. The Execu­tive Board anti­ci­pa­tes syner­gies in both the auto­mo­tive and real estate busi­nesses. The initial focus will be on expan­ding the presence of FINANZCHECK.de on the AutoScout24 plat­form in order to meet further user needs rela­ting to car purcha­ses. Car loans are an essen­tial part of buying a car; about 40% of used cars are parti­ally or fully finan­ced. Scout24’s manage­ment plans to extend the offer to the AutoScout24 plat­forms in the Euro­pean core markets in the future.

In addi­tion to streng­thening the AutoScout24 plat­form through inte­gra­ted car finan­cing, Scout24’s Manage­ment Board sees addi­tio­nal syner­gies and reve­nue poten­tial by lever­aging the exis­ting close rela­ti­onships with the appro­xi­m­ately 26,000 AutoScout24 dealer part­ners in Germany. For exam­ple, AutoScout24 can also offer the busi­ness-to-busi­ness solu­tion “finanz­check­PRO” from FINANZCHECK.de, which helps car dealers to show poten­tial car buyers suita­ble finan­cing opti­ons for their desi­red car purchase and enable its implementation.

Consul­tant SCOUT 24 
Scout24 was advi­sed in the tran­sac­tion by McKin­sey & Company, Inc., BDO AG Wirt­schafts­prü­fungs­ge­sell­schaft, Will­kie Farr & Gallag­her LLP and by Credit Suisse (Deutsch­land) AG advi­sed. The Scout24 Group is finan­cing the acqui­si­tion through a credit facility.

Consul­tant FINANTCHECK.de
FINANZCHECK.de and its share­hol­ders were supported in the tran­sac­tion by Macqua­rie Capi­tal (Europe) Limi­ted as exclu­sive finan­cial advi­ser and Leo Schmidt-Holl­burg Witte & Frank as legal advi­ser. advise The tran­sac­tion contin­ued to be supported by Ernst & Young and EY Parthe­non. Better­mind GmbH supported the FINANZCHECK.de manage­ment intern­ally in the process and ensu­red further growth in parallel.

About SCOUT 24
With our leading digi­tal market­places ImmobilienScout24 in Germany and AutoScout24 in Europe, we inspire people to make their best decis­i­ons when it comes to finding a property or a car. Scout24 bund­les indi­vi­dual addi­tio­nal services, such as credit reports, the procu­re­ment of relo­ca­tion services or cons­truc­tion and car finan­cing, in the Scout24 Consu­mer Services busi­ness segment. More than 1,200 employees work on the success of our products and services. We put our users at the center and create a networked offe­ring for living and mobi­lity. Scout24 AG is a listed stock corpo­ra­tion and is traded on the Frank­furt Stock Exch­ange (ISIN: DE000A12DM80, Ticker: G24). For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.scout24.com.

About FINANZCHECK.de
FINANZCHECK.de, based in Hamburg, is one of the leading inde­pen­dent, tech­no­logy-supported consu­mer finance plat­forms in Germany. FINANZCHECK.de connects consu­mers with product provi­ders across all chan­nels. Consu­mers bene­fit from signi­fi­cant inte­rest cost savings and higher finan­cing opti­ons, while product provi­ders bene­fit from signi­fi­cantly lower custo­mer acqui­si­tion costs. The goal of FINANZCHECK.de is to become the leading provi­der of consu­mer liqui­dity solu­ti­ons through plug-and-play infra­struc­ture. Direct inter­faces to the IT infra­struc­ture of finan­cial service provi­ders are used to compare >70 consu­mer credit products. The end-to-end plat­form incor­po­ra­tes indus­try-leading tech­no­logy and custo­mer service to cover the entire life­cy­cle from custo­mer acqui­si­tion to credit appr­oval and beyond. For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.finanzcheck.de.

About Acton Capi­tal Partners
Acton Capi­tal Part­ners is a growth inves­tor from Munich for inter­net compa­nies. The invest­ment focus is on start­ups with scalable busi­ness models in the areas of online market­places, e‑commerce, online services, digi­tal media and SaaS. Acton invests in Europe and North America. The team has been working toge­ther successfully for many years and has inves­ted in over 70 compa­nies since 1999. Its best-known holdings include AbeBooks, Alando, Alpha­Sights, Ciao, Elite­part­ner, Etsy, Holi­day­Check, Linas Matkasse, Lumas, mytheresa.com, OnVista, Windeln.de and zooplus. To learn more, visit: www.actoncapital.com.

About btov Partners
btov Part­ners, foun­ded in 2000, is a Euro­pean venture capi­tal firm with offices in Berlin, Luxem­bourg and St. Gallen. The invest­ment focus is on digi­tal and indus­trial tech­no­logy compa­nies. btov mana­ges insti­tu­tio­nal funds, part­ner funds and provi­des access to direct invest­ments for private inves­tors and family offices. Through its three divi­si­ons, the company mana­ges assets of 375 million euros and reviews over 3,000 invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties annu­ally. To learn more, visit: www.btov.vc.

About Harbour­Vest Partners
Harbour­Vest is an inde­pen­dent global private equity inves­tor with more than 35 years of expe­ri­ence and more than $50 million in assets under manage­ment. The finan­cial investor’s global plat­form offers clients invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties through primary fund invest­ments, secon­dary invest­ments and direct co-invest­ments in commingled funds or others. Harbour­Vest employs more than 400 people, inclu­ding more than 100 invest­ment specia­lists in Asia, Europe and the US. The global team has commit­ted more than $34 billion to newly estab­lished funds, comple­ted more than $19 billion in secon­dary purcha­ses, and inves­ted more than $8 billion directly. By part­ne­ring with Harbour­Vest, clients bene­fit in a variety of ways from custo­mi­zed solu­ti­ons, long-stan­ding rela­ti­onships, key exper­tise, and successful results. To learn more, visit: www.harbourvest.com.

About High­land Europe
High­land Europe invests in excep­tio­nal growth soft­ware and Inter­net compa­nies. High­land Europe, the company which has been active in Europe since 2003 as High­land Capi­tal Part­ners and was offi­ci­ally foun­ded in 2012, has raised over €1 billion and inves­ted in compa­nies such as Adjust, Bitmo­vin, ContentS­quare, GetSour­Guide, Malware­bytes, Matches­Fa­shion, NewVoice­Me­dia, Next­hink, Smartly.io and WeTrans­fer. Toge­ther, the sites in the U.S., Europe and China include 46 IPOs and >$19 billion compa­nies. To learn more, visit: www.highlandeurope.com.

Marburg/ Darm­stadt — The British Spec­tris plc has acqui­red the VI-grade Group. The closing of the tran­sac­tion is still subject to custo­mary regu­la­tory appr­ovals and is expec­ted for the end of August 2018. Both parties have agreed not to disc­lose details of the tran­sac­tion. Gleiss Lutz advi­sed the British tech­no­logy company Spec­trics plc on this transaction.

VI-grade specia­li­zes in the produc­tion of auto­ma­tic controls and test systems, as well as the deve­lo­p­ment of turn­key solu­ti­ons for static and dyna­mic driving simu­la­tion. The company, with offices in Germany, Switz­er­land, Italy, the UK, Japan, China and the USA, deli­vers inno­va­tive solu­ti­ons to stream­line deve­lo­p­ment proces­ses, mainly in the auto­mo­tive, aero­space, motor­cy­cle, motor­sport and rail­road industries.

Spec­tris plc is a leading provi­der of products, tech­no­lo­gies and services that help compa­nies increase produc­ti­vity, improve product quality and opti­mize proces­ses until a product is laun­ched. In doing so, Spec­tris is active world­wide for custo­mers from various indus­tries and serves four busi­ness areas: Mate­ri­als Analy­sis, Test and Measu­re­ment, In-Line Instru­men­ta­tion and Indus­trial Controls. Head­quar­te­red in Egham, Surrey, UK, the company is listed on the London Stock Exch­ange (LSE) and employs around 9,800 people in more than 30 countries.

Gleiss Lutz coor­di­na­ted the tran­sac­tion as lead coun­sel in all juris­dic­tions invol­ved, in addi­tion to Germany also the UK (Shoos­miths LLP), Italy (Gianni, Origoni, Grippo, Cappelli & Part­ners), Japan (Kita­hama Part­ners), Switz­er­land (Hombur­ger) and USA (Sidley Austin LLP).

The follo­wing Gleiss Lutz team led by Dr. Patrick Kaffiné, photo (Part­ner, Corporate/M&A, Frank­furt) advi­sed Spec­tris on the tran­sac­tion: Dr. Stefan Mayer (Part­ner, Tax Law, Frank­furt), Dr. Jacob von Andreae (Part­ner, Public Law, Düssel­dorf), Dr. Michael Ilter, Julia Müller, Dr. Konstan­tin von Dryan­der, (all Corporate/M&A, all Frank­furt), Dr. Matthias Werner, (Coun­sel, IP/IT, Munich), Dr. Ocka Stumm, Chris­tian Hein­richs (both Tax Law, Frank­furt), Dr. Tobias Abend (Labor Law, Frank­furt), Dr. Birgit Colbus (Coun­sel), Dr. Saskia Kirch­geß­ner (both Anti­trust Law, Frankfurt).

The tran­sac­tion was advi­sed in-house by Dr. Alex­an­der Dähnert (M&A Coun­sel, London/Darmstadt) and Silke Leng­nick (Mana­ger Group Taxes, Darmstadt).

Gleiss Lutz regu­larly advi­ses Spec­tris on tran­sac­tions in Germany, most recently on the acqui­si­tion of DISCOM Elek­tro­ni­sche Systeme und Komponenten