Author: Tatjana Anderer

Luhden/ Munich — The share­hol­ders have sold their shares in Bahr Modul­tech­nik GmbH to IK Invest­ment Part­ners. The tran­sac­tion is still subject to anti­trust clearance.

The family-owned company Bahr Modul­tech­nik GmbH, based in Luhden, Lower Saxony, is a manu­fac­tu­rer of custo­mi­zed, modu­lar posi­tio­ning systems. The systems are used in a wide range of indus­tries from mecha­ni­cal engi­nee­ring to medi­cal tech­no­logy. The company sells its products in more than 20 count­ries worldwide.

P+P Pöllath + Part­ners provi­ded compre­hen­sive legal advice to the sellers and the manage­ment of Bahr Modul­tech­nik GmbH with the follo­wing team:

* Jens Hörmann (Part­ner, Lead Part­ner, M&A/Private Equity, Munich)
* Dr. Bene­dikt Hohaus (Part­ner, Private Equity/Management Parti­ci­pa­tion, Munich)
* Dr. Matthias Bruse, LL.M. (Part­ner, M&A/Private Equity, Munich)
* Dr. Nico Fischer (Part­ner, Tax Law, Munich)
* Dr. Phil­ipp Kopp (Asso­ciate, M&A/Private Equity, Munich)
* Thies Jacob, LL.M. (Asso­ciate, M&A/Private Equity, Munich)
* Dr. Jens Linde (Asso­cia­ted Part­ner, Finan­cing, Frank­furt am Main)
* Daniel Wied­mann, LL.M. (Coun­sel, Anti­trust Law, Frank­furt am Main)

Paris/ Rieth­berg — Ardian, one of the world’s leading inde­pen­dent invest­ment firms, is selling its mino­rity stake in Piz’­Wich, a French manu­fac­tu­rer of frozen snacks for on-the-go consump­tion, to frost­krone, one of Europe’s leading produ­cers of frozen conve­ni­ence foods and snacks, based in Riet­berg, North Rhine-Westphalia.

Ardian Growth acqui­red the stake in Piz’­Wich in Decem­ber 2016 with the aim of support­ing the company’s orga­nic growth and acce­le­ra­ting its inter­na­tio­nal expan­sion, in parti­cu­lar by buil­ding stra­te­gic indus­try part­ner­ships world­wide. Thanks to a further deve­lo­ped product range and frame­work agree­ments with indus­trial part­ners, this goal was quickly achie­ved. Discus­sions were also held with frost­krone about a distri­bu­tion part­ner­ship in Germany, which ulti­m­ately led to the tran­sac­tion announ­ced today. As a result, Piz’­Wich is now 100 percent owned by frost­krone, a company that was a port­fo­lio company of Ardian Expan­sion in Germany until its acqui­si­tion by Emeram Capi­tal Part­ners in Febru­ary 2017.

Piz’­Wich was foun­ded in 2001 and since then has contin­ued to grow in a dyna­mi­cally evol­ving and expan­ding market. Under the leader­ship of Stéphane Dela­haye, the company quickly shifted its busi­ness model to frozen snacks for on-the-go consump­tion, a fast-growing niche market. For the latter, Piz’­Wich deve­lo­ped the “Pizza Pocket”, which proved to be as inno­va­tive as it was successful. Piz’­Wich places great empha­sis on quality and the tracea­bi­lity of the origin of ingre­di­ents, respon­ding equally to an incre­asing demand for these products, the needs of its consu­mers, as well as the stric­test requi­re­ments in terms of certi­fi­ca­tion and food inspection.

Stéphane Dela­hayeCEO of Piz’­Wich, said: “The part­ner­ship with Ardian has been a very intense and produc­tive period for us. During it we have further deve­lo­ped our product offe­ring and, with the help of Ardian’s exten­sive network world­wide, found a number of indus­try part­ners and defi­ned exter­nal growth oppor­tu­ni­ties. We thank the Ardian Growth team for their support and now look forward to tack­ling further growth plans thanks to the syner­gies with frostkrone.”

Frédé­ric Quéru, Direc­tor at Ardian Growth, added: “Piz’­Wich has deve­lo­ped very quickly in the 16 months since our invest­ment. Toge­ther with Stéphane Dela­haye, we have successfully imple­men­ted Piz’Wich’s stra­tegy. The company met with great inte­rest from a whole range of poten­tial acqui­rers. We are convin­ced that frost­krone, as one of the reco­gni­zed indus­try leaders, is the best part­ner to lead Piz’­Wich into the next stage of growth.”

Through its invest­ment arm Ardian Growth, Ardian supports profi­ta­ble compa­nies with annual reve­nues between €10 million and €100 million in imple­men­ting their growth plans. The recent €230 million fund­rai­sing for Ardian Growth Fund II unders­cores the success of the Ardian Growth team.

About Ardian
Ardian is one of the world’s leading inde­pen­dent invest­ment compa­nies, mana­ging appro­xi­m­ately US$67 billion in assets on behalf of its inves­tors from Europe, North America and Asia. The company is majo­rity-owned by its employees and gene­ra­tes sustainable, attrac­tive returns for its investors.

With the objec­tive of achie­ving posi­tive results for all stake­hol­ders, Ardian’s acti­vi­ties promote indi­vi­du­als, compa­nies and econo­mies world­wide. Ardian’s invest­ment philo­so­phy is aligned with the three guiding prin­ci­ples of excel­lence, loyalty and entrepreneurship.

The company has a global network of more than 490 employees and 13 offices in Europe (Frank­furt, Jersey, London, Luxem­bourg, Madrid, Milan, Paris and Zurich), North America (New York and San Fran­cisco) and Asia (Beijing, Singa­pore and Tokyo). Ardian mana­ges the assets of its appro­xi­m­ately 700 inves­tors in five invest­ment areas: Direct Funds, Funds of Funds, Infra­struc­ture, Private Debt and Real Estate.

About Piz’­Wich
Piz’­Wich was foun­ded in 2001 and acqui­red by the current CEO of the company in 2011. The company manu­fac­tures white-label frozen snack products for super­mar­kets, airline cate­rers and fast food compa­nies. Piz’­Wich has a strong network of distri­bu­tion part­ner­ships world­wide. Last year, Piz’­Wich repor­ted sales reve­nue of around 14 million euros. — The company is based in Bulgné­ville, France, near Nancy, and is headed by Stéphane Delahaye.

About frost crown
frost­krone and its subsi­diary Born­hol­ter specia­lize in the produc­tion and distri­bu­tion of frozen finger food and snack products. Since its foun­ding in 1997, the company has estab­lished itself as an inno­va­tive first mover in the conve­ni­ence frozen food sector. frost­krone is charac­te­ri­zed by a wide range of products based on cheese, fish, vege­ta­bles and meat and sells its products in the food retail and food service sectors.

Parties invol­ved in the transaction

Piz’­Wich: Stéphane Delahaye

Ardian: Frédé­ric Quéru, Alexis Saada

Legal coun­sel: McDer­mott, Will & Emery (Diana Hund, Louis Leroy)
Tax advice: Arsene Taxand (Franck Chami­nade, Charles Dalarun)
M&A Advi­sor: Invest Corpo­rate Finance (Marc O’Neill, Maxime Bazin)
frost crown: Frédé­ric Dervieux

Emeram Capi­tal Part­ners: Matthias Ober­meyr, Kaili Shen

Law
GLNS: Ludger Schult and Andreas Scheidle
Aramis: Raphaël Melle­rio and Alié­nor Harel
Finance, taxes and structure
PWC finan­cial: Richard Siedek, Phil­ippe Chavane and Olivier Lorang
PWC tax: Fabien Radisic
Struc­ture
Flick Gocke Schaum­burg: Chris­tian Pitzal and Martin Oltmanns
Acqui­si­tion Finance
Shear­man & Ster­ling: Winfried Carli

Süd Betei­li­gun­gen and VR Equi­typ­art­ner sell their shares in Piller Entgrattechnik
Stuttgart/Frankfurt am Main/Ditzingen — Süd Betei­li­gun­genGmbH (SüdBG) and VR Equi­typ­art­ner GmbH (VR Equi­typ­art­ner) are jointly selling their shares in Piller Entgratt­ech­nik GmbH (Piller). The buyer is the private invest­ment group Rifle­bird Capi­tal from Belgium.

Piller is an inno­va­tive machine buil­der specia­li­zing in debur­ring and clea­ning of metal­lic compon­ents using high pres­sure water. With around 100 employees and sites in Ditzin­gen and Kecs­ke­mét (Hungary), Piller prima­rily serves the auto­mo­tive indus­try, gene­ra­ting annual sales of around 30 million euros.

Follo­wing the acqui­si­tion of Piller in 2014, SüdBG and VR Equi­typ­art­ner have stra­te­gi­cally deve­lo­ped the company further and pushed ahead with the inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion course, espe­ci­ally to Asia and North America. “With SüdBG and VR Equi­typ­art­ner we had an entre­pre­neu­rial equity part­ner at our side, who always accom­pa­nied the imple­men­ta­tion of our invest­ment projects and the entry into new markets in a spirit of part­ner­ship. With our new share­hol­der, we want to conti­nue this successful course,” said Mana­ging Direc­tors Thomas Piller, Jörg Nubert and Tobias Schwarz, who will remain asso­cia­ted with the company as mana­ging partners.

Rifle­bird is a closed group of private inves­tors with exten­sive expe­ri­ence in the invest­ment busi­ness and takes a long-term invest­ment approach. “We are impres­sed by the tech­ni­cal know-how of the company and the entire team. Based on an inno­va­tive product range and a deep under­stan­ding of its custo­mers’ needs, Piller has achie­ved a strong market posi­tion. We look forward to part­ne­ring with the company in the future as it conti­nues its inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion stra­tegy,” explains Sylvia Gilis, Mana­ging Part­ner of Rifle­bird. “I am plea­sed that with Rifle­bird we have found a part­ner for the company that is orien­ted towards medium-sized compa­nies and the long term. Piller has achie­ved extra­or­di­nary growth in recent years and, based on its leading tech­no­logy and deve­lo­p­ment exper­tise, will conti­nue to actively support its custo­mers in the future with the chal­lenges that arise in debur­ring and clea­ning tech­no­logy,” says Gunter Max, Mana­ging Direc­tor of SüdBG.

Chris­tian Futter­lieb, Mana­ging Direc­tor of VR Equi­typ­art­ner, adds: “Toge­ther with the manage­ment, we have successfully deve­lo­ped the company in recent years. This also included new sales coope­ra­ti­ons. Piller is thus excel­lently posi­tio­ned today.” With a view to the company’s promi­sing pros­pects, Futter­lieb empha­si­zes: “With the comple­tion of the new produc­tion hall and office buil­ding in 2017, the capa­ci­tive prere­qui­si­tes for further dyna­mic growth have been laid”. All parties have agreed not to disc­lose details of the purchase agreement.

Süd Betei­li­gun­gen GmbH at a glance
SüdBG is a wholly owned subsi­diary of Landes­bank Baden-Würt­tem­berg (LBBW) and has been support­ing medium-sized compa­nies for more than 40 years with custo­mi­zed equity and equity-rela­ted solu­ti­ons in the context of succes­sion plan­ning, growth finan­cing and share­hol­der chan­ges. As one of the leading invest­ment compa­nies in the German-spea­king region and a long-term inves­tor, SüdBG has supported over 70 compa­nies in the past 10 years with around 600 million euros and a broad network in sustainable corpo­rate deve­lo­p­ment. www.suedbg.de.

VR Equi­typ­art­ner GmbH at a glance
VR Equi­typ­art­ner is one of the leading equity finan­ciers in Germany, Austria and Switz­er­land. The company supports medium-sized family busi­nesses in a goal-orien­ted manner and with almost 50 years of expe­ri­ence in the stra­te­gic solu­tion of complex finan­cing issues. Invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties include growth and expan­sion finan­cing, entre­pre­neu­rial succes­sion or share­hol­der chan­ges. VR Equi­typ­art­ner offers majo­rity and mino­rity invest­ments as well as mezza­nine finan­cing. As a subsi­diary of DZ BANK, the central insti­tu­tion of the coope­ra­tive banks in Germany, VR Equi­typ­art­ner consis­t­ently puts the sustaina­bi­lity of corpo­rate deve­lo­p­ment ahead of short-term exit thin­king. VR Equitypartner’s port­fo­lio curr­ently compri­ses around 100 commit­ments with an invest­ment volume of EUR 500 million. www.vrep.de.

Paris/Frankfurt — Idin­vest Part­ners finan­ces add-on acqui­si­tion for frozen food produ­cer frostkrone
The private debt team of Idin­vest Part­ners, a Euro­pean invest­ment firm specia­li­zing in the SME segment, today announ­ced finan­cing for the acqui­si­tion by frost­krone Tief­kühl­kost GmbH (“frost­krone”) of Piz’­Wich, a French specialty manu­fac­tu­rer of frozen snack products. frost­krone, one of the leading manu­fac­tu­r­ers of frozen ready-to-eat products in Europe, has been a port­fo­lio company of EMERAM Capi­tal Part­ners since 2017. — This is Idin­vest Part­ners’ third German private debt deal in 2018.

frost­krone is based in Riet­berg, North Rhine-West­pha­lia, and specia­li­zes in the deve­lo­p­ment and produc­tion of frozen finger food and snack products. Piz’­Wich was foun­ded in 2001 and since then has expe­ri­en­ced contin­ued growth in a rapidly deve­lo­ping and expan­ding market. As a subsi­diary of frost­krone, Piz’­Wich will conti­nue its inter­na­tio­nal expan­sion along­side frost­krone and focus on further expan­ding its current market posi­tion in the fast-growing niche segment.

Eric Gallerne, Part­ner for Private Debt at Idin­vest Part­ners, said: “In our invest­ments, we pay very close atten­tion to the quality and deve­lo­p­ment pros­pects of the compa­nies we support. In Germany, espe­ci­ally in the lower mid market segment, there are many compa­nies that are extre­mely successful — also inter­na­tio­nally — in their market niche. frost­krone and Piz’­Wich both meet these crite­ria, so this tran­sac­tion fits perfectly into our profile.”

Frédé­ric Dervieux, Mana­ging Part­ner of frost­krone, added: “With the acqui­si­tion of Piz’­Wich, frost­krone is posi­tio­ning itself even better for a successful future. Toge­ther with Piz’­Wich, we will iden­tify trends even faster and imple­ment them in a way that is suita­ble for snacks, thus further expan­ding our posi­tion as an inno­va­tive pioneer.”

Dr. Chris­tian Näther, Mana­ging Direc­tor of EMERAM Capi­tal Part­ners, added: “Piz’Wich’s unique and highly inno­va­tive products comple­ment frostkrone’s compre­hen­sive snack port­fo­lio and enable it to jointly address new custo­mer needs. In addi­tion, frostkrone’s large custo­mer network will help Piz’­Wich to pene­trate inter­na­tio­nal markets even faster.”

Idin­vest Part­ners streng­thens private debt invest­ment acti­vity in Germany and Europe
With this finan­cing, Idin­vest Part­ners conti­nues its active private debt invest­ment acti­vity in the German market. Most recently, the company, toge­ther with other debt inves­tors, had supported the acqui­si­tion of Halex Holding, a North Rhine-West­pha­lia-based manu­fac­tu­rer of extru­sion dies and service provi­der for heat treat­ment, by Bencis Capi­tal Part­ners. In Febru­ary, Auctus Capi­tal Part­ners acqui­red GS Star Hotel Group with the help of a unitran­che finan­cing from Idin­vest Part­ners. The Group opera­tes hotels throug­hout Germany and in Austria and the Nether­lands under the Hamp­ton by Hilton, Holi­day Inn, Holi­day Inn Express and Super 8 brands, as well as under its own ANA Art Hotels brand.

Across Europe, Idin­vest Part­ners’ private debt invest­ment acti­vity in the first quar­ter was around twice as high as in the same period last year (three tran­sac­tions, €69 million), with seven tran­sac­tions and an invest­ment volume of €120 million. In 2017, the company had carried out a total of 45 tran­sac­tions in Europe with a volume of 900 million euros. Germany accoun­ted for around 20 percent of this invest­ment volume, making it the second-largest market after France (65 percent).

About Idin­vest Partners
Idin­vest Part­ners is a leading Euro­pean invest­ment firm focu­sed on the mid market. The company was foun­ded in 1997 as part of the Alli­anz Group under the name AGF Private Equity and has been inde­pen­dent since 2010. Curr­ently, Idin­vest Part­ners mana­ges assets of around €9 billion with more than 90 employees and has offices in Paris, Frank­furt, Madrid, Shang­hai and Dubai. Idin­vest Part­ners has three busi­ness units: Private Funds Group, Private Debt and Venture & Growth Capital.

For Private Debt, Idin­vest Part­ners opened an office in Frank­furt in 2017 as part of its inter­na­tio­nal growth stra­tegy to support port­fo­lio compa­nies and clients in the German market. Idin­vest Part­ners’ debt solu­ti­ons include direct loans, acqui­si­tion loans, and asset finance. www.idinvest.com

About frost­krone Tief­kühl­kost GmbH
frost­krone and its subsi­diary Born­hol­ter specia­lize in the produc­tion and distri­bu­tion of frozen finger food and snack products. Since its foun­ding in 1997, the company has estab­lished itself as an inno­va­tive first mover in the conve­ni­ence frozen food sector. frost­krone is charac­te­ri­zed by a wide range of products based on cheese, fish, vege­ta­bles and meat and sells its products in the food retail and food service sectors. www.frostkrone.de

About EMERAM Capi­tal Partners
EMERAM Capi­tal Part­ners is an inde­pen­dent invest­ment company for medium-sized compa­nies in German-spea­king count­ries. With a fund volume of €350 million, the funds advi­sed by EMERAM Capi­tal Part­ners provide capi­tal for the deve­lo­p­ment of compa­nies and curr­ently manage nine port­fo­lio compa­nies: Boards & More, BENCH Inter­na­tio­nal, Hussel, Matrix42, diva‑e Digi­tal Value Enter­prise, Xovis, Draht­zug Stein Gruppe, frost­krone Tief­kühl­kost and the Meona Group. www.emeram.com

Düssel­dorf — Luxem­bourg-based steel group Aperam S.A. has acqui­red VDM Metals Group, a produ­cer of specialty steel alloys. The enter­prise value of the target group amounts to around EUR 596 million. The tran­sac­tion is still subject to appr­oval by the rele­vant anti­trust autho­ri­ties. Aperam was advi­sed by the inter­na­tio­nal commer­cial law firm Simmons & Simmons led by Corporate/M&A Part­ner Dr. Chris­tian Bornhorst.

Listed on the Luxem­bourg, Paris, Amster­dam and Brussels stock exch­an­ges, Aperam S.A. is a global produ­cer of corro­sion-resistant and soft magne­tic steel and high-alloy special stain­less steels with custo­mer rela­ti­onships in over 40 count­ries and six produc­tion sites in France, Brazil and Belgium. The three busi­ness areas comprise the segments ‘Stain­less & Elec­tri­cal Steel’, ‘Services & Solu­ti­ons’ and ‘Alloys & Special­ties’. The VDM Metals Group, head­quar­te­red in Werdohl, North Rhine-West­pha­lia, employs around 2,000 people world­wide and gene­ra­tes annual sales of over 1 billion euros. VDM Metals is a global manu­fac­tu­rer of high-perfor­mance nickel alloys, special corro­sion-resistant and soft magne­tic steel, zirco­nium, cobalt, and semi-finis­hed alumi­num and copper. The products of the VDM Metals Group are sold to custo­mers in a wide range of indus­tries. VDM Metals is curr­ently still held by Lind­say Gold­berg, a US private equity investor.

Advi­sor to Aperam S.A.: Simmons & Simmons
The Simmons & Simmons team consis­ted of Dr. Chris­tian Born­horst, photo (lead, M&A Düssel­dorf), Dr. Michael Bormann, Marc Urlichs, Matthias von Holten, Dr. Anja Schlicht­ing, Sören Schei­bel (all M&A, Düssel­dorf), Yannick Stern­otte (M&A, Brussels), Koen Plat­teau, Dr. Robert Hardy, Mathieu Vancail­lie (all Anti­trust, Brussels), Dr. Martin Gramsch (Anti­trust, Düssel­dorf), Alex­an­der Greth, Patrick Komi­niak (both Labor Law, Düssel­dorf), Dr. Stefan Schramm, Leonie Müller (both Finan­cing, Frank­furt), Lenn­art Dahmen (Regu­la­tory, Frank­furt), Dr. Phil­ipp Schrö­ler (Liti­ga­tion, Düssel­dorf), Julian Hier­eth (Real Estate, Munich) and Clau­dia Feller and Janine Manke (both IP, Munich). In addi­tion, Claire le Touzé and Jenni­fer Heng (both employ­ment law, Paris) as well as Louis-Maël Cogis, Cath­rine Fold­berg Møller and Leonor Rijpma (M&A and capi­tal markets law, Luxem­bourg) were involved.

Advi­sor Lind­say Gold­berg: Gleiss Lutz
Dr. Fred Wendt, Dr. Urszula Nartowska (both Lead, Part­ner, Corporate/M&A, Hamburg), Dr. Stefan Linge­mann (Part­ner, Labor Law, Berlin/Hamburg), Dr. Jacob von Andreae (Part­ner, Public Law, Düssel­dorf), Dr. Johann Wagner (Part­ner, Tax Law, Hamburg) Iris Bene­dikt-Bucken­leib (Coun­sel, Anti­trust Law, Munich), Dr. Marc Ruttl­off (Coun­sel, Public Law, Stutt­gart), Chris­tian Zimmer­mann, Mari­anne Milo­va­nov (both Corpo­rate Law/M&A, both Hamburg), Dr. Jonas Rybarz (Corporate/M&A, Berlin), Dr. Jan-Alex­an­der Lange (Finance, Frank­furt), Jose­fine Chakrab­arti (Labor Law), Dr. Daniel Görlich, Dr. Lars Kind­ler (both Public Law, all Berlin), Kath­rin Haag (Anti­trust, Munich), Kevin Grimm­eiß (Public Law, Düssel­dorf), Dr. Matthias Schilde (Intellec­tual Property, Berlin).

Esch­born — DRS Invest­ment acqui­res stake in ASCORA GmbH. Rödl & Part­ner compre­hen­si­vely advi­sed the mana­ging part­ner of the soft­ware specia­list Ascora GmbH, Dr. Sven Abels, on the sale of his company shares to the private invest­ment company DRS Invest­ment GmbH. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the purchase price.

Ascora GmbH, based in Gander­ke­see (Lower Saxony), was foun­ded in 1994 and is a medium-sized, owner-mana­ged soft­ware house. The company deve­lops consu­mer soft­ware for Windows and Mac as well as smart­phone apps and parti­ci­pa­tes in various rese­arch and deve­lo­p­ment projects in Germany and Europe. Ascora has deve­lo­ped into an estab­lished part­ner around the digi­ta­liza­tion of busi­ness proces­ses and today employs over 30 soft­ware deve­lo­pers. With over 12 million users, Ascora GmbH is one of the largest provi­ders of consu­mer soft­ware solu­ti­ons in Germany. Ascora has recei­ved the Deloitte Tech­no­logy Fast 50 Award and the 2018 Growth Cham­pion award from Focus and Statista, among others. Ascora GmbH was also included in the list of “Top Employ­ers for Medium-Sized Busi­nesses 2018” by Focus Business.

DRS Invest­ment GmbH is a private invest­ment company for medium-sized compa­nies and is based in Munich. The invest­ment focus is on stable and estab­lished busi­ness models, niche play­ers and soft­ware and tech­no­logy compa­nies. Mana­ging Part­ner Dr. Andreas Spie­gel (photo) brings more than 15 years of expe­ri­ence as an entre­pre­neur and inves­tor in medium-sized companies.

Advi­sor to Ascora GmbH: Rödl & Part­ner Esch­born — Corpo­rate Finance
HenningKürbis, Asso­ciate Part­ner (Lead, Corpo­rate Finance and M&A)
Hendrik Blumen­stock, Senior Consul­tant (Corpo­rate Finance and M&A)

Rödl & Part­ner Nurem­berg — Legal advice:
Michael Wiehl, Part­ner, Attor­ney-at-Law, Tax Law Specia­list (Lead, Legal M&A), Sebas­tian Dittrich, Asso­ciate (M&A and Corpo­rate Law)

Rödl & Part­ner Munich
Björn Stübi­ger, Part­ner (Head of Corpo­rate Finance and M&A)

About Rödl & Partner
Rödl & Part­ner — The agile caret­a­ker for medium-sized global market leaders. As lawy­ers, tax advi­sors, busi­ness and IT consul­tants and audi­tors, we are repre­sen­ted at 108 of our own loca­ti­ons in 50 count­ries. Our clients trust our 4,500 colle­agues worldwide.

Frank­furt — The Eckes-Granini Group has acqui­red a 35% stake in true fruits GmbH, Bonn, through Eckes-Granini Betei­li­gungs­ver­wal­tung GmbH. The tran­sac­tion is subject to appr­oval by the rele­vant anti­trust autho­ri­ties. Foun­ded as recently as 2006, true fruits is one of the leading suppli­ers of smoothies in Germany with sales of EUR 43 million (2017). At the same time, the company repea­tedly makes head­lines with its head­line-grab­bing adver­ti­sing campaigns.

The smoothies market is conside­red one of the fastest-growing areas of the indus­try. The foun­ders of true fruits will remain opera­tio­nally respon­si­ble as share­hol­ders and mana­ging direc­tors. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the tran­sac­tion volume.

Eckes-Granini is one of the most important brand manu­fac­tu­r­ers of fruit juices and fruit-based soft drinks in Europe and is best known for brands such as granini, Pago, hohes C, Joker, Rynkeby and YO Syrup. Eckes-Granini was compre­hen­si­vely advi­sed on the tran­sac­tion by Reed Smith under the leader­ship of Frank­furt-based Corpo­rate Part­ner Dr. Andreas Jürgens and Asso­ciate Dr. Philip Schmidt. Dr. Jürgens has a long-stan­ding client rela­ti­onship with Eckes-Granini in which he has alre­ady advi­sed on seve­ral transactions.

Based on this rela­ti­onship, Reed Smith now came into play for Eckes-Granini for the first time. Consul­tant Eckes-Granini Reed Smith:
Dr. Andreas Jürgens, Dr. Philip Schmidt (both Corporate/M&A, Lead), Tilman Siebert (Part­ner), Helge Aulmann (Asso­ciate) (both Merger Control), Dr. Anette Gärt­ner (Part­ner), Iris Kruse (Asso­ciate) (both IP), Dr. Marc Spiel­ber­ger (Part­ner), Clau­dia Kuhn (Asso­ciate) (both Employ­ment) END About Reed Smith Reed Smith is one of the leading inter­na­tio­nal law firms with more than 1,700 lawy­ers in 27 offices in Europe, the US, the Middle East and Asia. For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.reedsmith.com.

Munich-Bird & Bird LLP advi­sed the share­hol­ders of BBS Auto­ma­tion GmbH, one of the leading provi­ders of high-quality auto­ma­tion solu­ti­ons for complex assem­bly and test­ing proces­ses with loca­ti­ons in Germany, USA, Malay­sia and China, on the invest­ment through and joint venture with EQT Mid Market Europe.

The growth of BBS is to be supported both orga­ni­cally and by further acqui­si­ti­ons in new appli­ca­tion areas, in parti­cu­lar to drive the further deve­lo­p­ment of Indus­trie 4.0 produc­tion systems. In addi­tion, the expan­sion of inter­na­tio­nal acti­vi­ties — parti­cu­larly in Asia and America — will be an important aspect of future cooperation.

The foun­ders of BBS Auto­ma­tion GmbH, Josef Wild­gru­ber and Uwe Behr, will conti­nue the manage­ment and like­wise all current share­hol­ders will remain inves­ted in BBS Auto­ma­tion. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the volume of the deal.

BBS Auto­ma­tion GmbH and its share­hol­ders were advi­sed by the follo­wing Bird & Bird lawy­ers: Part­ner Stefan Münch, Coun­sel Stephan Kübler (both lead) and Asso­cia­tes Michael Gaßner and Bene­dikt Weiß (all Corporate/M&A, Munich) as well as Senior Coun­sel Dr. Martin Jäger (Anti­trust, Düsseldorf).

About Bird & Bird
Bird & Bird is an inter­na­tio­nal law firm that supports compa­nies and insti­tu­ti­ons that are trans­for­med by tech­no­logy or the digi­tal world. We combine world-class legal exper­tise with deep indus­try know­ledge and a refres­hin­gly crea­tive mind­set to help clients achieve their busi­ness goals. We have over 1,200 lawy­ers in 28 offices in Europe, the Middle East and Asia Paci­fic and main­tain close rela­ti­onships with law firms in other parts of the world.

Munich/ Naald­wijk — Funds advi­sed by Equis­tone Part­ners Europe (“Equis­tone”) have acqui­red a majo­rity stake in BOAL Group. The Dutch company deve­lops and produ­ces high-quality alumi­num roof and side wall systems for glass and foil green­hou­ses. The sellers are the mana­ging direc­tor Ronald Boers and the foun­der Mari­nus Boers, both of whom will conti­nue to hold mino­rity shares. BOAL’s manage­ment team will also parti­ci­pate in the company. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the purchase price. The acqui­si­tion is still subject to appr­oval by the rele­vant anti­trust authorities.

BOAL Group, head­quar­te­red in Naald­wijk, the Nether­lands, has 48 years of expe­ri­ence in the design and manu­fac­ture of alumi­num roof and side­wall systems for green­hou­ses. This makes the Group one of the leading suppli­ers in the market. In addi­tion, BOAL supplies the cons­truc­tion, mecha­ni­cal engi­nee­ring and trans­port indus­tries with extru­ded alumi­num profiles. The manu­fac­ture of the high-quality products is based on many years of expe­ri­ence, tech­ni­cal exper­tise and inno­va­tive strength. Produc­tion takes place at the company’s three Dutch sites ’s‑Gravenzande, Maas­dijk and De Lier, as well as in Shep­s­hed in the UK. BOAL curr­ently employs appro­xi­m­ately 370 people and gene­ra­ted sales of around 155 million euros in 2017.

Toge­ther with Equis­tone, BOAL aims to further streng­then its market-leading posi­tion in the green­house indus­try. The focus is on conti­nuous product inno­va­tion, geogra­phic growth and expan­ding the posi­tion in the market for roof systems for film green­hou­ses. Proven part­ner­ships with exis­ting custo­mers for green­house systems as well as alumi­num profiles remain unaf­fec­ted and are to be continued.

“BOAL Group’s impres­sive posi­tion in the market is a prime start­ing point for the next phase of growth,” said Dr. Marc Arens, Part­ner at Equis­tone. “Toge­ther with the outstan­ding manage­ment team, Equis­tone will build on BOAL’s strengths and consis­t­ently pursue its growth stra­tegy. In doing so, we are focu­sing on geogra­phic expan­sion, inno­va­tion and enhan­cing the Group’s exis­ting product portfolio.”

Ronald Boers, Mana­ging Direc­tor of BOAL Group, comm­ents: “The green­house indus­try is growing rapidly and BOAL Group will bene­fit enorm­ously from this deve­lo­p­ment. Equis­tone is the ideal part­ner for our ambi­ti­ons — toge­ther we will conti­nue to drive our growth plans. In doing so, we build on long-term stra­te­gic part­ner­ships with our custo­mers as well as many years of expe­ri­ence and exper­tise in the extru­sion of high-quality alumi­num profiles for the green­house indus­try and other markets.”

On the part of Equis­tone, Dr. Marc Arens, Roman Emanuel Hegglin and Moritz Treude are respon­si­ble for the tran­sac­tion. The mid-market inves­tor was advi­sed by h&z (Commer­cial), Deloitte (Finan­cial), Allen & Overy (Legal), PwC (Tax), ERM (Envi­ron­men­tal), GCA Altium (Dept Advi­sory), Shear­man & Ster­ling and Stek Advo­ca­ten (Finan­cing, Legal). BOAL Group was advi­sed by William Blair (M&A), Roland Berger (Commer­cial), Deloitte (Financial/ Tax), Hout­hoff (Legal), Tauw (Envi­ron­men­tal), Oaklins (Finan­cial), Van Doorne (Legal) and Yeald (Manage­ment). The tran­sac­tion is expec­ted to close in April 2018.

About Equis­tone Part­ners Europe
Equis­tone Part­ners Europe is one of Europe’s leading equity inves­tors with a team of more than 35 invest­ment specia­lists in six offices in Germany, Switz­er­land, France and the UK. Equis­tone prima­rily invests in estab­lished medium-sized compa­nies with a good market posi­tion, above-average growth poten­tial and an enter­prise value of between EUR 50 and 500 million. Since its foun­ding, equity has been inves­ted in more than 140 tran­sac­tions, mainly mid-market buy-outs. The port­fo­lio curr­ently compri­ses over 40 compa­nies across Europe, inclu­ding around 20 active holdings in Germany, Switz­er­land and the Nether­lands. Equis­tone is curr­ently inves­t­ing from its sixth fund, which closed in March 2018 with €2.8 billion at the hard cap.
For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.equistonepe.de