Author: Tatjana Anderer

Berlin — FoodLabs has closed its third venture capi­tal fund with a volume of over EUR 105 million. FoodLabs is a Euro­pean early stage inves­tor and venture studio specia­li­zing in invest­ments in the food, health and sustaina­bi­lity sectors. The approach combi­nes venture capi­tal with active venture buil­ding and a strong indus­trial network. Invest­ments are made along the entire value chain of the food indus­try — in parti­cu­lar in tech­no­lo­gies, infra­struc­ture and scalable busi­ness models that bring inno­va­tion effi­ci­ently from rese­arch to the market. 

With the third fund FoodLabs is further expan­ding this approach. The fund is supported by stra­te­gic indus­try part­ners such as Rewe Group, Henkel and Bitbur­ger Holding as well as the Euro­pean Invest­ment Fund and Renten­bank, among others, and addres­ses topics such as agri­cul­tu­ral tech­no­logy appli­ca­ti­ons, indus­trial auto­ma­tion, new produc­tion and proces­sing tech­no­lo­gies as well as market-ready solu­ti­ons in the field of nutri­tion and health. 

YPOG advi­sed FoodLabs in parti­cu­lar on the legal struc­tu­ring of the fund, inclu­ding the design of the fund and manage­ment struc­ture and the imple­men­ta­tion of regu­la­tory requirements.

“For initia­tors who combine venture capi­tal funds and indus­trial co-inves­tors with venture buil­ding, the struc­tu­ring is much more complex than with tradi­tio­nal VC funds. It is a matter of balan­cing econo­mic inte­rests, gover­nance struc­tures and regu­la­tory requi­re­ments in such a way that they enable long-term growth and at the same time reflect the stra­te­gic added value of the indus­trial part­ners. FoodLabs pursues a clear and profes­sio­nal approach here, which we were happy to support in struc­tu­ring the third fund,” says Jens Kretz­schmann, Part­ner at YPOG.

Consul­tant FoodLabs: YPOG

Jens Kretz­schmann (Lead, Funds), Part­ner, Berlin
Michael Blank (Funds), Asso­cia­ted Part­ner, Berlin
Johan­nes Gehring (Funds), Asso­ciate, Berlin
Alina Shchukina (Funds), Legal Project Mana­ger, Berlin

About FoodLabs

FoodLabs is an early-stage venture capi­tal fund and venture studio based in Europe with a growing inter­na­tio­nal presence. FoodLabs works with foun­ders to turn scien­ti­fic breakth­roughs into indus­tri­ally viable compa­nies that contri­bute to a more resi­li­ent, safer and healt­hier food system. The team invests along the entire food value chain, combi­ning seed capi­tal with hands-on opera­tio­nal support with a “from mole­cule to market” approach. Since its foun­ding in 2016, FoodLabs has supported more than 90 early-stage start­ups and worked with foun­ders to over­come tech­ni­cal, regu­la­tory and opera­tio­nal chal­lenges early on. — www.foodlabs.com

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. The firm and its part­ners are regu­larly reco­gni­zed by renow­ned publi­ca­ti­ons such as JUVE, Best Lawy­ers, Cham­bers and Part­ners, Leaders League and Legal 500. 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. — ypog.com

 

Frank­furt a. M. — Will­kie Farr & Gallag­her LLP has advi­sed Blackstone Growth (“BxG”) on its invest­ment in the Series F finan­cing round of French fintech company Pennylane SAS (“Pennylane”), which builds and opera­tes an inte­gra­ted finan­cial manage­ment and accoun­ting plat­form aimed prima­rily at small and medium-sized enter­pri­ses and accoun­ting firms.

Pennylane was valued at appro­xi­m­ately EUR 3.5 billion (fully diluted) in the EUR 175 million Series F finan­cing round. As part of the invest­ment, BxG acqui­red addi­tio­nal shares in exis­ting Pennylane compa­nies. Pennylan­e’s plat­form acts as a unified “finan­cial opera­ting system” where busi­ness owners and their accoun­tants can colla­bo­rate in a shared workspace. It uses auto­ma­tion and AI to reduce manual tasks such as data entry, bank recon­ci­lia­tion, docu­ment proces­sing and tran­sac­tion cate­go­riza­tion. Pennylane also offers busi­ness account func­tion­a­lity and payment tools, often in part­ner­ship with licen­sed finan­cial insti­tu­ti­ons, so custo­mers can make payments, manage tran­sac­tions and even issue profes­sio­nal payment cards — all on the same platform. 

Blackstone Growth is an expe­ri­en­ced growth equity inves­tor with offices in New York City (head­quar­ters), San Fran­cisco, London and Tel Aviv, acqui­ring and inves­t­ing in compa­nies with proven busi­ness models in the follo­wing five sectors: Finan­cial Services, Consu­mer Products, Enter­prise Soft­ware, Health­care and Consu­mer Technology.

Advi­sor to Blackstone: Will­kie Farr & Gallag­her LLP

The Will­kie team was led by part­ner Dr. Kamyar Abrar (Frank­furt) and compri­sed part­ners Ed Fernan­dez, Hugo Noce­rino (both Paris), Dr. Michael Ilter (Frank­furt), coun­sel Sebas­tian Bren­ner (Frank­furt) and asso­ciate Sylvain Bureau (Paris).

About WILLKIE

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

Hamburg/ Frankfurt/ Berlin/ Luxem­bourg — DTCP, a global invest­ment manage­ment plat­form with more than €3 billion in assets under manage­ment, announ­ced the launch of Project Liberty, its eighth fund and the first dedi­ca­ted exclu­si­vely to defense, secu­rity and resi­li­ence tech­no­lo­gies. YPOG acted as legal advi­sor to DTCP on the launch of Project Liberty. With a target volume of EUR 500 million, Project Liberty is the largest priva­tely mana­ged venture capi­tal fund in Europe focu­sed exclu­si­vely on invest­ments in this segment. 

The fund is inde­pendently mana­ged by DTCP and is aimed at insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors, family offices and corpo­rate inves­tors. The aim is to support the growth of high-performing Euro­pean defense and dual-use tech­no­logy compa­nies and to contri­bute to Euro­pe’s long-term tech­no­lo­gi­cal perfor­mance and secu­rity resilience. 

While Europe remains the clear invest­ment focus, Project Liberty can also selec­tively invest in defense and secu­rity tech­no­lo­gies of NATO member states and close allies when these invest­ments are of stra­te­gic importance to Euro­pean secu­rity interests.

DTCP’s exis­ting port­fo­lio alre­ady includes defense and secu­rity tech­no­logy compa­nies such as Quan­tum Systems, Anomali and Axonius.

Vicente Vento, CEO of DTCP, commen­ted: “Project Liberty repres­ents a highly consis­tent exten­sion of our role as a specia­li­zed invest­ment plat­form. Defense and resi­li­ence have been conver­ging with tech­no­logy and infra­struc­ture invest­ments for more than a decade-precis­ely where DTCP has deep exper­tise and multi­ple touch­points with the defense indus­try through DTCP Growth and DTCP Infra. There are few areas that fit more natu­rally with our exis­ting platforms. 

At the same time, we see an attrac­tive long-term invest­ment oppor­tu­nity. For deca­des, Europe has inves­ted too little in defense, while geopo­li­ti­cal risks have steadily increased. At the same time, we are expe­ri­en­cing profound tech­no­lo­gi­cal change across the entire value chain — from surveil­lance and sensor tech­no­logy to soft­ware-defi­ned systems, advan­ced mate­ri­als, auto­no­mous plat­forms and satel­lite and commu­ni­ca­ti­ons infrastructure. 

Now that the major Western govern­ments have embarked on a long-term and irrever­si­ble path to moder­nize their defence capa­bi­li­ties, we are very confi­dent about the struc­tu­ral growth pros­pects of this sector for the coming decades.”

DTCP expands its defense tech­no­logy invest­ments with new fund

DTCP has been successfully inves­t­ing in IT and secu­rity tech­no­lo­gies for more than a decade. Its exis­ting port­fo­lio is heavily focu­sed on cyber­se­cu­rity and AI compa­nies, inclu­ding Arctic Wolf, Axonius, Zenity, Anomali and Ox Secu­rity. This is comple­men­ted by dual-use compa­nies such as German defense tech­no­logy unicorn Quantensysteme. 

These invest­ments unders­core DTCP’s proven exper­tise in buil­ding and scaling tech­no­logy-driven busi­nesses at the inter­sec­tion of digi­tal trans­for­ma­tion, secu­rity and infrastructure.

Thomas Preuß, Mana­ging Part­ner at DTCP and Chief Invest­ment Offi­cer of Projekt Liberty: “We named the fund Projekt Liberty because it is about more than just capi­tal. Tech­no­lo­gi­cal perfor­mance is a basic prere­qui­site for Euro­pe’s sove­reig­nty, secu­rity and demo­cra­tic stability.” 

Up to 30 invest­ments in defense tech­no­logy compa­nies planned

Project Liber­tyDTCP actively invests in Euro­pean defense and dual-use tech­no­logy compa­nies in all Series A to C finan­cing stages. The fund plans to invest in up to 30 compa­nies, with an average invest­ment size of appro­xi­m­ately €20 million. 

The invest­ment focus is on compa­nies that supple­ment exis­ting defense and secu­rity systems or advance them with new tech­no­lo­gi­cal approa­ches. The main areas of focus include soft­ware solu­ti­ons, cyber defense, arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence and auto­no­mous systems. 

About DTCP

DTCP is a global invest­ment manage­ment plat­form foun­ded in 2015. The firm mana­ges appro­xi­m­ately €3 billion across multi­ple tech­no­logy and infra­struc­ture funds and has comple­ted more than 50 invest­ments world­wide, inclu­ding over 19 successful exits.
DTCP’s growth port­fo­lio includes compa­nies such as Groq (Nvidia), Cognigy (Nice), LeanIX (SAP), Signa­vio (SAP), Auth0 (Okta), Fastly (IPO), Pipedrive (Vista Equity Part­ners) and Quan­tum Systems. DTCP has offices in Hamburg, Frank­furt, Berlin, Luxem­bourg, London, San Fran­cisco and Tel Aviv. — www.dtcp.capital

DTCP has a long track record at the inter­sec­tion of tech­no­logy, secu­rity and infra­struc­ture. The exis­ting port­fo­lio includes compa­nies from the cyber­se­cu­rity, AI and defense tech sectors, inclu­ding Quan­tum Systems, which has alre­ady advi­sed YPOG on seve­ral finan­cing rounds and acqui­si­ti­ons. With Project Liberty, DTCP is bund­ling its exper­tise in the defense sector for the first time in an inde­pen­dent, thema­ti­cally focu­sed fund vehicle. 

Advi­sor DTCP: YPOG

Jens Kretz­schmann (Lead, Funds), Part­ner, Berlin
Lenn­art Lorenz (Regu­la­tory), Part­ner, Hamburg
Andreas Korten­dick (Funds), Part­ner, Cologne
Robert Schramm (Funds), Asso­cia­ted Part­ner, Berlin
Martin Braun (Tax), Senior Asso­ciate, Cologne
Nico­las Fischer (Funds), Asso­ciate, Berlin
Johan­nes Gehring (Funds), Asso­ciate, Berlin
Dr. Nick Tambu­rello (Funds), Asso­ciate, Hamburg

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. —www.ypog.com

Frank­furt / Vienna / Fischl­ham (AT) / Eind­ho­ven (NL) — MP Corpo­rate Finance, a leading inter­na­tio­nal M&A advi­sory firm specia­li­zing in the Euro­pean indus­trial sector, has exclu­si­vely advi­sed the share­hol­ders of ACH Solu­tion GmbH (“ACH”) on the sale to IGS Gebo­Ja­gema (“IGS”), a port­fo­lio company of BC Part­ners. With the acqui­si­tion, IGS streng­thens its exper­tise in sili­cone injec­tion molding and expands its service port­fo­lio for deman­ding appli­ca­ti­ons in medi­cal tech­no­logy. The tran­sac­tion is expec­ted to close in the first quar­ter of 2026, subject to regu­la­tory appr­ovals. For MP Corpo­rate Finance, this tran­sac­tion marks the 42nd successfully advi­sed deal in the engi­nee­red mate­ri­als sector. 

Leading tool­ma­ker for sili­cone injec­tion molding in the medi­cal sector

ACH Solu­tion GmbH, head­quar­te­red in Fischl­ham, Upper Austria, with an addi­tio­nal site in Sara­sota, Florida, employs around 90 people and is one of the leading tool­ma­kers in the field of sili­cone injec­tion molding. The company deve­lops and manu­fac­tures high-precis­ion molds for LSR and HTV proces­ses and also offers supple­men­tary services along the entire sili­cone mold manu­fac­tu­ring value chain. ACH’s products are used in parti­cu­lar by inter­na­tio­nal medi­cal tech­no­logy compa­nies that place the highest demands on quality, repro­du­ci­bi­lity and process reliability. 

Stra­te­gic expan­sion of the medi­cal tech­no­logy port­fo­lio at IGS GeboJagema

Since its foun­da­tion in 1945, IGS Gebo­Ja­gema has deve­lo­ped into a leading inter­na­tio­nal manu­fac­tu­rer of injec­tion molds for ther­mo­pla­s­tic appli­ca­ti­ons in medi­cal tech­no­logy. Head­quar­te­red in Eind­ho­ven, the Nether­lands, IGS serves renow­ned custo­mers world­wide, parti­cu­larly in the health­care sector. Since August 2025, IGS has also streng­the­ned the port­fo­lio of BC Part­ners, an inter­na­tio­nally active invest­ment firm with a focus on private equity, credit and real estate in Europe and North America. The acqui­si­tion of ACH is part of the joint buy-and-build stra­tegy of IGS and BC Part­ners in highly specia­li­zed indus­trial niche markets and marks a further step in buil­ding a leading global tooling group for medi­cal appli­ca­ti­ons. The part­ner­ship of two market leaders in injec­tion mold making will enable complex chal­lenges to be addres­sed and highly tech­ni­cal custo­mer requi­re­ments to be relia­bly met. 

Chris­tian Hefner, share­hol­der of ACH Solu­tion GmbH, comm­ents: “Our philo­so­phy at ACH has always been to push boun­da­ries. And in MP, we have found an expe­ri­en­ced part­ner who has guided us through this unique process. MP’s deep market under­stan­ding and stra­te­gic exper­tise in the tooling sector combi­ned with profes­sio­na­lism, commit­ment and tran­sac­tion expe­ri­ence were excep­tio­nal throug­hout the process.”

Land­mark tran­sac­tion in a stron­gly conso­li­da­ting market

The sales process was charac­te­ri­zed by an inter­na­tio­nal and highly compe­ti­tive bidding field. MP Corpo­rate Finan­ce’s team of experts deve­lo­ped a convin­cing equity story based on their in-depth indus­try know­ledge of injec­tion mold making and the sili­cone indus­try and targe­ted stra­te­gic and finan­cial inves­tors world­wide. “This tran­sac­tion is a mile­stone in global tool­ma­king for medi­cal tech­no­logy. The merger of two tech­no­logy leaders for sili­cone and ther­mo­pla­s­tic molds crea­tes a provi­der that can cover the most deman­ding appli­ca­ti­ons in the medi­cal sector holi­sti­cally,” explains Markus Wild­mo­ser (photo © MP), Mana­ging Direc­tor at MP Corpo­rate Finance.“The strong demand in the MedTech sector and the incre­asing conso­li­da­tion pres­sure in the plas­tics market are curr­ently driving stra­te­gic mergers.” 

MP Corpo­rate Finance confirms track record in the focus sector “Engi­nee­red Mate­ri­als”

For MP Corpo­rate Finance, the merger marks the 42nd successfully advi­sed tran­sac­tion in the engi­nee­red mate­ri­als sector. Recent tran­sac­tions in this sector include, for exam­ple, the sale of Lapo Compound to Poly­ram Plas­tic Indus­tries in 2025. 

About MP Corpo­rate Finance

MP Corpo­rate Finance is the leading inter­na­tio­nal M&A consul­tancy specia­li­zing in the indus­trial sector. As an expe­ri­en­ced part­ner, MP supports medium-sized compa­nies and manage­ment teams, private equity decis­ion-makers as well as entre­pre­neu­rial confi­dants in complex tran­sac­tions on both the sell and buy side and provi­des support in the context of capi­tal procu­re­ment, buy-and-build stra­te­gies, carve-outs or throug­hout the entire private equity life­cy­cle. MP was foun­ded in Vienna in the 1990s by Roman Göd and Gregor Nischer as the first Euro­pean M&A firm with a sector-focu­sed advi­sory approach. Today, the company employs more than 85 expe­ri­en­ced hands-on experts at five loca­ti­ons world­wide — in Vienna, Frank­furt, London, Istan­bul and Chicago — making it the largest indus­trial M&A team in Europe. With its unique sector focus, MP has successfully advi­sed on more than 700 indus­trial tran­sac­tions invol­ving invest­ment compa­nies, SMEs and corpo­ra­ti­ons. — www.mp-corporatefinance.com

About ACH Solution
https://www.ach-solution.at/en

About IGS GeboJagema

Home­page

About BC Partners

Home­page

Frank­furt am Main / Munich — The Frank­furt-based invest­ment company VR Equi­typ­art­ner (VREP) is provi­ding easy2cool GmbH with growth capi­tal as part of mezza­nine finan­cing. The funds will be used to streng­then the company’s capi­tal base and support its dyna­mic growth in a rapidly expan­ding market for sustainable, tempe­ra­ture-control­led pack­a­ging and logi­stics solutions. 

easy2cool GmbH, foun­ded in 2014, is based in Munich and is one of the leading provi­ders of ecolo­gi­cal insu­la­ted pack­a­ging and inte­gra­ted fulfill­ment services for the fresh and frozen food sector. The company offers its custo­mers holi­stic solu­ti­ons along the tempe­ra­ture-control­led supply chain — from sustainable pack­a­ging and cooling media to storage, order picking, pack­a­ging and ship­ping logistics. 

Inno­va­tive, paper-based insu­la­tion solu­ti­ons form the core of the product range. At the heart of the product range is the paten­ted paper­floc tech­no­logy, in which loose cellu­lose fibers are used as a highly effi­ci­ent, fully recy­clable insu­la­tion mate­rial. This tech­no­logy repres­ents a sustainable alter­na­tive to conven­tio­nal poly­sty­rene pack­a­ging and is used in both mats and bag solu­ti­ons. The range is comple­men­ted by indi­vi­du­ally desi­gned fulfill­ment services cove­ring all aspects of storage, order picking, pack­a­ging and ship­ping logistics. 

easy2cool is bene­fiting from a sharp rise in demand for sustainable, tempe­ra­ture-control­led ship­ping solu­ti­ons, which is being driven in parti­cu­lar by the growth in online retail­ing of fresh food, pet food, phar­maceu­ti­cal and health­care products. At the same time, regu­la­tory requi­re­ments and consu­mers’ heigh­tened envi­ron­men­tal aware­ness are incre­asing the pres­sure on compa­nies to switch to resource-saving pack­a­ging solu­ti­ons. Against this back­drop, easy2cool recor­ded extra­or­di­nary sales growth of around 60% last year. 

Chris­tian Futter­lieb, Mana­ging Direc­tor of VREP, comm­ents on the tran­sac­tion: “easy2cool has posi­tio­ned itself excel­lently in the market. We were very impres­sed by the inte­gra­ted approach of inno­va­tive pack­a­ging tech­no­logy and fulfill­ment services. We like to finance compa­nies that manage to find viable answers to prevai­ling market trends with their busi­ness model and at the same time focus on envi­ron­men­tally friendly solu­ti­ons. We find both at easy2cool.”

Sebas­tian Leicht, Mana­ging Direc­tor of easy2cool, adds: “The part­ner­ship with VR Equi­typ­art­ner gives us addi­tio­nal finan­cial leeway to further scale our strong growth and expand our first-mover posi­tion. Our paten­ted paper­floc tech­no­logy and inte­gra­ted fulfill­ment offe­ring enable our custo­mers to obtain sustainable tempe­ra­ture-control­led ship­ping solu­ti­ons effi­ci­ently and relia­bly from a single source.”

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

The tran­sac­tion team of VR Equitypartner
Michael Vogt, Klaus-Jörg Schnei­der, Luis Sche­rer, Lukas Rink, Jens Schöf­fel, Simone Weck, Dr. Clau­dia Willershausen

Brater VR equity part­ner: Grant Thornton 

FDD: Team Martin Fester­ling, TDD: Team Dr. Stefan Hahn, LDD: Team Dr. Matthias Reif, CDD: Team Dr. Stephane Müller

Frank­furt a. M. — Brock­haus Tech­no­lo­gies AG has sold its approx. 52% stake in BLS Betei­li­gungs GmbH (“Bikelea­sing”). The buyer is DECATHLON PULSE SAS, a wholly-owned subsi­diary of the France-based global sports brand DECATHLON. The purchase agree­ment provi­des for a company valua­tion of Bikelea­sing in the amount of EUR 525 million. 

The purchase price for the shares in BLS Betei­li­gungs GmbH will be calcu­la­ted on the closing date (expec­ted in the course of H1 2026), taking into account the cash and cash equi­va­lents, finan­cial liabi­li­ties and net working capi­tal of the Bikelea­sing subgroup available on this date (closing accounts concept). Based on the conso­li­da­ted figu­res of the Bikelea­sing Group as at Septem­ber 30, 2025, an exam­ple calcu­la­tion results in a pro rata purchase price for the shares in BLS Betei­li­gungs GmbH attri­bu­ta­ble to Brock­haus Tech­no­lo­gies of appro­xi­m­ately EUR 240 million, although this may still vary based on future figu­res as at the closing date. 

The closing of the tran­sac­tion is still subject to the closing condi­ti­ons, in parti­cu­lar the merger control clearan­ces as well as the successful comple­tion of the requi­red owner control procee­dings by DECATHLON and the appr­oval of the Annual Gene­ral Meeting of Brock­haus Technologies.

Brock­haus Tech­no­lo­gies AG, based in Frank­furt am Main, is a tech­no­logy group that acqui­res high-margin, high-growth tech­no­logy and inno­va­tion cham­pi­ons with B2B busi­ness models in the German SME sector.

Advi­sor Brock­haus Tech­no­lo­gies AG: POELLATH

Phil­ipp von Braun­schweig, LL.M. (Ford­ham) (Part­ner, Lead, M&A/Private Equity, Munich)
Tobias Jäger (Part­ner, Co-Lead, M&A/Private Equity, Munich)
Dr. Nico Fischer (Part­ner, Tax Law, Munich)
Daniel Wied­mann, LL.M. (NYU) (Asso­cia­ted Part­ner, Anti­trust Law, Frank­furt aM)
Dr. Matthias Meier (Coun­sel, M&A/Private Equity, Munich)
Fran­zisca Anna Stucken­berg (Coun­sel, Finan­cial Regu­la­tory Law, Frank­furt aM)
Michael Andreas Haase (Coun­sel, Stock Corpo­ra­tion and Capi­tal Markets Law, Frank­furt aM)
Dr. Saskia Bardens (Senior Asso­ciate, Tax Law, Munich)
Michael Schwarz (Senior Asso­ciate, Tax Law, Munich)
Lukas Wörlein (Asso­ciate, M&A/Private Equity, Munich)
Daniel Hoppen (Senior Asso­ciate, Anti­trust Law, Frank­furt aM)
Emanuel Trotta (Asso­ciate, Stock Corpo­ra­tion and Capi­tal Markets Law, Munich)
Chris­tina König (Asso­ciate, Stock Corpo­ra­tion and Capi­tal Markets Law, Frank­furt aM) 

www.pplaw.com

Munich / Frank­furt a. M. — Will­kie Farr & Gallag­her LLP has advi­sed Muta­res SE & Co. KGaA on the acqui­si­tion of the engi­nee­ring ther­mo­pla­s­tics busi­ness in the Ameri­cas and Europe (the “ETP Busi­ness”) from SABIC. The ETP Busi­ness opera­tes a broad-based inter­na­tio­nal plat­form with appro­xi­m­ately 2,900 full-time employees and eight produc­tion sites in the Ameri­cas and Europe. The product port­fo­lio includes poly­car­bo­na­tes (PC), poly­bu­ty­lene tere­phtha­late (PBT) and acrylo­ni­trile buta­diene styrene (ABS) as well as resin and compound product lines, supported by globally reco­gni­zed brands such as LEXAN™, CYCOLOY™, VALOX™ and CYCLOLAC™. The busi­ness gene­ra­tes sales of around USD 2.5 billion. 

The ETP busi­ness is the worl­d’s second largest produ­cer of PC, the leading produ­cer of ABS in the United States and the only produ­cer of PBT in the United States — unders­coring its strong compe­ti­tive posi­tion in key engi­nee­ring ther­mo­pla­s­tics categories.

About Muta­res SE & Co. KGaA

Muta­res SE & Co. KGaA, Munich, a listed private equity invest­ment company with offices in Munich (head­quar­ters), Amster­dam, Bad Wies­see, Chicago, Frank­furt, Helsinki, London, Madrid, Milan, Mumbai, Paris, Shang­hai, Stock­holm, Vienna and Warsaw, acqui­res compa­nies in special situa­tions that show considera­ble poten­tial for opera­tio­nal impro­ve­ment and sells them again after a repo­si­tio­ning and stabi­liza­tion process.

Will­kie advi­sed Muta­res on all aspects of the tran­sac­tion. Consultant:

The Will­kie team was led by part­ner Dr. Kamyar Abrar (Frank­furt) in colla­bo­ra­tion with part­ners Georg Linde (Frank­furt), Dr. Florian Dendl (Munich), Esther Chang (Chicago), Ryan Giggs (Hous­ton, all Corpo­rate) and Simon Weiss (Frank­furt, Capi­tal Markets) and included part­ners Gene­vieve Dorment (IP), Isabel Duman (Execu­tive Compen­sa­tion & Employee Bene­fits, both New York), Yaniv Maman (Tax, Hous­ton) and Hamesh Khat­kar (Corpo­rate, London), coun­sel William Thomas (Envi­ron­ment, Health & Safety, Washing­ton), Sebas­tian Bren­ner (Corpo­rate, Frank­furt), Lauren Sawyer (Execu­tive Compen­sa­tion & Employee Bene­fits) and Elana King (Real Estate, both New York), and asso­cia­tes Nils Bock (Frank­furt) Qing­ping (Chel­sea) Zheng (Chicago), Dr. Florian Kalb­fleisch (Munich), Leota Walter (Frank­furt), Bran­nock Furey (New York, all Corpo­rate), Taaj Reaves (IP, Chicago), Michael Wies­ner (Corpo­rate, Munich), Nicole Franki (Execu­tive Compen­sa­tion & Employee Bene­fits, New York), Laurin Havlik (Compli­ance, Munich), Kate­rina Gana­sou­lis (Hous­ton), Dr. Zeno Wirtz (Munich, both Corpo­rate), Kari Prochaska (London), Alex­an­dra Barc­zak (Washing­ton, both Commu­ni­ca­ti­ons, Media & Privacy), Victo­ria Quilty (Real Estate, New York), Dr. Phil­ipp Stein­hau­sen (Finance, Frank­furt), Clau­dia Garrote Fernan­dez (Hous­ton), Anna Jack­son-Smith (London, both Corpo­rate), Andrew Nesmith (Real Estate), Yoon Ho Jung (IP), Cara Hunt (Liti­ga­tion), Gian­luca Darena (Tax), Leah R. Gold (Real Estate), Nadia Raynes (Liti­ga­tion, all New York) and Nicola White (Corpo­rate, London).

About WILLKIE

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

Düssel­dorf — The Swiss inves­tor group CONSTELLATION CAPITAL has acqui­red Abresch Indus­trie­ver­pa­ckung GmbH. This means that Abresch Indus­trie­ver­pa­ckung GmbH will in future be part of the ARCA Group, which belongs to CONSTELLATION CAPITAL. With this step, ARCA Holding GmbH is further expan­ding the ARCA network for indus­trial pack­a­ging solu­ti­ons and streng­thening its own presence in south-west Germany. As a result of the merger, Abresch Verpa­ckung will bene­fit from an expan­ded deve­lo­p­ment poten­tial, the ARCA Group’s supra-regio­nal network and the asso­cia­ted indus­try-diver­si­fied custo­mer portfolio. 

Abresch Indus­trie­ver­pa­ckung GmbH, based in Viern­heim, employs over 50 people and is one of the estab­lished provi­ders of indus­trial pack­a­ging solu­ti­ons in south-west Germany. The company has parti­cu­lar strengths in process-rela­ted coope­ra­tion with indus­trial custo­mers. The focus is parti­cu­larly on factory pack­a­ging, intra­lo­gi­stics, series pack­a­ging and spare parts manage­ment for deman­ding indus­trial applications. 

ARCA Holding GmbH, a group of CONSTELLATION CAPITAL, is to be expan­ded to become the market leader in the field of wooden pack­a­ging and pack­a­ging services in German-spea­king count­ries. ARCA’s focus is on imple­men­ting a conso­li­da­tion stra­tegy to create a cohe­sive network of mutually bene­fi­cial compa­nies that offer custo­mi­zed pack­a­ging solu­ti­ons and services. 

CONSTELLATION CAPITAL AG is a Swiss invest­ment group foun­ded in 1992 and based in Frei­en­bach on Lake Zurich. CONSTELLATION pursues a buy & build stra­tegy that focu­ses on majo­rity invest­ments in medium-sized compa­nies in the busi­ness services, educa­tion & life­style and health­care sectors in the DACH region. 

An ARQIS team led by Dr. Lars Laeger provi­ded CONSTELLATION CAPITAL with compre­hen­sive legal advice on this tran­sac­tion. The team advi­ses CONSTELLATION CAPITAL on all plat­form acqui­si­ti­ons for the ARCA Group from a legal and tax perspec­tive as well as on acqui­si­tion finan­cing. ARQIS also provi­ded legal advice on the acqui­si­tion of the platform. 

Advi­sor CONSTELLATION CAPITAL: ARQIS (Düssel­dorf)

Dr. Lars Laeger (Part­ner, Tran­sac­tions, Lead), Part­ners: Johan­nes Landry (Finan­cing), Dr. Ulrich Lien­hard (Real Estate), Coun­sel: Chris­tian Judis (Compli­ance, Munich), Jens Knip­ping (Tax), Fran­ziska Leub­ner (Munich), Martin Wein­gärt­ner (both HR Law), Nora Strat­mann (Commer­cial, Munich), Mana­ging Asso­cia­tes: David Hudde (Tran­sac­tions), Tim Brese­mann (Real Estate), Johanna Klin­gen (Data Law), Rolf Tichy (IP, Munich), Asso­cia­tes: Dr. Lina Alami (Munich), Dr. Tim Weill (both HR Law), Rebecca Gester (Commer­cial, Munich), Paulina Hütt­ner, Dr. Julia Wild­gans (both IP, Munich), Lia Papis­me­dova (Real Estate)

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. — www.arqis.com.

Munich — Picus Capi­tal, a global venture capi­tal firm, has successfully closed a EUR 150 million prefer­red equity finan­cing with Carlyle AlpIn­vest, a leading global private markets mana­ger. The tran­sac­tion provi­des Picus Capi­tal with addi­tio­nal capi­tal for new invest­ments and supports the contin­ued growth of its exis­ting port­fo­lio of nearly 200 invest­ments. The new part­ner­ship with Carlyle AlpIn­vest repres­ents a trans­for­ma­tive mile­stone for Picus Capi­tal and streng­thens the company’s ability to further scale and insti­tu­tio­na­lize its diffe­ren­tia­ted invest­ment approach. 

The tran­sac­tion is one of the first prefer­red equity struc­tures on the German market. Dome­stic and foreign market parti­ci­pants regard it as an inno­va­tive and trend-setting development. 

POELLATH advi­sed Picus Capi­tal on all legal and tax aspects of the tran­sac­tion in Germany. Simpson Thacher & Bart­lett coor­di­na­ted and advi­sed Picus Capi­tal on English law. Kirk­land & Ellis advi­sed Carlyle AlpIn­vest. PJT Park Hill acted as exclu­sive finan­cial advi­sor on the transaction.

About Picus Capital 

Picus Capi­tal is a priva­tely funded invest­ment firm dedi­ca­ted to support­ing leading global tech­no­logy compa­nies in the earliest stages of deve­lo­p­ment and is an initial inves­tor in seve­ral unicorns such as Perso­nio and Enpal. Head­quar­te­red in Munich, the company has offices in New York, Berlin, London and Banga­lore. Picus Capi­tal also supports entre­pre­neurs from the pre-seed phase through to later growth phases as part of its Picus Venture Fund stra­tegy. As an entre­pre­neu­rial spar­ring part­ner, Picus pursues a long-term invest­ment approach and supports foun­ders from the concep­tion phase to the IPO and beyond. 

Carlyle AlpIn­vest is a leading global private equity inves­tor with USD 102 billion in total assets under manage­ment and more than 700 inves­tors (as of Septem­ber 30, 2025). The company co-invests with over 370 private equity mana­gers and holds capi­tal commit­ments tota­ling more than USD 111 billion in prima­ries, secon­da­ries, port­fo­lio finan­cings and co-investments. 

POELLATH advi­sed Picus Capi­tal on all legal and tax aspects of this tran­sac­tion with the follo­wing cross-loca­tion team:

Dr. Michael Best (Part­ner, Co-Lead / Tax)
Tarek Mardini, LL.M. (UConn) (Part­ner, Co-Lead / Regu­la­tory & Fund Finance)
Dr. Georg Grei­temann (Part­ner, M&A/Private Equity)
Dr. Tobias Deschen­halm (Coun­sel, Tax)
Dr. Enzo Biagi (Asso­ciate, Regu­la­tory & Fund Finance) 

www.pplaw.com

 

Munich — Main Capi­tal Part­ners has acqui­red Carano, a specia­list in fleet manage­ment and leasing soft­ware, through Main port­fo­lio company CarWise, a leading provi­der of modu­lar ERP solu­ti­ons for the auto­mo­tive leasing and rental indus­try. Main Capi­tal Part­ners was advi­sed on this tran­sac­tion by McDer­mott Will & Schulte. 

The tran­sac­tion marks an important step in CarWi­se’s inter­na­tio­nal expan­sion stra­tegy and streng­thens the company’s presence in the German market.

Carano, foun­ded in 1992 and head­quar­te­red in Berlin, has been driving digi­tal trans­for­ma­tion in the fleet indus­try for over 30 years. The company serves over 170 custo­mers with more than 200,000 vehic­les, inclu­ding well-known compa­nies such as ARI (fleet manage­ment), Santan­der (leasing), BCD (busi­ness travel) and BMW. 

Foun­ded in 1989 and head­quar­te­red in Almere, the Nether­lands, with a strong presence in the Bene­lux region and busi­ness acti­vi­ties throug­hout Europe, CarWise offers an inte­gra­ted ERP plat­form for the entire leasing and rental value chain. CarWise has been backed by Main Capi­tal Part­ners since 2025. 

Main Capi­tal Part­ners is a leading soft­ware inves­tor in the DACH region, France, the Bene­lux and Nordic count­ries and the USA with assets under manage­ment of around EUR 6.8 billion.

McDer­mott regu­larly advi­ses Main Capi­tal on tran­sac­tions, inclu­ding financing.

Advi­sor Main Capi­tal Part­ners: McDer­mott Will & Schulte, Munich

Holger H. Ebers­ber­ger, LL.M., Dr. Manuel Weiß (Asso­ciate, both lead, Private Equity), Dr. Chris­tian Dries­sen-Rolf (Employ­ment Law, Frank­furt), Dr. Claus Färber (Coun­sel, Data Protec­tion Law), Dr. Alexa Ningel­gen (Public Law, Düssel­dorf); Asso­cia­tes: Julia Külzer (Private Equity), Janek Joos­ten (Düssel­dorf; Employ­ment Law), Dr. Merlyn von Hugo, LL.M. OEC. (tax law, Frankfurt).

Munich — Main Capi­tal Part­ners acqui­res a majo­rity stake in EIKONA AG, a German provi­der of modu­lar logi­stics soft­ware. Main Capi­tal acqui­res the shares from the pan-Euro­pean logi­stics group Schäf­lein and EIKONA foun­der Manuel Drescher. McDer­mott Will & Schulte advi­sed Main Capi­tal Part­ners on the acqui­si­tion and finan­cing of the acqui­si­tion of a majo­rity stake in EIKONA AG. 

The tran­sac­tion is part of a stra­te­gic realignment of EIKONA. The foun­ders and manage­ment will remain perma­nently invol­ved to ensure the conti­nuity of the company and stabi­lity for custo­mers and partners. 

EIKONA was foun­ded in Volkach in 2001 and today employs around 100 people. The company deve­lops modu­lar soft­ware solu­ti­ons for the logi­stics sector and supports more than 350 custo­mers throug­hout Europe. 

Main Capi­tal Part­ners is a leading soft­ware inves­tor in the DACH region, the Bene­lux and Nordic count­ries and the USA with assets under manage­ment of around EUR 6.5 billion.

Advi­sors to Main Capi­tal Part­ners: McDer­mott Will & Schulte Munich

Hanno M. Witt, LL.M. (Lead, Private Equity), Ludwig Zesch (Lead, Finance), Dr. Phil­ipp Gren­ze­bach (Corporate/M&A, Düsseldorf/Frankfurt), Dr. Matthias Weis­sin­ger (Finance), Dr. Laura Stamm­witz (Coun­sel, Anti­trust, Frank­furt), Stef­fen Woitz, LL.M. (IP/IT), Dr. Claus Färber (Coun­sel, IT, Data Protec­tion), Dr. Thomas Gennert (Employ­ment, Düssel­dorf), Stefa­nie Solt­we­del (Commer­cial, Düssel­dorf); Asso­cia­tes: Nicole Kaps, Dr. Armin Teymouri, Julia Külzer, Dr. Manuel Weiß, Tobias Thie­mann (all Private Equity), Malte Arndt (Düssel­dorf), Anna­belle Juli­ette Rau (Colo­gne; both Corporate/M&A), Lorenz Schwo­jer (Finance), Janek Joos­ten (Employ­ment, Düssel­dorf), Andreas H. Janßen (Commer­cial, Colo­gne). — www.mwe.com/de/

Frank­furt am Main — The inter­na­tio­nal law firm Bird & Bird has advi­sed Gofore Oyj, a listed leading Finnish digi­tal trans­for­ma­tion consul­tancy, on the acqui­si­tion of esen­tri AG, a renow­ned German digi­tal trans­for­ma­tion and IT consul­tancy, and its inter­na­tio­nal subsidiaries.

With almost 1,800 employees in 23 cities in Finland, Germany, Austria, the Czech Repu­blic, Spain and Esto­nia, Gofore Oyj is known for its exper­tise in digi­ta­liza­tion, IT consul­ting and soft­ware deve­lo­p­ment. The consul­tancy offers a wide range of services, inclu­ding digi­tal stra­tegy, agile soft­ware deve­lo­p­ment, cloud solu­ti­ons and user expe­ri­ence design. The company supports public and private sector clients across Europe, helping orga­niza­ti­ons embrace tech­no­lo­gi­cal change and drive inno­va­tion. With a strong commit­ment to sustainable digi­tal deve­lo­p­ment and a colla­bo­ra­tive working culture, Gofore has built a repu­ta­tion as a provi­der of high-quality solu­ti­ons tail­o­red to the needs of clients in various indus­tries, inclu­ding govern­ment, health­care and transportation. 

esen­tri AG is head­quar­te­red in Germany and has bran­ches in Germany, Switz­er­land and Liech­ten­stein and curr­ently employs 110 people. The company specia­li­zes in busi­ness-orien­ted digi­tal trans­for­ma­tion with inno­va­tive solu­ti­ons. Its main custo­mers include finan­cial and insu­rance service provi­ders, the manu­fac­tu­ring indus­try and public administration. 

The acqui­si­tion is part of Gofo­re’s stra­tegy to grow in selec­ted custo­mer sectors through acqui­si­ti­ons and an important step on the company’s growth path in the DACH region.

Advi­sor Gofore Oye: Bird & Bird 

Part­ner Dr. Kai Kerger, Coun­sel Johanna Schind­ler and Asso­cia­tes Dr. Matthias Adenauer, LL.M. and Lisa Häring (all Corporate/M&A, Frank­furt), Coun­sel Michael Brüg­ge­mann and Asso­ciate Thomas Schmidt (both Tax, Frank­furt), Part­ner Dr. Barbara Geck and Asso­cia­tes Henry Nico­lai and Jessica Stein­hü­bel (all Employ­ment, Frank­furt), Part­ner Mascha Grund­mann and Coun­sel Julia Präger and Asso­ciate Julia Bopp (all IP, Frank­furt), Part­ners Dr. Stephan Wald­heim and Dr. Florian Hinde­rer (both antitrust/competition, Düssel­dorf), coun­sel Clau­dia Bisch­off-Briel and asso­ciate Ludwig Haster­mann (both IT, Frank­furt), part­ner Mikko Ahonen, coun­sel Vuokko Raja­mäki and asso­ciate Rondy Sten­man (all corporate/M&A, Helsinki). 

www.twobirds.com

Berlin — YPOG has provi­ded compre­hen­sive legal advice to Trade Repu­blic Bank GmbH in a secon­dary round of around EUR 1.2 billion, valuing the company at EUR 12.5 billion. The tran­sac­tion was led by Foun­ders Fund; new inves­tors include Welling­ton Manage­ment, GIC, Fide­lity Manage­ment & Rese­arch Company, Khosla Ventures, Lingotto Inno­va­tion and Aglaé, the tech­no­logy-orien­ted invest­ment firm of the Arnault family. 

The tran­sac­tion supports Trade Repu­blic’s long-term stra­tegy to build Euro­pe’s leading digi­tal savings plat­form. As part of the tran­sac­tion, exis­ting inves­tors such as Foun­ders Fund, Sequoia, Accel, TCV and Thrive Capi­tal are incre­asing their stakes, while early-stage inves­tors are selling shares to exis­ting share­hol­ders and new investors. 

“Tran­sac­tions of this size can only be imple­men­ted with advi­sors who are strong in their field and at the same time hands-on and solu­tion-orien­ted. YPOG fully met these expec­ta­ti­ons and provi­ded us with relia­ble and commit­ted support even under great time pres­sure,” says David Becker, Head of Gene­ral Legal at Trade Republic.

“We are deligh­ted to have advi­sed Trade Repu­blic on this signi­fi­cant tran­sac­tion, which further streng­thens the company’s role in the Euro­pean fintech land­scape,” says Frede­rik Gärt­ner, Part­ner at YPOG. “The round under­lines the confi­dence of top inter­na­tio­nal inves­tors in Trade Repu­blic’s busi­ness model — espe­ci­ally in light of the company’s mission to close Euro­pe’s pension gap and help milli­ons of people build long-term wealth.” 

About Trade Republic

Trade Repu­blic is Euro­pe’s largest savings plat­form that enables people to save and invest in shares, ETFs, bonds, deri­va­ti­ves and cryp­to­cur­ren­cies. The company was foun­ded in 2015 by Chris­tian Hecker, Thomas Pischke and Marco Cancel­lieri — with the mission to enable ever­yone to build wealth by provi­ding simple, secure and free access to the finan­cial system. Today, Trade Repu­blic is available to 340 million people in seven­teen Euro­pean count­ries and is backed by some of the worl­d’s most renow­ned venture capi­ta­lists. In Decem­ber 2023, Trade Repu­blic recei­ved a full German banking license from the ECB and is super­vi­sed by the German Fede­ral Finan­cial Super­vi­sory Autho­rity (BaFin) as well as the German Bundesbank. 

Advi­sor to Trade Repu­blic Bank GmbH: YPOG

Dr. Frede­rik Gärt­ner(Lead, Tran­sac­tions) Part­ner, Berlin
Sjard Seeger (Tran­sac­tions), Asso­ciate, Berlin
Dr. Matthias Schatz (Corpo­rate), Part­ner, Cologne
Dr. Chris­toph Lütten­berg (Corpo­rate), Senior Asso­ciate, Cologne
Jörg Schr­ade (Tax), Part­ner, Munich

www.ypog.com

Munich — Herbert Smith Freeh­ills Kramer has advi­sed Palla­dio Part­ners, an invest­ment boutique specia­li­zing in private markets, on its invest­ment in hylane GmbH, a leading Euro­pean lessor of zero-emis­sion trucks.

As soon as the neces­sary regu­la­tory appr­ovals have been obtai­ned, Palla­dio will acquire a stake in hylane as part of a signi­fi­cant capi­tal increase and also take over the majo­rity of voting rights for important areas. The current owner of hylane is the insu­rance group DEVK, which has held 100 percent of the shares since hylane was foun­ded in 2021 and remains inves­ted in hylane as a joint venture partner. 

Palla­dio Part­ners wants to support the growth of hylane. The fleet of zero-emis­sion trucks is to be expan­ded over the next few years with total invest­ments in the three-digit million range.

Hylane, foun­ded in 2021 and based in Colo­gne, provi­des battery and hydro­gen-powered vehic­les from various manu­fac­tu­r­ers in a usage-based rental model. Its custo­mers include leading fleet opera­tors from the logi­stics, retail and indus­trial sectors, inclu­ding DHL, DB Schen­ker, DSV, Hermes and REWE. 

Palla­dio Part­ners is an owner-mana­ged invest­ment boutique with a focus on infra­struc­ture invest­ments, private equity and private debt. Foun­ded in 2012, Palla­dio today has around 100 employees and mana­ges funds tota­ling around EUR 10 billion. 

Herbert Smith Freeh­ills Kramer advi­sed Palla­dio Part­ners with the follo­wing team: 

Corporate/M&A: Dr. Chris­toph Nawroth (Part­ner, lead), Dr. Sebas­tian Schü­rer (Coun­sel); Asso­cia­tes: Phil­lip Kablitz, Stefa­nie Strahl, Dr. Bastian Held (all Düsseldorf)
Anti­trust law: Dr. Marcel Nuys (Part­ner); Asso­cia­tes: Mirko Gleits­mann, Dr. Lennard Posser (all Düssel­dorf) Employ­ment law: Moritz Kunz (Part­ner), Dr. Anja Ling­scheid (Coun­sel); Asso­ciate: Julia Ickstadt (all Frankfurt)
Tax law: Dr. Stef­fen Hörner (Part­ner); Asso­cia­tes: Tatiana Güns­ter, Dirk Metz­ler (all Frankfurt)
Regu­la­tory: Dr. Marius Boewe; Asso­cia­tes: David Rasche, Dr. Dejan Einfeldt (all Düsseldorf)
IP: Dr. Ina vom Feld (Part­ner); Asso­ciate: Maxi­mi­lian Martini (both Düsseldorf)

Munich — Fort­ino Capi­tal, one of the leading private equity firms focu­sing on invest­ments in B2B SaaS compa­nies in the Bene­lux and DACH region, has closed its third private equity fund with capi­tal commit­ments of EUR 700 million. “Fort­ino PE III” was signi­fi­cantly over­sub­scri­bed and closed at an expan­ded hard cap well above the origi­nal target of EUR 600 million. A signi­fi­cant portion of the new capi­tal will be used to realize new invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties in German-spea­king countries. 

With its third PE fund, Fort­ino intends to main­tain its proven invest­ment stra­tegy and support estab­lished B2B soft­ware compa­nies that offer solu­ti­ons for busi­ness-criti­cal proces­ses. The invest­ment team with its manage­ment expe­ri­ence and the opera­ting team with its proven soft­ware exper­tise comple­ment each other to increase the sustainable growth of its port­fo­lio compa­nies. A model with a track record that has convin­ced nume­rous inves­tors within just a few months: The high demand came from exis­ting Fort­ino inves­tors as well as from a broad range of new insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors from Europe and the USA — inclu­ding banks, consul­ting firms, foun­da­ti­ons, family offices, pension funds and state funds. 

Orga­nic growth oppor­tu­ni­ties for SaaS provi­ders in the DACH region

With a highly diver­si­fied inves­tor base and an 85% increase in volume compared to its prede­ces­sor fund, Fort­ino PE III marks a new level in the growth path that has been conti­nuously pursued since its foun­da­tion in 2012. The new fund’s resour­ces will enable a signi­fi­cant increase in deal volume. 

Phil­ipp Remy, Part­ner (photo © Fort­ino): “Arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence is funda­men­tally chan­ging the B2B SaaS land­scape and driving a market tran­si­tion: away from tradi­tio­nal SaaS products towards signi­fi­cantly more powerful, agent-based AI solu­ti­ons that increase opera­tio­nal effi­ci­ency. We support foun­ders and entre­pre­neurs with capi­tal and deep opera­tio­nal exper­tise to capi­ta­lize on these deve­lo­p­ments and take their busi­nesses to the next stage of growth.” Fort­i­no’s commit­ment to the DACH region to date is reflec­ted in tangi­ble results — from the successful exit of Symbio, the first German invest­ment in PE II, to the invest­ment in SIMCON (PE II) and compa­nies in which PE III has alre­ady inves­ted: MEHRWERK (process intel­li­gence soft­ware), as well as Modell Aachen and Orga­vi­sion (inter­ac­tive manage­ment systems). 

Fort­ino is also further expan­ding its invol­vement in the field of (pre)seed to Series A invest­ments in B2B SaaS and AI: The latest fund “Fort­ino Venture III” had its successful first close in April 2025. Part­ner Patrick Hermann: “With Fort­ino VC III, we are deligh­ted to now be imple­men­ting our stra­tegy from Bene­lux more actively in DACH with a local team. Our expe­ri­ence and in-depth B2B soft­ware and AI exper­tise enable us to play an active role in the growth and inter­na­tio­nal expan­sion of our port­fo­lio compa­nies. With VC III, we are buil­ding on the success of our previous funds while conti­nuing to invest in the future of B2B soft­ware and AI. With a full pipe­line and alre­ady first port­fo­lio compa­nies in Germany, we will be able to announce seve­ral new invest­ments in 2026.” 

Fort­ino curr­ently mana­ges a total of six funds in the areas of private equity and venture capi­tal and has raised over 1.5 billion euros to date. The company has inves­ted in 76 compa­nies and reali­zed 28 successful exits. 

About Fort­ino

Fort­ino Capi­tal, foun­ded in 2013 and based in Antwerp, Belgium, with addi­tio­nal offices in Amster­dam and Munich, is a leading Euro­pean invest­ment company focu­sing on high-growth B2B SaaS compa­nies. Fort­ino invests in soft­ware compa­nies that offer solu­ti­ons for busi­ness-criti­cal proces­ses and supports their foun­ders and CEOs in acce­le­ra­ting the growth of their compa­nies. The 35-strong Fort­ino team works from Antwerp, Amster­dam and Munich. Fort­ino has raised more than 1.5 billion euros in capi­tal to date. The private equity port­fo­lio includes compa­nies such as Worklinq (DK), Simcon (DE), Mehr­werk (DE), Modell Aachen (DE), Addac­tis (BE), VanRoey (BE), Bizz­mine (BE), Efficy CRM (BE), Seenons (NL), InTouch (NL), SpeakUp (NL), Maxx­ton (NL) and Boni­ta­soft (FR). — fortino.capital

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