Exit: Trend Group acquires GALA Group from Equistone

London — Supplier takes over buyer! Equis­tone Part­ners Europe has sold GALA Group to its long-stan­­ding supplier TREND GLASS SP.z o.o. (Trend Group). Funds mana­ged by CVI, a leading provi­der of private debt finan­cing in Central Europe, and the Polish Deve­lo­p­ment Fund (PFR) finan­ced the tran­sac­tion. Trend Group recei­ved legal and tax advice from a cross-loca­­tion HEUKING team. 

The Trend Group is a Polish manu­fac­tu­rer of house­hold, deco­ra­tive and gastro­nomy glass­ware based in Radom. The company was foun­ded in 1989 and has grown from a family busi­ness to an inter­na­tio­nally active supplier with a high produc­tion capa­city. Trend Glass combi­nes tradi­tio­nal glass proces­sing with modern tech­no­logy and offers a wide range of products, inclu­ding vases, candle holders and custo­mi­zed glass projects. Its custo­mers include global retail­ers, inclu­ding IKEA. 

The GALA Group, head­quar­te­red in Ansbach, is one of the leading manu­fac­tu­r­ers of cand­les, home fragran­ces and home access­ories in Europe and employs around 4,000 people world­wide. The company was foun­ded in 1972 and has been majo­rity-owned by Equis­tone Part­ners Europe since 2016. GALA produ­ces at seve­ral inter­na­tio­nal loca­ti­ons and supplies retail­ers, drugs­to­res and online plat­forms with its own brands and bran­ded products. 

Equis­tone Part­ners Europe is a Euro­pean private equity firm head­quar­te­red in London with offices in Germany, France, the Nether­lands and Switz­er­land. The company was formed in 2011 through a manage­ment buy-out from Barclays Private Equity and prefers to invest in medium-sized compa­nies with an enter­prise value of between 50 and 500 million euros. Equis­tone focu­ses on majo­rity share­hol­dings in the context of owner­ship chan­ges and supports its port­fo­lio compa­nies in their growth and stra­te­gic deve­lo­p­ment. Since 2002, over 10 billion euros have been inves­ted in more than 180 transactions. 

Consul­tant Trend Group: HEUKING
Dr. Hermann Ali Hinde­rer, LL.M. (Univer­sity of San Diego; photo © Heuking),
Bene­dikt Raisch (both lead, both corpo­rate law / M&A),
Dr. Frank Baßler (real estate & cons­truc­tion), all Stuttgart,
Fabian G. Gaffron (tax law), Hamburg,
Dr. Stefan Jöster, LL.M. (Insu­rance Law / Reinsu­rance Law), Colo­gne,David Loszyn­ski, (Restruc­tu­ring & Insol­vency Law),Sandra Pfis­ter, LL.M. (Univer­sity of Sydney), (Banking & Finance), both Hamburg,Dr. Sascha Sche­wiola (Employ­ment Law), Colo­gne,Dr. Frede­rik Wiemer (Anti­trust Law),Simon Pommer, LL.M. (Tax Law), both Hamburg,Char­lotte Schmitt, LL.M. (Corpo­rate Law/M&A),Ramona Bauer-Schöl­l­­kopf, LL.M. (Queen Mary Univer­sity of London), (Corpo­rate Law/M&A), both Stuttgart,
Beli­ar­dis Ehlert-Gasde (Banking & Finance),
Oliver Kamme­rer (Tax Law), both Hamburg,
Dr. Ramona Segler, LL.M. (Labor Law), Cologne

Polish consul­tants Trend Group

(lead) Wolf Theiss, Bartosz Kuras, Domi­nika Getka