Author: Tatjana Anderer

Frank­furt am Main – Private equity inves­tor EOS Part­ners is the new majo­rity share­hol­der of the due dili­gence plat­form Drooms. As part of the tran­sac­tion, co-foun­der and former co-CEO Jan Hoff­meis­ter will leave the company after 25 years. J.F. Müller & Sohn AG is also exiting the company’s share­hol­der base. Alex­andre Grel­lier will conti­nue to lead Drooms as CEO. 

In addi­tion to capi­tal, EOS brings, in parti­cu­lar, expe­ri­ence in scaling high-growth tech­no­logy compa­nies. The firm focu­ses on buil­ding Euro­pean growth compa­nies in the areas of soft­ware/­tech-enab­led services, indus­trial tech, and health­care. Toge­ther with EOS, Drooms aims to further streng­then its market posi­tion, acce­le­rate its inter­na­tio­nal expan­sion, and conti­nue to drive digi­ta­liza­tion and AI-based auto­ma­tion throug­hout the entire tran­sac­tion process. The long-term goal is to become the leading Euro­pean plat­form for real asset investments. 

Drooms is built on a strong econo­mic foun­da­tion; as a result, it achie­ved record reve­nue and profits in 2024 and 2025 despite chal­len­ging times in the tran­sac­tion markets. In 2025, over­all growth of appro­xi­m­ately 20% was achie­ved, and recur­ring reve­nue (net reten­tion rate) also rose by 120%. 

“Choo­sing the right inves­tor was very important to us. We want to enter into a long-term growth part­ner­ship while uphol­ding our values, such as digi­tal sove­reig­nty, uncom­pro­mi­sing secu­rity, and EU-based data proces­sing. This model has been very successful and will now be scaled up in colla­bo­ra­tion with EOS Part­ners. This is evolu­tion in the fast lane, but not a revo­lu­tion. The fact that a German private equity firm is now inves­t­ing in a German tech­no­logy leader rounds out the big picture for us,” explains Alex­andre Grel­lier, CEO of Drooms.

“Drooms combi­nes tech­no­lo­gi­cal leader­ship, a strong AI product, and excep­tio­nally clear market posi­tio­ning,” says Phil­ipp Wege­ner, a part­ner at EOS. “The company is targe­ting a highly attrac­tive Euro­pean market with signi­fi­cant growth poten­tial. We look forward to support­ing Alex­andre Grel­lier and the entire team as they conti­nue on their growth trajectory.” 

Jan Hoff­meis­ter, co-foun­der of Drooms and, along­side Alex­andre Grel­lier, the company’s former CEO, has deci­ded to leave the company follo­wing the invest­ment by EOS Part­ners and to devote hims­elf to perso­nal projects. “I’ve built Drooms toge­ther with Alex­andre over the past 25 years. Buil­ding Drooms has been an extra­or­di­nary entre­pre­neu­rial jour­ney for me. I look forward to conti­nuing to follow Drooms’ success from the side­lines,” explains Jan Hoffmeister. 

“Jan played a key role in deve­lo­ping the idea for Drooms and our plat­form back then. Toge­ther, we’ve worked for 25 years to bring the company to where it is today. I hope to conti­nue coun­ting on his advice. We will conti­nue to follow the path we have char­ted in recent years,” says Grel­lier. “I would also like to thank our long-stan­ding part­ner and compa­n­ion, J.F. Müller & Sohn AG, for the past 15 years of excel­lent cooperation.” 

Drooms was advi­sed by Dr. Leube, Lead Part­ner at Simmons & Simmons, and Tobias Warkus, Mana­ging Direc­tor at Stifel Finan­cial Corp. EOS was advi­sed by GOF (Munich), NKF (Zurich), Altman Solon (Munich), Code&Co. (Berlin), KPMG (Munich), and EY (Stutt­gart, Zurich). 

About Drooms

Drooms is a leading Euro­pean plat­form that opti­mi­zes the prepa­ra­tion and execu­tion of tran­sac­tions for compa­nies in the real estate, corpo­rate finance, legal, and energy sectors. With more than two deca­des of expe­ri­ence and proprie­tary AI tech­no­logy, Drooms acce­le­ra­tes tran­sac­tions, auto­ma­tes work­flows, and ensu­res the highest level of confi­den­tia­lity as well as full GDPR compli­ance. With over 40,000 clients, inclu­ding Fortune 100 compa­nies such as the METRO GROUP, Evonik, JLL, JP Morgan, CBRE, UBS, Blackstone, KKR, Siemens, and Volks­wa­gen, Drooms has estab­lished itself as a trus­ted provi­der of busi­ness-criti­cal tran­sac­tion infra­struc­ture for real asset investments. 

About EOS Partners
EOS is a long-term private equity firm focu­sed on high-growth mid-market compa­nies in the soft­ware, tech-enab­led services, indus­trial tech, and health­care sectors. EOS supports compa­nies in buil­ding sustainable market leaders by provi­ding stra­te­gic exper­tise, opera­tio­nal deve­lo­p­ment, and flexi­ble growth capital. 

Munich/Metzingen — LUTZ I ABEL advi­sed NEURA Robo­tics GmbH on its Series C finan­cing round of up to 1.4 billion U.S. dollars. The funding round is inten­ded to acce­le­rate the deve­lo­p­ment of the worl­d’s leading physi­cal AI plat­form. The tran­sac­tion repres­ents one of the largest venture finan­cing rounds to date in the Euro­pean startup ecosystem.
Inter­na­tio­nal inves­tors from the tech­no­logy, semi­con­duc­tor, cloud infra­struc­ture, and indus­trial sectors parti­ci­pa­ted in the funding round, inclu­ding Tether, Qual­comm Tech­no­lo­gies, Inc., Amazon, NVIDIA, imec.xpand, Bosch, Schaeff­ler, the EIB, Lingotto, Giano Capi­tal, and Inter­Al­pen Partners. 

NEURA Robo­tics is a tech­no­logy company foun­ded in 2019 and head­quar­te­red in Metzin­gen. The company deve­lops cogni­tive robots and huma­noid robo­tic systems for indus­trial and other appli­ca­ti­ons. The company’s goal is to build a leading plat­form for “Physi­cal AI” that combi­nes robo­tics, arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence, sensor tech­no­logy, and soft­ware into an inte­gra­ted system architecture. 

NEURA is crea­ting a new cate­gory of AI infra­struc­ture in which cogni­tive robots conti­nuously learn, colla­bo­rate, and operate in real-world envi­ron­ments on a shared, intel­li­gent plat­form (Neur­averse). Unlike tradi­tio­nal robo­tics compa­nies, which rely on isola­ted machi­nes or limi­ted indus­trial auto­ma­tion, NEURA combi­nes robo­tics, AI, sensor tech­no­logy, edge compu­ting, and large-scale lear­ning infra­struc­ture into a unified plat­form archi­tec­ture that can be deployed worldwide. 

The funds are to be used in parti­cu­lar for the global roll­out of cogni­tive robots and huma­no­ids, the expan­sion of the Neur­averse plat­form, and the scaling of produc­tion capa­ci­ties. In addi­tion, NEURA Robo­tics plans to estab­lish a global network of so-called NEURA Gyms—large-scale trai­ning envi­ron­ments for coll­ec­ting motion and inter­ac­tion data under real-world conditions. 

Indus­try Trust: A Back­log of Over 1 Billion U.S. Dollars and a Global Part­ner Ecosystem

NEURA’s stra­te­gic part­ner­ships include leading indus­trial and AI compa­nies, such as Bosch, Schaeff­ler, Kawa­saki, Qual­comm Tech­no­lo­gies, Amazon, and NVIDIA, posi­tio­ning the company at the inter­sec­tion of robo­tics, indus­trial auto­ma­tion, and arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence. — The company’s current order back­log and stra­te­gic deploy­ment pipe­line exceed one billion U.S. dollars. As AI enters the physi­cal world, NEURA sees the next decisive compe­ti­tive advan­tage in combi­ning intel­li­gence with real-world inter­ac­tion, sensor tech­no­logy, and scalable infra­struc­ture. “In the future, people will no longer just ask what AI can tell them,” said David Reger, foun­der and CEO of NEURA Robo­tics. “They will ask what AI can physi­cally do.” 

About LUTZ | ABEL Rechts­an­walts PartG mbB 

The inter­di­sci­pli­nary team at LUTZ | ABEL, compri­sing experts from the areas of venture capital/M&A, finance, commer­cial law, IP, and regu­la­tory affairs, was led by Phil­ipp Hoene (lead coun­sel, VC/M&A, Munich) and included Constanze Hach­mann (VC/M&A, Hamburg), Roman Krug (VC/M&A, Munich), Dr. Sebas­tian Sumal­vico (Finance, Frank­furt am Main), Ute Schenn (Commer­cial, Stutt­gart), Dr. Corne­lius Renner (IP, Berlin), and Dr. Daniel Petzold (Anti­trust / FDI, Munich). — www.lutzabel.com

Other consul­tants (inclu­ding, among others):

• Tether: Skad­den, Arps, Slate, Meag­her & Flo; Lorenzo Corte (lead coun­sel, M&A, London), Dr. Matthias Schudlo (lead coun­sel), Dr. Xian­rui Wang, Chris­to­pher Schenk (all PE/M&A, Frank­furt am Main); In-house legal coun­sel: Sarah Kang, Sean Sawyer
• Qual­comm: DLA Piper; Simon Vogel (lead coun­sel), Maria Uhlig (both Corporate/Private Equity, Munich)
• Lingotto: Taylor Wessing; Maria Weiers, Lukas Beer­mann (both VC/M&A, Düsseldorf)
• NVIDIA: Orrick, Herring­ton & Sutcliffe; Dr. Johan­nes Rüberg (VC/M&A, Munich), Dr. Sven Greu­lich (VC/M&A, Düsseldorf)
• Prim­e­pulse / Vsquared: GvW Graf von West­pha­len; Titus Walek (VC/M&A, Frank­furt am Main)
• L‑Bank: PwC; Gerhard Wacker (Berlin/Nuremberg), Dr. Minkus Fischer (Stutt­gart), Stephan Söbbeke (Berlin) (all from Deals Legal), Dr. Georg Queis­ner (State Aid Law, Berlin)
• Schaeff­ler: Raue; Prof. Dr. Andreas Nelle, Dr. Aron Heidtke, Hinnerk Clau­sen, Dr. Nadine Hartung (all VC/M&A, Berlin)
• EIB: Noerr; Michael Schuh­ma­cher, Ana-Maria Mirceta (both Finance, Frank­furt am Main), Felix Blobel, Asina Roth (both PE/VC, Berlin)
• Notary: Dr. Jan-Chris­toph Stephan (Reut­lin­gen)

Frei­burg — The commer­cial law firm Fried­rich Graf von West­pha­len & Part­ner advi­sed the share­hol­der of AirSphere GmbH on the sale of all shares in the company to the dorma­kaba Group.

AirSphere GmbH specia­li­zes in airport soft­ware. This prima­rily includes the “PaxCon­trol” and “Gate­Con­trol” soft­ware systems, which are desi­gned to auto­mate passen­ger check-in and hand­ling, parti­cu­larly at airports. 

dorma­kaba is one of the worl­d’s leading provi­ders of access and secu­rity solutions.

The share­hol­der of AirSphere GmbH was advi­sed by Fried­rich Graf von West­pha­len & Part­ner, under the leader­ship of Dr. Meike Kapp-Schwoerer.

Advi­sor to the share­hol­der of AirSphere GmbH

Dr. Meike Kapp-Schwoe­rer, Part­ner, Frei­burg (Lead, M&A)
Dr. Maxi­mi­lian Fessel, Senior Asso­ciate, Frei­burg (M&A)

About Fried­rich Graf von West­pha­len & Partner

Fried­rich Graf von West­pha­len & Part­ner is one of the leading inde­pen­dent German commer­cial law firms. The firm’s appro­xi­m­ately 140 attor­neys, inclu­ding 57 part­ners, advise compa­nies world­wide from its offices in Frei­burg, Colo­gne, Frank­furt am Main, Berlin, Hamburg, Düssel­dorf, Alicante, and Brussels. Fried­rich Graf von West­pha­len & Part­ner specia­li­zes in advi­sing clients on all areas of busi­ness law, parti­cu­larly commer­cial and corpo­rate law, as well as M&A tran­sac­tions. The firm has a total of appro­xi­m­ately 250 employees. — fgvw.de.

Munich — SKW Schwarz advi­sed the share­hol­ders of SAE GmbH on the sale of a majo­rity stake in the company to Xait, which is backed by Main Capi­tal Part­ners. With this first add-on acqui­si­tion since the start of its part­ner­ship with Main Capi­tal, Xait is streng­thening its posi­tion in the CPQ segment. 

SAE, head­quar­te­red in Weng, Germany, offers a modu­lar CPQ and vari­ant manage­ment plat­form for auto­ma­ting confi­gu­ra­tion, pricing, and quoting proces­ses. The plat­form is prima­rily used by indus­trial and manu­fac­tu­ring compa­nies in the mecha­ni­cal and plant engi­nee­ring sectors, as well as in the indus­trial equip­ment and auto­mo­tive industries. 

Head­quar­te­red in Stavan­ger, Norway, Xait is a global provi­der of soft­ware for colla­bo­ra­tive docu­ment editing and propo­sal crea­tion. The company serves more than 300 custo­mers, prima­rily in the (rene­wa­ble) energy, capi­tal goods, and busi­ness services sectors. 

Consul­tant, SAE GmbH: SKW Schwarz, Munich

Marion Anzin­ger (Lead), Dr. Stephan Morsch (both Corpo­rate Law/M&A), Dr. Daniel Meßmer (IT), Alex­an­der Möller (Employ­ment Law, Frank­furt), Dr. Stefan Pein­tin­ger (IP), Nicole Wolf-Thomann (Tax Law); Coun­sel: Eva Bona­cker (M&A), Peer Niklas Bolten (Real Estate Law, Berlin), Asso­cia­tes: Raluca-Ramona Calin (Corpo­rate Paralegal)

SKW Schwarz is an inde­pen­dent full-service law firm. With appro­xi­m­ately 120 attor­neys across three loca­ti­ons in Germany, the firm provi­des legal coun­sel in all rele­vant areas of busi­ness law. At the end of 2018, the firm foun­ded SKW Schwarz @ Tech GmbH, where attor­neys conso­li­date all legal tech acti­vi­ties across loca­ti­ons and prac­tice areas. — www.skwschwarz.de

Munich / Hano­ver – Liberta Part­ners (“Liberta”), a Munich-based multi-family holding company, is selling the Medas Group (“Medas”), inclu­ding its subsi­diary Arco Verrech­nungs­Sys­teme GmbH (“Arco”), to funds advi­sed by NORD Holding. The tran­sac­tion marks an important mile­stone in the Medas Group’s contin­ued deve­lo­p­ment and lays the foun­da­tion for its next phase of growth. The tran­sac­tion is subject to regu­la­tory approval.

The Medas Group specia­li­zes in billing for private medi­cal prac­ti­ces and curr­ently serves more than 2,000 prac­ti­ces and faci­li­ties nati­on­wide. The group combi­nes high-quality service and strong consul­ting exper­tise with in-depth know­ledge of the GOÄ, perso­nal points of cont­act, and a compre­hen­sive range of digi­tal services and products. 

Liberta Part­ners acqui­red Medas in 2022 and has consis­t­ently digi­ti­zed and further deve­lo­ped its busi­ness model.

Nils von Wietz­low, a part­ner at Liberta Part­ners, says: “Over the past few years, Liberta has worked closely with Medas as an active and relia­ble part­ner, provi­ding compre­hen­sive support to manage­ment in digi­tiz­ing its busi­ness model, acqui­ring Arco, and driving stra­te­gic growth. We are very plea­sed to see how successfully the group has deve­lo­ped during this time. We are convin­ced that Medas has found the right part­ner for its next phase of growth in NORD Holding.”

Medas was foun­ded in 1980 and, over the course of more than 45 years, has become the leading specia­list in private medi­cal billing in Germany. Nati­on­wide, the group—including its subsi­diary Arco Verrech­nungs­Sys­teme GmbH—now serves more than 2,000 medi­cal prac­ti­ces and faci­li­ties. With its compre­hen­sive port­fo­lio of services—including GOÄ consul­ting, billing review and prepa­ra­tion, facto­ring, and claims management—Medas enables doctors and medi­cal staff to focus on pati­ent care. Medas stands out for its excep­tio­nal service quality, in-depth exper­tise in hand­ling even the most complex billing cases, and speed driven by effi­ci­ent, digi­ti­zed processes. 

The market for RCM in the health­care sector is expe­ri­en­cing struc­tu­ral growth and remains highly frag­men­ted. Medas offers health­care provi­ders the key solu­tion to major chal­lenges in this area: the incre­asing shortage of skil­led person­nel in medi­cal prac­ti­ces, the growing need for digi­ta­liza­tion and AI-supported proces­ses, and confi­dence in navi­ga­ting regu­la­tory chan­ges to billing catalogs. 

“With Medas, we are expan­ding our health­care port­fo­lio to include an estab­lished market leader in a niche market that is chal­len­ging from a regu­la­tory stand­point but extre­mely attrac­tive. The combi­na­tion of a custo­mer base that has grown over deca­des, deep exper­tise in the GOÄ, and a clear path to digi­ta­liza­tion aligns perfectly with our invest­ment philo­so­phy. We look forward to working toge­ther,” says André Seidel, Part­ner at NORD Holding.

“Medas impres­sed us with its successful combi­na­tion of consul­ting exper­tise, highly auto­ma­ted proces­ses, and strong custo­mer loyalty. The market for complex medi­cal billing is expe­ri­en­cing struc­tu­ral growth and remains highly fragmented—ideal condi­ti­ons for an active buy-and-build stra­tegy,” adds David Wöss­ner, Prin­ci­pal at NORD Holding.

Vale­rie Zylka, Mana­ging Direc­tor of Medas, comm­ents: “In recent years, we have laid the foun­da­tion for a new phase of growth through consis­tent invest­ments in our digi­tal infra­struc­ture and the group’s first acqui­si­tion. With NORD Holding as our part­ner, we now intend to conti­nue this jour­ney and signi­fi­cantly expand our range of services—both orga­ni­cally and inorganically—in the best inte­rests of our customers.” 

The tran­sac­tion was mana­ged by the NORD Holding Health­care team in the first half of 2026 and unders­cores the firm’s deep sector exper­tise in the health­care indus­try. NORD Holding acqui­red the Medas Group from Liberta Part­ners. On behalf of NORD Holding, the tran­sac­tion was mana­ged by André Seidel, David Wöss­ner, Tim Haase, and Moritz Hagen­meyer. The closing of the tran­sac­tion is subject to regu­la­tory approval. 

About the Medas Group

The Medas Group has specia­li­zed in private medi­cal billing for over 45 years and serves more than 2,000 medi­cal prac­ti­ces and faci­li­ties nati­on­wide. It opera­tes through the compa­nies Medas Facto­ring GmbH and Arco Verrech­nungs­Sys­teme GmbH and combi­nes a high level of profes­sio­nal quality and in-depth GOÄ exper­tise with service-orien­ted support, perso­nal cont­acts, and a compre­hen­sive range of digi­tal services. — www.medas.de

About NORD Holding

With a history span­ning more than 50 years and assets under manage­ment of €4.0 billion, NORD Holding is one of Germany’s leading private equity and asset manage­ment firms. Its focus is on the busi­ness areas of direct invest­ments and fund invest­ments. The direct invest­ment busi­ness focu­ses on struc­tu­ring and finan­cing corpo­rate succes­sion models, acqui­ring parts of corpo­rate groups or subsi­dia­ries, and provi­ding expan­sion finan­cing for medium-sized companies. 

The company curr­ently holds stakes in more than 16 compa­nies in Germany and other German-spea­king count­ries. The Fund Invest­ments divi­sion targets the small- and mid-cap segment of SME-focu­sed private equity funds in Europe. The focus here is on primary, secon­dary, and co-invest­ments. NORD Holding places a strong empha­sis on buyout mana­gers that are new to the market and opera­tio­nal invest­ment stra­te­gies, and also regu­larly acts as an anchor inves­tor. — www.nordholding.de

About Liberta Partners 

Liberta Part­ners is a private equity firm based in Munich that acqui­res and deve­lops mid-sized compa­nies in the DACH region. Its focus is on succes­sion plan­ning and corpo­rate spin-offs. With a clear buy-and-build approach and its own corpo­rate deve­lo­p­ment team, Liberta Part­ners supports its port­fo­lio compa­nies in achie­ving sustainable growth and opera­tio­nal deve­lo­p­ment. — www.libert-partners.com

Helsinki, Finland – ICEYE, the world’s leading provi­der of sove­reign intel­li­gence from space, has raised €450 million in a Series F funding round led by Gene­ral Atlan­tic, at a valua­tion of over 10 billion euros. — Other inves­tors include Soli­dium, Tesi, Varma, Ilma­ri­nen, Life­line Ventures, and Nokia from Finland, as well as the Qatar Invest­ment Autho­rity (QIA) and TCV. — Toge­ther with a secon­dary offe­ring, the total fund­rai­sing round exceeds 1 billion euros. 

The breadth of the inves­tor group reflects the reco­gni­tion that sove­reign and commer­cial access to space-based infor­ma­tion is essen­tial to natio­nal secu­rity and resi­li­ence worldwide.

To date, seven govern­ments across Europe have procu­red sove­reign satel­lite systems from ICEYE, making it the leading provi­der of space-based intel­li­gence. The proceeds from this funding round will drive the expan­sion of ICEYE’s global presence and deepen its intel­li­gence capa­bi­li­ties, enab­ling the company to meet growing demand and deli­ver sove­reign intel­li­gence systems and data to govern­ments and custo­mers on a new scale. 

Rafal Modrzew­ski, co-foun­der and CEO of ICEYE, said: “The cali­ber of the inves­tors who have chosen to support us on this scale reflects a shared convic­tion. Satel­lite intel­li­gence is ente­ring a new era, and now is the time to build it. ICEYE has built the world’s most advan­ced and proven capa­bi­lity to meet this demand. This funding will enable us to acce­le­rate the deli­very of new capa­bi­li­ties to govern­ments and custo­mers faster than ever before.”

Sascha Günther, Mana­ging Direc­tor, Head of DACH, and Co-Head of EMEA Tech­no­logy at Gene­ral Atlan­tic, said: “ICEYE has funda­men­tally rede­fi­ned Earth obser­va­tion. The company pionee­red the tran­si­tion to next-gene­ra­tion agile satel­lite fleets that offer grea­ter stra­te­gic capa­bi­lity with far grea­ter cost efficiency—and today opera­tes the world’s largest and most advan­ced SAR constel­la­tion on a verti­cally inte­gra­ted plat­form. Rafal and the team are driving ground­brea­king tech­no­lo­gies from inno­va­tion to large-scale commer­cial and opera­tio­nal success, and we are confi­dent that the global struc­tu­ral demand for ICEYE’s data will conti­nue to grow. We are proud to support remar­kable inno­va­tors like ICEYE as they push the boun­da­ries of what is possible.”

Nokia is joining the funding round as a new stra­te­gic inves­tor. Justin Hotard, Presi­dent and CEO of Nokia, said: “Modern defense incre­asingly depends on the combi­na­tion of trus­ted connec­ti­vity and real-time visi­bi­lity. Nokia and ICEYE bring comple­men­tary strengths that can help advance Europe’s defense, resi­li­ence, and tech­no­lo­gi­cal sove­reig­nty. This combi­na­tion is beco­ming incre­asingly important as govern­ments and indus­tries seek to build safer, more aware, and more adap­ta­ble criti­cal systems.”

This Series F round follows a period of signi­fi­cant momen­tum for ICEYE. In 2025, ICEYE simul­ta­neously scaled its growth, profi­ta­bi­lity, and cash generation—exceeding 250 million euros in reve­nue and 100 million euros in EBITDA, while buil­ding a contract back­log of over 1.5 billion euros. Produc­tion is curr­ently doubling, from 50 satel­li­tes per year today to a target of 100 per year by 2028 and beyond, supported by a corre­spon­ding launch cadence. 

Every sove­reign system that uses ICEYE not only streng­thens the nation that opera­tes it, but also a broa­der intel­li­gence network. ICEYE recently deli­vered a fully opera­tio­nal sove­reign space system to the Polish Armed Forces—one of the fastest sove­reign space deploy­ments in history, taking just 12 months from contract signing to opera­tio­nal readi­ness. This model is now being repli­ca­ted across Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, and the pace is accelerating. 

The tran­sac­tion is subject to the usual closing condi­ti­ons and regu­la­tory approvals.

About ICEYE

ICEYE is the worl­d’s leading provi­der of sove­reign intel­li­gence from space. We offer conti­nuous moni­to­ring capa­bi­li­ties to detect and respond to chan­ges anywhere on Earth. 

ICEYE opera­tes the world’s largest and most advan­ced SAR (Synthe­tic Aper­ture Radar) satel­lite constel­la­tion. We provide our custo­mers with infor­ma­tion of unmat­ched quality, latency, and repea­ta­bi­lity in all weather condi­ti­ons, day and night. For govern­ments that choose to operate their own constel­la­tion, we provide this proven capa­bi­lity as a sove­reign system. Constel­la­ti­ons built by ICEYE serve custo­mers in the fields of defense and intel­li­gence, envi­ron­men­tal moni­to­ring, insu­rance, and emer­gency manage­ment. We enable rapid decis­ion-making that contri­bu­tes to a safer future. 

Origi­nally a Euro­pean company, foun­ded in Finland. ICEYE opera­tes world­wide with over 1,000 employees. — iceye.com/joinus

About Gene­ral Atlantic

Gene­ral Atlan­tic is a leading global inves­tor with more than four and a half deca­des of expe­ri­ence provi­ding capi­tal and stra­te­gic support to over 885 compa­nies throug­hout its history. Foun­ded in 1980, Gene­ral Atlan­tic remains a commit­ted part­ner to visio­nary foun­ders and inves­tors who seek to build dyna­mic compa­nies and create long-term value. Guided by the belief that entre­pre­neurs can be incre­di­ble agents of trans­for­ma­tive change, the firm combi­nes a colla­bo­ra­tive global approach, indus­try-speci­fic exper­tise, a long-term invest­ment hori­zon, and a deep under­stan­ding of growth drivers to colla­bo­rate with and scale inno­va­tive compa­nies around the world. The firm lever­a­ges its pati­ent capi­tal, opera­tio­nal exper­tise, and global plat­form to support a diver­si­fied invest­ment port­fo­lio that encom­pas­ses growth equity, credit, the energy tran­si­tion, and sustainable infra­struc­ture stra­te­gies. As of March 31, 2026, Gene­ral Atlan­tic had appro­xi­m­ately $126 billion in assets under manage­ment across all stra­te­gies, with more than 900 profes­sio­nals in 20 count­ries across five regi­ons. — www.generalatlantic.com.

Zurich/Munich/Copenhagen – Instal­la­tør­Grup­pen A/S (“Instal­la­tør­Grup­pen” or the “Company”), a leading provi­der of multi­di­sci­pli­nary tech­ni­cal instal­la­tion services in Switz­er­land and Denmark, was listed today on the Nasdaq in Copen­ha­gen for the first time. With this initial public offe­ring, which gene­ra­ted signi­fi­cant inte­rest among insti­tu­tio­nal and retail inves­tors inter­na­tio­nally, Instal­la­tør­Grup­pen has achie­ved a key mile­stone in its growth story with the support of FSN Capital. 

The offe­ring price was 2.00 euros per share, corre­spon­ding to a market capi­ta­liza­tion of appro­xi­m­ately 602 million euros follo­wing the comple­tion of the offe­ring. If the over-allot­ment option is exer­cised in full, 80,499,850 shares will be placed, repre­sen­ting appro­xi­m­ately 27 percent of the total share capi­tal. Follo­wing the initial public offe­ring, FSN Capi­tal VI will hold appro­xi­m­ately 47 percent of the shares, provi­ded the over-allot­ment option is exer­cised in full. 

Buy & Build Strategy

Instal­la­tør­Grup­pen was foun­ded in 2023 through the merger of eleven tech­ni­cal instal­la­tion compa­nies and has been pursuing an ambi­tious growth stra­tegy ever since: With the support of FSN Capi­tal, the group has to date comple­ted the acqui­si­tion of a total of 47 compa­nies, which—as inde­pendently opera­ting brands with their own manage­ment and custo­mer base—benefit from the group’s syner­gies and econo­mies of scale. In addi­tion to its home market of Denmark, the Swiss market has also played an important role in InstallatørGruppen’s buy-and-build stra­tegy since last year. With the 2025 acqui­si­ti­ons of A3 Haus­tech AG, W. Rokitzky AG, and Rohr Gebäu­de­tech­nik AG, as well as the most recent acqui­si­ti­ons of BP Elek­tro and Elek­tro Erti AG in 2026, five local Swiss play­ers are streng­thening the rapidly growing group. Since the group’s foun­ding, repor­ted reve­nue has risen from appro­xi­m­ately 187 million euros in 2023 to just under 495 million euros in 2025, with combi­ned reve­nue of 562 million euros and combi­ned adjus­ted EBITA of just under 55 million euros in 2025. 

“We are deligh­ted by the signi­fi­cant inte­rest in Instal­la­tør­Grup­pen and the trust placed in us by our new share­hol­ders. The stock market listing is a major mile­stone for our group and reflects the strong brand we have built toge­ther with our port­fo­lio compa­nies and employees. With our estab­lished market posi­tion in Switz­er­land and Denmark, we are ideally posi­tio­ned to conti­nue driving our group’s growth, parti­cu­larly through further acqui­si­ti­ons and expan­sion into new markets by 2027,” said Niels Eldrup Meidahl, co-foun­der and Group CEO of Instal­la­tør­Grup­pen. “In FSN Capi­tal, we have found a part­ner that has maste­red the art of buy-and-build in its enti­rety. The expe­ri­ence of the FSN team—particularly in guiding compa­nies through their initial public offerings—has had a decisive impact on our deve­lo­p­ment. We are very grateful for this part­ner­ship and the trust placed in us,” Meidahl continued. 

Robin Mürer, Co-Mana­ging Part­ner at FSN Capi­tal, added: “The initial public offe­ring is a strong endor­se­ment of InstallatørGruppen’s stra­tegy, busi­ness model, and long-term growth poten­tial. We are proud to have supported the group throug­hout its deve­lo­p­ment to date—including in Switz­er­land. Today’s listing not only marks an important step for Instal­la­tør­Grup­pen but also confirms the buy-and-build stra­tegy that FSN Capi­tal has consis­t­ently pursued —from Green Land­sca­ping in Fund III, through Instalco in Fund IV and Hånd­verks­grup­pen in Fund V, to Instal­la­tør­Grup­pen today. We have seen time and again that local cham­pi­ons in the busi­ness services sector can preserve their iden­tity and close ties to custo­mers while simul­ta­neously bene­fiting from the strength and oppor­tu­ni­ties of a larger group. Instal­la­tør­Grup­pen is a striking exam­ple of this convic­tion, and we look forward to accom­pany­ing the company into the next chap­ter of its growth story.”

About FSN Capital

FSN Capi­tal, one of Nort­hern Europe’s leading private equity firms, was foun­ded in 1999 and has four offices in Oslo, Stock­holm, Copen­ha­gen, and, since 2017, Munich. The four funds advi­sed by FSN Capi­tal have more than four billion euros under manage­ment; for its most recent Fund VI, 1.8 billion euros were raised for invest­ments in Scan­di­na­via and the DACH region. The funds make majo­rity invest­ments in growth-orien­ted compa­nies to support them on their path to contin­ued success and to posi­tion them to be even more sustainable, compe­ti­tive, inter­na­tio­nal, and profi­ta­ble. FSN Capital’s team of more than 90 people (25 of whom are based in Munich) is commit­ted to inves­t­ing respon­si­bly and achie­ving market-leading returns, in keeping with the motto “We are decent people making a decent return in a decent way.” Current port­fo­lio compa­nies in Germany include Adra­gos Pharma, BoldR, Bäcker Görtz, Ecovium, impreg, Lobs­ter, Swash Group, and TASKING, among others. — www.fsncapital.com

About Instal­la­tør­Grup­pen

Instal­la­tør­Grup­pen is a leading provi­der of multi­di­sci­pli­nary tech­ni­cal instal­la­tion services in Switz­er­land and Denmark. The group consists of inde­pendently opera­ting compa­nies that have a strong local presence and in-depth tech­ni­cal exper­tise. The group offers solu­ti­ons prima­rily in the fields of plum­bing, heating, venti­la­tion, and air condi­tio­ning; refri­ge­ra­tion; and elec­tri­cal engi­nee­ring, as well as in selec­ted specialty areas such as sprink­ler systems, energy opti­miza­tion, buil­ding auto­ma­tion, fiber-optic infra­struc­ture, and solar systems. Instal­la­tør­Grup­pen serves as its custo­mers’ part­ner of choice in imple­men­ting the energy transition.

Frankfurt/Munich – Under the leader­ship of part­ner Chris­tian Tapp­ei­ner, WEIL is advi­sing the Elevion Group (“Elevion”), a Euro­pean provi­der of end-to-end solu­ti­ons for decar­bo­niza­tion and energy effi­ci­ency impro­ve­ments, on its acqui­si­tion of Techem Solu­ti­ons GmbH (“Techem Solu­ti­ons”). The tran­sac­tion is subject to anti­trust appr­oval. It is expec­ted to close in the second half of 2026. 

Techem Solu­ti­ons is Germany’s second-largest provi­der of heating and energy services and opera­tes more than 2,000 energy faci­li­ties. The company supplies appro­xi­m­ately 2,600 resi­den­tial house­holds and 150 commer­cial custo­mers and is part of Techem Energy Services, a leading energy service provi­der for the real estate sector. With this tran­sac­tion, Elevion joins the ranks of the top service provi­ders in the German heating and energy market. 

WEIL has previously advi­sed Elevion on seve­ral occa­si­ons, most recently in connec­tion with the acqui­si­tion of the SERCOO Group. This rene­wed enga­ge­ment unders­cores the trus­ting, long-term client rela­ti­onship. At the same time, the tran­sac­tion high­lights the strong market posi­tion of WEIL’s Energy & Infra­struc­ture practice. 

The WEIL team was led by Frank­furt-based M&A part­ner Chris­tian Tapp­ei­ner and included the M&A team consis­ting of coun­sel Julia Schö­fer (Munich) and Kars­ten Krumm (Frank­furt), as well as asso­cia­tes Alex­an­der Roth­stein, Dennis Simon, Josef Matoussi, Finn-Valen­tin Kolit­sch, Nadja Badarne (all in Frank­furt), Lucas Otto­witz, and Daniel Mati­je­vic (both in Munich). In addi­tion, the tax team, led by Part­ner Benja­min Rapp (Munich) and Asso­cia­tes Alex­an­der Reich and Daniel Reich (both Frank­furt), and the anti­trust team, led by Part­ner Niklas Maydell and Asso­ciate Martin Wagner (both Brussels), also provi­ded advice. 

About Weil

Weil, Gotshal & Manges is an inter­na­tio­nal law firm with more than 1,200 attor­neys. Weil has offices in New York, Austin, Boston, Brussels, Dallas, Frank­furt, Hong Kong, Hous­ton, Los Ange­les, London, Miami, Munich, Paris, San Fran­cisco, Washing­ton, D.C., and Sili­con Valley. In Germany, the U.S.-based firm is repre­sen­ted by two offices in Frank­furt and Munich. Here, the firm focu­ses on provi­ding specia­li­zed coun­sel to natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal clients in cross-border private equity and M&A tran­sac­tions, high-profile liti­ga­tion matters, complex restruc­tu­rings and finan­cings, as well as tax plan­ning. — www.weil.com

Munich — The commer­cial law firm Gütt Olk Feld­haus has advi­sed Augs­burg-based Ever­l­lence SE (form­erly: MAN Energy Solu­ti­ons SE) on the carve-out of its reac­tor and appa­ra­tus engi­nee­ring busi­ness into Deggen­dorf-based DWE GmbH and on the sale of DWE GmbH to a company advi­sed by the private equity firm Mona­cum Part­ners GmbH.

DWE GmbH deve­lops and manu­fac­tures reac­tor systems for the chemi­cal and petro­che­mi­cal indus­try, compon­ents for refi­nery appli­ca­ti­ons and equip­ment for large-scale scien­ti­fic projects and special indus­trial appli­ca­ti­ons. DWE employs around 400 people at its Deggen­dorf site. 

Ever­l­lence is a leading provi­der of propul­sion, decar­bo­niza­tion and effi­ci­ency solu­ti­ons for the ship­ping, energy and indus­trial sectors. Under the guiding prin­ci­ple “Moving big things to zero”, Ever­l­lence supports the key indus­tries of the global economy in effec­tively redu­cing emis­si­ons that are diffi­cult to avoid. Head­quar­te­red in Germany, the company employs around 15,000 people at more than 140 loca­ti­ons. With its after-sales brand Prime­Serv, Ever­l­lence also has a global network of service centers.
GOF regu­larly advi­ses Ever­l­lence SE on transactions.

Legal advi­sors to Ever­l­lence SE:
Ever­l­lence SE: Dr. Martin Söhn­gen, LL.M. (Colum­bia) (Deputy Gene­ral Coun­sel and Head of Corpo­rate, Compe­ti­tion and M&A)

Gütt Olk Feld­haus, Munich: Dr. Sebas­tian Olk, Foto (Part­ner, Lead, Corporate/M&A), Maxi­mi­lian Spind­ler, LL.M. (Colum­bia) (Part­ner, Corporate/M&A), Thomas Becker, LL.M. (Of Coun­sel, IP/IT/Commercial), Hans-Joachim Englert (Finan­cing, Senior Asso­ciate), Anto­nia Gaupp, Lars Tenhünd­feld, Moritz Beum­ker; Timo Hoff­mann (all Asso­cia­tes, all Corporate/M&A).

Pusch Wahlig Work­place Law, Munich: Ingo Sappa, Johan­nes Wick­ler (both part­ners, employ­ment law)
BLOMSTEIN, Berlin: Dr. Max Klasse (part­ner), Ramona Ader (coun­sel), Dr. Julia Lotze (asso­ciate) (anti­trust law, funding law)

pswp POSSER SPIETH WOLFERS & PARTNERS, Berlin: Niclas Heller­mann LL.M. (Part­ner), Dr. Justus Quecke (Coun­sel), Julia Sophie Dieball (Asso­ciate) (Public Law) 

REIUS, Hamburg: Panu Siemer (Part­ner), Robert Mayer (Coun­sel, both real estate law)

About Gütt Olk Feldhaus

Gütt Olk Feld­haus is a leading inter­na­tio­nal law firm foun­ded in 2011 and based in Munich. GOF advi­ses inter­na­tio­nal and natio­nal corpo­ra­ti­ons, finan­cial inves­tors and family businesses/entrepreneurs compre­hen­si­vely on commer­cial and corpo­rate law. The focus is on corpo­rate law, M&A, private equity and finan­cing, inclu­ding liti­ga­tion. — www.gof-partner.com

Munich — The inter­na­tio­nal law firm Bird & Bird has advi­sed Caver­ion Deutsch­land GmbH on two acqui­si­ti­ons: On the acqui­si­tion of S&A Schalt­an­la­gen­bau GmbH, based in Garb­sen, which was comple­ted on March 31, 2026, and also on the acqui­si­tion of Kees Klima- und Kälte­tech­nik GmbH, based in northwes­tern Germany. With these acqui­si­ti­ons, Caver­ion is conti­nuing its stra­tegy of inor­ga­nic growth and streng­thening its market posi­tion in the areas of buil­ding auto­ma­tion, venti­la­tion and air condi­tio­ning technology. 

Caver­ion stands for “Buil­ding Perfor­mance” and offers tech­ni­cal buil­ding services across all trades. The company provi­des tech­ni­cal solu­ti­ons to conti­nuously improve the perfor­mance of proper­ties — for opti­mal working and living condi­ti­ons, low energy consump­tion and CO₂ emis­si­ons as well as relia­ble opera­tion. Caver­ion opera­tes at 18 loca­ti­ons and employs more than 2,000 people throug­hout Germany. The company is part of the Assem­blin Caver­ion Group, a leading Nort­hern Euro­pean provi­der of tech­ni­cal buil­ding services with around 20,000 employees in nine count­ries and a turno­ver of 3.8 billion euros. 

S&A Schalt­an­la­gen­bau specia­li­zes in auto­ma­tion tech­no­logy and switch cabi­net cons­truc­tion and offers turn­key solu­ti­ons for indus­trial compa­nies, commer­cial proper­ties and public faci­li­ties. Based in the Hano­ver region, the company gene­ra­ted annual sales of around 6 million euros in 2025 and employs 45 people. The S&A Schalt­an­la­gen­bau brand will be retai­ned and the company will conti­nue to operate as an inde­pen­dent branch within the Caver­ion North-West region. The former co-owner Ingo Ahrbe­cker will conti­nue to manage the opera­tio­nal busi­ness as Mana­ging Direc­tor of the GmbH. 

Kees Klima- und Kälte­tech­nik is an estab­lished company that specia­li­zes in venti­la­tion, cooling, process, measu­re­ment and auto­ma­tion tech­no­logy and offers solu­ti­ons for custo­mers in north-west Germany. The company has a parti­cu­larly strong presence in the indus­trial sector. In 2025, Kees achie­ved an annual turno­ver of around 6.1 million euros and employs around 40 people. Ulf Nickel and Jörg Ruhlän­der will remain Mana­ging Direc­tors of Kees after the takeover. 

Advi­sor Caver­ion: Bird & Bird

Part­ner Stefan Münch, Senior Coun­sel Michael Gaßner (lead) (both Corpo­rate, Munich), Part­ner Dr. Ralph Panzer, Coun­sel Dr. Maxi­mi­lian Koch and Senior Asso­ciate Chris­toph Lutz (all Employ­ment Law, Munich) and Asso­ciate Leonie Blei­le­vens (Employ­ment Law, Düsseldorf).

On the in-house side, the project was led by Dr. Eva Bujalka, Gene­ral Counsel/Head of M&A.

Berlin — YPOG has advi­sed Verdane toge­ther with PWWL and GNP on an invest­ment in ETERNO. ETERNO is a Berlin-based health­tech company that has deve­lo­ped an AI-native opera­ting system for outpa­ti­ent care. 

ETERNO offers ETERNO Cloud, a fully inte­gra­ted, cloud-based opera­ting system for physi­ci­ans and thera­pists that auto­ma­tes admi­nis­tra­tive proces­ses from pati­ent admis­sion and clini­cal docu­men­ta­tion to billing and analy­tics. By inte­gra­ting arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence, the plat­form enables health­care provi­ders to signi­fi­cantly reduce admi­nis­tra­tive workloads and improve pati­ent care. More than 2,000 doctors in Germany alre­ady use ETERNO Cloud in their day-to-day practice. 

With the part­ner­ship, ETERNO aims to scale its plat­form, expand its tech­no­lo­gi­cal leader­ship, acce­le­rate commer­cial roll­out and pursue selec­tive stra­te­gic acqui­si­ti­ons. The company employs over 150 people and addres­ses one of the most frag­men­ted and least digi­ti­zed markets in Europe. In Germany, more than 170,000 outpa­ti­ent doctors are still working with outda­ted legacy systems, while around 2 million doctors are active in outpa­ti­ent care across Europe. 

Verdane is a specia­list growth buyout inves­tor support­ing tech­no­logy-based and sustainable compa­nies that contri­bute to the digi­ta­liza­tion and decar­bo­niza­tion of the Euro­pean economy. Verda­ne’s funds have raised over EUR 10 billion in capi­tal and made more than 200 invest­ments in high-growth compa­nies since 2003. 

YPOG
Dr. Martin Scha­per (Lead, Tran­sac­tions), Part­ner, Berlin
Jörg Schr­ade (Tax), Part­ner, Munich
Dr. Bene­dikt Flöter (IP/IT/Data Protec­tion), Part­ner, Berlin
Pia Meven (Tran­sac­tions), Asso­cia­ted Part­ner, Berlin
Ciro D’Ame­lio (Tran­sac­tions), Senior Asso­ciate, Berlin
Anna Eick­meier (IP/IT/Data Protec­tion), Asso­cia­ted Part­ner, Berlin
Matthias Treude (IP/IT/Data Protec­tion), Senior Asso­ciate, Hamburg
Konstan­tina Natha­nail (IP/IT/Data Protec­tion), Asso­ciate, Berlin

PWWL
Eckbert Müller, Partner
Teresa Gabele, Associate
Lisa Want­zen, Mana­ging Associate

GNP
Till Sebas­tian Wipper­fürth, Partner
Richard Schulz, Attor­ney at Law

About us
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. 

Further infor­ma­tion: www.ypog.law and www.linkedin.com/company/ypog

Munich — McDer­mott Will & Schulte has advi­sed clever­soft group, a port­fo­lio company of Levine Leicht­man Capi­tal Part­ners (LLCP), on the acqui­si­tion of the Austrian B2B FinTech FAIT Inter­net Soft­ware GmbH. With the acqui­si­tion, clever­soft comple­ments its exis­ting port­fo­lio with flexi­ble front-end tech­no­lo­gies and addi­tio­nal services for inte­gra­ted end-to-end work­flows in digi­tal finan­cial advi­sory, port­fo­lio manage­ment and asset management. 

The closing of the tran­sac­tion is subject to the usual regu­la­tory appr­ovals and is expec­ted later in the year.

Clever­soft, head­quar­te­red in Munich and with offices in Frank­furt, Luxem­bourg, Amster­dam, The Hague, Malta, Sofia, Seville, Istan­bul, Dubai and Kuwait, provi­des more than 1,200 finan­cial insti­tu­ti­ons world­wide with auto­ma­ted solu­ti­ons for opti­mi­zing busi­ness-rele­vant compli­ance processes.

FAIT (Finan­cial Analy­sis and Invest­ment Tech­no­logy) is an Austrian FinTech company that deve­lops soft­ware solu­ti­ons for digi­tal invest­ment advice and asset manage­ment. The company offers banks, FinTechs and insu­rance compa­nies soft­ware products, APIs and consul­ting services in the field of digi­tal invest­ment advice. 

Advi­sor Clever­soft: McDer­mott Will & Schulte, Munich

Holger H. Ebers­ber­ger, LL.M. (Photo © McDer­mott), Dr. Thomas Diek­mann (both lead), Dr. Manuel Weiß (Coun­sel; all Private Equity), Dr. Florian Schie­fer (Tax); Asso­ciate: Julia Külzer (Private Equity).

About McDer­mott Will & Schulte

McDer­mott Will & Schulte is a leading inter­na­tio­nal commer­cial law firm with more than 1,700 lawy­ers in over 20 offices in Europe, North America and Asia. In Germany, the firm has offices in Düssel­dorf, Frank­furt am Main, Colo­gne and Munich. Our teams cover the entire spec­trum of commer­cial law with their exper­tise. The German prac­tice is led by McDer­mott Will & Schulte Rechts­an­wälte Steu­er­be­ra­ter LLP. You can find more infor­ma­tion at: www.mwe.com/de/

Frank­furt a. M. — As part of the successful Series A finan­cing round of Focu­sed Energy, RWE has expan­ded its exis­ting invest­ment in the Darm­stadt-based laser fusion company since Octo­ber 2025 and inves­ted a further 60 million euros.
Nuclear fusion is deve­lo­ping rapidly world­wide and Germany is gaining signi­fi­cant weight in the
global fusion market. Well-known inves­tors from Europe, the USA, Asia and the Gulf region parti­ci­pa­ted in the finan­cing round along­side RWE and the German Fede­ral Agency for Leap Inno­va­tions. This is clear evidence that German start-ups are percei­ved by foreign inves­tors as promi­sing drivers of tech­no­lo­gi­cal inno­va­tion in fusion, parti­cu­larly Focu­sed Energy in the field of laser fusion. 

Germany has an outstan­ding ecosys­tem of excel­lent rese­arch and start-ups,
support­ing indus­trial compa­nies and exis­ting loca­ti­ons that can be used
. It also has an effi­ci­ent supply chain. These are excellent
prere­qui­si­tes for exploi­ting the decisive
speed advan­tage in the global compe­ti­tion for fusion energy. Germany ther­e­fore has the best chan­ces of main­tai­ning and further expan­ding its leading role in nuclear fusion in global competition. 

Toge­ther with the state of Hesse and other part­ners, Focu­sed Energy is parti­ci­pa­ting in the current fede­ral govern­ment tender for a laser fusion hub in
this context. The
site in Biblis can play a key role in the further deve­lo­p­ment of
fusion tech­no­logy in Germany as a central laser fusion campus — where busi­ness, rese­arch and
inno­va­tion are brought together. 

Dr. Markus Kreb­ber, CEO RWE AGThanks to its excel­lent rese­arch land­scape and inno­va­tive start-ups such as Focu­sed Energy — one of the leading compa­nies in the field of laser fusion — Germany is well posi­tio­ned to play a leading role in nuclear fusion globally. We are ther­e­fore prepared to further expand our invest­ment in Focu­sed Energy. It is an important signal that the fede­ral and state govern­ments are working toge­ther to drive forward deve­lo­p­ment in order to realize a commer­cial fusion reac­tor in Germany. RWE expressly supports this goal: with our dismant­ling sites, our exis­ting nuclear infra­struc­ture and our many years of exper­tise in licen­sing law, we are crea­ting the ideal condi­ti­ons to secure time and cost advan­ta­ges for Germany in inter­na­tio­nal competition.”

Focu­sed Energy is a leader in laser-based fusion tech­no­logy, is invol­ved in inter­na­tio­nal rese­arch projects and aims to deve­lop high-energy lasers for poten­tial use in laser fusion power plants. As part of its invest­ment, RWE will grant Focu­sed Energy access to its Biblis site to build a pilot plant for laser-based fusion technology. 

Advi­sor RWE: Kirk­land & Ellis, Frankfurt

Dr. Tobias Larisch (photo © Kirk­land), Fried­rich von der Heydt-von Kalck­reuth (both lead, both Private Equity/M&A), Asso­cia­tes: Henrik Kilian, Dr. Maxi­mi­lian Beil­ner, Mirjam Meyer, Michael Döpp­ner (all Private Equity/M&A)

About Kirk­land

With more than 4,000 lawy­ers in 23 cities in the USA, Europe, the Middle East and Asia, Kirk­land & Ellis is one of the leading law firms for high-cali­ber legal services. The German team specia­li­zes in private equity, M&A, restruc­tu­ring, corpo­rate and capi­tal markets, finan­cing and tax. For more infor­ma­tion, please visit kirkland.com.

Frank­furt am Main — Deut­sche Betei­li­gungs AG (DBAG) is inves­t­ing in the TNL Group (TNL), a leading specia­list for envi­ron­men­tal plan­ning and permit­ting consul­ting in the field of energy and trans­por­ta­tion infra­struc­ture. DBAG ECF IV, a fund advi­sed by DBAG, will acquire a majo­rity stake in TNL as part of a manage­ment buy-out. The tran­sac­tion was initia­ted bila­te­rally through DBAG’s network and once again under­lines the quality and resi­li­ence of its access to attrac­tive mid-market tran­sac­tions. TNL foun­der and co-mana­ging direc­tor Frank Berns­hau­sen and other members of the manage­ment team will re-invest a signi­fi­cant amount. The closing of the tran­sac­tion is subject to regu­la­tory appr­ovals. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the purchase price.

TNL sets the course for the expan­sion of the energy tran­si­tion and trans­port infrastructure
TNL is a specia­list provi­der of envi­ron­men­tal plan­ning, appr­oval consul­ting and cons­truc­tion services for complex infra­struc­ture projects. Foun­ded in 1994 by Frank Berns­hau­sen, the company star­ted out as a consul­tancy firm and today supports chal­len­ging cons­truc­tion projects such as wind and solar parks, high-voltage and extra-high-voltage power lines and trans­port infra­struc­ture projects. 

TNL supports its clients along the entire project chain: from the preli­mi­nary ecolo­gi­cal study to the offi­cial appr­oval process and subse­quent cons­truc­tion super­vi­sion and implementation.

TNL also has special exper­tise in projects with complex ecolo­gi­cal issues, is charac­te­ri­zed in parti­cu­lar by the deve­lo­p­ment of prac­ti­cal solu­ti­ons and is estab­lished as a service provi­der for deman­ding large-scale projects with the four German trans­mis­sion system opera­tors TenneT, Amprion, 50Hertz and TransnetBW.

The group of compa­nies employs around 250 people at four loca­ti­ons. In 2025, they gene­ra­ted a total opera­ting perfor­mance of around 30 million euros. 

Market charac­te­ri­zed by struc­tu­ral growth

The invest­ment follows DBAG’s stra­tegy of making targe­ted invest­ments in compa­nies that operate in struc­tu­rally attrac­tive markets. The expan­sion of trans­port infra­struc­ture, the energy tran­si­tion and the expan­sion of the German trans­mis­sion grids as part of the Network Deve­lo­p­ment Plan (NDP) are driving a sustained high demand for quali­fied envi­ron­men­tal plan­ning services. This dyna­mic is also reflec­ted in TNL’s deve­lo­p­ment: the company’s core market has grown at an annua­li­zed double-digit percen­tage rate since 2020. 

This posi­tive deve­lo­p­ment is also supported by long-term frame­work agree­ments. The attrac­tive company profile is roun­ded off by impres­sive refe­ren­ces in system-rele­vant projects for the energy tran­si­tion such as Sued­Link, Sued­Ost­Link and Rhein-Main-Link. 

Tom Alzin, CEO of Deut­sche Betei­li­gungs AG, says: “TNL is a true hidden cham­pion in a non-cycli­cal growth market. The company provi­des indis­pensable plan­ning services for projects that are essen­tial for the success of the energy tran­si­tion.” He adds: “Frank Berns­hau­sen and his team have built up a unique market posi­tion over 30 years, which is based on a strong foun­da­tion of exper­tise, project compe­tence, trust in autho­ri­ties and custo­mers. We want to consis­t­ently deve­lop this strong foun­da­tion toge­ther with the management.” 

Conti­nuity through long-term growth strategy

Since its foun­da­tion in 1994, TNL has deve­lo­ped from a regio­nal consul­tancy firm into one of the leading provi­ders of envi­ron­men­tal plan­ning services for natio­nal energy and trans­por­ta­tion infrastructure.

With DBAG ECF IV as the new majo­rity share­hol­der, this growth course is to be consis­t­ently contin­ued. This includes the imple­men­ta­tion of an advi­sory board that will support the further deve­lo­p­ment of the company. In addi­tion, the market presence in distri­bu­tion network opera­tors, rail infra­struc­ture and in the areas of land resto­ra­tion, climate adapt­a­tion, climate protec­tion and water manage­ment is to be syste­ma­ti­cally expan­ded. TNL is also exami­ning company acquisitions. 

“We have deve­lo­ped the stra­tegy for the next growth phase toge­ther with Frank Berns­hau­sen and his team and have been on an equal footing from the outset. Our goal is clear: TNL should grow orga­ni­cally and through targe­ted acqui­si­ti­ons, thus further diver­si­fy­ing its custo­mer and exper­tise base and consis­t­ently deli­ve­ring the quality for which the company is known among its custo­mers. To this end, we are making targe­ted invest­ments in IT, proces­ses and employee deve­lo­p­ment,” says Chris­toph Groß­e­käm­per, Mana­ging Direc­tor, Deut­sche Betei­li­gungs AG.

Frank Berns­hau­sen, foun­der and co-mana­ging direc­tor of the TNL Group, explains: “I foun­ded TNL as an envi­ron­men­tal plan­ning office and am proud of what we have achie­ved toge­ther, such as our invol­vement in some of Germany’s most important infra­struc­ture projects.” He conti­nues: “It was always clear to me that if I was looking for a succes­sion part­ner, I needed someone who unders­tood the busi­ness and who cared about the people in the company. I have found both in DBAG. We now have the oppor­tu­nity to tackle the next phase of growth with a stron­ger orga­niza­tion, new markets and the back­ing of an expe­ri­en­ced partner.” 

About DBAG

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 busi­ness services, 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. The assets mana­ged or advi­sed by the DBAG Group amount to around 2.7 billion euros. ELF Capi­tal comple­ments DBAG’s range of flexi­ble finan­cing solu­ti­ons for SMEs with private debt capi­tal. — www.dbag.de

Munich/ Bad Vilbel — The NOBIX Group, a mana­ged service provi­der with a focus on medium-sized compa­nies, is acqui­ring black­point GmbH from Bad Vilbel, an estab­lished provi­der of cloud, mana­ged and custo­mer expe­ri­ence solu­ti­ons. With this acqui­si­tion, the Group is expan­ding its port­fo­lio to include exper­tise in the areas of CRM, CX plat­forms, core busi­ness appli­ca­ti­ons and cloud-based infra­struc­ture and secu­rity services. This is alre­ady the third acqui­si­tion of the NOBIX Group in the current year after netmin compu­ter GmbH from Freu­den­stadt and Alba­kom GmbH from Rostock. — The NOBIX Group is supported by Liberta Part­ners, a Munich-based invest­ment company that acqui­res and deve­lops medium-sized compa­nies in the DACH region. 

black­point: From inter­net service provi­der to digi­tiza­tion partner

Foun­ded in 1997, black­point GmbH has evol­ved over the past three deca­des from a tradi­tio­nal Inter­net service provi­der to a broad-based digi­ta­liza­tion part­ner. With around 30 employees, the company supports custo­mers of all sectors and sizes — from local medi­cal prac­ti­ces to inter­na­tio­nal corporations. 

The port­fo­lio of black­point GmbH includes cloud and hosting services, infra­struc­ture-as-a-service, secu­rity and backup solu­ti­ons, VoIP and tele­phony services as well as web and store deve­lo­p­ment. In addi­tion, the company has exten­sive exper­tise in custo­mer expe­ri­ence and CRM plat­forms inclu­ding ERP inte­gra­tion, analy­sis and auto­ma­tion solu­ti­ons as well as AI-supported appli­ca­ti­ons. Inter­na­tio­nal custo­mer projects with roll­outs in various count­ries under­line the company’s tech­ni­cal expertise. 

Nume­rous exis­ting custo­mers have been rely­ing on black­poin­t’s services for deca­des. Even after the acqui­si­tion, the name will remain the same; exis­ting cont­acts and struc­tures will not change for custo­mers and part­ners. At the same time, they will bene­fit from the expan­ded service port­fo­lio and addi­tio­nal resour­ces within the NOBIX Group. 

Proven manage­ment struc­ture remains in place

Even after the acqui­si­tion, the long-stan­ding manage­ment perso­na­li­ties of black­point GmbH will remain on board. Mario Di Rienzo, who will conti­nue to lead the company as Mana­ging Direc­tor, will be respon­si­ble in parti­cu­lar for stra­te­gic and commer­cial deve­lo­p­ment. Dirk Esten­feld will incre­asingly focus on the tech­ni­cal, opera­tio­nal and product-rela­ted further deve­lo­p­ment of services. Both will also contri­bute their many years of expe­ri­ence and exper­tise within the NOBIX Group. 

The acqui­si­tion is part of the NOBIX Group’s ongo­ing deve­lo­p­ment towards a more inte­gra­ted corpo­rate struc­ture. Andreas Török, CEO of the NOBIX Group, empha­si­zes the signi­fi­cance for the group: “black­point expands our port­fo­lio with a rare combi­na­tion of infra­struc­ture, appli­ca­tion and CX exper­tise. The depth in the area of custo­mer expe­ri­ence and core busi­ness appli­ca­ti­ons in parti­cu­lar crea­tes new oppor­tu­ni­ties for our group to supple­ment and further deve­lop exis­ting services. At the same time, black­point streng­thens our posi­tion in the midmar­ket and in the fast-growing as-a-service market.” 

“With black­point, we are not only gaining addi­tio­nal exper­tise, but above all a company with a high level of opera­tio­nal matu­rity and estab­lished custo­mer rela­ti­onships,” explains Domi­nik Welz, CFO of the NOBIX Group. “We are deligh­ted to welcome black­point to the NOBIX Group and look forward to shaping our future path together.” 

Liberta Part­ners also sees the tran­sac­tion as an important step in the stra­te­gic deve­lo­p­ment of the NOBIX Group. Nils von Wietz­low, Part­ner at Liberta Part­ners (photo © Liberta), explains: “With the acqui­si­tion of black­point, the NOBIX Group is consis­t­ently conti­nuing on its growth path. black­point is an excel­lent addi­tion to the Group, both tech­no­lo­gi­cally and cultu­rally, and streng­thens its posi­tion as a powerful digi­tiza­tion part­ner for medium-sized compa­nies. We look forward to support­ing the NOBIX Group toge­ther with the manage­ment team in the next phase of development.”

Julius Wölfer, Corpo­rate Deve­lo­p­ment Mana­ger at Liberta Part­ners, adds: “black­point brings in-depth exper­tise in key future fields such as custo­mer expe­ri­ence, cloud infra­struc­ture and mana­ged services. These capa­bi­li­ties fit perfectly with the stra­te­gic direc­tion of the NOBIX Group and open up addi­tio­nal oppor­tu­ni­ties for inte­gra­ted custo­mer solu­ti­ons. The tran­sac­tion also under­lines the attrac­ti­ve­ness of the NOBIX Group as a plat­form for successful entre­pre­neurs and specia­li­zed IT service providers.”

About Liberta Partners

Liberta Part­ners is an invest­ment company based in Munich that acqui­res and deve­lops medium-sized compa­nies in the DACH region. The focus is on succes­sion situa­tions and corpo­rate spin-offs. With a clear buy-and-build approach and its own corpo­rate deve­lo­p­ment team, Liberta Part­ners supports its port­fo­lio compa­nies in sustainable and successful corpo­rate deve­lo­p­ment. — www.liberta-partners.com

About NOBIX Group

The NOBIX Group is a nati­on­wide mana­ged service provi­der with a focus on mana­ged services for infra­struc­ture, cloud, secu­rity and core busi­ness appli­ca­ti­ons. The Group employs around 300 people at 12 loca­ti­ons in Germany. — www.nobix-group.de

About black­point

As an alli­ance and chan­nel part­ner, black­point GmbH specia­li­zes in consul­ting, imple­men­ta­tion and inte­gra­tion of the Infor Custo­mer Expe­ri­ence Suite (CX). It has many years of expe­ri­ence with the product Infor CRM (form­erly Sales­lo­gix), Infor CPQ and eCom­merce solu­ti­ons such as Shop­ware or Infor Rhythm. Black­point offers profes­sio­nal consul­ting and imple­men­ta­tion services for the deve­lo­p­ment of web appli­ca­ti­ons. The team consists of expe­ri­en­ced deve­lo­pers who take care of all aspects of web appli­ca­ti­ons and offer indi­vi­dual solu­ti­ons that are precis­ely tail­o­red to the various requi­re­ments. — www.blackpoint.de

Munich/Mainz — Funds advi­sed by Deut­sche Private Equity (DPE) have signed an agree­ment to acquire a majo­rity stake in the NTA Group from Adiuva Capi­tal. As part of the tran­sac­tion, the manage­ment will acquire a stake in the NTA Group. Comple­tion is subject to appr­oval by the rele­vant anti­trust autho­ri­ties. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the finan­cial details of the acquisition. 

The NTA Group, based in Mainz, is a provi­der of inte­gra­ted secu­rity, commu­ni­ca­tion and IT infra­struc­ture solutions.

The company plans, imple­ments and opera­tes solu­ti­ons that protect buil­dings, people, assets, commu­ni­ca­tion chan­nels and opera­tio­nal proces­ses against signi­fi­cant physi­cal and digi­tal secu­rity risks. The range of services includes fire and intru­sion detec­tion tech­no­logy, video surveil­lance, access control, alarm and emer­gency manage­ment, commu­ni­ca­tion solu­ti­ons as well as IT and network infra­struc­ture. Its custo­mers include medium-sized compa­nies of various kinds, in parti­cu­lar health­care provi­ders, public autho­ri­ties and opera­tors of criti­cal infra­struc­ture. With around 360 employees at nine loca­ti­ons in Germany and Luxem­bourg, the Group gene­ra­tes sales of more than EUR 60 million. 

For DPE, NTA is an attrac­tive plat­form in a market in which secu­rity, avai­la­bi­lity and commu­ni­ca­tion capa­bi­lity are of great importance to compa­nies and public insti­tu­ti­ons. The Group has broad tech­no­lo­gi­cal exper­tise, long-stan­ding custo­mer rela­ti­onships, regio­nal proxi­mity and a high propor­tion of recur­ring revenues. 

Toge­ther with the manage­ment, DPE intends to support the further deve­lo­p­ment of the group as a stra­te­gic part­ner. The focus will be on orga­nic growth, the expan­sion of service, main­ten­ance and mana­ged services offe­rings, the expan­sion of the service port­fo­lio and the conti­nua­tion of the buy-and-build stra­tegy. NTA is to further expand its market posi­tion in DACH and also examine growth oppor­tu­ni­ties in selec­ted Euro­pean markets in the future. 

As part of the next deve­lo­p­ment phase, Benja­min Lieber, previously respon­si­ble for Stra­te­gic Busi­ness Deve­lo­p­ment and M&A, will assume the role of Spokes­man of the Group’s Manage­ment Board. Tors­ten Marx, co-foun­der of the NTA Group and Mana­ging Direc­tor of NTA System­haus, will step down from his opera­tio­nal role and support the further stra­te­gic deve­lo­p­ment of the Group as Chair­man of the Advi­sory Board.

Benja­min Lieber, future CEO of the NTA Group, says: “NTA stands for a high level of tech­ni­cal exper­tise, strong regio­nal units and a prono­un­ced under­stan­ding of service. Our custo­mers rely on systems that have to func­tion in criti­cal situa­tions. We take this respon­si­bi­lity very seriously. With DPE, we have gained a stra­te­gic part­ner who under­stands our ambi­ti­ons and will support us in deve­lo­ping the group further in a targe­ted manner toge­ther with our employees and manage­ment teams.”

Tors­ten Marx, foun­der of the NTA Group: “In recent years, NTA has grown from a regio­nally strong system house to a much broa­der-based group of compa­nies. The service port­fo­lio has been expan­ded, central group func­tions have been estab­lished and important stra­te­gic acqui­si­ti­ons have been made with HSS, MTG and MR Compact. In our view, DPE is the right choice to support NTA’s next phase of growth.”

Andreas W. Schmid, Part­ner at DPE, empha­si­zes: “NTA is a powerful plat­form in a market with intact long-term growth drivers. The company combi­nes secu­rity, commu­ni­ca­tion and IT infra­struc­ture in an inte­gra­ted offe­ring and has estab­lished custo­mer rela­ti­onships in deman­ding fields of appli­ca­tion. We were parti­cu­larly impres­sed by the quality of the manage­ment team, the strong service orien­ta­tion and the proven ability to combine orga­nic growth with targe­ted acqui­si­ti­ons. We look forward to accom­pany­ing NTA as a stra­te­gic part­ner in the next deve­lo­p­ment phase.”

The debt finan­cing for the tran­sac­tion is being provi­ded by Adams Street Partners.

Consul­tant DPE:

Deloitte (Finan­cial), CA Stra­tegy (Commer­cial), PwC (Tax & Struc­ture), Dechert (Legal) and MCF (Debt).

About the NTA Group

The NTA Group, head­quar­te­red in Mainz, is a provi­der of inte­gra­ted secu­rity, commu­ni­ca­tion and IT infra­struc­ture solu­ti­ons. The Group combi­nes tech­no­lo­gi­cal exper­tise with regio­nal proxi­mity and a high level of service orien­ta­tion. NTA plans, imple­ments and opera­tes solu­ti­ons in the areas of fire and intru­sion detec­tion tech­no­logy, video surveil­lance, access control, alarm and emer­gency manage­ment, commu­ni­ca­tion and colla­bo­ra­tion solu­ti­ons, cloud services as well as IT and network infra­struc­ture. The group of compa­nies serves custo­mers from deman­ding indus­tries and fields of appli­ca­tion, inclu­ding health­care, public insti­tu­ti­ons, criti­cal infra­struc­tures, finan­cial insti­tu­ti­ons and medium-sized companies. 

About Deut­sche Private Equity

Deut­sche Private Equity (DPE) has been a growth part­ner for medium-sized compa­nies in the German-spea­king region (DACH) since 2007. DPE supports port­fo­lio compa­nies with capi­tal, exper­tise and respect for entre­pre­neu­rial action to realize their full future poten­tial. The invest­ment focus is on five core sectors: Busi­ness Services, Energy & Envi­ron­ment, Health­care, Indus­trial Tech­no­logy and Soft­ware & IT Services. DPE curr­ently mana­ges assets of around three billion euros.

Antwerp — Main Capi­tal Part­ners (“Main”) and Ferranti, a renow­ned provi­der of mission-criti­cal soft­ware for the utili­ties indus­try head­quar­te­red in Belgium, announce that Main has acqui­red a majo­rity stake in Ferranti. This marks the begin­ning of a new phase of growth for Ferranti, with a focus on contin­ued product inno­va­tion, inter­na­tio­nal expan­sion and targe­ted acqui­si­ti­ons. The exis­ting manage­ment team will conti­nue to lead Ferranti, with Tom Van Haute assum­ing the role of CEO. 

Ferranti, head­quar­te­red in Antwerp, Belgium, is an estab­lished inter­na­tio­nal soft­ware provi­der for utili­ties. With a team of around 285 profes­sio­nals, Ferranti deve­lops soft­ware that supports well-known energy suppli­ers, distri­bu­tion network opera­tors, water suppli­ers and inte­gra­ted utili­ties in hand­ling central meter-to-cash and distri­bu­tion network opera­tor (DGO) proces­ses in the elec­tri­city, gas, heat and water sectors. The company serves a broad custo­mer base in more than 12 count­ries and has a strong presence in Belgium, the Nether­lands and the UK, as well as a growing presence in Europe and Asia Pacific. 

The utility soft­ware market is supported by attrac­tive long-term trends, inclu­ding the incre­asing comple­xity of regu­la­tory frame­works, the intro­duc­tion of smart meters and the growth of decen­tra­li­zed energy sources. These deve­lo­p­ments are driving demand for modern, inte­gra­ted plat­forms to manage incre­asingly complex ecosys­tems and workflows.
Ferranti is well posi­tio­ned to capi­ta­lize on these trends thanks to its cloud-based MECOMS 365 plat­form and deca­des of enter­prise-wide indus­try exper­tise. MECOMS 365 is based on Micro­soft Dyna­mics 365 and plays a central role in the day-to-day busi­ness of utility compa­nies. The plat­form inte­gra­tes core modu­les such as custo­mer infor­ma­tion systems (CIS), custo­mer service and reten­tion, market commu­ni­ca­tion and coor­di­na­tion, meter data manage­ment (MDM), pricing, quoting and billing in a single environment. 

Main and Ferranti are jointly pursuing the goal of further streng­thening Ferran­ti’s posi­tion as a relia­ble soft­ware provi­der for the utili­ties indus­try. In the next phase of growth, the focus will be on further enhan­cing the MECOMS 365 offe­ring, acce­le­ra­ting inter­na­tio­nal expan­sion and targe­ting stra­te­gic acqui­si­tion oppor­tu­ni­ties to expand the product range and market presence. 

Sjoerd Aarts, Mana­ging Part­ner and Head of Bene­lux at Main, said: “Ferranti has built an impres­sive posi­tion as a provi­der of mission-criti­cal soft­ware for the utili­ties sector, a market charac­te­ri­zed by attrac­tive, struc­tu­ral long-term trends. By combi­ning in-depth exper­tise with its scalable MECOMS 365 plat­form, the company has built strong, long-term custo­mer rela­ti­onships in various markets.”

Tom Van Haute, CEO desi­gnate of Ferranti, added: “We are deligh­ted to welcome Main as our new majo­rity share­hol­der. Over the years, we have had the privi­lege of beco­ming a trus­ted part­ner for utili­ties opera­ting in incre­asingly complex and regu­la­ted markets. With Main’s soft­ware exper­tise and inter­na­tio­nal network, we are well posi­tio­ned to advance our product road­map, deepen support for our custo­mers and expand internationally.”

Ernst Nijkerk, outgo­ing CEO and repre­sen­ta­tive of the Nijkerk owner family, added: “It was very important for us to find the right part­ner to support Ferranti in its next phase of growth.”
The closing of the tran­sac­tion is still subject to the neces­sary regu­la­tory approvals.

About Ferranti

Home

Ferranti was foun­ded in 1976 and is head­quar­te­red in Antwerp, Belgium. The company is a provi­der of busi­ness-criti­cal soft­ware for the utili­ties sector. Through its cloud-based plat­form MECOMS 365, built on Micro­soft Dyna­mics 365, Ferranti supports a broad base of utility custo­mers in more than 12 count­ries in the manage­ment of central meter-to-cash and distri­bu­tion network opera­tor (DGO) proces­ses in the elec­tri­city, gas, heat and water sectors. 

About Main Capi­tal Partners

Main Capi­tal Part­ners is a soft­ware inves­tor mana­ging private equity funds in the Bene­lux, DACH, Nordics, France and North America, with appro­xi­m­ately EUR 7.0 billion in assets under manage­ment. Main has more than 20 years of expe­ri­ence in streng­thening soft­ware compa­nies and works closely with the manage­ment teams of its port­fo­lio compa­nies as a stra­te­gic part­ner to drive profi­ta­ble growth and build leading soft­ware groups. Main employs around 95 people in offices in The Hague, Düssel­dorf, Stock­holm, Antwerp, Paris and a branch office in Boston. Main’s active port­fo­lio includes more than 55 soft­ware compa­nies with a total of over 15,000 employees. Through the Main Social Insti­tute, Main supports students with scho­lar­ships for study programs in IT and compu­ter science at tech­ni­cal univer­si­ties and colleges.
— www.main.nl

Frank­furt a. M. — The Frank­furt-based invest­ment company VR Equi­typ­art­ner is acqui­ring a mino­rity stake in 1AVista Reisen GmbH (“1AVista”), a Colo­gne-based tour opera­tor focu­sing on all-inclu­sive river crui­ses, as part of a succes­sion plan. With this invest­ment, VREP is support­ing the company’s next stage of deve­lo­p­ment. Toge­ther, 1AVista and VREP plan to conti­nue their growth course in the coming years by further expan­ding the fleet. 

The current mana­ging direc­tors and share­hol­ders Hagen Mesters and Sascha Gülden­meis­ter of 1AVista Reisen GmbH are taking a signi­fi­cant stake in the company. At the same time, Raphael Dombrow­ski, Mana­ging Direc­tor, and Manuel Klou­bert, autho­ri­zed signa­tory, will also acquire shares in 1AVista as part of the tran­sac­tion. Hubert Schulte-Schmel­ter, who foun­ded the Colo­gne-based tour opera­tor with a focus on river crui­ses in 2007, is trans­fer­ring his shares in the company to the new owners. 

1AVista, one of the leading tour opera­tors for river crui­ses on the Rhine and Danube, estab­lished an all-inclu­sive concept with full board and drinks on board at an early stage, as well as an addi­tio­nal Germany-wide door-to-door pick-up service. 1AVista is growing conti­nuously and curr­ently gene­ra­tes sales of more than EUR 50 million. Today, 1AVista offers a program of over 100 river crui­ses as well as selec­ted round trips in seve­ral Euro­pean count­ries, Egypt, Morocco and Turkey. The tour opera­tor employs around 30 people. The 1AVista fleet curr­ently consists of eight full char­ter ships with a total of around 1,000 beds. In 2027, the Vista­Ba­ro­ness, a 110-metre-long river ship, will join the fleet; in addi­tion, the new MS Vista­Queen (135 meters), another ship for more than 190 guests, which is curr­ently being built in the Nether­lands and will then be deployed on the Danube, will be added in 2028. 

Toge­ther with its share­hol­ders, VR Equi­typ­art­ner aims to conti­nue its successful growth stra­tegy. This prima­rily includes the expan­sion of the fleet with new river cruise ships equip­ped with the latest envi­ron­men­tally friendly tech­no­logy and a high level of comfort for guests. In addi­tion, further growth is to be driven forward through targe­ted acqui­si­ti­ons and their struc­tu­red integration. 

Chris­tian Futter­lieb, Mana­ging Direc­tor at VR Equi­typ­art­ner, says: “1AVista has an attrac­tive, clearly posi­tio­ned product offe­ring in a sustainable growth market. We were parti­cu­larly impres­sed by the manage­men­t’s many years of opera­tio­nal expe­ri­ence and the resi­li­ent part­ner­ships with ship­ping compa­nies. On this basis, we want to support the company toge­ther with the manage­ment in imple­men­ting its growth stra­tegy, further expan­ding its market posi­tion and tapping into addi­tio­nal deve­lo­p­ment poten­tial in the tourism sector.”

Hagen Mesters, share­hol­der and mana­ging direc­tor of 1AVista Reisen, empha­si­zes: “With VR Equi­typ­art­ner, we have gained a long-term orien­ted part­ner who will actively accom­pany us on our further growth path. Above all, VREP has expe­ri­ence in the further deve­lo­p­ment of compa­nies and a strong network. The part­ner­ship and cons­truc­tive nature of the coope­ra­tion has alre­ady become appa­rent during the invest­ment process. We look forward to tack­ling the next deve­lo­p­ment steps toge­ther and further expan­ding our offering.”

The tran­sac­tion is subject to appr­oval by the anti­trust autho­ri­ties. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the purchase price.

Consul­ting firms invol­ved in the tran­sac­tion by VREP:

Finan­cial:
RSM Ebner Stolz (Matthias Kran­kow­sky, Henrik Merz, Felix Roth, Louis Perrino, Xiaohe Zhang)

Commer­cial:
Dr. Fried & Part­ner (Dr. Markus Heller, Fran­ziska Mosen­heuer, Anne Kaffka)

Legal:
ARQIS (Dr. Lars Laeger, Benja­min Bandur)

Tax:
ARQIS (Jens Knipping)

Anti­trust law:
LUPP + Part­ner (Tilman Siebert)

About VREP

Whether mezza­nine or direct invest­ment, succes­sion or growth plan — we support you with our tailor-made finan­cing solu­ti­ons. —-www.vrep.de

Siegen — The Siegen-based deep-tech company eleQ­tron has raised 57 million euros in its Series A finan­cing round, which was led by Schwarz Digits. Other inves­tors include the EIC Fund of the Euro­pean Inno­va­tion Coun­cil, exis­ting inves­tor Early­bird as well as Ankaa Ventures, Preci­tec, NRW.BANK and IFB Inno­va­ti­ons­star­ter GmbH. — 8P advi­sed eleQ­tron compre­hen­si­vely on the finan­cial and tax aspects of this transaction. 

eleQ­tron was foun­ded in 2020 as a spin-off from the Univer­sity of Siegen. This finan­cing round clearly posi­ti­ons the company as one of the most ambi­tious Euro­pean provi­ders in the field of quan­tum compu­ting in inter­na­tio­nal compe­ti­tion. They deve­lop scalable quan­tum proces­sors based on ion trap tech­no­logy. A tech­no­lo­gi­cal breakth­rough is the company’s proprie­tary MAGIC tech­no­logy (Magne­tic Gradi­ent Indu­ced Coupling): It replaces complex laser systems with precise high-frequency control (micro­wa­ves), enab­ling the cons­truc­tion of more stable and indus­tri­ally scalable systems. eleQ­tron alre­ady has an order back­log of more than 50 million euros and coope­ra­tes with leading rese­arch centers such as the Jülich Rese­arch Center and DLR. 

The fresh capi­tal will be used to build scalable produc­tion capa­ci­ties, expand cloud-based access to quan­tum systems and further deve­lop the hard­ware plat­form. The aim of eleQ­tron is to tran­si­tion from a rese­arch-driven tech­no­logy to an indus­tri­ally usable infra­struc­ture to solve complex problems in various sectors. 

8P supported the process with a multi­di­sci­pli­nary team and advi­sed Eleq­tron on both the finan­cial and tax aspects of the capi­tal round. www.8P.de

Advi­sor eleQ­tron: 8P

Finan­cial and tax team: Part­ner Matthias Künzel, photo (WP/StB), Part­ner Gunnar Stef­fens (StB), Matthias Pläs­ken (StB) and Julia Hübner (RA/StB). — www.8P.de

About 8P Part­ner­schaft mbB

8P Part­ner­schaft mbB, a multi­di­sci­pli­nary law firm for owner-mana­ged SMEs in the areas of tax consul­ting, audi­ting and legal advice with head­quar­ters in Siegen, has been part of the BDO Deutsch­land Alli­ance since 2019.

BDO is the fifth largest audi­ting firm in Germany and world­wide; the only one with German-Euro­pean roots — and it is still owner-mana­ged. As part of an alli­ance model, BDO offers selec­ted medium-sized law firms profes­sio­nal coope­ra­tion that opens up access to natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal resour­ces and experts, while at the same time guaran­te­e­ing the full legal and entre­pre­neu­rial inde­pen­dence of the regio­nal law firm.

Aachen — The regio­nal invest­ment company S‑UBG AG from Aachen, toge­ther with ACT Holding (Advan­ced Clean Tech­no­lo­gies), has acqui­red 100 percent of the shares in Albrecht-Auto­ma­tik GmbH from Pulheim as part of a manage­ment buy-in (MBI). The mecha­ni­cal engi­nee­ring company specia­li­zes in the manu­fac­ture of quick-closing valves and compact systems for deman­ding indus­trial appli­ca­ti­ons. “With this invest­ment, we are acqui­ring a stake in an inno­va­tive company with great future pros­pects driven by the energy tran­si­tion,” explains Dr. Ansgar Schlei­cher, CEO of S‑UBG AG. 

“We not only actively shape the succes­sion process, but also contri­bute to the value-orien­ted further deve­lo­p­ment of the medium-sized company for the next gene­ra­tion.” — Dr. Ansgar Schlei­cher, CEO of S‑UBG AG.

Dr. Hans-Chris­tian Früh and Chris­tian Mertens, both mana­ging direc­tors at ACT Holding, are taking over from the previous mana­ging part­ner Marion Koch, who has successfully mana­ged her family busi­ness in the second gene­ra­tion for over 20 years. With the sale of the company, Koch is arran­ging the succes­sion at share­hol­der and manage­ment level and ensu­ring conti­nuity and jobs at her company. 

The new mana­ging direc­tors have many years of expe­ri­ence in manage­ment posi­ti­ons at various corpo­ra­ti­ons and medium-sized compa­nies and plan to work with S‑UBG to streng­then the sales orga­niza­tion, expand the custo­mer base globally and opti­mize exis­ting proces­ses. “We see an excel­lent tech­no­lo­gi­cal basis for the sustainable deve­lo­p­ment of the company,” says Mertens. “We were parti­cu­larly impres­sed by the combi­na­tion of tech­ni­cal exper­tise, a high level of custo­miza­tion compe­tence, compre­hen­sive certi­fi­ca­ti­ons and future-proof technologies.” 

How Albrecht-Auto­ma­tik is helping to shape the energy transition

Albrecht-Auto­ma­tik deve­lops quick-closing safety valves, control valves and custo­mi­zed special valves for deman­ding and safety-criti­cal indus­trial appli­ca­ti­ons. It supplies these to medium-sized plant manu­fac­tu­r­ers and major indus­trial custo­mers world­wide, parti­cu­larly in the energy, chemi­cal, process and ship­buil­ding industries. 

A key unique selling point is the company’s many years of expe­ri­ence in the hydro­gen segment, in which it has been active since 1995. “Hydro­gen and power-to‑X appli­ca­ti­ons are beco­ming massi­vely more important,” empha­si­zes Dr. Früh. “With its in-depth exper­tise in the areas of hydro­gen, ammo­nia and metha­nol, Albrecht-Auto­ma­tik stands out from the compe­ti­tion and has the poten­tial to support the struc­tu­ral change towards green energies.” 

Posi­tive market fore­casts provide tailwind

The market condi­ti­ons for indus­trial valves and valve tech­no­logy are promi­sing: analysts from Grand View Rese­arch fore­cast that the global market for control valves will almost double from USD 6.6 billion (2023) to over USD 12 billion by 20301 . The main drivers are the moder­niza­tion of indus­trial plants — inclu­ding power plants, chemi­cals and water/water treat­ment — and the trend towards digi­tal diagnostics. 

Schlei­cher: “The further deve­lo­p­ment of Albrecht-Auto­ma­tik is in the hands of expe­ri­en­ced stra­te­gists who toge­ther bring over 30 years of manage­ment exper­tise and will lead the company into a new phase of growth.”

About the S‑UBG Group
The S‑UBG Group, Aachen, has been the leading part­ner in the provi­sion of equity capi­tal for estab­lished medium-sized compa­nies (S‑UBG AG) and young, tech­no­logy-orien­ted start-ups (Tech­Vi­sion Fonds) in the econo­mic regi­ons of Aachen, Krefeld and Mönchen­glad­bach for almost 40 years.
S‑UBG AG invests in growth sectors; a high quality of corpo­rate manage­ment is a key invest­ment criter­ion for the invest­ment company. It deve­lops invest­ment models for medium-sized compa­nies, both in open and silent part­ner­ship form, has many years of expe­ri­ence in the deve­lo­p­ment of expan­sion finan­cing models, share­hol­der chan­ges and succes­sion plan­ning (MBO/MBI) and only enters into mino­rity share­hol­dings. The S‑UBG Group curr­ently holds stakes in just under 40 compa­nies in the region, giving it a leading posi­tion in the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe.
— www.s‑ubg.de.

Munich — McDer­mott Will & Schulte has advi­sed Olden­bur­gi­sche Landes­bank Akti­en­ge­sell­schaft (OLB) as sole lead arran­ger on the finan­cing of the acqui­si­tion of the Blasius Schus­ter Group by AUCTUS Capi­tal Part­ners. As part of this plat­form invest­ment, AUCTUS and Blasius Schus­ter are foun­ding the Urban Mining Group, a nati­on­wide plat­form for recy­cled buil­ding mate­ri­als, and are thus driving the further deve­lo­p­ment of the group. 

The Blasius Schus­ter Group is an inte­gra­ted service provi­der in the field of urban mining, specia­li­zing in the dispo­sal and recy­cling of mine­ral raw materials.

AUCTUS is a leading invest­ment company for Euro­pean SMEs and a market leader in the imple­men­ta­tion of buy-and-build stra­te­gies in the DACH region.

OLB is a univer­sal bank with 80 bran­ches nati­on­wide and around 1,700 employees. Under the OLB and Bank­haus Neelmeyer brands, OLB serves nearly one million customers. 

McDer­mott Will & Schulte has alre­ady advi­sed OLB on seve­ral finan­cing transactions.

Advi­sor to Olden­bur­gi­sche Landes­bank AG: McDer­mott Will & Schulte, Munich

Ludwig Zesch (Finance, lead), Dr. Thomas Diek­mann, photo © MWS (Private Equity), Dr. Maxi­mi­lian Meyer (Coun­sel, Tax Law, Frank­furt); Asso­cia­tes: Tim Becker, Alina Diet­rich (both Finance)

Stuttgart/Kippenheim — The Stutt­gart-based invest­ment company Süd Betei­li­gun­gen GmbH (SüdBG) has signed a purchase agree­ment for the sale of its shares in Janoschka AG (Janoschka), Kippen­heim. The shares of the foun­ding family Janoschka will also change hands. Blue Cap AG, based in Munich, will become the new owner of the inter­na­tio­nally well-posi­tio­ned Janoschka Group. The part­ners have agreed not to disc­lose the details. 

Foun­ded in 1976 by Manfred Janoschka, Janoschka is now conside­red the market leader in the inter­na­tio­nal prepress indus­try. SüdBG joined the company in 2017 as part of a capi­tal increase to finance the inter­na­tio­nal growth of the Janoschka Group and a simul­ta­neous manage­ment buy-out and, toge­ther with the foun­ding family and the Super­vi­sory Board, supported the manage­ment in imple­men­ting the targeted
growth stra­tegy. This included auto­ma­ting produc­tion and incre­asing the level of digi­ta­liza­tion in the value chain. In addi­tion, the inter­na­tio­nal produc­tion sites in Asia — parti­cu­larly in Malay­sia, Viet­nam and the Phil­ip­pi­nes — as well as in Turkey, Poland and Mexico, were expan­ded in order to offer custo­mers world­wide compre­hen­sive tech­ni­cal exper­tise and inno­va­tions, solu­ti­ons and services for gravure and flexo­gra­phic prin­ting. During the part­ner­ship with SüdBG, Janoschka has expan­ded and exten­ded its service port­fo­lio. Janoschka now employs around 1,500 people and has a turno­ver of over 90 million euros. 

Süd Betei­li­gun­gen GmbH (SüdBG) is a wholly owned subsi­diary of Landes­bank Baden-Würt­tem­berg (LBBW) and has been support­ing medium-sized compa­nies for more than 50 years with custo­mi­zed equity and equity-rela­ted solu­ti­ons in the context of succes­sion plan­ning, growth finan­cing and share­hol­der chan­ges. As one of the leading invest­ment compa­nies in the German-spea­king region and a long-term inves­tor, SüdBG has supported more than 70 compa­nies with around 600 million euros and a broad network in sustainable corpo­rate deve­lo­p­ment over the past 10 years.
— www.suedbg.de

SüdBG deal team:
Gunter Max, Felix Rieder, Stefan Hennig, Phil­ipp Nitzschke, Sebas­tian Köhnlein

Advi­sor SüdBG:

M&A: IMAP M&A Consul­tants AG (Henning Graw, Chris­toph Gluschke, Phil­ipp Crocoll, Alex­an­der Köhler, Levin Kieselhorst)

Legal: Orrick, Herring­ton & Sutcliffe LLP (Dr. Chris­toph Bren­ner, Stefan Riedl, Maria Teodorescu)

GÖRG has compre­hen­si­vely advi­sed Ningbo Lawrence Auto­mo­tive Inte­ri­ors Co., Ltd. on the sale of the mino­rity share­hol­ding in HELBAKO GmbH held by its subsi­diary NBHX Auto­mo­tive System GmbH. The buyer of the shares is WITTE Auto­mo­tive GmbH in Velbert.

Ningbo Lawrence Auto­mo­tive Inte­ri­ors Co., Ltd. is a China-based company that specia­li­zes in the deve­lo­p­ment and manu­fac­ture of inte­rior compon­ents for the auto­mo­tive indus­try. Among other things, the auto­mo­tive supplier produ­ces trim elements, func­tional compon­ents and surface solu­ti­ons for various vehicle segments. Ningbo Lawrence Auto­mo­tive Inte­ri­ors Co., Ltd. is a subsi­diary of the NBHX Group.

The medium-sized auto­mo­tive supplier HELBAKO, based in Heili­gen­haus (North Rhine-West­pha­lia), deve­lops and produ­ces elec­tro­nic assem­blies for control­ling nume­rous car compon­ents. In addi­tion to its head­quar­ters in Germany, the company has another site in Romania. 

With a team led by part­ner Florian Wolff, GÖRG advi­sed Ningbo Lawrence Auto­mo­tive Inte­ri­ors Co., Ltd. on all legal aspects of the tran­sac­tion, inclu­ding the struc­tu­ring of the tran­sac­tion, the draf­ting and nego­tia­tion of the tran­sac­tion docu­ments and the imple­men­ta­tion of the sales process.

With its China Desk, GÖRG has many years of expe­ri­ence in advi­sing on invest­ments and cross-border tran­sac­tions invol­ving China. A team of German-Chinese lawy­ers with inter­cul­tu­ral exper­tise regu­larly advi­ses Chinese and Euro­pean compa­nies on invest­ments and legal issues in Germany/Europe as well as in and from China and East Asia. 

Advi­sors Ningbo Lawrence Auto­mo­tive Inte­ri­ors Co., Ltd. and NBHX Auto­mo­tive System GmbH : GÖRG Part­ner­schaft von Rechts­an­wäl­ten mbB

Florian Wolff, photo © GOERG (Lead, Part­ner, Corporate/M&A, Frank­furt am Main)
Dr. Chris­tian Bürger (Part­ner, FDI/Merger Control, Cologne)
Dr. Jia Ding, LL.M. (Coun­sel, Corporate/M&A, Frank­furt am Main)
Phil­ipp Sche­rer (Senior Asso­ciate, Liti­ga­tion and Arbi­tra­tion, Hamburg)
Leonie Hofmann (Asso­ciate, Corporate/M&A, Frank­furt am Main)

Frank­furt a. M., Ilsho­fen — GÖRG has advi­sed the share­hol­ders of BTE Biege­tech­nik Engi­nee­ring GmbH, based in Ilsho­fen, Baden-Würt­tem­berg, on the sale of the company to SANHA GmbH & Co. KG from Essen, one of the leading manu­fac­tu­r­ers of piping systems, and on the sale of the company’s real estate.

Foun­ded in 2001, BTE Biege­tech­nik Engi­nee­ring GmbH (BTE), like SANHA GmbH & Co. KG (SANHA), is a family busi­ness with strong local roots. As a highly specia­li­zed manu­fac­tu­rer, BTE has been produ­cing for many years for deman­ding custo­mers from indus­try, inclu­ding medi­cal tech­no­logy, venti­la­tion tech­no­logy, agri­cul­ture and the commer­cial vehicle sector. The company has modern produc­tion faci­li­ties for a wide range of tube bending and forming products and curr­ently employs around 125 people. The profi­ta­ble company’s turno­ver amoun­ted to around EUR 21 million in the 2025 finan­cial year. 

With this acqui­si­tion, SANHA is syste­ma­ti­cally expan­ding its indus­trial exper­tise in the field of mecha­ni­cal tube proces­sing. BTE’s exper­tise opti­mally comple­ments the Group’s exis­ting tech­no­logy port­fo­lio and enables even stron­ger verti­cal inte­gra­tion — from deve­lo­p­ment and produc­tion to series supply to OEM customers. 

The SANHA Group sees the inte­gra­tion of BTE as an important step towards streng­thening its posi­tion as a relia­ble deve­lo­p­ment part­ner for OEM custo­mers, parti­cu­larly in fields of appli­ca­tion in which precis­ion-manu­fac­tu­red tube compon­ents play a central role.

Under the leader­ship of part­ner Dr. Markus Söhn­chen, GÖRG provi­ded legal advice to the share­hol­ders throug­hout the entire process.

Advi­sor to share­hol­der BTE Biege­tech­nik Engi­nee­ring GmbH: GÖRG Part­ner­schaft von Rechts­an­wäl­ten mbB

Dr. Markus Söhn­chen, Foto© Goerg (Lead, Part­ner, Corporate/M&A, Frank­furt am Main)
Dr. Gerhard Gündel (Coun­sel, Corporate/M&A, Frank­furt am Main)
Dr. Phil­ipp Naab (Part­ner, Real Estate Law, Frank­furt am Main)
Timo Jans (Senior Asso­ciate, Corporate/M&A, Frank­furt am Main)
Kris­tina Riedel (Senior Asso­ciate, Corporate/M&A, Frank­furt am Main)

About GÖRG

GÖRG is one of the leading inde­pen­dent commer­cial law firms in Germany.
With over 370 profes­sio­nals in the fields of legal advice, tax advice and audi­ting at our five offices in Berlin, Frank­furt am Main, Hamburg, Colo­gne and Munich, we advise well-known dome­stic and foreign compa­nies, medium-sized enter­pri­ses as well as finan­cial inves­tors and listed groups from all sectors of the economy and the public sector. — www.goerg.de

Stutt­gart — Inves­tor 3TS Capi­tal Part­ners has inves­ted in the Berlin-based start-up RR Tech­no­lo­gies GmbH (Patro­nus). The finan­cing round led by 3TS Capi­tal compri­ses 11 million euros. HEUKIN­G’s advi­sory services included legal due dili­gence and the nego­tia­tion of all contracts, in parti­cu­lar the invest­ment and share­hol­der agreement. 

3TS Capi­tal Part­ners is a specia­list tech­no­logy growth finance firm inves­t­ing across Europe in sectors such as tech­no­logy, media and tech­no­logy-enab­led services. With over €450 million raised from inves­tors such as EIF, Tesi, Cisco, EBRD and Erste, 3TS combi­nes a strong finan­cial base, stra­te­gic support and exten­sive networks in Europe and the US. The invest­ment in Patro­nus is made through TCEE Fund IV — www.3tscapital.com

Patro­nus was foun­ded in Berlin in 2020. The company offers a safety and assis­tance solu­tion for senior citi­zens, consis­ting of a mobile emer­gency call smart­watch and a family app. With 25,000 active custo­mers and over half a million emer­gency calls answe­red, Patro­nus is now the digi­tal market leader in the mobile emer­gency call segment in Germany. 

Advi­sors to 3TS Capi­tal: HEUKING
Bene­dikt Raisch, Dr. Alex­an­der Schott, both lead, Dr. Emanuel Teich­mann (all Corporate/M&A), all Stutt­gart; Shimon Merkel, LL.M. (Tel Aviv Univer­sity), (Corporate/M&A), Berlin, Dr. Stefa­nie Grei­fen­e­der, Sarah Aschen­bren­ner, Miriam Stein­hart, LL.M. (The Univer­sity of Edin­burgh), (all Health Care & Life Scien­ces), all Munich; Antje Münch, LL.M. (IP), Stutt­gart, Dr. Philip Kemper­mann, LL.M., Georg Thomas, LL.M. (Univer­sity of Glas­gow), Julian Rosen­feld (all IT/Data Protec­tion), all Düssel­dorf; Dr. Sascha Sche­wiola, Laura Solty­siak (both Employ­ment Law), both Cologne

www.heuking.de

Rottweil/ Niedern­hall — Würth Elek­tro­nik ICS GmbH & Co. KG is acqui­ring 100% of the shares in the MRS Group, Rott­weil (Baden-Würt­tem­berg). A team led by Hamburg-based HEUKING part­ner Dr. Peter Chris­tian Schmidt provi­ded legal and tax advice to the share­hol­ders of MRS during the contract negotiations. 

The subsi­diary of MRS Holding GmbH, MRS Elec­tro­nic GmbH & Co KG, based in Rott­weil (Baden-Würt­tem­berg), has been deve­lo­ping and produ­cing intel­li­gent control elec­tro­nics and custo­mer-speci­fic hard­ware and soft­ware solu­ti­ons for the vehicle indus­try for over 25 years. The product port­fo­lio includes compact control units, gate­ways, relays and HMI systems for commer­cial vehic­les, cons­truc­tion and agri­cul­tu­ral machi­nery and special vehic­les. The company employs around 250 people and has inter­na­tio­nal loca­ti­ons in Croa­tia, Poland, Turkey and the USA in addi­tion to its headquarters. 

Würth Elek­tro­nik ICS GmbH & Co. KG, based in Niedern­hall, is a system provi­der for elec­tro­me­cha­ni­cal and elec­tro­nic solu­ti­ons in the areas of signal and power distri­bu­tion, func­tion control as well as display and opera­ting solu­ti­ons. The company is one of the leading suppli­ers in Europe, parti­cu­larly in the field of power distri­bu­tion for mobile machi­nery and commer­cial vehic­les. Würth Elek­tro­nik ICS is part of the family-run Würth Group. 

Advi­sor to the share­hol­ders of MRS Elec­tro­nic GmbH & Co KG: HEUKING

Dr. Peter Chris­tian Schmidt Photo © Heuking (lead / corpo­rate law / M&A), Dr. Kai Bandilla (distri­bu­tion law), Dr. Henrik Lay (tax law), Dr. Stefan Brett­hauer (anti­trust law), all Hamburg; Anna Rich­ter, LL.M. (corpo­rate law / M&A), Colo­gne; Phil­ipp Roman Schrö­ler (IP, media & tech­no­logy), Düssel­dorf; Jan Mensching, LL.M. (Notting­ham Trent Univer­sity), (Corpo­rate Law / M&A), Jia-Xi Liu (Distri­bu­tion and Anti­trust Law), both Hamburg; Ramona Bauer-Schöll­kopf, LL.M. (Queen Mary Univer­sity of London), (Corpo­rate Law / M&A), Stutt­gart; Jonas Türkis, LL.M. (Univer­sity of Cape Town), (Employ­ment Law), Oliver Kamme­rer (Tax Law), both Hamburg. 

www.heuking.de

Munich — The Finnish eleva­tor manu­fac­tu­rer Kone is taking over its German compe­ti­tor TK Eleva­tor. The finan­cial inves­tors Advent and Cinven are recei­ving five billion euros in cash and Kone shares worth 15.2 billion euros for the company. The tran­sac­tion implies an enter­prise value of 29.4 billion euros inclu­ding debt. This makes the tran­sac­tion the largest majo­rity spon­sor-led private equity tran­sac­tion in Europe to date. 

The combi­ned company would gene­rate annual sales of around EUR 20.5 billion, of which around 65% would come from service and moder­niza­tion, achieve an adjus­ted EBIT of more than EUR 2.7 billion (exclu­ding syner­gies) and have a main­ten­ance port­fo­lio of around 3.2 million units.

Kirk­land & Ellis has advi­sed Advent and Cinven on the comple­tion of an agree­ment to combine TK Eleva­tor (“TKE”) and KONE in a tran­sac­tion invol­ving cash and KONE shares as consideration.

TKE is a global leader in the field of verti­cal trans­por­ta­tion and urban mobi­lity. The company has around 50,000 employees and over 1,000 loca­ti­ons world­wide. TKE became inde­pen­dent after the spin-off from Thys­sen­krupp AG in 2020. KONE is a global leader in the eleva­tor and escala­tor indus­try with more than 60,000 employees in around 70 count­ries. KONE’s Class B shares are listed on Nasdaq Helsinki Ltd. in Finland. 

Advi­sors to Advent and Cinven: Kirk­land & Ellis, Munich

Prof. Dr. Benja­min Leyen­de­cker (photo © Kirk­land), Dr. Philip Goj (both lead, both Private Equity/M&A), Dr. Michael Ehret (Tax); Asso­cia­tes: Dr. Marcus Comman­deur, Dr. Fried­rich Focke, Fabian Water­höl­ter, Lisa Müller, Dr. Sabrina Seitz, Chiara Schmid (all Private Equity/M&A), Emma­nuel Götz (Tax)
Kirk­land & Ellis, London:
Adrian Maguire, Dan Clarke (both Private Equity/M&A), Antoine Lebi­en­venu (Capi­tal Markets), Chris­to­pher Shield, Thomas Raftery (both Debt Finance), Mavnick Nerwal, Sivanti Deva­ku­mar (both Tax), André Duminy (Tech­no­logy & IP Tran­sac­tions); Asso­cia­tes: Charles Hébert, Bene­dict Wilson, Saniya Sidhu, Albert Planella i Obach (all Private Equity/M&A), Aram Vale­syan, Aman Nath, Zoe O’Log­bon (all Debt Finance), Ellen Ronayne (Tax), Asmita Singhvi (Tech­no­logy & IP Transactions)

About Kirk­land

With more than 4,000 lawy­ers in 23 cities in the USA, Europe, the Middle East and Asia, Kirk­land & Ellis is one of the leading law firms for high-cali­ber legal services. The German team specia­li­zes in private equity, M&A, restruc­tu­ring, corpo­rate and capi­tal markets, finan­cing and tax. For more infor­ma­tion, please visit kirkland.com.

Düssel­dorf — For the first time, NRW.BANK is inves­t­ing speci­fi­cally in South West­pha­lia toge­ther with Early­bird from Berlin and seve­ral family offices. At the current closing of the Early­bird VIII early-stage fund, EUR 15 million was mobi­li­zed for start-ups from the region. The aim is to streng­then the regi­on’s inno­va­tive power and competitiveness. 

“Inno­va­tions with which we shape the future are crea­ted all over the coun­try — even away from the major metro­po­li­tan areas. That’s why we support start-ups in all regi­ons of our state and thus actively drive change and progress,” says Johanna Anto­nie Tjaden-Schulte, Member of the Mana­ging Board of NRW.BANK (Photo: NRW Bank). “The fact that we are inves­t­ing in South West­pha­lia toge­ther with Early­bird and important family offices is a strong signal for the inno­va­tive strength and attrac­ti­ve­ness of South West­pha­lia as a loca­tion and for North Rhine-West­pha­lia as a whole.” 

First regio­nal closing in the Early­bird VIII fund

In addi­tion to the five million euros from NRW.BANK, private inves­tors also parti­ci­pa­ted in the current closing. These include, for exam­ple, the family offices of large family busi­nesses such as Viega and Krom­ba­cher. A total of EUR 15 million is thus available to turn young and promi­sing busi­ness ideas from South West­pha­lia, parti­cu­larly in areas such as arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence, robo­tics, new mate­ri­als, indus­trial digi­ta­liza­tion and sustainable tech­no­lo­gies, into viable compa­nies. This also streng­thens the inno­va­tive power and econo­mic deve­lo­p­ment of the region as a whole. 

For Early­bird, one of the most renow­ned early-stage finan­ciers in Germany, the current closing is the first targe­ted commit­ment in a region of North Rhine-West­pha­lia. The fund’s manage­ment had speci­fi­cally recrui­ted NRW.BANK as a part­ner in order to streng­then the commit­ment with addi­tio­nal exper­tise and expe­ri­ence for the start-up scene in NRW and South West­pha­lia. The part­ner­ship between Early­bird and NRW.BANK had alre­ady proven its worth in two previous funds. The Early­bird VIII fund has a total volume of EUR 360 million, which flows into start-ups throug­hout Europe. In South West­pha­lia, the Early­bird Inno­Ven­tures team pools capi­tal and know-how from the regio­nal economy to promote and finance tech­no­logy-driven start-ups from the region. 

About NRW.BANK — Deve­lo­p­ment Bank for North Rhine-Westphalia

NRW.BANK is the deve­lo­p­ment bank for North Rhine-West­pha­lia. In close part­ner­ship with its owner, the state of North Rhine-West­pha­lia, it helps to streng­then SMEs and start-ups, create afforda­ble housing and improve public infra­struc­ture. NRW.BANK offers people, compa­nies and muni­ci­pa­li­ties in NRW tailor-made finan­cing and advi­sory services. It works with finan­cing part­ners, in parti­cu­lar all banks and savings banks, on a non-compe­ti­tive basis. In order to streng­then the trans­for­ma­tion proces­ses, it provi­des targe­ted promo­tio­nal impe­tus — towards a sustainable, climate-neutral and digi­tal NRW.