Year: 2018

Frank­furt a. M. — Shear­man & Ster­ling advi­sed PINOVA Capi­tal on the finan­cing of the acqui­si­tion of Sauter Fed ern GmbH (“Sauter Federn”), a leading manu­fac­tu­rer of tech­ni­cal springs.

Sauter Federn, head­quar­te­red in Furt­wan­gen, Germany, has specia­li­zed in the deve­lo­p­ment and manu­fac­ture of custo­mi­zed spring solu­ti­ons for more than 80 years.

PINOVA Capi­tal is a Munich-based, inde­pen­dent invest­ment company for equity finan­cing of fast-growing, inno­va­tive medium-sized compa­nies in German-spea­king count­ries. Shear­man & Ster­ling has regu­larly advi­sed PINOVA Capi­tal on finan­cing matters in the past, inclu­ding the finan­cing of the acqui­si­tion of Utimaco, Human Solu­ti­ons, Deuro­wood and WEETECH.

The Shear­man & Ster­ling team included Part­ner Dr. Matthias Weis­sin­ger and Tran­sac­tion Specia­list Marina Kieweg (both Germany-Finance).

About PINOVA Capital
PINOVA covers the entire equity spec­trum from growth capi­tal to succes­sion solu­ti­ons in the context of majo­rity or mino­rity share­hol­dings. With two funds, around €300 million in finan­cing is available for corpo­rate invest­ments, provi­ded by insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors with a long-term invest­ment horizon.

About Shear­man & Sterling
Shear­man & Ster­ling is an inter­na­tio­nal law firm with 22 offices in 13 count­ries and appro­xi­m­ately 850 lawy­ers. In Germany, Shear­man & Ster­ling is repre­sen­ted at the Frank­furt office. The firm is one of the inter­na­tio­nal market leaders in advi­sing on complex cross-border tran­sac­tions. World­wide, Shear­man & Ster­ling prima­rily advi­ses inter­na­tio­nal corpo­ra­ti­ons and large natio­nal compa­nies, finan­cial insti­tu­ti­ons, and large mid-sized compa­nies. For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.shearman.com.

Berlin — Shear­man & Ster­ling advi­sed capi­ton on the finan­cing of the acqui­si­tion of a majo­rity stake in Magix Soft­ware, a leading global deve­lo­per and provi­der of video, music and photo editing software.

capi­ton is an inde­pen­dent, owner-mana­ged private equity company that mana­ges a total fund volume of € 1.1 billion and invests in larger medium-sized compa­nies in Germany, Austria and Switz­er­land in the context of manage­ment buy-outs and expan­sion finan­cing. Magix is a primary tran­sac­tion and the first compo­nent of capi­ton’s increased acti­vity in the area of digi­tal busi­ness models.

Head­quar­te­red in Berlin, Magix has addi­tio­nal deve­lo­p­ment sites in Dres­den and Madi­son (USA). Magix has been active in the video and music editing soft­ware market for more than twenty years and can ther­e­fore draw on a very broad and loyal custo­mer base.

Advi­sor capi­ton: Shear­man & Sterling
The Shear­man & Ster­ling team included part­ner Winfried M. Carli, asso­cia­tes Odilo Wall­ner and Maria Iorno (all Germany-Finance).

About capi­ton
In our view, private equity is more than just inves­ted money. We assume respon­si­bi­lity with every invest­ment: for our inves­tors’ money as well as for the compa­nies and their employees. We invest in a variety of sectors, with some we consider parti­cu­larly attrac­tive. Across all indus­tries, we take a detailed, case-by-case look at each invest­ment oppor­tu­nity and analyze risks and oppor­tu­ni­ties. Another focus is our specia­liza­tion in medium-sized busi­nesses. Even though the size of our invest­ment pools has grown steadily in recent years, the invest­ments remain within the usual range for medium-sized compa­nies. It is important for us to be in agree­ment with our inves­tees in terms of direc­tion and goal. We pursue the same goal as they do: success with long-term solid busi­ness concepts that open up growth pros­pects for everyone.

About Shear­man & Sterling
Shear­man & Ster­ling is an inter­na­tio­nal law firm with 22 offices in 13 count­ries and appro­xi­m­ately 850 lawy­ers. In Germany, Shear­man & Ster­ling is repre­sen­ted at the Frank­furt office. The firm is one of the inter­na­tio­nal market leaders in advi­sing on complex cross-border tran­sac­tions. World­wide, Shear­man & Ster­ling prima­rily advi­ses inter­na­tio­nal corpo­ra­ti­ons and large natio­nal compa­nies, finan­cial insti­tu­ti­ons, and large mid-sized compa­nies. For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.shearman.com.

Mannheim/ Stutt­gart — The inter­na­tio­nally active manage­ment consul­tancy Homburg & Part­ner advi­sed BWK GmbH Unter­neh­mens­be­tei­li­gungs­ge­sell­schaft on the acqui­si­tion of a mino­rity stake in Xactools GmbH and conduc­ted the commer­cial due diligence.

In addi­tion to BWK, the main share­hol­der is the mana­ging part­ner Thomas Erb. Xactools was foun­ded in 2012 and is a company specia­li­zing in the produc­tion of complex auto­ma­tion solu­ti­ons in the field of measu­re­ment and test­ing tech­no­logy. Thanks to its high level of tech­ni­cal know-how and inno­va­tive ability, the company has been able to estab­lish an estab­lished custo­mer base with well-known auto­mo­tive suppli­ers and well-known mecha­ni­cal engi­nee­ring compa­nies over the past few years.

Xactools distin­gu­is­hes itself through custo­mi­zed produc­tion of special machi­nes for measu­ring and test­ing tech­no­logy. The incre­asing comple­xity of many end products requi­res incre­asing quality assu­rance and quality proofs in combi­na­tion with higher effi­ci­ency in manu­fac­tu­ring. Measu­re­ment systems enable compa­nies to detect defects in the product and in produc­tion and to docu­ment them. These high demands are met by Xactools GmbH, which deve­lops ever more complex and accu­rate measu­ring and test­ing systems.

About Homburg & Partner
Homburg & Part­ner (H&P) is a specia­li­zed manage­ment consul­tancy with a focus on market stra­tegy, sales and pricing. The Private Equity Compe­tence Center combi­nes metho­do­lo­gi­cal and indus­try exper­tise to support compa­nies along the entire invest­ment process. In doing so, H&P focu­ses on the follo­wing seven indus­tries in parti­cu­lar with commer­cial due dili­gence and value enhance­ment projects:
1. auto­mo­tive (espe­ci­ally tier 1 and tier 2 suppliers)
2. cons­truc­tion and buil­ding mate­ri­als (ever­y­thing around the building)
3. chemis­try (espe­ci­ally specialty chemistry)
4. health­care (espe­ci­ally medi­cal tech­no­logy, phar­maceu­ti­cals and OTC)
5. indus­trial goods and mecha­ni­cal engi­nee­ring (in parti­cu­lar compo­nent suppli­ers and service providers)
6. consu­mer invest­ment goods
7. infor­ma­tion & commu­ni­ca­tion tech­no­logy (espe­ci­ally software)

The commer­cial due dili­gence was perfor­med by the Private Equity Compe­tence Center:
Alex­an­der Lüring (Part­ner CC Private Equity)
Felix Pleu­ger (Consul­tant CC Private Equity)

Frank­furt — Shear­man & Ster­ling advi­sed frost­krone Group, a port­fo­lio company of Emeram Capi­tal Part­ners (“EMERAM”), on the finan­cing of its acqui­si­tion of Piz’­Wich, a specialty manu­fac­tu­rer of on-the-go frozen snack products. Sellers include Piz’­wich Manage­ment and the French private equity invest­ment company Ardian.

Piz’­wich is a manu­fac­tu­rer of white-label frozen snack products for super­mar­kets, hyper­mar­kets, airline cate­rers and food service provi­ders. Head­quar­te­red in Bulgné­ville, France, the company main­ta­ins stra­te­gic part­ner­ships with largely inter­na­tio­nal players.

EMERAM is an inde­pen­dent Munich-based invest­ment company for German-spea­king medium-sized compa­nies. Funds advi­sed by EMERAM provide capi­tal for the further deve­lo­p­ment of compa­nies with a fund volume of €350 million. EMERAM sees itself as a long-term busi­ness deve­lo­p­ment part­ner for compa­nies in the five sectors of consu­mer goods, retail, indus­trial goods, services and health­care. Shear­man & Ster­ling previously advi­sed EMERAM in 2017 on the finan­cing of the acqui­si­tion of frost­krone Group.

Advi­sor frost­krone Group: Shear­man & Sterling
Led by part­ner Winfried M. Carli, photo (Germany-Finance), part­ner Pierre-Nico­las Ferrand (Paris-Finance), part­ner Dr. Matthias Weis­sin­ger, asso­ciate Maria Iorno and tran­sac­tion specia­list Marina Kieweg (all Germany-Finance).

About Shear­man & Sterling
Shear­man & Ster­ling is an inter­na­tio­nal law firm with 22 offices in 13 count­ries and appro­xi­m­ately 850 lawy­ers. In Germany, Shear­man & Ster­ling is repre­sen­ted at the Frank­furt office. The firm is one of the inter­na­tio­nal market leaders in advi­sing on complex cross-border tran­sac­tions. World­wide, Shear­man & Ster­ling prima­rily advi­ses inter­na­tio­nal corpo­ra­ti­ons and large natio­nal compa­nies, finan­cial insti­tu­ti­ons, and large mid-sized compa­nies. For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.shearman.com.

Berlin — The private equity company capi­ton AG sells its shares in Prefere Resins, one of the Euro­pean market leaders for the produc­tion and distri­bu­tion of phen­o­lic resins, to Silver­fleet Capi­tal. In 2017, the appro­xi­m­ately 320 employees of Prefere Resins gene­ra­ted sales of 222 million euros.

Prefere Resins is one of the Euro­pean market leaders for the deve­lo­p­ment, produc­tion and distri­bu­tion of phen­o­lic resins. The areas of appli­ca­tion are many and varied; phen­o­lic resins are used in the wood proces­sing indus­try, in the insu­la­tion indus­try, in mecha­ni­cal engi­nee­ring and in the auto­mo­tive indus­try, among others. In addi­tion to its head­quar­ters in Erkner near Berlin, Prefere Resins has subsi­dia­ries in Austria, France, Great Britain, Poland and Roma­nia, as well as two sites in Finland.

About the tran­sac­tion In Janu­ary 2014, capi­ton acqui­red the majo­rity of shares in the Prefere Resins Group as part of a carve-out of the Euro­pean phen­o­lic resin acti­vi­ties from the Scan­di­na­vian chemi­cal group Dynea. In 2016, capi­ton was alre­ady able to successfully imple­ment a refi­nan­cing of the company. As part of this tran­sac­tion, Inter­me­diate Capi­tal Group (“ICG”) acqui­red a mino­rity inte­rest in Prefere Resins and the manage­ment team increased its stake in the Company. Under the tran­sac­tion now signed, capi­ton and ICG will sell all shares in Prefere Resins. The tran­sac­tion is still subject to custo­mary market condi­ti­ons. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the detailed terms of the transaction.

Consul­tant capi­ton AG:
Alan­tra (M&A, Debt Advisory)
Sidley Austin
BMH Bräu­ti­gam & Part­ner (Legal)
Deloitte (Commer­cial & Financial)
EY (Tax)
ERM (Envi­ron­men­tal)

About capi­ton AG
capi­ton is an inde­pen­dent, owner-mana­ged private equity company mana­ging a total fund volume of € 1.0 billion. Curr­ently, 11 medium-sized compa­nies are in capi­ton AG’s invest­ment port­fo­lio. capi­ton accom­pa­nies manage­ment buy-outs and growth finan­cing for estab­lished medium-sized compa­nies as an equity partner.

Pfäf­fi­kon (Switzerland)/ Krailing/ Stutt­gart — A private equity fund advi­sed by CGS Manage­ment AG has acqui­red a majo­rity stake in Inno­Las Solu­ti­ons GmbH. Toge­ther with the previous owner Richard Grund­mül­ler, who will retain a stake in the company, CGS intends to deve­lop Inno­Las Solu­ti­ons GmbH into a global laser machine buil­der for micro­ma­te­rial proces­sing as part of a buy and build stra­tegy. CGS Managent AG was advi­sed by a team led by Stutt­gart-based part­ner Dr. Hermann Ali Hinde­rer of Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek.

Inno­Las Solu­ti­ons GmbH is a deve­lo­per and produ­cer of custo­mi­zed machi­nes and process solu­ti­ons for high-precis­ion laser appli­ca­ti­ons in the photo­vol­taic, elec­tri­cal and semi­con­duc­tor indus­tries as well as in precis­ion engi­nee­ring. With 80 employees, the company supplies custo­mers in the core markets of Europe, the USA and Asia. Inno­Las Solu­ti­ons GmbH has its head­quar­ters in Krailling, Germany.

CGS Manage­ment AG has its regis­tered office in Pfäf­fi­kon SZ, Switz­er­land. CGS deve­lops medium-sized compa­nies into inter­na­tio­nal groups. CGS funds have been inves­t­ing in plat­form compa­nies in the German-spea­king count­ries of Europe and in comple­men­tary acqui­si­ti­ons world­wide since 1999.

Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek provi­ded compre­hen­sive legal advice to CGS on the tran­sac­tion. The advice also included the super­vi­sion and coor­di­na­tion of the acqui­si­tion of assets in the USA. Follo­wing the acqui­si­tion of the Stürtz Group, the take­over of Inno­Las Solu­ti­ons GmbH is alre­ady the second tran­sac­tion that Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek has advi­sed CGS on within the last six months.

Advi­sors to CGS Manage­ment AG: Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek
Dr. Hermann Ali Hinde­rer, LL.M. (USD) (Lead, Corporate/M&A),
Lena Zieg­ler (Corporate/M&A),
Antje Münch, LL.M. (IP/IT),
Dr. Markus Klin­ger (IP/IT),
Dr. Frank Baßler (Real Estate Law), all Stuttgart
Astrid Well­hö­ner, LL.M. Eur. (Labor Law), Munich
Dr. Frede­rik Wiemer (Anti­trust Law), Hamburg
Frank Holl­stein (Commer­cial), Frankfurt
Dr. Anton Horn
Peter Horst­mann (both IP/IT), both Düsseldorf
Ute Klemm, LL.M. (Public Law), Frankfurt
Dr. Stefan Jöster, LL.M. (insu­rance law), Cologne

Weßling/ Munich — Gimv acqui­res majo­rity stake in Laser 2000 GmbH, a market leader for the distri­bu­tion of photo­nics solu­ti­ons in Europe. Toge­ther with the previous owners of the company, the Euro­pean invest­ment company Gimv has reached an agree­ment on the acqui­si­tion of 75% of the shares in Laser 2000 GmbH. As part of the tran­sac­tion, it was agreed that the foun­der and mana­ging direc­tor Armin Luft will conti­nue to hold a mino­rity stake in the company.

Laser 2000 (www.laser2000.de) was foun­ded in 1986 and has since deve­lo­ped into an inde­pen­dent Euro­pean market leader for inno­va­tive laser and photo­nics solu­ti­ons. The company’s compre­hen­sive product port­fo­lio ranges from lasers and light sources for mate­rial proces­sing to metro­logy and fiber optics, as well as 3D image proces­sing, opti­cal measu­ring instru­ments and came­ras. With over 30 years of expe­ri­ence in the market, Laser 2000 is a pioneer in the photo­nics indus­try and ther­e­fore alre­ady has long-stan­ding custo­mer and supplier rela­ti­onships. Custo­mers include renow­ned compa­nies and rese­arch insti­tu­ti­ons from the fields of auto­ma­tion and sensor tech­no­logy, opti­cal commu­ni­ca­ti­ons and network tech­no­logy, biotech­no­logy and medi­cine, the auto­mo­tive indus­try, and aero­space technology.

In recent years, the company, which is head­quar­te­red in Weßling and employs a total of 65 people, has grown conti­nuously and has steadily expan­ded its busi­ness by estab­li­shing seve­ral foreign subsi­dia­ries in Europe (France, Spain, Sweden). Laser 2000 bene­fi­ted from conti­nuous market growth in the photo­nics sector.

Laser 2000 is very well posi­tio­ned for the future: In the coming years, the company will conti­nue to expand its natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal busi­ness as a proven compe­tent part­ner and consul­tant for its custo­mers and suppli­ers. With its compre­hen­sive product port­fo­lio and comple­men­tary custo­mer-speci­fic system solu­ti­ons, Laser 2000 can opti­mally serve all custo­mer needs in this field with its products and services. In addi­tion, the photo­nics market conti­nues to expect strong market growth in the future, also based on new fields of appli­ca­tion for laser technology.

Armin Luft, foun­der and CEO of Laser 2000, explains: “Opti­cal tech­no­lo­gies are pene­t­ra­ting more and more appli­ca­tion areas in indus­try. For more than 30 years we have stood for inno­va­tion, crea­ti­vity, quality and highest custo­mer satis­fac­tion in the photo­nics market and we want to grow further. I am very plea­sed to have found in Gimv a part­ner for the succes­sion who stands for successful, long-term coope­ra­tion and sustainable value crea­tion in medium-sized compa­nies. We share the enthu­si­asm for future tech­no­lo­gies and will conti­nue the success story of Laser 2000 together.”

Ronald Bartel, Part­ner in the Munich office and active in the Smart Indus­tries divi­sion of Gimv, adds: “Photo­nics is a cross-sectional tech­no­logy in all important indus­tries and will decisi­vely shape this century tech­no­lo­gi­cally and econo­mic­ally — whether in Indus­try 4.0, auto­no­mous driving, diagno­stics or broad­band trans­mis­sion. In this context, Laser 2000 is excel­lently posi­tio­ned as an inde­pen­dent inter­me­diary between custo­mers and a variety of suppli­ers and products. The company has the best prere­qui­si­tes to further expand its market leader­ship — and we want to actively support it in this endeavor.”

The tran­sac­tion is still subject to appr­oval by the anti­trust autho­ri­ties. Further details of the tran­sac­tion will not be disclosed.

About Gimv
Gimv is a Euro­pean invest­ment firm with nearly 40 years of expe­ri­ence in private equity and venture capi­tal. The company is listed on Euron­ext Brussels, curr­ently mana­ges around EUR 1.6 billion and has invest­ments in 50 port­fo­lio compa­nies. As a reco­gni­zed leader in exclu­sive invest­ment plat­forms, Gimv iden­ti­fies inno­va­tive, leading compa­nies with high growth poten­tial and supports them on their way to market leader­ship. Each of the four invest­ment plat­forms Connec­ted Consu­mer, Health & Care, Smart Indus­tries and Sustainable Cities is mana­ged by a dedi­ca­ted and compe­tent team, each based in Gimv’s home markets — Bene­lux, France and DACH — and supported by an exten­sive inter­na­tio­nal network of experts.