Leica takes over Meister Camera Shops — end of an era

Wetzlar/ Hamburg — As of Novem­ber 1, 2023, the Meis­ter Camera stores in Hamburg, Berlin and Munich will operate under the umbrella of Leica Camera AG. This finally brings the era of inde­pen­dent Leica stores in Germany to an end. With its motto “Ever­y­thing Leica can deli­ver, we have in stock,” Came­ra­Meis­ter has very often been a last resort for Leica photo­graph­ers who have always had to be very pati­ent with Leica’s deli­very deadlines.

Baker McKen­zie advi­sed Leica Camera Deutsch­land GmbH on the acqui­si­tion of three Leica Stores in Hamburg, Berlin and Munich, which were previously mana­ged by Meis­ter Camera. 135 years after the foun­ding of the “Meis­ter Droge­rie”, which later became Meis­ter Camera, and after more than 50 years of coope­ra­tion with Leica, owner Martin Meis­ter has deci­ded to sell his busi­ness to Leica.

Baker McKen­zie advi­sed Leica on corpo­rate and real estate aspects of the tran­sac­tion, inclu­ding the coor­di­na­tion and nego­tia­tion of the acqui­si­tion. “With this acqui­si­tion, our client Leica can now conti­nue its long­stan­ding success story toge­ther with the exis­ting store teams in Hamburg, Berlin and Munich,” commen­ted Eva Kriech­bau­mer, co-lead of the transaction.

Leica is a premium manu­fac­tu­rer of came­ras and sports optics products head­quar­te­red in Wetz­lar, Germany. With this acqui­si­tion, Leica conti­nues to expand its distri­bu­tion network, which now includes eleven Leica Stores in Germany.

Legal advi­sor Leica: Baker McKenzie

Lead: Corporate/M&A: Eva Kriech­bau­mer (Senior Asso­ciate, Munich), Dr. Andreas Lohner (Part­ner, Munich)
Team: Corporate/M&A: Dr. Jon Marcus Meese (Part­ner, Munich)
Real Estate: Dr. Daniel Bork (Part­ner, Düssel­dorf), Moritz Jander (Asso­ciate, Düsseldorf)

Baker McKenzie’s Corporate/M&A prac­tice regu­larly advi­ses on dome­stic and inter­na­tio­nal tran­sac­tions. Most recently, Baker McKen­zie advi­sed Trans­com on its acqui­si­tion of time­frame, Sika AG on its acqui­si­tion of MBCC Group from Lone Star and sale of MBCC’s concrete admix­tures busi­ness to Cinven, Senwes Ltd. in its acqui­si­tion of four agri­cul­tu­ral machi­nery dealers in the new German states, AURELIUS in its acqui­si­tion of LSG Group from Deut­sche Luft­hansa AG, Nokian Tyres plc in its sale of the Russian busi­ness to Tatneft PJSC, First Solar in its sale of the global O&M busi­ness to Nova­Source, Flui­dra in its acqui­si­tion of Mera­nus Group and Magna in its acqui­si­tion of the Veoneer Active Safety business.