Author: Tatjana Anderer

Frank­furt am Main/ Hamburg — Eight Advi­sory has supported the CEE Group in the cons­truc­tion of an inno­va­tive finan­cing model for insti­tu­tio­nal invest­ments in the rene­wa­ble energy sector. For the first time, a consor­tium of banks is provi­ding finan­cing worth billi­ons at fund level without the exis­ting inves­tors having to commit addi­tio­nal equity. 

The CEE Group, foun­ded in 2000, is a Hamburg-based asset mana­ger specia­li­zing in the acqui­si­tion of solar, onshore wind and battery energy storage projects (BESS) as well as the repowe­ring and hybri­diza­tion of exis­ting plants and imple­ments projects with its own opera­tio­nal teams. Over the past 25 years, the Group has alre­ady reali­zed 103 projects in Europe with a total nomi­nal capa­city of 2.2 GW℗. The assets under manage­ment amount to €2.7 billion (as of Septem­ber 2025). 

The asset mana­ger is now setting new stan­dards for insti­tu­tio­nal invest­ments in rene­wa­ble ener­gies in Germany with a special finan­cing struc­ture. A consor­tium of renow­ned inter­na­tio­nal banks is provi­ding up to €1.6 billion for Germany’s largest repowe­ring fund — the CEE RF9. This is the first time that invest­ment fund finan­cing on this scale has been conso­li­da­ted at port­fo­lio level without the fund inves­tors having to commit addi­tio­nal equity. The cash flows of the opera­ting projects are conside­red a full equity substi­tute. The banking syndi­cate includes CIBC, ING, KfW IPEX-Bank, SMBC, SEB and UniCre­dit; UniCre­dit also acts as Account Bank, Faci­lity & Secu­rity Agent and Hedge Coordinator. 

The finan­cing, which runs until 2030, will enable the repla­ce­ment of exis­ting wind turbi­nes and PV modu­les with state-of-the-art tech­no­logy. At least 29 loca­ti­ons in Germany and France are set to bene­fit. This will increase the gene­ra­tion of green elec­tri­city at estab­lished loca­ti­ons, make even better use of exis­ting infra­struc­ture and acce­le­rate the instal­la­tion of addi­tio­nal capa­city. The result should be a signi­fi­cant expan­sion of the fund port­fo­lio’s rene­wa­ble energy capa­city — from 457 MW℗ to around 1.1 GW℗, which corre­sponds to an increase of 140%. 

Detlef Schrei­ber (photo: CEE), CEO of the CEE Group, explains: “As far as we know, this finan­cing struc­ture is unique in the German market for alter­na­tive invest­ment funds. For the first time, we have achie­ved conso­li­da­tion at the port­fo­lio level of the entire fund — without any addi­tio­nal equity requi­re­ments for our insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors. This not only enables the repay­ment of various exis­ting credit lines, but also secu­res the full finan­cing of our ambi­tious repowe­ring stra­tegy until 2030.” 

Franjo Salic, CIO of CEE Group, adds: “We would like to thank ever­yone invol­ved for their great commit­ment and the trust they have placed in us. Special thanks go to Eight Advi­sory for their disci­pli­ned, struc­tu­red approach that kept this complex tran­sac­tion on track. This inno­va­tive tran­sac­tion was a tour de force and requi­red the close coope­ra­tion of many parties. The fact that we were able to successfully execute such a chal­len­ging syndi­cate toge­ther impres­si­vely under­pins the quality and attrac­ti­ve­ness of the invest­ment case — for both equity and debt investors.” 

Thomas Gummert, Part­ner at Eight Advi­sory, adds: “Finan­cing plays an important role in the imple­men­ta­tion of the energy tran­si­tion. There is no lack of private capi­tal — high-quality projects conti­nue to be very attrac­tive for banks and inves­tors. The successful syndi­ca­ted finan­cing shows that bank finan­cing is also possi­ble at port­fo­lio level if it is covered by strong opera­ting cash flows. We expect that other insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors will also raise debt capi­tal at fund level.”

Advi­sor CEE: Eight Advisory

Finan­cial advice and mode­ling: Thomas Gummert (Part­ner), Mathias Köhler (Direc­tor), Marco Goretzka (Direc­tor), Tris­tan Lizardo (Mana­ger)

Tax advice: Matthias Hogh (Part­ner), Ralph Hack (Direc­tor)

About Eight Advisory

Eight Advi­sory advi­ses entre­pre­neurs, CEOs, inves­tors and banks on tran­sac­tions, restruc­tu­rings and trans­for­ma­ti­ons. The group employs over 1100 people in Central Europe and the Ameri­cas, inclu­ding 121 part­ners, and supports execu­ti­ves in finan­cial and opera­tio­nal decis­ion-making proces­ses. Eight Advi­sory is an inde­pen­dent inter­na­tio­nal group with offices in Switz­er­land, France, the UK, Belgium, the Nether­lands, Germany and the USA. As a foun­ding member of Eight Inter­na­tio­nal, the company can draw on a global network of inde­pen­dent part­ners in over 30 count­ries in Europe, America, Asia and Ocea­nia. — www.8advisory.com

Ludwigs­ha­fen, Germany — BASF and Cate­xel have signed an agree­ment on the sale of BASF’s opti­cal brigh­ten­ers busi­ness. Opti­cal brigh­ten­ers are ingre­di­ents in deter­gent formu­la­ti­ons. The busi­ness is curr­ently part of BASF’s Care Chemi­cals divi­sion. Finan­cial details of the tran­sac­tion will not be disc­lo­sed. Proven­tis Part­ners advi­sed BASF on the sale of the opti­cal brigh­ten­ers busi­ness to Cate­xel. — The tran­sac­tion is expec­ted to close in the first quar­ter of 2026. 

The tran­sac­tion compri­ses the inter­na­tio­nal busi­ness inclu­ding the produc­tion of opti­cal brigh­ten­ers at the Monthey site in Switz­er­land and around 80 employees.

This dive­st­ment contri­bu­tes to BASF’s stra­te­gic trans­for­ma­tion. “As part of our ‘Winning Ways’ stra­tegy, we are actively mana­ging our port­fo­lio and driving prio­ri­tiza­tion. With Cate­xel, a commit­ted, focu­sed new owner will further deve­lop the busi­ness to realize its poten­tial,” said Mary Kurian, Presi­dent Care Chemicals. 

Cate­xel is the Care Chemi­cals plat­form of the Inter­na­tio­nal Chemi­cal Inves­tors Group (ICIG) and specia­li­zes in high-quality specialty chemi­cals for deter­gents and clea­ning agents, perso­nal care products and indus­trial appli­ca­ti­ons. With the acqui­si­tion of the opti­cal brigh­te­ner busi­ness and produc­tion, Cate­xel is sending a clear stra­te­gic signal: the company is expan­ding its port­fo­lio to offer its custo­mers an even broa­der range of high-quality ingre­di­ents for deter­gents and to further streng­then its posi­tion as a relia­ble part­ner in the market. 

Dr. Alex­an­der Snell, Presi­dent and CEO of Cate­xel, explains: “This acqui­si­tion is another mile­stone for Cate­xel. With the state-of-the-art produc­tion faci­lity and the expe­ri­en­ced team in Switz­er­land, we are laying the foun­da­tion for further growth and inno­va­tion. This streng­thens our posi­tion as a relia­ble part­ner for our custo­mers and drives our stra­te­gic direc­tion forward.”

BASF remains one of the leading suppli­ers and inno­va­tors of ingre­di­ents for the home care, indus­trial and insti­tu­tio­nal clea­ning markets.

The role of Proven­tis Partners

Proven­tis Part­ners acted as exclu­sive M&A advi­sor to BASF throug­hout the entire sales process. The advi­sory services included the iden­ti­fi­ca­tion of poten­tial buyers, the prepa­ra­tion of marke­ting mate­ri­als, the coor­di­na­tion of due dili­gence, discus­sions and nego­tia­ti­ons with poten­tial buyers as well as the struc­tu­ring of the tran­sac­tion. The tran­sac­tion team of Proven­tis Part­ners consis­ted of Dr. Jan-Phil­ipp (JP) Pfander (Part­ner, Zurich), Artur Maibach (Vice Presi­dent, Zurich) and Daniel Büti­ko­fer (Analyst, Zurich). 

About Cate­xel

Cate­xel is a leading global manu­fac­tu­rer of deter­gent addi­ti­ves with sites in Germany, the USA and the Nether­lands. With 220 employees world­wide, Cate­xel deve­lops, produ­ces and distri­bu­tes specialty chemi­cals for deter­gents and clea­ning agents, perso­nal care products and indus­trial appli­ca­ti­ons. Cate­xel is part of the Inter­na­tio­nal Chemi­cal Inves­tors Group (ICIG). — www.catexel.com.

About ICIG

The Inter­na­tio­nal Chemi­cal Inves­tors Group is a private indus­trial group with a total turno­ver of over 4 billion euros. ICIG focu­ses on seve­ral main plat­forms: Fine Chemi­cals under the Weyl­Chem brand, Care Chemi­cals (Cate­xel), Chlo­ro­vi­nyl Products (Vynova), Compounds (Benvic), Hydro­car­bons and Solvents (HCS Group), Super­ab­sorb­ents (Stock­hausen Super­ab­sorb­ents), as well as compa­nies specia­li­zing in indus­trial drying services, fermen­ta­tion products, viscose fila­ments, acti­va­ted carbon and wood protec­tion chemi­cals. Today, the ICIG compa­nies employ more than 7,150 people and operate over 50 produc­tion faci­li­ties in Europe, the USA and India. — www.ic-investors.com

About BASF’s Care Chemi­cals division

BASF’s Care Chemi­cals divi­sion offers a wide range of ingre­di­ents for perso­nal care, house­hold care, indus­trial and insti­tu­tio­nal clea­ning and tech­ni­cal appli­ca­ti­ons. We are a leading global supplier to the cosme­tics indus­try as well as the deter­gents and clea­ners indus­try and support our custo­mers with inno­va­tive and sustainable products, solu­ti­ons and concepts. The divi­si­on’s high-perfor­mance product port­fo­lio includes surfac­tants, emul­si­fiers, poly­mers, plas­ti­ci­zers, chela­ting agents, cosme­tic active ingre­di­ents and UV filters. We have produc­tion and deve­lo­p­ment sites in all regi­ons and are expan­ding our presence in emer­ging markets. — www.care-chemicals.basf.com

About BASF

At BASF, we create chemis­try for a sustainable future. Our goal is to be the prefer­red chemi­cal company that enables the green trans­for­ma­tion for our custo­mers. We combine econo­mic success with envi­ron­men­tal protec­tion and social respon­si­bi­lity. Around 112,000 BASF Group employees contri­bute to the success of our custo­mers in almost all indus­tries and almost every coun­try in the world. Our port­fo­lio compri­ses the core busi­nesses Chemi­cals, Mate­ri­als, Indus­trial Solu­ti­ons and Nutri­tion & Care; our inde­pen­dent busi­nesses are combi­ned in the Surface Tech­no­lo­gies and Agri­cul­tu­ral Solu­ti­ons segments. BASF achie­ved sales of €65.3 billion in 2024. BASF shares are traded on the Frank­furt Stock Exch­ange (BAS) and as Ameri­can Depo­si­tary Receipts (BASFY) in the United States. — www.basf.com.

About Proven­tis Partners

Proven­tis Part­ners is a part­ner-mana­ged M&A advi­sory firm whose clients prima­rily include medium-sized family busi­nesses, corpo­rate groups and private equity funds. With 30 M&A experts, Proven­tis Part­ners is one of the largest inde­pen­dent M&A advi­sory firms in the German-spea­king region and has more than 20 years of expe­ri­ence and over 430 successfully comple­ted transactions. 

With offices in Frank­furt, Hamburg and Zurich, the M&A advi­sors are active in the indus­trial, chemi­cals and mate­ri­als, services, tech­no­logy and media, consu­mer goods and retail and health­care sectors. Through its exclu­sive member­ship of the Mergers Alli­ance — an inter­na­tio­nal part­ner­ship of leading M&A specia­lists — Proven­tis Part­ners is able to support clients in 30 count­ries in the worl­d’s most important markets. The members of the Mergers Alli­ance, with more than 250 M&A profes­sio­nals, provide Proven­tis Part­ners and its clients with unique access to local markets in Europe, North America, Latin America, Asia and Africa. — www.proventis.com

Hano­ver — NORD Holding has successfully laun­ched a single-asset conti­nua­tion fund to support the long-term deve­lo­p­ment of the all inclu­sive Fitness Group, Germany’s leading premium value fitness plat­form. Closing is expec­ted in the first quar­ter of 2026 after fina­liza­tion of the syndication. 

The Conti­nua­tion Fund is being estab­lished by a consor­tium of leading insti­tu­tio­nal secon­dary inves­tors toge­ther with NORD Holding.

Kline Hill Part­ners acts as lead inves­tor, flan­ked by a stra­te­gic syndi­cate of insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors. NORD Holding and the Group’s manage­ment team will retain a signi­fi­cant stake. The newly estab­lished fund provi­des addi­tio­nal growth capi­tal that will signi­fi­cantly support the company’s further expan­sion. Ares Credit Funds, which has been support­ing the company since 2021, will conti­nue to provide the debt financing. 

With curr­ently over 171 loca­ti­ons, around 650,000 members and a consis­t­ently strong opera­ting perfor­mance, the all inclu­sive Fitness Group is one of the most dyna­mic growth plat­forms in the German fitness market. The new owner­ship struc­ture crea­tes ideal condi­ti­ons for consis­t­ently driving forward the long-term growth stra­tegy and further acce­le­ra­ting both the expan­sion of loca­ti­ons and central opera­tio­nal initia­ti­ves. The focus is on targe­ted expan­sion in the German market on the basis of regio­nal clus­ters in order to make opti­mum use of syner­gies and achieve the goal of more than 250 loca­ti­ons in the coming years as well as market leader­ship in the long term. 

“We are deligh­ted with the trust placed in us by our new part­ners. The joint estab­lish­ment of the Conti­nua­tion Fund will enable us to conti­nue the successful growth stra­tegy of the all inclu­sive Fitness Group in the long term and actively shape the next deve­lo­p­ment phase,” says Rainer Effin­ger, Mana­ging Part­ner, NORD Holding (Photo: Nord Holding). 

“We are exci­ted to accom­pany the all inclu­sive Fitness Group on its contin­ued growth path. The company has an impres­sive track record, a strong manage­ment team and clear expan­sion poten­tial. We look forward to working with NORD Holding on this exci­ting project,” said Elena Laleh, Mana­ging Direc­tor, Kline Hill Partners. 

On the part of NORD Holding, the tran­sac­tion was imple­men­ted by Rainer Effin­ger, Maxi­mi­lian Frey, Moritz Stolp and Niklas Thoma.

Advi­sor NORD Holding: Rede Partners

About the all inclu­sive Fitness Group

With 171 loca­ti­ons and over 650,000 members, all inclu­sive Fitness is one of the leading and fastest growing provi­ders in the German premium value segment. The group stands for a holi­stic fitness and well­ness expe­ri­ence, state-of-the-art equip­ment and an excep­tio­nally attrac­tive price-perfor­mance ratio. With the all inclu­sive Fitness brand, the former brands jumpers fitness and all inclu­sive Fitness as well as the Best­Fit Group were successfully bund­led under a strong brand iden­tity in Febru­ary 2025. The FIT STAR brand has also been part of the brand family since Septem­ber 2025. Driven by a consis­tent buy-and-build stra­tegy, opera­tio­nal excel­lence and a clear loca­tion expan­sion logic, the all inclu­sive Fitness Group is now one of the most dyna­mic growth plat­forms in the German fitness market. 

About Kline Hill Partners

Foun­ded in 2015, Kline Hill Part­ners is an invest­ment firm specia­li­zing in the private equity secon­dary market with leading exper­tise in the small-deal segment. With $6.1 billion in assets under manage­ment, Kline Hill’s funds are backed by a world-class inves­tor base, inclu­ding endow­ments, family offices and other insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors. Toge­ther, Kline Hill’s Core and Solu­ti­ons stra­te­gies form an inte­gra­ted plat­form that spans the entire spec­trum of the small-deal secon­dary market, from LP fund trans­fers to GP-led tran­sac­tions to direct secon­dary invest­ments. — www.klinehill.com

About NORD Holding

NORD Holding is one of the first and most renow­ned German invest­ment compa­nies and has been active as a relia­ble equity part­ner for SMEs in the DACH region for over 55 years. The focus is on estab­lished medium-sized compa­nies with a strong market posi­tion or the poten­tial to achieve this through joint further deve­lo­p­ment. On the basis of clearly defi­ned growth stra­te­gies, NORD Holding supports its holdings in the imple­men­ta­tion of key opera­tio­nal and stra­te­gic prio­ri­ties. The company curr­ently holds majo­rity stakes in more than 13 medium-sized compa­nies and mana­ges assets of over 4.0 billion euros, inclu­ding the fund of funds busi­ness. — www.nordholding.de

Berlin/ Zurich — The Belgian invest­ment and holding company Acker­mans & van Haaren NV has inves­ted EUR 36 million in the biotech company DISCO Phar­maceu­ti­cals GmbH as co-lead inves­tor in a seed finan­cing round. Gleiss Lutz advi­sed Acker­mans & van Haaren NV compre­hen­si­vely on this transaction. 

Through its subsi­diary AvH Growth Capi­tal, Acker­mans & van Haaren will, subject to certain condi­ti­ons, invest up to EUR 9 million in seve­ral tran­ches and initi­ally hold a 12.4 percent stake.

DISCO Phar­maceu­ti­cals was foun­ded in May 2022 as a spin-off from ETH Zurich. With sites in Colo­gne (Germany) and Schlie­ren (Switz­er­land), DISCO Phar­maceu­ti­cals uses ground­brea­king proteo­mics tech­no­logy to map cancer cell surface­o­mes. The new funds will enable the further deve­lo­p­ment of seve­ral ADC drug candi­da­tes for small cell lung cancer and colo­rec­tal cancer through to IND-enab­ling studies. 

About Acker­mans & van Haaren

Acker­mans & van Haaren is a diver­si­fied group of compa­nies that, among other things, provi­des growth finan­cing for sustainable compa­nies in various sectors. It is listed on Euron­ext Brussels and the BEL20 index. In 2024, the group gene­ra­ted a net profit of EUR 460 million with a turno­ver of EUR 7.6 billion and employed a total of over 24,000 people. — https://www.avh.be/en

Advi­sor to Acker­mans & van Haaren: Gleiss Lutz

Led by Dr. Martin Viciano Gofferje, part­ner (photo: Gleiss Lutz) and Dr. Chris­toph Prawit Meiss­ner (both M&A, both Berlin).

Malte Benfeldt, Konrad Jankie­wicz (both M&A), Dr. Enno Burk (Part­ner), Chris­toph Schoppe, Sophie Römer (all Health­care & Life Scien­ces), Dr. Rut Stein­hau­ser (Part­ner), Angela Tschech (both Employ­ment Law), Jan Felix Hinrichs (IP/Tech, all Berlin), Michael P. Clever (Real Estate Law, Frank­furt), Aylin Hoffs (Coun­sel, Foreign Trade Law, Düsseldorf).

Gleiss Lutz teams regu­larly advise inves­tors and compa­nies on large finan­cing rounds in inno­va­tive future-orien­ted indus­tries such as biotech­no­logy, arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence and deep tech. Most recently, Gleiss Lutz advi­sed TRUMPF SE on the entry of inves­tors into its subsi­diary Q.ANT.

Munich/ Frank­furt a. M./ Durban (South Africa) — The Munich and Frank­furt offices of the inter­na­tio­nal law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP have advi­sed TDR Capi­tal LLP (TDR Capi­tal) on the sale of the NKD Group (NKD) to the listed South Afri­can company Mr Price Group Limi­ted (Mr Price). The purchase agree­ment for 100% of the shares in the NKD Group is subject to custo­mary regu­la­tory appr­ovals. The NKD Group was valued at an enter­prise value of EUR 500 million as part of the transaction.

TDR Capi­tal, a leading Euro­pean private equity firm based in London, acqui­red the NKD Group in 2019 and has since inves­ted heavily in the textile retail­er’s digi­tal infra­struc­ture and the use of data science. During this time, the company has sustain­ably expan­ded and conso­li­da­ted its posi­tion as a leading Euro­pean value textile discoun­ter. The expan­sion and opti­miza­tion of the store port­fo­lio has crea­ted the basis for sustainable, long-term growth. 

Mr Price, one of South Afri­ca’s largest listed retail groups based in Durban, is now acqui­ring NKD from TDR Capi­tal. The group opera­tes an omni-chan­nel busi­ness in South Africa and other Afri­can count­ries with its 15 retail chains, inclu­ding online sales and 3,100 stores with a compre­hen­sive range of clot­hing and house­hold goods. Mr Price will take over a strong network of over 2100 NKD stores with over 10,000 employees in seven Euro­pean count­ries, parti­cu­larly in Germany, Austria and Italy. With a clear growth posi­tio­ning in the Euro­pean market, NKD offers a comple­men­tary plat­form within the market-leading retail group. 

Advi­sor TDR Capi­tal: WEIL

The Weil tran­sac­tion team was led by Munich part­ner Manuel-Peter Fringer, photo © WEIL (Private Equity) and compri­sed coun­sel Florian Wessel (Private Equity, Munich), asso­cia­tes Lucas Otto­witz, Sven Jeli­nek, Laurin Schmidt and Madleen Düdder (all Private Equity, Munich), Alex­an­der Roth­stein, Dennis Simon and Ozan Yildi­rim (all Private Equity, Frank­furt), Part­ner Tobias Geer­ling and Coun­sel Caro­lin Vetter­mann (both Tax, Munich), Coun­sel Konstan­tin Hoppe and Asso­ciate Daniel Mati­je­vic (both Liti­ga­tion, Munich), as well as Coun­sel Thomas Zimmer­mann (Finance, Munich) and Asso­cia­tes Hans-Chris­tian Mick and Josef Matoussi (both Finance, Frankfurt).

About Weil

Weil, Gotshal & Manges is an inter­na­tio­nal law firm with more than 1,100 lawy­ers. Weil has offices in New York, Boston, Brussels, Dallas, Frank­furt, Hong Kong, Hous­ton, London, Los Ange­les, Miami, Munich, Paris, San Fran­cisco, Washing­ton, D.C. and Sili­con Valley. In Germany, the firm has two offices and around 50 lawyers/tax advi­sors in Frank­furt and Munich. The focus here is on provi­ding specia­li­zed advice to natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal clients on cross-border private equity and M&A tran­sac­tions, high-profile liti­ga­tion manda­tes, complex restruc­tu­rings and finan­cings as well as tax structuring.

Tübin­gen — Health­care specia­list SHS Capi­tal is inves­t­ing in a leading German endo­scopy group via the SHS VI fund. The group consists of the compa­nies EMOS Tech­no­logy, Inno­View, ILO elec­tro­nic and Micon Medi­zin­tech­nik and forms a struc­tu­red succes­sion solu­tion for foun­der and mana­ging direc­tor Frank Spillner. 

The Endo­scopy Group is one of the few Euro­pean manu­fac­tu­r­ers of endo­scopy systems with in-house deve­lo­p­ment and a high level of verti­cal inte­gra­tion. The broad and inno­va­tive product port­fo­lio includes reusable rigid, semi-flexi­ble and flexi­ble endo­sco­pes as well as camera systems, light sources and insuf­fla­tors. The products meet the growing global demand for mini­mally inva­sive proce­du­res in a wide range of applications. 

The Group has grown stron­gly in recent years and has been able to launch new, inno­va­tive products on the market every year. All key stages of the value chain, from optics produc­tion to final assem­bly, take place at modern sites in Germany. In addi­tion, the Group is charac­te­ri­zed by strong tech­ni­cal exper­tise, short deve­lo­p­ment cycles, high flexi­bi­lity and a very high level of custo­mer loyalty. The Group’s custo­mers are prima­rily natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal OEM custo­mers and distributors. 

The invest­ment by SHS crea­tes a struc­tu­red succes­sion solu­tion for foun­der and Mana­ging Direc­tor Frank Spill­ner via a multi-stage concept. In the coming years, SHS will accom­pany the Endo­scopy Group as a growth part­ner, with a focus on expan­ding rela­ti­onships with exis­ting custo­mers, further inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion, the deve­lo­p­ment of addi­tio­nal products and the further streng­thening of the compa­nies’ posi­tion as an inte­gra­ted platform. 

“In SHS, we have found a long-term orien­ted part­ner with proven MedTech exper­tise who under­stands our busi­ness model and shares our vision of an inte­gra­ted endo­scopy plat­form,” explains Frank Spill­ner. “The invest­ment enables us to invest in inno­va­tion, manu­fac­tu­ring and inter­na­tio­nal market deve­lo­p­ment while imple­men­ting a struc­tu­red succes­sion solu­tion for the endo­scopy divi­sion that actively preser­ves our DNA as a relia­ble, leading quality ‘Made in Germany’ manufacturer.” 

“The Endo­scopy Group is one of the few Euro­pean manu­fac­tu­r­ers that covers the entire spec­trum of endo­sco­pes, imaging and access­ories with its own verti­cal range of manu­fac­ture, thus posi­tio­ning itself as a stra­te­gic part­ner for OEMs and distri­bu­tors world­wide,” says Tobias Fuchs (photo: SHS), Senior Invest­ment Mana­ger at SHS Capi­tal. “On this basis, we want to deve­lop a leading Euro­pean plat­form in endo­scopy toge­ther with the ambi­tious manage­ment and further scale the inter­na­tio­nal business.”

Munich — The inter­na­tio­nal AdTech start-up Flyby has successfully comple­ted a further finan­cing round to drive forward the roll­out of its Smart Deli­very Boxes in Dubai, Munich and other markets.

The fully func­tional, street-legal Smart Deli­very Boxes are alre­ady in regu­lar opera­tion on the streets of Dubai and in the first fleets in Munich, where they are being scaled up toge­ther with leading deli­very plat­forms. After seve­ral years of pilot projects in seve­ral cities, Flyby’s paten­ted Smart Deli­very Box has reached market matu­rity and is now being produ­ced in incre­asing numbers. In Dubai and Munich, the boxes are alre­ady on the road in daily deli­very traf­fic, trans­forming deli­very vehic­les into cloud-enab­led IoT units with digi­tal exte­rior displays, real-time track­ing and tele­me­try. Thanks to the combi­na­tion of appro­ved vehicle hard­ware, inte­gra­ted sensors, geo-track­ing and remo­tely controll­able LED displays, the solu­tion is fully marke­ta­ble and tested for daily road use. The visi­bi­lity of the Smart Deli­very Boxes in the city­scapes of Dubai and Munich under­lines the market accep­tance of the product and forms the basis for further roll­outs in other major inter­na­tio­nal cities. 

The new finan­cing round will be used in parti­cu­lar for the indus­trial scaling of produc­tion and the
further roll­out of addi­tio­nal series boxes in Dubai, Munich and the wider MENA and EU
region. The funds will also be used for the further deve­lo­p­ment of the cloud-based plat­form, data-driven
func­tions (tele­me­try, campaign analy­tics) and the expan­sion of the part­ner network with delivery
and e‑commerce plat­forms. Over the next few weeks, Flyby plans to signi­fi­cantly increase the number of Smart Deli­very Boxes deployed in the United Arab Emira­tes and trans­form exis­ting pilot projects into long-term commer­cial colla­bo­ra­ti­ons and part­ner­ships. The fleet deploy­ment alre­ady under­way will thus be used to further scale the busi­ness model as a combi­ned AdTech and analy­tics platform. 

Walberg & Cie. provi­ded compre­hen­sive corpo­rate law advice to Flyby and its foun­ders on the struc­tu­ring and imple­men­ta­tion of the follow-up finan­cing round. The focus was on the
design of a growth-orien­ted invest­ment struc­ture, the coor­di­na­tion with a
inter­na­tio­nal group of inves­tors, as well as the contrac­tual repre­sen­ta­tion of the now achie­ved series matu­rity and the
plan­ned inter­na­tio­nal scaling. 

Advi­sor Flyby: Walberg Law Tax Stra­tegy GmbH & Cie. KG

Dr. Simon Sabel, photo © Wahl­berg, Mana­ging Part­ner, Corpo­rate, M&A (lead)
Marc Wies­ner, LL.M. (Yale), Corpo­rate, M&A

About Walberg & Cie.

Walberg Law Tax Stra­tegy GmbH & Cie. KG is a highly specia­li­zed legal and tax boutique withbased in Munich. The focus is on corpo­rate, M&A and tax with an empha­sis ontran­sac­tions, venture capi­tal, restruc­tu­ring and succes­sion solu­ti­ons. Restruc­tu­ring and succes­sion solu­ti­ons. The exper­tise ofWalberg Law Tax Stra­tegy GmbH & Cie. KG is regu­larly called upon at

Frank­furt a. M. — Ardian announ­ced the launch of Ardian Access Infra­struc­ture SICAV-RAIF[ii] (“Ardian Access” or “the Fund”), a Luxem­bourg domic­i­led ever­green vehicle[iii]. The Fund will be available exclu­si­vely to profes­sio­nal inves­tors world­wide. Ardian Access Infra­struc­ture is part of the Ardian Access plat­form, which offers insti­tu­tio­nal and private inves­tors a wide range of access to Ardian deal flow. Ardian is one of the worl­d’s leading inde­pen­dent invest­ment firms with $196 billion in assets under manage­ment and super­vi­sion across private equity, real assets and private credit. 

Ardian Access Infra­struc­ture is a diffe­ren­tia­ted solu­tion for inves­tors seeking access to private infra­struc­ture invest­ments to diver­sify their exis­ting port­fo­lio. It includes both direct infra­struc­ture invest­ments and Ardian’s infra­struc­ture secon­dary market plat­forms. Ardian’s infra­struc­ture team has more than USD 45 billion of assets under manage­ment and a track record of over 20 years. The secon­da­ries team has $101 billion of assets under manage­ment, making it one of the largest secon­dary infra­struc­ture plat­forms in the market. 

This unique combi­na­tion of direct invest­ments in essen­tial infra­struc­ture and secon­dary tran­sac­tions is desi­gned to give inves­tors access to prime assets that offer recur­ring income, poten­tial infla­tion protec­tion and robust returns, as well as port­fo­lio tran­sac­tions that provide grea­ter diver­si­fi­ca­tion and typi­cally help to reduce J‑curve effects. This also means that inves­tors gain access to strong deal flow, which should be scalable, well diver­si­fied and of high quality. 

Ardian Access Infra­struc­ture enables inves­tors to:

Access to Ardian’s infra­struc­ture stra­tegy, which focu­ses on essen­tial, capi­tal-inten­sive compa­nies in the energy, digi­tal infra­struc­ture and trans­por­ta­tion sectors. The team has more than 70 dedi­ca­ted invest­ment profes­sio­nals across eight offices in Europe and the Ameri­cas. Ardian Access Infra­struc­ture seeks a global allo­ca­tion along­side all Ardian infra­struc­ture funds, inclu­ding the recently successfully closed $20 billion plat­form, which will invest predo­mi­nantly in Europe. 

High diver­si­fi­ca­tion via the Ardian Infra­struc­ture Secon­da­ries plat­form as part of the worl­d’s largest secon­dary market plat­form with $101 billion in assets under manage­ment, supported by a team of more than 100 invest­ment profes­sio­nals across 14 offices with 35 infra­struc­ture specia­lists. This plat­form provi­des access to some of the worl­d’s leading asset mana­gers and has a high-quality pipe­line of co-invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties in infra­struc­ture. Secon­dary invest­ments are also desi­gned to gene­rate strong cash flow and mini­mize J‑curve effects to support scala­bi­lity. Mini­mum invest­ment amounts of EUR 100,000 and a full invest­ment of the capi­tal from day one. This is inten­ded to maxi­mize the compound inte­rest effect and avoid yield losses through stag­ge­red capi­tal calls and a corre­spon­din­gly high cash ratio (the so-called “cash drag”). 

Ardian Access Infra­struc­ture is desi­gned to diver­sify across diffe­rent sectors and regi­ons. The aim is to build a stake in more than 20 under­ly­ing infra­struc­ture compa­nies in a short period of time. These include Heath­row Airport, the largest airport in Europe, and Verne, an opera­tor of sustainable data centers. 

Ardian coope­ra­tes with iCapital

Ardian has laun­ched the current fund in part­ner­ship with iCapi­tal, a global fintech plat­form dedi­ca­ted to shaping the future of inves­t­ing. Ardian will leverage the full range of iCapi­tal’s ever­green fund service and tech­no­logy solu­ti­ons to provide asset mana­gers and their clients with effi­ci­ent access to alter­na­tive invest­ments through Ardian Access. 

“We are seeing a growing demand among high net worth private inves­tors not just for private equity, but for access to the entire invest­ment spec­trum in the private markets, parti­cu­larly in infra­struc­ture. Ardian Access Infra­struc­ture offers these clients a unique oppor­tu­nity to take advan­tage of both direct invest­ments and secon­da­ries tran­sac­tions in infra­struc­ture. The fund combi­nes the value and return gene­ra­tion over the full invest­ment cycle of direct invest­ments with the diver­si­fi­ca­tion and flat­ter J‑curve trajec­tory offe­red by secon­da­ries. Start­ing from a high-quality, diver­si­fied seed port­fo­lio of assets, our teams will invest in key global trends such as digi­ta­liza­tion, energy tran­si­tion and govern­ment infra­struc­ture invest­ment programs,” explains Erwan Paugam, Head of Private Wealth Solu­ti­ons and Senior Mana­ging Direc­tor at Ardian.

“As one of the market leaders, we know the bene­fits that infra­struc­ture as an asset class offers inves­tors: regu­lar distri­bu­ti­ons, infla­tion protec­tion, lower cycli­cal­ity and lower corre­la­tion and vola­ti­lity compared to other asset clas­ses histo­ri­cally. We ther­e­fore believe that it is an attrac­tive addi­tion to inves­tor port­fo­lios.” Says Daniel von der Schu­len­burg (photo: Ardian), Head of Infra­struc­ture Germany, Bene­lux & Nort­hern Europe and Senior Mana­ging Direc­tor at Ardian.

“Our infra­struc­ture secon­dary plat­form combi­nes access to invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties world­wide with exper­tise in local markets. We are deligh­ted that with this new ever­green vehicle we can offer an even grea­ter number of inves­tors the oppor­tu­nity to bene­fit from one of the worl­d’s largest secon­dary plat­forms, backed by an inter­na­tio­nal team of over 100 invest­ment profes­sio­nals in 14 loca­ti­ons,” says Marie Victoire Roze, Deputy Co-Head Secon­da­ries & Prima­ries and Senior Mana­ging Direc­tor at Ardian.

About ARDIAN

In a constantly chan­ging world, Ardian stands for the exper­tise to anti­ci­pate and accept chal­lenges and turn them into oppor­tu­ni­ties. With 22 offices world­wide and more than 350 invest­ment profes­sio­nals, Ardian offers globally diver­si­fied invest­ment products and custo­mi­zed invest­ment manda­tes in the private markets. Ardian trans­la­tes econo­mic trends into invest­ment solu­ti­ons that have a stabi­li­zing effect on its clients’ port­fo­lios even in turbu­lent market phases. 

With multi-local exper­tise and long-term orien­ted value crea­tion, Ardian not only gene­ra­tes a sustainable return for its inves­tors and part­ners, but also makes a contri­bu­tion to society as a whole. Since its foun­da­tion in 1996, the company has stood for an invest­ment stra­tegy that is charac­te­ri­zed by a high degree of diver­si­fi­ca­tion, indi­vi­dua­lity and scala­bi­lity. Ardian crea­tes lasting value for its port­fo­lio compa­nies through commit­ment, exper­tise and the use of tech­no­logy, ther­eby contri­bu­ting to over­all econo­mic development. 

Ardian curr­ently mana­ges or advi­ses USD 192 billion in assets for more than 1,890 inves­tors world­wide in the private equity, real assets and private credit asset clas­ses. — ardian.com

Frank­furt a. M./ Munich — Will­kie Farr & Gallag­her LLP has advi­sed GREENPEAK Part­ners in connec­tion with the forma­tion of the tax advi­sory plat­form atania and the part­ner­ship with the foun­ding part­ners AC Chris­tes & Part­ner and The Makery.

atania combi­nes regio­nal proxi­mity, profes­sio­nal specia­liza­tion and consis­tent digi­ta­liza­tion — inclu­ding auto­ma­tion and AI — with the aim of buil­ding an inde­pen­dent, tech­no­logy-driven group of leading tax advi­sory and audi­ting firms that serves medium-sized clients in Germany and beyond, offe­ring them the best possi­ble services from a single source.

AC Chris­tes & Part­ner has been support­ing medium-sized tran­sac­tions, audi­ting and tax projects for over 30 years and employs around 120 people at its offices in Hamburg, Munich and Düssel­dorf. The Makery has exten­sive expe­ri­ence in inter­na­tio­nal tax issues, corpo­rate tax law, company valua­tion and in advi­sing large SMEs and listed companies. 

GREENPEAK Part­ners, head­quar­te­red in Munich, is an invest­ment company that specia­li­zes in buil­ding and scaling medium-sized groups of compa­nies with a strong track record. The company has exten­sive expe­ri­ence in foun­ding, deve­lo­ping and expan­ding market leaders. To date, the GREENPEAK team has built more than 12 plat­forms, which toge­ther gene­rate annual sales of over 1 billion euros. 

Advi­sor GREENPEAK Part­ners: WILLKIE

The Will­kie team was led by part­ners Dr. Kamyar Abrar (Frank­furt) and Dr. Florian Dendl, Foto (Munich) with the support of part­ner Ludger Kempf (Frank­furt) and asso­cia­tes Andrej Popp (Frank­furt) and Dr. Maxi­mi­lian Schatz (Munich; all Corporate/M&A) and compri­sed part­ners Dr. Patrick Meiisel (Frank­furt, Tax) and Maxi­mi­lian Mayer (Munich, Finance), coun­sel Wulf Kring (Tax) and Martin Waskow­ski (both Frank­furt, Labor & Employ­ment Law), and asso­cia­tes Dr. Maxi­mi­lian Schlutz (Compliance/Regulatory), Melina Terwes­ten, Niklas Keller (both Corporate/M&A), Marcel Seemaier (Tax), Sascha Wink­ler (all Frank­furt, Labor & Employ­ment Law), Nils Hörnig, Fabiola Haas, Dr. Zeno Wirtz (Corporate/M&A) and Jannis Strot­mann (all Munich, Finance).

Will­kie Farr & Gallag­her LLP provi­des leading legal solu­ti­ons to complex, busi­ness-criti­cal issues that span markets and indus­tries. Our appro­xi­m­ately 1,300 lawy­ers in 16 offices world­wide provide inno­va­tive, prag­ma­tic and sophisti­ca­ted legal services in around 45 areas of law.
— www.willkie.com.

Zug (CH)/ Hamburg — INVISION VII, a fund advi­sed by Invi­sion AG, has acqui­red a majo­rity stake in R&K Inge­nieure GmbH (R&K) from BWK GmbH Unter­neh­mens­be­tei­li­gungs­ge­sell­schaft (BWK). The manage­ment of R&K conti­nues to hold a signi­fi­cant stake, thus ensu­ring conti­nuity in the further deve­lo­p­ment of the group. 

R&K is an engi­nee­ring service provi­der based in Hamburg which, toge­ther with its subsi­dia­ries, mana­ges infra­struc­ture projects throug­hout Germany. The group specia­li­zes in cons­truc­tion super­vi­sion and site manage­ment, project manage­ment and control as well as consul­ting and quality control, parti­cu­larly in the areas of bridge and tunnel cons­truc­tion, rail­road and road cons­truc­tion, power lines and offshore infra­struc­ture as well as other complex infra­struc­ture projects. Under the leader­ship of the manage­ment team, R&K has conti­nuously streng­the­ned and expan­ded its market posi­tion in recent years. 

“The fact that R&K plays an important role in central German infra­struc­ture projects impres­sed us from the very first moment. As a team, toge­ther with the manage­ment, we want to deve­lop R&K both orga­ni­cally and through acqui­si­ti­ons,” explains Martin Spirig, the part­ner respon­si­ble at INVISION.

The exis­ting manage­ment of R&K will conti­nue to bear opera­tio­nal respon­si­bi­lity in the future: “Our re-invest­ment enables us to actively shape the future of R&K and consis­t­ently conti­nue its successful deve­lo­p­ment,” explains Michael Kock, Mana­ging Part­ner of R&K Inge­nieure GmbH, adding: “INVI­SI­ON’s entry opens up excel­lent future pros­pects for our company — and also for each indi­vi­dual colle­ague. With an incre­asing number of projects and a broa­der service port­fo­lio, the perso­nal deve­lo­p­ment pros­pects of our employees are also growing.”

About R&K Inge­nieure GmbH

R&K Inge­nieure GmbH, head­quar­te­red in Walow and with nume­rous other loca­ti­ons throug­hout Germany, is a nati­on­wide engi­nee­ring firm with around 100 employees. The company offers compre­hen­sive plan­ning, consul­ting and cons­truc­tion super­vi­sion services for buil­ding cons­truc­tion and civil engi­nee­ring projects. With inter­di­sci­pli­nary teams, modern digi­tal plan­ning tech­no­logy and a strong regio­nal presence, R&K Inge­nieure deve­lops econo­mical, sustainable and tech­ni­cally relia­ble solu­ti­ons for a wide range of clients.
— www.rki-holding.de.

About INVISION

Since its foun­da­tion in 1997, INVISION has deve­lo­ped into one of the leading invest­ment compa­nies in the SME segment with a focus on compa­nies in the DACH region and the Bene­lux count­ries. INVISION has inves­ted over one billion euros in more than 70 compa­nies and focu­ses on sustainable growth driven by inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion, the intro­duc­tion of new products and services, the digi­ta­liza­tion of busi­ness proces­ses and targe­ted add-on acqui­si­ti­ons. INVISION sees itself as an entre­pre­neu­rial part­ner for foun­ders and manage­ment teams. In its invest­ments, INVISION atta­ches parti­cu­lar importance to under­stan­ding the indi­vi­dual needs of entre­pre­neurs and deve­lo­ping custo­mi­zed solu­ti­ons to best meet them. — www.invision.ch.

Berlin — YPOG has advi­sed Berlin-based health­tech FORMULA Skin on its sale to the opera­tor of the leading UK health­tech plat­form MANUAL. YPOG worked closely with UK law firm Walker Morris on this German-British cross-border tran­sac­tion. The tran­sac­tion marks an important mile­stone for the leading Euro­pean player in the field of digi­tal derma­to­logy and under­lines the high importance of digi­tal busi­ness models in the Euro­pean health­care market. 

Follo­wing the acqui­si­tion, MANUAL and FORMULA SKIN will work to combine their tech­no­lo­gies, medi­cal exper­tise and pati­ent care models into a single, connec­ted care plat­form. In the coming months, the group plans to launch new services globally — with a parti­cu­lar focus on buil­ding the most advan­ced offe­ring for weight manage­ment pati­ents in Germany. In doing so, they are uniting their shared mission to make proac­tive and perso­na­li­zed health­care acces­si­ble to all. 

Both parties have agreed to keep the purchase price and other econo­mic details of the tran­sac­tion confidential.

About FORMEL Skin

FORMEL Skin is a Berlin-based health­tech start-up that offers pati­ents tele­me­di­cal treat­ments for skin condi­ti­ons such as acne and rosacea. A digi­tal plat­form is used to combine derma­to­lo­gi­cal diagno­stics, medi­cal care and indi­vi­du­ally tail­o­red, prescrip­tion-based care products. 

The company addres­ses a rapidly growing market for digi­tal health appli­ca­ti­ons and offers a subscrip­tion-based model that enables conti­nuous, data-based custo­miza­tion of therapy. In recent years, FORMULA Skin has attrac­ted renow­ned inter­na­tio­nal inves­tors and estab­lished itself as one of the leading provi­ders in the field of online dermatology. 

Consul­tant Health­tech FORMULA Skin: YPOG

Dr. Frede­rik Gärt­ner (Co-Lead, Tran­sac­tions) Part­ner, Berlin
Jörg Schr­ade (Tax), Part­ner, Munich
Dr. Tim Schlös­ser (Co-Lead, Tran­sac­tions) Part­ner, Berlin
Matthias Kres­ser (Finance) Part­ner, Berlin
Dr. Caro­lin Raspé (Regulatory/FDI) Part­ner, Munich
Dr. Ferdi­nand Cadmus (Tran­sac­tions) Asso­cia­ted Part­ner, Hamburg
Sjard Seeger (Tran­sac­tions), Asso­ciate, Berlin
Ninetta Klein­dienst (Tax), Asso­ciate, Munich
Helena Dierckx (Finance), Asso­ciate, Berlin
Sarah Sostak (Tran­sac­tions), Asso­ciate, Berlin

— www.ypog.law

Wetz­lar / Röder­mark / Arzfeld — The engi­nee­ring office Dipl.-Ing. KURT FREUDENBERG GmbH (“Freu­den­berg”) has a new owner as part of a succes­sion plan: The buyer of the shares is Zahnen Tech­nik GmbH (“Zahnen”), a provi­der of inte­gra­ted solu­ti­ons for water and waste­wa­ter projects from Rhine­land-Pala­ti­nate, which is expan­ding its presence in the Rhine-Main region with the take­over. The team of Nach­fol­ge­kon­tor, one of the leading M&A advi­sory bouti­ques for German SMEs and part of the Syntra Group, exclu­si­vely advi­sed the seller and mana­ging part­ner Thomas Mauder on the transaction.

Freu­den­berg, based in Röder­mark, specia­li­zes prima­rily in EI&C tech­no­logy (elec­tri­cal, measu­re­ment and control tech­no­logy). The company is also active in the fields of water and waste­wa­ter tech­no­logy, pump tech­no­logy and indus­trial auto­ma­tion. The range of services extends from plan­ning, produc­tion and instal­la­tion to main­ten­ance and other services. With twelve highly quali­fied employees, Freu­den­berg almost exclu­si­vely serves public clients — inclu­ding muni­ci­pal water suppli­ers as well as water and sewage treat­ment plants, where the company enjoys an excel­lent reputation. 

Merger with inter­na­tio­nal family business

As a result of the tran­sac­tion that has now taken place, the regio­nally stron­gly ancho­red company will become part of an inter­na­tio­nally active, inno­va­tive company: Zahnen Tech­nik GmbH from Arzfeld was foun­ded in 1958 and today opera­tes world­wide as an expe­ri­en­ced part­ner for pionee­ring water treat­ment and custo­mi­zed process tech­no­logy. The company designs systems for water and waste­wa­ter treat­ment and has deve­lo­ped intel­li­gent, cloud-based soft­ware for know­ledge manage­ment and process auto­ma­tion. Zahnen Tech­nik also offers compre­hen­sive services and digi­tal solu­ti­ons for moni­to­ring exis­ting systems. With over 200 employees at its sites in Üttfeld and Arzfeld, Rhine­land-Pala­ti­nate, the company is pursuing a tech­no­logy-driven growth strategy. 

Since 2021, Zahnen Tech­nik has been supported by addi­tio­nal share­hol­ders, inclu­ding in parti­cu­lar the invest­ment company HBL Invest­ment­Part­ners GmbH (“HBL”), which specia­li­zes in medium-sized compa­nies from the DACH region.

With the inte­gra­tion of Freu­den­berg, Zahnen not only gains expe­ri­en­ced employees, but also expands its regio­nal presence to include the Rhine-Main area. Both compa­nies are now combi­ning their comple­men­tary strengths. The tran­sac­tion thus enables syner­gies to be lever­a­ged, both geogra­phi­cally and in terms of exper­tise. Herbert Zahnen, Mana­ging Part­ner of Zahnen, comm­ents: “The acqui­si­tion ideally comple­ments our port­fo­lio. With the addi­tio­nal exper­tise and the strong team, we are pooling our strengths and crea­ting new syner­gies — both spati­ally and profes­sio­nally. This will enable us to further expand our market posi­tion and provide our custo­mers with even more targe­ted support.” 

Strong conso­li­da­tion trend leads to a high number of transactions

The part­ner­ship is being concluded in a lively indus­try envi­ron­ment. The water indus­try has been expe­ri­en­cing an incre­asingly strong conso­li­da­tion trend for years, driven in parti­cu­lar by the shortage of skil­led workers and regio­nal compe­ti­tion. Many larger market play­ers are inte­res­ted in acqui­ring well-trai­ned person­nel through take­overs and expan­ding their respec­tive catch­ment areas. In addi­tion, incre­asing pres­sure from extreme weather events is ensu­ring that demand for water-rela­ted services is growing very quickly. The high volume of orders acts as a cata­lyst for tran­sac­tions, as the syner­gies released in the process increase the compa­nies’ performance. 

For Nach­fol­ge­kon­tor, the take­over marks the fifth successfully comple­ted tran­sac­tion in the water and waste­wa­ter tech­no­logy sector in just a few years. For exam­ple, the team led by Sebas­tian Wissig, Part­ner at Nach­fol­ge­kon­tor, alre­ady advi­sed WBH Water GmbH on its sale to the Berlin-based KF Unter­neh­mens­gruppe GmbH and the take­over of the auto­ma­tion specia­list GEAL (Gesell­schaft für Elektro‑, Auto­ma­ti­sie­rungs- und Leit­tech­nik mbH) by ELIQUO WATER GROUP GmbH. 

Consul­tants Inge­nieur-Büro Dipl.-Ing. KURT FREUDENBERG GmbH: Unüt­zer / Wagner / Werding (“UWW”) in Wetzlar 

Lawyer Jan Ziese­nitz provi­ded legal advice to the seller during the tran­sac­tion and ensu­red a smooth and legally compli­ant process with his compre­hen­sive advice.

About Nach­fol­ge­kon­tor

Nach­fol­ge­kon­tor was foun­ded in 2014 and specia­li­zes in succes­sion plan­ning for small and medium-sized, predo­mi­nantly owner-mana­ged compa­nies. The dedi­ca­ted team of experts advi­ses medium-sized clients from a wide range of indus­tries — from auto­ma­tion to cons­truc­tion and trade to soft­ware deve­lo­p­ment — on the acqui­si­tion and sale of compa­nies as well as succes­sion plan­ning. The focus is on tran­sac­tions with volu­mes of up to 20 million euros. — Nach­fol­ge­kon­tor is part of the part­ner-led Syntra Group, which also includes the M&A consul­tancy Syntra Corpo­rate Finance, which specia­li­zes in company acqui­si­ti­ons and sales in the lower mid-market segment. — https://www.nachfolgekontor.de

About Inge­nieur-Büro Dipl.-Ing. KURT FREUDENBERG GmbH
https://www.ib-freudenberg.de/

About Zahnen Tech­nik GmbH

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Hamburg — YPOG provi­ded legal advice to Quan­tum Systems on the latest finan­cing round, which increased the company’s valua­tion to over three billion euros. In doing so, YPOG built on its many years of advi­sing Quan­tum Systems in previous finan­cing rounds. 

The Munich-based experts for AI-control­led drones Quan­tum Systems has raised a further EUR 180 million as part of an expan­sion of its Series C finan­cing. In total, Quan­tum Systems has thus raised around EUR 340 million in growth capi­tal in 2025 and increased its valua­tion to over three billion euros. This repres­ents the largest finan­cing of Euro­pean dual-use technology. 

Quan­tum Systems manu­fac­tures mili­tary and civi­lian drones and also offers a soft­ware plat­form for unman­ned systems with MOSAIC UXS. The company intends to use the addi­tio­nal capi­tal to increase its produc­tion capa­ci­ties in Germany, the USA, Austra­lia and Ukraine. Another part of the capi­tal will be used to deve­lop new drones. 

YPOG has previously advi­sed Quan­tum Systems on the EUR 63.6 million Series B finan­cing round as well as on other finan­cing rounds and acqui­si­tion processes.

About Quan­tum Systems

Quan­tum Systems is the leading German manu­fac­tu­rer of civil and mili­tary AI-supported drone systems. Foun­ded in 2015 and based in Munich, the company employs over 850 people and is repre­sen­ted inter­na­tio­nally at seve­ral loca­ti­ons, inclu­ding Austra­lia, Ukraine, Roma­nia, the United King­dom and the USA. Its custo­mers include govern­ments, minis­tries of defense, civi­lian autho­ri­ties and compa­nies worldwide.
— https://quantum-systems.com

Consul­tant Quan­tum Systems : YPOG

Dr. Adrian Haase (Co-Lead, Tran­sac­tions), Part­ner, Hamburg
Dr. Ferdi­nand Cadmus (Co-Lead, Tran­sac­tions), Asso­cia­ted Part­ner, Berlin
Miriam Peer (Tran­sac­tions), Asso­ciate, Hamburg
Dr. Caro­lin Raspé (Compli­ance), Part­ner, Munich

www.ypog.law

Frank­furt a.M./Wilsdruff — Rondot Inter­na­tio­nal SAS has acqui­red LWN Luft­tech­nik Group. Rondot Inter­na­tio­nal SAS was advi­sed on this tran­sac­tion by SKW Schwarz. 

Rondot, head­quar­te­red in Cham­pa­gne au Mont d’Or, France, designs and supplies high-perfor­mance solu­ti­ons for the manu­fac­ture of glass contai­ners world­wide. This inte­gra­tion is a further step in Rondo­t’s ambi­tion to combine tech­no­logy, know­ledge and people to offer inno­va­tive, effi­ci­ent and sustainable solu­ti­ons to custo­mers worldwide. 

LWN Luft­tech­nik, based in Wils­druff, Germany and Wroclaw, Poland, is a leading specia­list in cooling systems for glass facto­ries worldwide.

A team led by part­ner Dr. Kolja Petro­vicki, toge­ther with the French part­ner law firm Carl­ara, Lyon, and the Polish part­ner law firm Drze­wiecki Tomas­zek, Warsaw, advi­sed Rondot compre­hen­si­vely on all legal aspects of the transaction.

Advi­sor Rondot: SKW Schwarz, Frankfurt

Dr. Kolja Petro­vicki, LL.M. (lead part­ner), Dr. Max-Niklas Blome, LL.M., Dr. Tatjana Schroe­der (all Corporate/M&A), Alex­an­der Möller (Employ­ment), Dr. Rembert Niebel, LL.M. (Intellec­tual Property), Dr. Oliver M. Bühr (Data Protec­tion), Nicole Wolf-Thomann, Dr. Gerd Seeli­ger (both Tax, Munich), Dr. Klaus Jankow­ski, Maria Rothä­mel (Coun­sel; both Public Law, Berlin), Arndt Tetzlaff, LL.M., Martin Himme, LL.M. (Coun­sel; both Insu­rance Law, Berlin); Asso­cia­tes: Sabrina Hoch­brück­ner (Employ­ment Law), Jonas Laszlo Schü­ler, LL.M. (Intellec­tual Property Law), Fran­ziska Sont­heim, Nicola Halm­bur­ger (both Tax, Munich), Janina Schortz (Public Law, Berlin)
—- www.skwschwarz.de/

Munich — The inter­na­tio­nal law firm Bird & Bird has advi­sed Natu­ral Power on the acqui­si­tion of Munich-based renerco plan consult GmbH from BayWa r.e. AG. Bird & Bird is a leading advi­sor and service provi­der in the field of rene­wa­ble energies. 

The tran­sac­tion repres­ents a signi­fi­cant mile­stone in Natu­ral Power’s Euro­pean growth stra­tegy and streng­thens the company’s presence in the German rene­wa­ble energy market. The stra­te­gi­cally loca­ted Munich office of renerco will create a strong opera­tio­nal base in Germany — the largest rene­wa­ble energy market in Europe. The acqui­si­tion streng­thens Natu­ral Power’s ability to provide compre­hen­sive consul­ting services in the DACH region and beyond, support­ing the energy tran­si­tion across conti­nen­tal Europe. 

As an inde­pen­dent consul­tant and service provi­der, Natu­ral Power has been provi­ding expert advice to the rene­wa­ble energy indus­try for over 30 years. With offices in the UK, Ireland, France, Italy, the USA and now Germany, Natu­ral Power supports clients in more than 40 count­ries world­wide with a vision to create a world powered by rene­wa­ble energy. 

renerco plan consult, a company belon­ging to BayWa with its head­quar­ters in Munich and roots dating back to 1989, offers tech­ni­cal consul­ting and plan­ning services in the field of rene­wa­ble ener­gies, inclu­ding solar energy, wind energy and grid infra­struc­ture. The consul­ting services are aimed at inves­tors, project deve­lo­pers, muni­ci­pal utili­ties, energy suppli­ers, banks and insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors in natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal markets. 

Consul­tant Natu­ral Power: Bird & Bird

Part­ner Stephan Kübler, LL.M., Senior Coun­sel Michael Gaßner and Senior Asso­ciate Yannick Stahl. LL.M. (all lead) (all Corpo­rate, Munich), Part­ner Dr. Markus Körner and Asso­ciate Yvonne Schaafs (both IP, Munich), Part­ner Lars Kyrberg and Asso­ciate Ole Koes­ter (both Commer­cial, Hamburg), Part­ner Dr. Ralph Panzer, Senior Coun­sel Sandy Gerlach and Asso­ciate Vincent Kirsch (all Employ­ment, Munich), Part­ner Dr. Henri­ette Picot and Senior Asso­ciate Paulina Jacob (both Commer­cial, Munich), Part­ner Dr. Michael Jüne­mann, Part­ner Dr. Rolf Schmich, Coun­sel Michael Brüg­ge­mann, Asso­ciate Thomas Schmidt and Asso­ciate Julian Stra­ßel (all Tax, Frank­furt), Part­ner Dr. Stephan Wald­heim (Commer­cial, Düssel­dorf), Coun­sel Dr. Florian Hinde­rer (Commer­cial, Munich) and Asso­ciate Gitty Nary­many Shandy (Commer­cial, Düssel­dorf), Senior Coun­sel Elie Kauf­man, LL.M. (Real Estate, Frank­furt), Coun­sel Jürgen Schlink­mann and Asso­ciate Merwan Klink (both Real Estate, Munich). 

As a leading inter­na­tio­nal law firm, Bird & Bird is the part­ner for ever­yone who wants to defend and streng­then their super­powers. Thanks to our orig­ins in IP law, we under­stand the core of every company, the requi­re­ments of the market and compe­ti­tion and how to achieve sustainable success. We call it sector focus. And with this DNA, we are now your law firm for all legal issues rela­ting to tech­no­logy, digi­ta­liza­tion and regu­la­tion. With over 1,600 lawy­ers in 34 offices in 24 count­ries, we are repre­sen­ted in Europe, North America, the Middle East, Asia-Paci­fic and Africa and main­tain close rela­ti­onships with law firms in other parts of the world. In Germany, we are repre­sen­ted by more than 280 lawy­ers in Düssel­dorf, Frank­furt, Hamburg and Munich. — www.twobirds.com.

Munich — The GT Group, a port­fo­lio company of the Munich-based invest­ment company palero, has acqui­red Metall­be­ar­bei­ter Harz GmbH (MBH). With the acqui­si­tion of MBH, the GT Group is further streng­thening its compe­ten­cies in the field of rail vehicle cons­truc­tion and expan­ding its exper­tise as a relia­ble part­ner for the rail industry. 

MBH specia­li­zes in precis­ion metal­wor­king and enjoys an excel­lent repu­ta­tion for quality and relia­bi­lity in the manu­fac­ture of compon­ents for rail vehic­les such as axle­box housings, axle bearing compon­ents and flange buffers.

Advi­sor GT Group: Reed Smith 

Dr. Niko­laus von Jacobs (Part­ner, Corpo­rate, Munich) with the assis­tance of Matthias Wein­gut (Senior Asso­ciate, Corpo­rate, Munich). Nina Siewert (Part­ner, Tax, Frank­furt), Carina Kles­sing (Asso­ciate, Tax, Frank­furt) and Robert Werz­lau (Asso­ciate, Corpo­rate, Munich) were also involved. 

About palero group

palero is an inde­pen­dent invest­ment fund that is exclu­si­vely advi­sed by palero capi­tal in Munich and pursues an opera­tio­nal value crea­tion approach. palero curr­ently holds a port­fo­lio of seve­ral plat­form invest­ments with nume­rous compa­nies (Schlaadt Unter­neh­mens­gruppe with Schlaadt Plas­tics, High­Cut and others | Dornier Group with Dornier Power & Heat, Dornier Consul­ting, Suntrace and others | TPEG Tech Power Elec­tro­nics Group with Tech Power Elec­tro­nics, MS Balti Trafo, MS Trans­for­mers India and others | Fischer Söhne AG | GT Group with GTMB and GTB | Wieden­mann Group | Lahmeyer Inter­na­tio­nal GmbH and DOC Offshore). — https://palero.de/

About Reed Smith

Reed Smith is one of the leading inter­na­tio­nal law firms. The firm has been in exis­tence for more than 140 years and compri­ses >30 offices with 3,000 employees, inclu­ding 1,700 lawy­ers in Europe, the USA, the Middle East and Asia.
— www.reedsmith.com

Helsinki (Finland) — NestAI, a Finnish start-up company, has raised around 100 million euros in a finan­cing round led by the Finnish sove­reign wealth fund Tesi and tele­com­mu­ni­ca­ti­ons giant Nokia.

This capi­tal will help NestAI achieve its goal of crea­ting “Euro­pe’s leading physi­cal AI labo­ra­tory” dedi­ca­ted to the deve­lo­p­ment of arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence tech­no­lo­gies for defense and criti­cal infra­struc­ture. Its work focu­ses on unman­ned vehic­les, auto­no­mous opera­ti­ons and advan­ced command and control systems. 

Peter Sarlin founds again

The co-foun­der of NestAI, Peter Sarlin (photo © Silo AI), previously built up the AI start-up Silo AI and sold it to AMD for 665 million dollars. He is now Chair­man of NestAI and also works at AMD. Sarlin supports the startup through his family office Post­Scrip­tum, which provi­ded finan­cial back­ing to NestAI during its stealth phase. 

The tech­no­lo­gi­cal back­bone of NestAI is “physi­cal AI”, where large-scale language models and AI tech­no­lo­gies are applied beyond soft­ware and embedded into robo­tics and physi­cal systems used in real-world defense envi­ron­ments. This sets NestAI apart from compe­ti­tors such as Avalor AI, Aron­dite and Helsing, which focus on purely digi­tal AI applications. 

The NestAI team is top-class

The start-up’s team of around 70 people consists of execu­ti­ves from Intel, Kong­sberg, Palan­tir, Saab and other indus­tries who have the tech­ni­cal and opera­tio­nal exper­tise requi­red to deve­lop AI systems that are robust, secure and inter­ope­ra­ble in mission-criti­cal contexts.

In the future, NestAI plans to signi­fi­cantly expand its physi­cal AI lab while deepe­ning part­ner­ships with Euro­pean armed forces, inclu­ding targe­ted support to the Finnish Armed Forces.

Munich — AURELIUS WK Thirty-One DS GmbH has acqui­red DEMIS GmbH. DEMIS GmbH, based in Wölfers­heim (Hesse), is a specia­li­zed provi­der of tech­ni­cal indus­trial services. The commer­cial law firm Gütt Olk Feld­haus advi­sed AURELIUS WK Thirty-One DS GmbH on the finan­cing of the acqui­si­tion of DEMIS GmbH. 

Since it was foun­ded in 2000 by Sascha Dousa, the company has deve­lo­ped into an estab­lished part­ner to indus­try and is now active at four loca­ti­ons. The port­fo­lio includes the main­ten­ance, repair and moder­niza­tion of indus­trial systems, service for pumps inclu­ding deli­very, instal­la­tion and 24/7 emer­gency assis­tance as well as the repair of elec­tri­cal machi­nes such as motors, gene­ra­tors and trans­for­mers. The range of services is supple­men­ted by TIC tests, inspec­tions and certifications. 

AURELIUS Wachs­tums­ka­pi­tal invests as majo­rity share­hol­der in estab­lished, fast-growing compa­nies in the DACH region. As an active part­ner, AWK supports scaling, inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion and buy-and-build stra­te­gies with flexi­ble capi­tal and opera­tio­nal excel­lence. To date, more than 50 profes­sio­nals have successfully comple­ted over 70 tran­sac­tions. — www.aurelius-group.com

Legal advi­sors to AURELIUS WK Thirty-One DS GmbH: Gütt Olk Feldhaus

Dr. Tilmann Gütt, LL.M. (London) (part­ner, banking/finance law, lead), Katha­rina Pröbstl, LL.M. (London) (senior asso­ciate), Anja Schmidt (asso­ciate) (both banking/finance law). 

About Gütt Olk Feldhaus

Gütt Olk Feld­haus is a leading inter­na­tio­nal law firm based in Munich. We provide compre­hen­sive advice on commer­cial and corpo­rate law. Our focus is on corpo­rate law, M&A, private equity and finan­cing. In these areas of exper­tise, Gütt Olk Feld­haus also provi­des liti­ga­tion services.

Hamburg — Oyster Bay has closed its second fund with a volume of over EUR 100 million. YPOG provi­ded compre­hen­sive legal, tax and regu­la­tory advice to Oyster Bay on the struc­tu­ring of its second gene­ra­tion fund. The fund signi­fi­cantly excee­ded its origi­nal target with a total volume of over EUR 100 million. Leading insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors as well as nume­rous entre­pre­neurs and compa­nies from the natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal agri-food sector have inves­ted in the fund. 

Oyster Bay invests along the entire food value chain — in tech­no­lo­gies, products and busi­ness models that drive the trans­for­ma­tion of the global food system. The food sector is >the worl­d’s largest indus­try, accoun­ting for 10 percent of global econo­mic output, 40 percent of all jobs and USD 10 tril­lion in sales. At the same time, less than eight percent of climate-rela­ted VC invest­ments world­wide have so far gone into food and agri-tech. Oyster Bay speci­fi­cally addres­ses this struc­tu­ral imbalance. 

The new gene­ra­tion of funds has alre­ady inves­ted in seve­ral high-growth food and agri­tech compa­nies, inclu­ding good­Bytz (robo­tics solu­ti­ons for profes­sio­nal kitchens), Nukoko (alter­na­tive cocoa produc­tion), Arda Bioma­te­ri­als (upcy­cling of brewery grain resi­dues) and seeda­live (AI-supported rapid tests to deter­mine seed germi­na­tion capacity).

Oyster Bay’s first gene­ra­tion of funds — also advi­sed by YPOG — inves­ted in compa­nies such as Air-Up, True Gum and Oatly at an early stage and, accor­ding to indus­try bench­marks, is among the most successful ten percent of its Euro­pean peer group.

“The successful launch of the second gene­ra­tion fund under­lines how stron­gly Oyster Bay is posi­tio­ned in the Euro­pean food and agri­tech ecosys­tem,” says Dr. Julian Albrecht, Part­ner at YPOG. “The team combi­nes deep entre­pre­neu­rial know-how with a clear impact ambi­tion. We are deligh­ted to have supported the struc­tu­ring and thus contri­bute to enab­ling inno­va­tive foun­ders to actively drive change in the global food industry.” 

About Oyster Bay

Oyster Bay is a venture capi­tal firm that invests in healthy, sustainable and func­tional food & beverage compa­nies and disrup­tive agri-tech compa­nies. — www.oysterbay.vc

Advi­sor Oyster Bay: YPOG

Dr. Julian Albrecht (Lead, Funds), Part­ner, Hamburg
Dr. Nick Tambu­rello (Funds), Asso­ciate, Hamburg

Munich — Deut­sche Private Equity (DPE) announ­ces the successful sale of its port­fo­lio company Engel­mann Sensor (“Engel­mann”) to Rivean Capi­tal. The exit from DPE Fund IV marks the successful comple­tion of a strong growth phase for the company and is the second sale from the fund laun­ched in 2021. 

Since DPE joined the company five years ago, Engel­mann has deve­lo­ped from a German heat meter specia­list into an inter­na­tio­nal player for sub-meter­ing systems. Since 2021, Engel­mann has signi­fi­cantly expan­ded its inter­na­tio­nal custo­mer base, intro­du­ced new products to the market and more than doubled its EBITDA. 

Sales and tech­no­logy-driven growth

Under the leader­ship of the manage­ment team led by CEO Michael Keuthen, CFO Diet­rich Fabri­cius and CSO Bene­dikt Heid, exten­sive growth and profi­ta­bi­lity initia­ti­ves were imple­men­ted. The company succee­ded in gaining signi­fi­cant market share thanks to its leading product port­fo­lio and excel­lent custo­mer service. 

Engel­mann also laun­ched inno­va­tive products in the areas of water, elec­tro­nic heat cost allo­ca­tors and gate­ways. At the same time, inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion was successfully driven forward in Europe as well as in selec­ted markets such as Canada and the United Arab Emirates. 

The company also set stan­dards in the area of sustaina­bi­lity with the estab­lish­ment of a recy­cling program for elec­tro­nic compon­ents. In addi­tion, produc­tion effi­ci­ency was increased, proces­ses were auto­ma­ted and successful value engi­nee­ring was imple­men­ted in product development. 

“DPE proved to be an excel­lent compa­n­ion. The trus­ting coope­ra­tion was exactly the right foun­da­tion for our sustainable growth and further inde­pen­dence,” says Michael Keuthen, CEO of Engelmann.

“With its diffe­ren­tia­ted product offe­ring and considera­ble growth poten­tial, Engel­mann was a perfect fit for our invest­ment focus. It was a plea­sure to accom­pany the manage­ment on its chal­len­ging growth path,” adds Fabian Rücker, Part­ner and Mana­ging Direc­tor at Deut­sche Private Equity.

Engel­mann is now embar­king on its next growth round with Rivean Capi­tal — the manage­ment remains invol­ved. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the purchase price of the tran­sac­tion. It is subject to the usual condi­ti­ons, inclu­ding appr­oval by the compe­ti­tion authorities. 

Consul­tant DPE:

Houli­han Lokey (M&A), Milbank (Legal), Roland Berger (Commer­cial), Deloitte (Finan­cial) and FGS (Tax).

About Engel­mann

Foun­ded in 1976 in Wies­loch-Baier­tal, Engel­mann offers a fully inte­gra­ted product and service port­fo­lio of heat, cooling and water meters, elec­tro­nic heat cost allo­ca­tors as well as gate­ways, soft­ware and data services. With one of the most compre­hen­sive product ranges on the market, Engel­mann is one of the few provi­ders to offer buil­ding meter­ing service provi­ders a complete end-to-end ecosys­tem. Engel­mann supplies seve­ral million devices to custo­mers world­wide every year. The company supports its custo­mers in effi­ci­ently imple­men­ting the legal requi­re­ments of the EU Energy Effi­ci­ency Direc­tive and enab­ling precise, consump­tion-based billing. 

About Deut­sche Private Equity

Deut­sche Private Equity (DPE) is an inde­pen­dent private equity firm that supports medium-sized compa­nies on their growth path as a part­ner­ship inves­tor. Over the past 18 years, DPE has deve­lo­ped into one of the largest growth inves­tors in the DACH region and curr­ently mana­ges total assets of over €3 billion. The core of DPE’s invest­ment stra­tegy lies in the areas of indus­trial tech­no­logy, busi­ness services, IT and soft­ware, health­care, energy and envi­ron­men­tal tech­no­logy. Within these sectors, DPE focu­ses on estab­lished compa­nies that hold a strong market posi­tion with a leading product or service offe­ring and offer signi­fi­cant growth poten­tial for the future. DPE is curr­ently inves­t­ing €1 billion from its DPE Fund IV, which focu­ses on medium-sized compa­nies in Germany, Austria and Switz­er­land. — www.dpe.de

About Rivean

Rivean Capi­tal iden­ti­fies compa­nies with poten­tial for acce­le­ra­ted deve­lo­p­ment and offers stra­te­gic inter­na­tio­nal mergers and acqui­si­ti­ons, orga­nic growth initia­ti­ves and struc­tu­ral impro­ve­ments to streng­then successful plat­forms. We offer exten­sive expe­ri­ence across all major indus­try sectors. Assets under manage­ment total around € 5 billion. — https://riveancapital.com/

Tübin­gen — Health­care specia­list SHS Capi­tal, toge­ther with its port­fo­lio company Medi­zin­tech­nik Rostock GmbH (MTR), is acqui­ring Cura­tec Services GmbH, a specia­li­zed provi­der of medi­cal elec­tro­sti­mu­la­tion and reha­bi­li­ta­tion devices.

The aim of the tran­sac­tion is to ensure the successful succes­sion of Cura­tec, to expand MTR’s product port­fo­lio in the field of neuro­lo­gi­cal appli­ca­ti­ons, func­tional elec­tri­cal stimu­la­tion (FES) and incon­ti­nence therapy and to further expand the joint market posi­tion in the field of elec­tri­cal stimulation.

Cura­tec, based in North Rhine-West­pha­lia, has more than 25 years of expe­ri­ence in home elec­tro­sti­mu­la­tion therapy and has earned an excel­lent repu­ta­tion with high-quality medi­cal products, a strong pati­ent-orien­ted service and estab­lished rela­ti­onships with clinics, specia­list prac­ti­ces, home­care provi­ders and statu­tory health insu­rance companies.

“We are deligh­ted that SHS will conti­nue and further expand our busi­ness toge­ther with MTR. Our grea­test concern was to ensure that the trust in the quality of our work that has been built up over many years remains intact and conti­nues to bene­fit the pati­ents who so urgen­tly need our products,” says Cura­tec Mana­ging Direc­tor Rainer Eckert.

“By acqui­ring Cura­tec, we are streng­thening our joint market presence and will have an even more compre­hen­sive product port­fo­lio in the field of elec­tro­sti­mu­la­tion therapy in future. This part­ner­ship crea­tes an excel­lent basis for further growth and the highest quality in pati­ent care,” comm­ents MTR Mana­ging Direc­tor Andreas Mark­schies.

“This acqui­si­tion exem­pli­fies SHS’s approach of successfully leading inno­va­tive medi­cal tech­no­logy compa­nies into the next gene­ra­tion, crea­ting sustainable succes­sion solu­ti­ons and thus secu­ring pati­ent care in the long term. We are deligh­ted to have found a company in Cura­tec that ideally comple­ments MTR both in terms of its product port­fo­lio and its regio­nal presence,” explains SHS Senior Invest­ment Mana­ger Tobias Fuchs (photo: SHS).

About SHS Capital

The sector inves­tor SHS is a private equity provi­der foun­ded in 1993 that makes invest­ments in health­care compa­nies in Europe. The focus of invest­ments is on expan­sion finan­cing, share­hol­der chan­ges and succes­sion situa­tions. “Buil­ding Euro­pean Health­care Cham­pi­ons” is the invest­ment philo­so­phy accor­ding to which SHS finan­ces and deve­lops its port­fo­lio compa­nies. The Tübin­gen-based inves­tor is taking both mino­rity and majo­rity stakes. SHS funds’ natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal inves­tors include pension funds, funds of funds, foun­da­ti­ons, family offices, stra­te­gic inves­tors, entre­pre­neurs and the SHS manage­ment team. The equity or equity-like invest­ment of the AIF amounts to up to € 50 million. Volu­mes in excess of this can be reali­zed with a network of co-inves­tors. In its invest­ment decis­i­ons, SHS places strong empha­sis on the conside­ra­tion of ESG aspects and has ther­e­fore commit­ted itself to the guide­lines of the UN PRI. SHS is curr­ently inves­t­ing from its sixth fund, which was laun­ched in 2022 and has a volume of around € 270m. — www.shs-capital.eu

Munich — Maxburg Betei­li­gun­gen IV GmbH & Co. KG (“Maxburg”), an invest­ment company advi­sed by Maxburg Capi­tal Manage­ment GmbH, has ente­red into a part­ner­ship with AAC Praxis­be­ra­tung AG (“AAC”), the leading soft­ware-based service provi­der for control­ling and audi­ting the billing of physi­ci­ans in the German statu­tory health insu­rance system. POELLATH advi­sed Maxburg on tax law in connec­tion with the transaction. 

AAC, based in Berlin, has been support­ing doctors in private prac­tice for over 20 years in running their prac­ti­ces in an econo­mic­ally secure and trans­pa­rent manner. The company specia­li­zes in billing control­ling as well as plau­si­bi­lity and profi­ta­bi­lity analy­ses for regis­tered doctors of almost all special­ties and medi­cal care centers (MVZ). With the AAC-Praxis­na­vi­ga­tor®, AAC also offers a digi­tal manage­ment tool that helps prac­ti­ces to increase fees and mini­mize risks. The company can look back on many years of exper­tise: over 13,000 prac­ti­ces and nume­rous MVZs have been advi­sed since its foundation. 

With over 50 employees, AAC’s solu­ti­ons not only serve statu­tory health insu­rance compa­nies, but also other segments such as pharmaceuticals.

Maxburg Capi­tal

Maxburg is an invest­ment manage­ment company focu­sed on the German-spea­king region that prima­rily supports compa­nies in part­ner­ship in order to promote sustainable growth. The Maxburg invest­ment compa­nies curr­ently have capi­tal commit­ments tota­ling over EUR 1 billion at their dispo­sal. — www.maxburg.com/

Consul­tant Maxburg: POELLATH 

Gerald Herr­mann (Asso­cia­ted Part­ner, Tax)
‑Jannis Lührs (Senior Asso­ciate, Tax)

www.pplaw.com

Stark Part­ners (M&A): Alex­an­der Kögel

— www.starkpartners.de

Nurem­berg — Future secu­red for DEFACTO GmbH — With the inte­gra­tion of the tech­no­logy busi­ness of the Erlan­gen-based CRM agency Defacto into the Nurem­berg-based Verti­cal Ads Group, a future-orien­ted solu­tion has been reali­zed. The conti­nua­tion of the tech divi­sion and the safe­guar­ding of tech­no­lo­gi­cal know-how are thus on a sustainable basis. 

Concen­tro Manage­ment AG successfully supported the struc­tu­red inves­tor process for DEFACTO GmbH
toge­ther with the insol­vency admi­nis­tra­tor Volker Böhm
of the law firm Schultze & Braun. In Novem­ber, the Verti­cal Ads Group in Nurem­berg took over thetech­ni­cal areas of Defacto. The employees at the
loca­tion in Erlan­gen bene­fit from this solution. 

The Verti­cal Ads Group star­ted as an affi­liate marke­ting network in 2006 and was foun­ded by CEO Ralf
Fischer. Accor­ding to the company, it now employs more than 200 peopleand gene­ra­ted reve­nue of EUR 156 million in 2024. The network opera­tes inter­na­tio­nally and has a total of ten bran­ches in Europe and South America. 

Defacto was foun­ded in Erlan­gen in 2001 and had recently come under pres­sure. Accor­ding to the insol­vency admi­nis­tra­tor, the reason for this was “unfo­re­seeable and short-term decli­nes in turno­ver due to the post­po­ne­ment and cancel­la­tion of plan­ned custo­mer orders”. Defacto was no longer able to close the
resul­ting liqui­dity gap on its own. The subsi­dia­ries Defacto Be/One and Cintel­lic Consul­ting Group are not affec­ted by the insol­vency of Defacto GmbH. 

“We would like to thank ever­yone invol­ved for the profes­sio­nal and trus­ting coope­ra­tion, the consis­t­ently solu­tion-orien­ted dialog, the struc­tu­red approach and the relia­ble and effi­ci­ent hand­ling of the tran­sac­tion,” said Prof. Dr. Alex­an­der Sasse,
Mana­ging Part­ner of Concen­tro Manage­ment AG.

Advi­sor DEFACTO GmbH: Concen­tro Manage­ment AG

Prof. Dr. Alex­an­der Sasse (Mana­ging Part­ner) and his team Johan­nes Dürr (Senior Project Mana­ger), Moritz Pech­stein (Consul­tant) and Barbara Hamela (Exter­nal Advi­sor) mana­ged the tran­sac­tion process. — www.concentro.de

Project team law firm Schultze und Braun:

Lawyer Volker Böhm

Colo­gne — octo­nomy announ­ced the successful closing of a new seed round of 20 million USD. The Colo­gne-based company offers an AI-based work­force that auto­ma­tes the support acti­vi­ties of highly quali­fied specia­lists — from tech­ni­cal support and product consul­ting to field service support — and is aimed at SME and enter­prise custo­mers. The company has thus secu­red one of the highest seed finan­cings in the last 24 months and is one of the most promi­sing German busi­ness AI plat­forms just five months after its market launch. — The round was led by Macqua­rie Capi­tal Venture Capi­tal under the direc­tion of Elmar Broscheit, accom­pa­nied by Capna­mic, NRW.Bank and the Tech­Vi­sion Fund. 

About octo­nomy

Tech­ni­cal docu­men­ta­tion, product manu­als, main­ten­ance instruc­tions, SOPs and compli­ance guide­lines: While conven­tio­nal AI systems hallu­ci­n­ate when it comes to complex corpo­rate know­ledge, octo­nomy has deve­lo­ped a tech­no­logy that under­stands and applies even highly specia­li­zed exper­tise. For the first time, the start-up auto­ma­tes not only simple tasks, but also the acti­vi­ties of highly quali­fied specialists. 

With this seed round, octo­nomy is sending a clear signal of the success of its unique AI plat­form just six months after announ­cing its last pre-seed round of over USD 5 million. This brings octo­no­my’s total funding to 25 million US dollars just five months after ente­ring the market. 

octo­nomy is backed by an expe­ri­en­ced team of tech­no­logy and AI experts: Sushel Bijga­nath (CEO) and Oliver Trabert (CPTO) have alre­ady built up seve­ral tech compa­nies toge­ther with co-foun­ders Thors­ten Grote, Markus Hans­lik and Thomas Bollig. The 70-strong team has exten­sive AI exper­tise, inclu­ding from Meta, Amazon, Aleph Alpha and unicorns such as Perso­nio, Staff­base and Sosafe. 

Digi­tal work­force instead of pilot projects

With the octo­nomy plat­form, AI agents can be deployed quickly and flexi­bly to assist custo­mer service teams and auto­mate sub-proces­ses. octo­nomy goes far beyond simple auto­ma­tion. The plat­form can even process complex tech­ni­cal queries — from engi­neers or mecha­nics, for example. 

The plat­form is based on a tech­no­logy that proces­ses unstruc­tu­red data intel­li­gently and responds with high precis­ion. While stan­dard market models and provi­ders quickly lose context in complex envi­ron­ments and, accor­ding to our custo­mers, are only 50% accu­rate, octo­nomy achie­ves 95%1 — often above the human bench­mark. octo­nomy relies on a proprie­tary tech­no­logy that under­stands even complex specia­list know­ledge and relia­bly auto­ma­tes the support acti­vi­ties of highly quali­fied specia­lists; far beyond stan­dar­di­zed RAG solu­ti­ons. Even compa­nies in complex envi­ron­ments that were previously unable to use a relia­ble AI solu­tion bene­fit from measura­ble relief and increased custo­mer satis­fac­tion — in less than 20 days imple­men­ta­tion time. Thanks to hosting in Germany and full GDPR and EU AI Act compli­ance, octo­no­my’s plat­form also offers maxi­mum data secu­rity and transparency. 

“80 percent2 of all AI projects fail as soon as they become complex. This is exactly where we come in,” explains Sushel Bijga­nath, foun­der and CEO of octo­nomy. “Our agents deli­ver a proven 95+ percent response quality and signi­fi­cantly reduce the workload of teams. With Macqua­rie at our side, we are gaining an inter­na­tio­nal part­ner to make this strength available in Europe and the USA.” 

Capi­tal for expan­sion and product leadership

Just five months after its foun­da­tion, octo­nomy serves corpo­rate and SME custo­mers throug­hout Europe and North America from its offices in Colo­gne, Denver and New York. The funds from this new finan­cing round will prima­rily be used to expand the company’s market leader­ship and to extend its sales and marke­ting struc­tures in the DACH region and the USA. 

“octo­nomy has deve­lo­ped an AI solu­tion that auto­ma­tes complex know­ledge work at expert level. This is not just a further deve­lo­p­ment of the chat­bot, but a real AI revo­lu­tion, espe­ci­ally in the area of tech­ni­cal support,” says Elmar Broscheit, Global Co-Head of Macqua­rie Capi­tal Venture Capi­tal. “octo­nomy shows how complex busi­ness proces­ses with their own intellec­tual property can be auto­ma­ted precis­ely, secu­rely and scalably.” 

“Germany still has enorm­ous poten­tial in the appli­ca­tion of arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence in the corpo­rate context,” says Jörg Binnen­brü­cker, Foun­ding Part­ner of Capna­mic. “octo­nomy is buil­ding an indus­trial tool. They trans­late expert know­ledge into scalable, opera­tio­nal intel­li­gence and make expe­ri­ence produc­tive. This is exactly the kind of tech­no­logy Germany needs to bring AI from rese­arch into value creation.” 

Dr. Ansgar Schlei­cher (photo © TVF), Mana­ging Part­ner Tech­Vi­sion Fonds: “Tech­ni­cal service today faces a double chall­enge: the systems to be main­tai­ned are beco­ming incre­asingly complex, while quali­fied specia­lists are hard to find. This makes it all the more important to complete assign­ments successfully on the first visit. A high first time fix rate is not only an effi­ci­ency factor, but also a decisive compe­ti­tive advan­tage. This is exactly where octo­nomy deli­vers solu­ti­ons that make the difference.”

Thors­ten Reuter, Head of the Digi­tal Economy & Tech­no­logy Divi­sion at NRW.BANK: “With octo­nomy, one of the most promi­sing enter­prise AI compa­nies in Germany is being estab­lished in Colo­gne. The company impres­si­vely demons­tra­tes that North Rhine-West­pha­lia is shaping the future as a strong indus­trial loca­tion and is also play­ing a leading role in pionee­ring AI technologies.”

About TVF

Tech­Vi­sion Fonds (TVF) is the leading early stage venture capi­tal fund from the Rhine­land in Germany with a focus on tech­no­logy start-ups in the pre-seed to Series A phase. TVF focu­ses on outstan­ding teams from the region, inclu­ding the neigh­bor­ing Nether­lands and Belgium. The TVF manage­ment has expe­ri­ence from four gene­ra­ti­ons of funds and curr­ently mana­ges over EUR 100 million in assets. The funds are supported by strong inves­tors such as NRW.BANK, eight savings banks from western NRW and more than 20 successful entrepreneurs. 

The TVF supports startup teams with proxi­mity, network and exper­tise and paves the way for them to become the next inter­na­tio­nal indus­try leaders. Through the S‑UBG Group network, the TVF offers unique access to over 150 successful compa­nies from various indus­tries and estab­lishes cont­acts between start­ups and their first custo­mers, part­ners and advi­sors. — www.tvf.vc

Zug (Switzerland)/ Munich — HOERBIGER has sold its reed valve busi­ness to the Dutch indus­trial holding company Nimbus. Comple­tion of the tran­sac­tion is subject to anti­trust appr­oval. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the purchase price. — A cross-office HEUKING team led by part­ners Prof. Dr. Georg Streit, Dr. Ulrich Jork and Dr. Marc Scheu­ne­mann provi­ded HOERBIGER with compre­hen­sive legal advice on the transaction.

The sale includes Hoer­bi­ger Kompres­sor­tech­nik GmbH (HKS) in Schon­gau, Germany, parts of Hoer­bi­ger Valves (Chang­zhou) Co. Ltd. in China and the Indian reed valve busi­ness. The product divi­sion specia­li­zes in the deve­lo­p­ment and manu­fac­ture of perfor­mance-deter­mi­ning compres­sor compon­ents, which are used in appli­ca­ti­ons such as refri­ge­ra­tion compres­sion and mobile brake air compres­sion. Nimbus is taking over all of the product divi­si­on’s appro­xi­m­ately 300 employees, around 270 of whom work at the Schon­gau site in Germany. 

HEUKIN­G’s advi­sory services also included the legal struc­tu­ring of the carve-out from the HOERBIGER Group as well as advice on nume­rous service and supply contracts with compa­nies in Germany, Austria, Poland, India and China.

Hoer­bi­ger Deutsch­land Holding GmbH is a globally active tech­no­logy company with a focus on compres­sor tech­no­logy, drive tech­no­logy and hydrau­lics. The company pursues the goal of incre­asing effi­ci­ency and safety in nume­rous indus­trial applications. 

Nimbus is a Euro­pean indus­trial holding company with over 20 years of expe­ri­ence in the deve­lo­p­ment of medium-sized indus­trial compa­nies. The company takes a long-term approach and combi­nes capi­tal with opera­tio­nal exper­tise to promote sustainable growth. 

HOERBIGER Inhouse Group Gene­ral Coun­sel Dr. Michael Stel­zel, MSC, MA, CSE led the legal aspects of the tran­sac­tion. In addi­tion, Michael Kull­mann provi­ded compre­hen­sive in-house legal support for the transaction. 

Advi­sor Hoer­bi­ger Deutsch­land Holding GmbH: HEUKING

Prof. Dr. Georg Streit (over­all manage­ment, carve-out),
Dr. Ulrich Jork (co-lead M&A/ Photo © Heuking), both Munich,
Dr. Marc P. Scheu­ne­mann (co-lead M&A), Düsseldorf/Frankfurt,
Dr. Katha­rina Pras­uhn (all corpo­rate law/M&A), Munich,
Dr. Markus Collisy (Envi­ron­ment), Frankfurt,
Markus Schmül­l­ing (labor law), Cologne,
Domi­nik Eicke­meier (IP, Media & Tech­no­logy), Cologne,
Tim Peter­mann (Commer­cial), Hamburg,
Dr. Tilman Span­cken (Real Estate),
Chris­toph Hexel (Labor Law),
Michael Below (Envi­ron­ment), all Düsseldorf,
Dr. Ruth Jung­kind (Anti­trust Law), Munich,
Frank Holl­stein (Commer­cial), Frankfurt,
Dr. Kai Uwe Büch­ler (Restruc­tu­ring), Munich,
Timo Piller (corpo­rate law/M&A),
Anna Schenke (employ­ment law), both Düsseldorf,
Svea Kunz (IP, Media & Tech­no­logy), Cologne
Dr. Karo­lina Badura (M&A), Munich

HOERBIGER Inhouse:
Dr. Michael Stel­zel, MSc, MA, CSE, Execu­tive Vice Presi­dent, Group Gene­ral Coun­sel & Chief Compli­ance Officer
Michael Kull­mann, Head of Legal — Auto­mo­tive Division