Management buy-out at NOBILIS GROUP

Colo­gne — Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek advi­sed the manage­ment on the acqui­si­tion of NOBILIS Group GmbH, one of the most renow­ned German compa­nies for high-quality fragrance and perfume brands.

NOBILIS GROUP specia­li­zes in the distri­bu­tion of perfume brands and distri­bu­tes a wide port­fo­lio of brands such as Creed, Atkin­sons, Versace, Mont­blanc, Baldessa­rini, Coach, Acqua Colo­nia, Hollis­ter, Karl Lager­feld and many other inter­na­tio­nal perfume brands with deve­lo­p­ment poten­tial. It is conside­red a pioneer and driving force in the indus­try and covers the entire fragrance market, with a wide range of premium and luxury brands, through to life­style brands. The NOBILIS GROUP has also estab­lished itself as a service part­ner for Bulgari Parfums and Revlon/Elizabeth Arden, among others. The company cele­bra­ted its 25th anni­ver­sary in 2018, enjoys an excel­lent repu­ta­tion and high reco­gni­tion in the indus­try, and was able to break the magic barrier of 100 million euros in sales for the first time last year.

With imme­diate effect, the previous Mana­ging Direc­tor Udo Heuser (51) and the long-stan­­ding Chief Finan­cial Offi­cer Dr. Joachim Hense­ler (51) are respon­si­ble for the company as Mana­ging Part­ners with equal rights. Both have been perso­nally asso­cia­ted with the NOBILIS GROUP for a long time and stand for the grea­test possi­ble conti­nuity. They take over the company shares from the foun­ders Thomas C. Schnitz­ler and Detlef Rughöft, who thus leave the opera­tio­nal level and move to a newly foun­ded advi­sory board. In this way, their valuable indus­try cont­acts of many years’ stan­ding, their know-how and their acqui­si­tion strength will remain with the company in the long term. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the purchase price.

The Heuking team provi­ded compre­hen­sive advice to the acqui­rer from the struc­tu­ring of the tran­sac­tion to the contract docu­men­ta­tion to the closing and on the financing.

Advi­sor­s­NO­BI­LIS GROUP: Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek:
Dr. Oliver Bött­cher, photo (lead),
Kris­tina Schnei­der, LL.M.,
Laura Rilin­ger (all corporate/M&A), all Cologne
Dr. Guido Hoff­mann, LL.M.,
Dr. Chris­tian Appel­baum (both Finan­cing), both Düsseldorf
Fabian G. Gaffron (Tax Law), Hamburg