Author: Tatjana Anderer

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

Start­seite

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

Frank­furt am Main / Aller­s­berg — Leit­ner Reisen GmbH, a leading provi­der of group tours based in Aller­s­berg in central Fran­co­nia, is posi­tio­ning itself for further growth and is rely­ing on mezza­nine capi­tal from VR Equi­typ­art­ner (VREP). The Frank­furt-based equity finan­cing house has provi­ded Leit­ner Reisen with a double-digit million amount, which the company intends to invest in various growth steps. 

Leit­ner Reisen GmbH, based in Aller­s­berg near Nurem­berg, has been offe­ring orga­ni­zed group and adven­ture tours for more than 75 years. The program includes coach, air and boat trips, mainly within Europe. In addi­tion to cultu­ral and round trips, the offer also includes city trips as well as spa and well­ness stays. Awards such as the recent award of the “Quality Winner 2025” seal from the German Insti­tute for Service Quality are proof of its success. Perso­nal service, clear proces­ses and good value for money have helped the company gain a loyal custo­mer base in German-spea­king count­ries. Leit­ner Reisen is parti­cu­larly strong in the best ager segment. The former family busi­ness has been owned by a fund advi­sed by ECM Equity Capi­tal Manage­ment since 2014; Rafael Baer (Finance, HR, IT, Sales) and Fabian Schre­der (Product & Opera­ti­ons) have been mana­ging the company since 2024. 

“Medium-sized compa­nies on a growth path are curr­ently incre­asingly reco­gni­zing the advan­ta­ges of mezza­nine capi­tal as an alter­na­tive form of finan­cing. It offers flexi­ble condi­ti­ons adapted to the respec­tive busi­ness model, has the charac­ter of equity and preser­ves the exis­ting share­hol­der struc­ture,” says VREP Mana­ging Direc­tor Chris­tian Futter­lieb. “We are deligh­ted that we can also support Leit­ner Reisen with this — a tradi­tio­nal and exci­ting company with a lot of growth potential.” 

The parties have agreed not to disc­lose details of the contract.

VR Equi­typ­art­ner at a glance

VR Equi­typ­art­ner is one of the leading equity finan­ciers in Germany, Austria and Switz­er­land. The company supports medium-sized family busi­nesses in a goal-orien­ted manner and with deca­des of expe­ri­ence in the stra­te­gic solu­tion of complex finan­cing issues. Invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties include growth and expan­sion finan­cing, corpo­rate succes­sion or share­hol­der chan­ges. VR Equi­typ­art­ner offers majo­rity and mino­rity invest­ments as well as mezza­nine finan­cing. As a subsi­diary of DZ BANK, the central insti­tu­tion of the coope­ra­tive banks in Germany, VR Equi­typ­art­ner consis­t­ently puts the sustaina­bi­lity of corpo­rate deve­lo­p­ment ahead of short-term exit thin­king. VR Equi­typ­art­ner’s port­fo­lio curr­ently compri­ses around 40 commit­ments with an invest­ment volume of EUR 400 million.
Further infor­ma­tion can be found at www.vrep.de.

The tran­sac­tion team at VR Equitypartner:

Thiemo Bisch­off, Alex­an­der Koch, Sebas­tian Leker, Jens Schöf­fel, Simone Weck, Dr. Clau­dia Willershausen

Berlin/ Stutt­gart — YPOG advi­sed Cherry Ventures, UVC Part­ners and imec.xpand on the expan­sion of the Series A finan­cing round of Stutt­gart-based photo­nics startup Q.ANT. With the new capi­tal raise, the total volume of the Series A finan­cing increa­ses to over USD 80 million, making Q.ANT the largest finan­cing in the field of photo­nic compu­ting in Europe to date. 

Q.ANT GmbH, a high-tech company and pioneer in the field of photo­nic compu­ting, is taking its vision of a sustainable photo­nic AI infra­struc­ture to the next level with this successful finan­cing round. The current finan­cing round was supported by the exis­ting inves­tors and streng­the­ned by the newly joined Duquesne Family Office. The rene­wed commit­ment under­lines the confi­dence in Q.ANT’s tech­no­logy plat­form and growth stra­tegy. The finan­cing comes in a chal­len­ging market envi­ron­ment and marks a signi­fi­cant mile­stone for the Euro­pean deep tech scene. 

Q.ANT deve­lops photo­nic chips for high-perfor­mance appli­ca­ti­ons and plans to use the capi­tal now provi­ded to signi­fi­cantly expand its produc­tion capa­ci­ties at the Stutt­gart site and signi­fi­cantly acce­le­rate the further deve­lo­p­ment of the photo­nic AI infra­struc­ture. At the same time, the deve­lo­p­ment of further inno­va­tive fields of appli­ca­tion and part­ner­ships is to be driven forward. 

Back in July 2025, YPOG provi­ded compre­hen­sive support to inves­tors Cherry Ventures, UVC Part­ners and imec.xpand in Q.ANT’s EUR 62 million finan­cing round.

About Cherry Ventures

Cherry Ventures is a leading Euro­pean venture capi­tal fund based in Berlin, London and Stock­holm. Since its foun­da­tion in 2013, Cherry Ventures has been inves­t­ing in inno­va­tive start-up teams from the early stage sector. The port­fo­lio compri­ses over 130 compa­nies, inclu­ding Flix­Bus, Auto1 and Moss. Cherry Ventures curr­ently mana­ges a USD 500 million fund and supports start-ups through all stages of growth. — https://cherry.vc

About UVC Partners

UVC Part­ners is a leading venture capi­tal firm that invests in Euro­pean B2B tech start-ups and has offices in Munich and Berlin. With over EUR 600 million in assets under manage­ment, the VC typi­cally makes initial invest­ments of between EUR 1 and 10 million and invests a total of up to EUR 30 million per startup — parti­cu­larly in the areas of DeepT­ech, Clima­te­Tech, mobi­lity and software/AI. As an inde­pen­dent part­ner of Unter­neh­mer­TUM, Euro­pe’s leading startup hub, UVC Part­ners has unique access to exclu­sive deal flow, more than 1,000 compa­nies and SMEs as well as talent from the Tech­ni­cal Univer­sity of Munich, one of the best tech­ni­cal univer­si­ties in Europe. UVC Part­ners’ invest­ment port­fo­lio includes Flix, Isar Aero­space, planqc, Proxima Fusion, Reverion, Tacto, TWAICE, Deep­Drive, STABL and many more. All port­fo­lio compa­nies and their foun­ders bene­fit from the team’s exten­sive invest­ment and exit expe­ri­ence, their ability to build sustainable cate­gory leaders and the Unter­neh­mer­TUM network that acce­le­ra­tes market entry. — https://www.uvcpartners.com

About imec.xpand

imec.xpand is a global venture capi­tal fund based in Leuven, Belgium, specia­li­zing in ground­brea­king inno­va­tions in semi­con­duc­tor and nano­tech­no­logy. imec.xpand invests in compa­nies with disrup­tive poten­tial world­wide and supports foun­ding teams in acces­sing state-of-the-art infra­struc­ture and inter­na­tio­nal networks. The current fund amounts to EUR 300 million and includes nume­rous pionee­ring compa­nies driving inno­va­tion in photo­nics and arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence. — https://imecxpand.com/

Advi­sors Cherry Ventures, UVC Part­ners and imec.xpand : YPOG

Benja­min Ullrich(Co-Lead, Tran­sac­tions), Part­ner, Berlin
Dr. Emma Peters (Co-Lead, Tran­sac­tions), Asso­cia­ted Part­ner, Berlin
Dr. Niklas Ulrich (Funds), Asso­cia­ted Part­ner, Hamburg
Benja­min von Mangoldt (Funds), Asso­ciate, Berlin
There­sia Hein­rich (Corpo­rate), Senior Asso­ciate, Hamburg
Silke Ricken (Corpo­rate), Asso­ciate, Berlin

https://www.ypog.law

Advi­sor ERNST & CIE Die Unter­neh­mer AG on the sale of Ernst Plas­tics Group to KB Compon­ents: BELGRAVIA & CO.

About BELGRAVIA & Co.

We are an inde­pen­dent, inter­na­tio­nally active M&A and corpo­rate finance consul­tancy specia­li­zing in SME manda­tes with a high level of stra­te­gic exper­tise. — https://www.belgravia-co.com/

Frank­furt am Main — Funds advi­sed by Deut­sche Betei­li­gungs AG (DBAG) toge­ther with Five Arrows, the alter­na­tive invest­ments divi­sion of Roth­schild & Co, are acqui­ring UK-based Total­mo­bile Limi­ted (Total­mo­bile) — a leading global provi­der of field services manage­ment soft­ware — from Bowmark Capi­tal. — Comple­tion is still subject to regu­la­tory appr­ovals and is expec­ted to take place in the first quar­ter of 2026. 

Total­mo­bile and the market

Total­mo­bile was foun­ded in 1985 in Belfast, UK, and is a leading global provi­der of field services manage­ment soft­ware. More than 500,000 users rely on the company’s soft­ware solu­ti­ons every day. With its 100 percent cloud-based Field First plat­form, Total­mo­bile enables its appro­xi­m­ately 900 custo­mers to opti­mize their proces­ses, increase effi­ci­ency and achieve a signi­fi­cant return on their investment. 

Total­mo­bile is parti­cu­larly strong in the public sector, where it serves custo­mers from the health­care and housing sectors as well as various emer­gency services. The company is pursuing an expan­sive growth stra­tegy in Austra­lia and New Zealand in order to further expand this group. The addres­sed core market is gene­ra­ting double-digit growth rates and is bene­fiting from a posi­tive regu­la­tory envi­ron­ment, the ongo­ing tran­si­tion to cloud-based solu­ti­ons and the demand for further profes­sio­na­liza­tion of field service proces­ses. Total­mo­bile is ideally posi­tio­ned for this growth and at the same time has a robust busi­ness model with a high propor­tion of recur­ring revenue. 

Jannick Hune­cke, member of the Manage­ment Board of Deut­sche Betei­li­gungs AG, says: “We will further expand Total­mo­bile ‘s leading posi­tion for intel­li­gent, networked soft­ware solu­ti­ons in close coope­ra­tion with Total­mo­bi­le’s manage­ment and Five Arrows. Follo­wing the invest­ment in MAIT, a leading digi­ta­liza­tion part­ner for SMEs, this tran­sac­tion is a further expan­sion of our invol­vement in the IT services and soft­ware sector. This follows an invest­ment logic based on scaling, product depth and resi­li­ent busi­ness models.” 

Deut­sche Betei­li­gungs AG (DBAG), which has been listed on the stock exch­ange since 1985, is one of the most renow­ned private equity compa­nies in Germany. As an inves­tor and fund advi­sor, DBAG’s invest­ment focus has tradi­tio­nally been on medium-sized compa­nies with a focus on well-posi­tio­ned compa­nies with deve­lo­p­ment poten­tial, prima­rily in the DACH region. The sector focus is on produ­cers of indus­trial goods, indus­trial service provi­ders and Indus­try­Tech compa­nies — i.e. compa­nies whose products enable auto­ma­tion, robo­tics and digi­ta­liza­tion — as well as compa­nies from the IT services, soft­ware, health­care, envi­ron­ment, energy and infra­struc­ture sectors. DBAG has also been active in Italy since 2020 and has had its own office in Milan since 2021. Assets mana­ged or advi­sed by the DBAG Group amount to appro­xi­m­ately 2.6 billion euros. ELF Capi­tal comple­ments DBAG’s range of flexi­ble finan­cing solu­ti­ons for SMEs with private debt capital.

Düssel­dorf — ARQIS has provi­ded compre­hen­sive legal advice to the CEO and sole share­hol­der of Herbrig & Co. GmbH, Chris­toph Herbrig — a leading manu­fac­tu­rer of high-quality precis­ion turned parts — on the sale of a majo­rity stake to Borro­min Capi­tal Manage­ment GmbH. Borro­min Capi­tal Fund V SCSp, a fund advi­sed by Borro­min Capi­tal Manage­ment, has acqui­red a stake in the company. Chris­toph Herbrig and the exis­ting manage­ment team will conti­nue to run the company. 

Herbrig & Co. GmbH is one of the leading manu­fac­tu­r­ers of high-quality precis­ion turned parts and has been a relia­ble system part­ner for nume­rous inter­na­tio­nal tech­no­logy compa­nies for many years, inclu­ding those in the sensor, elec­tri­cal engi­nee­ring and e‑mobility sectors. The company, head­quar­te­red in Alten­berg, Saxony, employs around 200 people at three locations. 

Borro­min Capi­tal Manage­ment GmbH, based in Frankfurt/Main, is a private equity company that invests prima­rily in medium-sized compa­nies in German-spea­king Europe and the Bene­lux count­ries. Borro­min has been inves­t­ing in profi­ta­ble compa­nies from a wide range of sectors since 2001. 

An ARQIS team led by Dr. Jörn-Chris­tian Schulze provi­ded compre­hen­sive legal advice to the CEO and sole share­hol­der of Herbrig & Co. GmbH on this tran­sac­tion. MAYLAND AG, on whose recom­men­da­tion ARQIS was manda­ted as legal advi­sor, acted as M&A advi­sor and litigator. 

Advi­sor Herbrig & Co. GmbH: ARQIS (Düssel­dorf)

Dr. Jörn-Chris­tian Schulze (Part­ner, Lead), Thomas Chwa­lek (Part­ner), Ivo Erte­kin (Asso­ciate, all Tran­sac­tions, core team), Part­ners: Johan­nes Landry (Finan­cing), Dr. Ulrich Lien­hard (Real Estate), Marcus Noth­hel­fer (IP, Munich), Coun­sel: Chris­tian Judis (Compli­ance, Munich), Jens Knip­ping (Tax), Martin Wein­gärt­ner (Tran­sac­tions), Mana­ging Asso­cia­tes: Dr. Maxi­mi­lian Back­haus (Tran­sac­tions), Tim Brese­mann (Real Estate), Dr. Bern­hard Gröhe (Regu­la­tory), Rolf Tichy (IP, Munich), Asso­ciate: Dr. Julia Wild­gans (IP, Munich)

About ARQIS

ARQIS is an inde­pen­dent commer­cial law firm that opera­tes inter­na­tio­nally. Around 80 lawy­ers and legal specia­lists advise dome­stic and foreign compa­nies at the highest level on German, Euro­pean and Japa­nese commer­cial law. With its focus groups Tran­sac­tions, HR Law, Japan, Data Law, Risk and Regu­la­tory, the firm is geared towards provi­ding its clients with compre­hen­sive advice. The law firm was foun­ded in 2006 and has offices in Düssel­dorf, Munich and Tokyo as well as a talent hub in Berlin. http://www.arqis.com.

Karlsruhe/Hartberg — LEA beco­mes the new owner of TAC, the leading soft­ware provi­der for hotel spas, pools and fitness clubs based in Hart­berg (Austria). LEA is a leading stra­te­gic growth part­ner for B2B SaaS compa­nies in the DACH region. — Morgan Lewis advi­sed LEA Part­ners on the acqui­si­tion of the Austrian soft­ware provi­der TAC. 

TAC supports over 1,200 custo­mers world­wide in opti­mi­zing opera­tio­nal proces­ses and offe­ring guests a seam­less, high-quality expe­ri­ence. Through the conti­nuous deve­lo­p­ment of its products, TAC now offers a highly modu­lar plat­form that covers all of its custo­mers’ soft­ware needs from a single source — from reser­va­tions and resource plan­ning to member­ship manage­ment, access control, cash regis­ter func­tions and payment processing. 

LEA plans to conti­nue the company at the Hart­berg and Vienna loca­ti­ons toge­ther with the exis­ting manage­ment team and to bene­fit from struc­tu­ral market deve­lo­p­ments such as the increased focus on healthcare.

Thomas Röss­ler, foun­der and Mana­ging Direc­tor of TAC, explains: “In LEA, we have found the ideal part­ner to conti­nue TAC’s success story. It was clear from the very first discus­sions that our visi­ons and values are a perfect match. Toge­ther, we are pursuing the goal of consis­t­ently imple­men­ting our ambi­tious growth plans and further expan­ding our leading market posi­tion in the leisure industry.”

Jan Huber from LEA empha­si­zes: “TAC is a clear exam­ple of the importance of conti­nuous product invest­ment and a well-coor­di­na­ted team in achie­ving market leader­ship. We were imme­dia­tely impres­sed by the clear custo­mer bene­fits and deep func­tion­a­lity of TAC, which toge­ther build on long-stan­ding custo­mer rela­ti­onships. We are very plea­sed that the TAC team is once again taking a substan­tial stake in the company as part of the tran­sac­tion and that we can make a signi­fi­cant contri­bu­tion to further growth as a spar­ring partner.”

Advi­sor LEA Part­ners: Morgan Lewis 

Sebas­tian Dexhei­mer (lead, private equity), Dr. Walter Ahrens (employ­ment law), Dr. Michael Masling (anti­trust law), Dr. Tors­ten Schwarze (finance; all Frank­furt) and Dr. Jann Jetter (tax law, Munich) as well as asso­cia­tes Mari­anne Milo­va­nov (private equity), Sarah-Loreen Krüger (M&A), Leon­hard Seifert (anti­trust law; all Frank­furt), Emma Drago­mi­rova and Vikto­ria Ritter (both tax law, Munich).

About TAC

Foun­ded in 2001, TAC is one of the market leaders in soft­ware solu­ti­ons for hotel spas, pools and fitness clubs. With more than 1,200 inter­na­tio­nal custo­mers, TAC is in use in over 70 count­ries and on five conti­nents — supported in 18 languages. The modu­lar all-in-one soft­ware plat­form is opti­mally tail­o­red to the needs of well­ness faci­li­ties and helps to opti­mize proces­ses and improve the custo­mer expe­ri­ence. In addi­tion to its high func­tional depth and relia­bi­lity, TAC is charac­te­ri­zed by 24/7 custo­mer support. — www.tac.eu.com

About LEA

With more than EUR 2 billion in commit­ted capi­tal, LEA, as an entre­pre­neu­rial equity part­ner, supports foun­ders and manage­ment teams at various stages of deve­lo­p­ment in their growth and in achie­ving a leading market posi­tion. Since 2016, the 35-strong team from Karls­ruhe has successfully supported more than 120 tech­no­logy compa­nies. — www.leapartners.de

About Morgan Lewis

Morgan Lewis stands for outstan­ding service, legal inno­va­tion and excep­tio­nal commit­ment to its clients. With more than 2,200 lawy­ers, the firm provi­des highly quali­fied legal advice to multi­na­tio­nal corpo­ra­ti­ons and start-ups in the United States, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. — www.morganlewis.com

Berlin — YPOG has advi­sed Munich-based private equity mana­ger Armira, which specia­li­zes in part­ner­ships with entre­pre­neu­rial and family-run “hidden cham­pi­ons”, on the struc­tu­ring and launch of its latest fund­rai­sing program. The fund was closed above the hard cap and reaches a total volume of EUR 1 billion inclu­ding co-invest­ments. With this deal, the Armira plat­form now mana­ges around 5 billion euros in capi­tal. The signi­fi­cant over­sub­scrip­tion under­lines the contin­ued high demand from insti­tu­tio­nal and private inves­tors for Armi­ra’s entre­pre­neu­rial invest­ment model. 

Armira provi­des flexi­ble capi­tal of between 10 million and 1 billion euros and invests in both mino­rity and majo­rity share­hol­dings in order to support compa­nies at decisive turning points — from growth acce­le­ra­tion and inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion to succes­sion and trans­for­ma­tion proces­ses. In Germany, the private equity mana­ger acqui­red the Munich-based data trans­fer specia­list FTAPI for 65 million euros toge­ther with the French finan­cial inves­tor Tike­hau. Toge­ther with the billionaire Viess­mann family, Armira acqui­red a stake in the Greek gene­rics manu­fac­tu­rer Pharos. 

The project marks another mile­stone in the long-stan­ding coope­ra­tion between YPOG and Armira and included inte­gra­ted legal, regu­la­tory and tax advice across the entire invest­ment platform.

“Placing a billion-dollar fund in the current market situa­tion is a strong sign of Armi­ra’s entre­pre­neu­rial model — and of the effi­ci­ent, trust-based colla­bo­ra­tion between our teams,” commen­ted Dr. Stephan Bank, Part­ner at YPOG. “Armi­ra’s latest fund­rai­sing is an important step in the plat­for­m’s deve­lo­p­ment and we are proud to have helped shape a fund struc­ture that will support Armi­ra’s next phase of growth,” added Dr. Helder Schnitt­ker, Part­ner at YPOG. 

About Armira

Armira is a Euro­pean private equity firm specia­li­zing in part­ner­ships with entre­pre­neu­rial and family-owned “hidden cham­pi­ons”. It is supported by an exclu­sive network of entre­pre­neurs and long-term family inves­tors — now comple­men­ted by inter­na­tio­nal entre­pre­neu­rial fami­lies and insti­tu­tio­nal long-term inves­tors — and provi­des capi­tal for all stages of a company, from mino­rity finan­cing for growth to majo­rity invest­ments. Armira pursues a consis­tent value crea­tion approach based on the para­me­ters of perfor­mance, people and acquisition.
The mana­ging direc­tors of the gene­ral part­ner Armira Betei­li­gun­gen Verwal­tungs GmbH are
Alex­an­der Sche­mann, Chris­tian Bailly (photo: Armira/ tonies) and Dr. Björn-Eric Förs­ter — www.armira.de/en/

Advi­sor Armira: YPOG

Dr. Stephan Bank (Co-Lead, Corporate/Structuring), Part­ner, Berlin
Dr. Helder Schnitt­ker (Co-Lead, Tax/Structuring) , Part­ner, Berlin
Lenn­art Lorenz (Co-Lead, Regu­la­tory), Part­ner, Hamburg
Jens Kretz­schmann (Funds), Part­ner, Berlin
Dr. Michael Fili­po­wicz (Funds), Asso­cia­ted Part­ner, Berlin
Dr. Niklas Ulrich (Funds), Asso­cia­ted Part­ner, Hamburg
Dr. Dajo Sanning (Funds), Senior Asso­ciate, Hamburg
Dr. Wolf­ram Dickers­bach (Funds) Senior Asso­ciate, Hamburg
Axel Zirn (Funds), Senior Asso­ciate, Berlin
Falk Bothe (Funds), Asso­ciate, Berlin
Benja­min von Mangoldt (Funds), Asso­ciate, Berlin
Nico­las Fischer (Funds), Asso­ciate, Berlin
Robert Schramm (Funds), Senior Asso­ciate, Berlin
Sylwia Luszc­zek (Funds), Senior Project Lawyer, Berlin
Marthe Oestrei­cher (Legal Opera­ti­ons), Senior Project Lawyer, Berlin

About YPOG

YPOG stands for You + Part­ners of Game­ch­an­gers and forward-looking tax and legal advice. The firm advi­ses compa­nies focu­sed on future tech­no­lo­gies with the aim of using change as an oppor­tu­nity and jointly crea­ting opti­mal solu­ti­ons. The YPOG team offers compre­hen­sive exper­tise in the areas of Funds, Tax, Tran­sac­tions, Corpo­rate, Banking, Regu­la­tory + Finance, IP/IT/Data Protec­tion, Liti­ga­tion as well as Corpo­rate Crime + Compli­ance + Inves­ti­ga­ti­ons. YPOG is one of the leading addres­ses in Germany for venture capi­tal, private equity, fund struc­tu­ring and appli­ca­ti­ons of distri­bu­ted ledger tech­no­logy (DLT) in finan­cial services. YPOG employs more than 180 expe­ri­en­ced lawy­ers, tax advi­sors and tax specia­lists as well as a notary in its offices in Berlin, Hamburg, Colo­gne, Munich, Cambridge and London. — www.ypog.law

Munich/London — IT service provi­der Allgeier SE is selling its Mana­ged Services busi­ness with a turno­ver of around EUR 50 million to inves­tor Synova. The company is thus focu­sing more on its core tech­no­lo­gi­cal exper­tise — soft­ware, AI and digi­tal plat­forms. POELLATH advi­sed Allgeier SE on the legal and tax aspects of the sale. 

Munich-based Allgeier Public SE, a subsi­diary of Allgeier SE, has taken a further step in its stra­te­gic realignment. As announ­ced by the company, contracts were signed today with the private equity inves­tor Synova for the sale of Allgeier IT Services GmbH. The closing of the tran­sac­tion is expec­ted to take place in the coming weeks. 

The dive­s­ted busi­ness specia­li­zes in the provi­sion of mana­ged services for medium-sized custo­mers and gene­ra­tes a sales volume of around EUR 50 million. Accor­ding to Allgeier, the valua­tion of the company is in the upper double-digit million euro range. With the sale, Allgeier is parting with a profi­ta­ble divi­sion that is no longer part of the Group’s stra­te­gic core. 

For the Allgeier Group, the tran­sac­tion is a further mile­stone in the ongo­ing focu­sing process follo­wing the sale of the person­nel services busi­ness in 2024.

Allgeier concen­tra­tes on two segments

Follo­wing the sales, Allgeier is left with two Group segments: Enter­prise IT and mgm tech­no­logy part­ners. Over 3,100 employees work in these segments at 48 loca­ti­ons world­wide. In the 2024 finan­cial year, the conti­nuing opera­ti­ons gene­ra­ted reve­nue of EUR 403 million. This is a solid basis, but not outstan­ding growth. 

In future, the company will focus even more stron­gly on its core busi­ness — the design, deve­lo­p­ment and support of complex soft­ware solu­ti­ons and AI-based plat­form tech­no­lo­gies for the digi­ta­liza­tion of busi­ness and admi­nis­tra­tive processes.

Oliver Bevan, Part­ner at Synova, commen­ted: “AITS has made impres­sive achie­ve­ments in recent years and has an exci­ting vision to conso­li­date the highly frag­men­ted German IT services market. Synova is deligh­ted to be joining Marc and the AITS team in this exci­ting new chapter.”

This tran­sac­tion is Syno­va’s first plat­form deal in Germany and its second in the DACH region, follo­wing its invest­ment in Basel-based Avan­tra. This unders­cores Syno­va’s commit­ment to support­ing excep­tio­nal manage­ment teams in Euro­pe’s most attrac­tive growth markets and sectors. — https://www.synova.pe/

Advi­sor Allgeier SE: POELLATH

Dr.Tim Jung­in­ger, LL.M. (Part­ner, Lead, M&A/Private Equity, Munich)
‑Dr. Domi­nik Gerli­cher, LL.M. (Coun­sel, Co-Lead, M&A/Private Equity, Munich)
‑Gerald Herr­mann (Asso­cia­ted Part­ner, Tax, Munich)
‑Chris­tine Funk (Coun­sel, IP/IT, Frank­furt aM)
‑Jannis Lührs (Senior Asso­ciate, Tax, Munich)
‑Marvin Ritt­meier (Asso­ciate, M&A/Private Equity, Munich) 

About POELLATH

POELLATH is a leading, inter­na­tio­nally networked commer­cial and tax law firm with over 180 legal and tax profes­sio­nals in Berlin, Frank­furt and Munich. We stand for excel­lent advice on tran­sac­tions and asset manage­ment — legal and tax from a single source. Our specia­li­zed prac­tice groups not only know the law — toge­ther with our clients we shape best prac­ti­ces in the market. Natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal rankings regu­larly list us as a leading law firm in our selec­ted areas of law. — www.pplaw.de