CEWE acquires 80 percent in photo app specialists from France

Oldenburg/ Paris — The fast-growing French market leader for photo­fi­nis­hing apps will become part of the Euro­pean photo­fi­nis­hing market leader: CEWE Stif­tung & Co. KGaA (SDAX, ISIN: DE 0005403901), head­quar­te­red in Olden­burg, has reached an agree­ment with the owners of the Cheerz Group (Paris) on a share­hol­ding. The Cheerz Group (Paris) is growing dyna­mi­cally in France, Spain and Italy with its premium brand “Cheerz,” which is prima­rily targe­ted at smart­phone users. — CEWE, which was foun­ded in 1961 and has around 3,500 employees, is initi­ally acqui­ring around 80 % of the shares in the Cheerz Group for 36 million euros. The tran­sac­tion values the company at slightly more than one and a half times expec­ted 2018 reve­nue. The CEWE Board of Manage­ment initi­ally expects the take­over — inclu­ding purchase price allo­ca­tion and tran­sac­tion costs — to have a nega­tive EBIT effect of around 4 million euros in the current busi­ness year.

Sustained posi­tive effect on enter­prise value expected
The CEWE Board of Manage­ment expects the invest­ment to streng­then busi­ness in France and Southern Europe through addi­tio­nal growth in mobile busi­ness. He also anti­ci­pa­tes syner­gies in the areas of mobile compe­tence, purcha­sing, produc­tion and logi­stics. “We are certain that this invest­ment will have a lasting posi­tive effect on the value of the company as a whole,” says Dr. Chris­tian Friege, Chair­man of the Board of Manage­ment of CEWE Stif­tung & Co. KGaA. “In addi­tion to the clas­sic syner­gies, we were convin­ced by the high level of custo­mer orien­ta­tion, the user-friendly solu­tion, the posi­tio­ning as a premium brand, and the tech­no­lo­gi­cal exper­tise of the strong, entre­pre­neu­rial manage­ment team. We want to main­tain this posi­tive culture and these compe­ten­cies in exactly the same way. Cheerz stands for a convin­cing idea: A fast way to a cool product!”, Friege continues.

Aure­lien de Meaux and Antoine Le Conte, foun­ders of Cheerz, add: “We are deligh­ted to have found a part­ner in CEWE that stands for the highest produc­tion quality and scala­bi­lity and can thus best support our dyna­mic growth in France and Southern Europe. We want to grow into a new dimen­sion with a true Euro­pean cham­pion — quickly, easily and in a direct way. Just the way we are. It was important for us that CEWE appre­cia­tes and wants to main­tain our corpo­rate culture. It’s a perfect fit!”

Advi­sers to CEWE Stif­tung & Co. KGaA: P+P Pöllath + Part­ners and its French part­ner law firm Jeantet

P+P:
Otto Haber­stock (Part­ner, Lead, M&A, Munich)
Dr. Eva Nase (Part­ner, Corpo­rate and Capi­tal Markets, Munich)
Daniel Wied­mann (Coun­sel, Merger Control, Frankfurt)
Phil­ipp Opitz (Senior Asso­ciate, Corpo­rate and Capi­tal Markets, Munich)

Jean­tet:
Karl Hepp de Seve­lin­ges (Part­ner, Lead M&A, Paris)
Michael Samol (Coun­sel, M&A, Paris)
Ruben Koslar (Asso­ciate, M&A, Paris)
Gabriel di Chiara (Senior Asso­ciate, Tax, Paris)
Fréde­ric Sardain (Part­ner, IP, Paris)