Author: Tatjana Anderer

Los Ange­les — Defense tech­no­lo­gies are all the rage. — Los Ange­les-based Diver­gent Tech­no­lo­gies has secu­red $290 million in new finan­cing at a valua­tion of $2.3 billion. The finan­cing round, led by Roche­fort Asset Manage­ment, includes $250 million in equity and $40 million in debt. 

The company plans to invest the proceeds in the cons­truc­tion of new produc­tion faci­li­ties to meet growing demand from aero­space and defense customers.
The timing of this capi­tal raise reflects a signi­fi­cant shift in the industry.

Supply chain disrup­ti­ons have rocked the aero­space and defense indus­try in recent years, slowing the intro­duc­tion of aircraft compon­ents and defense systems just at a time when demand is incre­asing. Addi­tive manu­fac­tu­ring offers a stra­te­gic response to this, enab­ling manu­fac­tu­r­ers to design and produce complex parts faster, with less waste and less reli­ance on tradi­tio­nal tooling. 

End-to-end digi­tal manufacturing

Foun­ded in 2014 by Kevin Czin­ger and Lukas Czin­ger, Diver­gent is the deve­lo­per of the Diver­gent Adap­tive Produc­tion System (DAPS™), the worl­d’s first end-to-end digi­tal manu­fac­tu­ring plat­form that enables rapid design, addi­tive manu­fac­tu­ring and auto­ma­ted assembly.

The company aims to rede­fine the way complex struc­tures are desi­gned and built. Diver­gent deve­lops hard­ware that enables custo­mers to 3D print and assem­ble parts with unpre­ce­den­ted efficiency. 

Its custo­mers include indus­try giants such as Gene­ral Atomics, Lock­heed Martin and Raytheon — compa­nies that are incre­asingly rely­ing on advan­ced manu­fac­tu­ring tech­ni­ques to circum­vent bott­len­ecks and speed up production.

Precis­ion in the defense and aero­space industry 

Diver­gen­t’s approach is more than just an incre­men­tal impro­ve­ment; it marks a funda­men­tal depar­ture from tradi­tio­nal manu­fac­tu­ring proces­ses. By digi­tally manu­fac­tu­ring parts layer by layer, the company enables rapid proto­type deve­lo­p­ment and produc­tion flexi­bi­lity. This is attrac­tive to inves­tors as both govern­ments and contrac­tors look to streng­then dome­stic manu­fac­tu­ring capa­bi­li­ties and reduce reli­ance on fragile supply chains. 

The deal also high­lights a larger trend in how modern indus­tries are rede­sig­ning their produc­tion lines. Aero­space compa­nies are leading the way because they can reduce costs while main­tai­ning precis­ion engineering. 

Earlier this year , Pratt & Whit­ney, an RTX company, announ­ced an addi­tive manu­fac­tu­ring process for repai­ring its geared turbo­fan engi­nes that redu­ced lead times by over 60%. Such breakth­roughs unders­core the importance of 3D prin­ting not only for proto­type deve­lo­p­ment, but also for real-world appli­ca­ti­ons that improve effi­ci­ency and reliability. 

For Diver­gent, the oppor­tu­nity lies in trans­fer­ring these capa­bi­li­ties beyond pilot projects to large-scale indus­trial opera­ti­ons. The plan­ned systems will make a decisive contri­bu­tion to demons­t­ra­ting that addi­tive manu­fac­tu­ring can relia­bly deli­ver large quan­ti­ties for mission-criti­cal programs. 

More than just capital

By secu­ring almost 300 million US dollars, Diver­gent Tech­no­lo­gies has gained more than just capi­tal and boos­ted inves­tor confi­dence in a future where digi­tal manu­fac­tu­ring is no longer expe­ri­men­tal, but essen­tial. If the expan­sion is successful, the startup could help set a new stan­dard for how the world builds the systems it relies on for safety, trans­por­ta­tion and innovation. 

With custo­mers from the defense sector as its core busi­ness, the company is posi­tio­ning itself as an important pioneer for next-gene­ra­tion avia­tion and mili­tary systems.

“Diver­gent was foun­ded to trans­form the built world with a soft­ware-defi­ned manu­fac­tu­ring plat­form,” said Lukas Czin­ger, Chief Execu­tive Offi­cer and Co-Foun­der of Diver­gent. “This funding will allow us to scale DAPS for aero­space and defense, expand our world-class team, and streng­then Ameri­ca’s indus­trial base with a truly game-chan­ging system.” 

“Diver­gent deli­vers exactly what America needs — a stron­ger, faster and more adap­ta­ble indus­trial base,” said Kyle Bass, Co-CEO of Roche­fort Asset Manage­ment. “By uniting advan­ced soft­ware and hard­ware in a single plat­form, Diver­gent is proving that the U.S. can lead on the global stage in inno­va­tion and manu­fac­tu­ring. We are confi­dent that this team will rede­fine manu­fac­tu­ring and streng­then Ameri­ca’s posi­tion in key industries.” 

About Diver­gent

Diver­gent is the deve­lo­per of the Diver­gent Adap­tive Produc­tion System (DAPS™), the worl­d’s first end-to-end digi­tal manu­fac­tu­ring plat­form that enables rapid design, addi­tive manu­fac­tu­ring and auto­ma­ted assem­bly. Head­quar­te­red in Torrance, Cali­for­nia, Diver­gent is resha­ping the future of defense, aero­space and auto­mo­tive manu­fac­tu­ring. — www.divergent3d.com

About Roche­fort Asset Management

Roche­fort Asset Manage­ment is a U.S.-based, natio­nal secu­rity-focu­sed private asset manage­ment firm that invests in trans­for­ma­tive tech­no­lo­gies. As a licen­sed mana­ger of the U.S. Depart­ment of War’s Office of Stra­te­gic Capi­tal (OSC), Roche­fort works with compa­nies driving inno­va­tion in defense tech­no­logy and the indus­trial base. 

www.rochefort.us

Düssel­dorf — A naval power­house in Germany: Düssel­dorf-based tech­no­logy group Rhein­me­tall has reached an agree­ment with the Lürs­sen Group on the acqui­si­tion of Naval Vessels Lürs­sen (NVL B.V. & Co. KG, Bremen-Vege­sack) and all its subsi­dia­ries, the mili­tary divi­sion of the long-estab­lished shipy­ard group. Subject to appr­oval by the rele­vant anti­trust autho­ri­ties, the parties are aiming to complete the acqui­si­tion at the begin­ning of 2026. With this signi­fi­cant stra­te­gic acqui­si­tion, Rhein­me­tall is expan­ding its port­fo­lio to include naval ship­buil­ding and streng­thening its posi­tion as a leading supplier of defense tech­no­logy in Germany and Europe. 

Both parties have agreed not to disc­lose the purchase price.

Armin Papper­ger, CEO of Rhein­me­tall AG: “In the future, we will be a rele­vant player on land, at sea, in the air and in space. Rhein­me­tall is thus deve­lo­ping into a cross-domain systems house.”

Fried­rich Lürßen, Mana­ging Part­ner of Lürs­sen Mari­time Betei­li­gun­gen GmbH & Co. KG: “We are deligh­ted to have found a trust­wor­thy and strong part­ner in Rhein­me­tall, who can secure a successful future for NVL and its
employees.”

Guns­mith sets sail

To date, the Düssel­dorf-based company has not manu­fac­tu­red ships, but prima­rily arma­ments for land forces, such as tanks, artil­lery and air defense systems. As a supplier, the company is also invol­ved in the produc­tion of the US F35 figh­ter jet, and the arms manu­fac­tu­rer also produ­ces drones and soon mili­tary satel­li­tes. Now the arma­ments group, which is on a steep growth trajec­tory in the face of the war in Ukraine and is rushing from one record turno­ver and order back­log to the next, is setting sail, so to speak. 

For deca­des, Rhein­me­tall has made a name for itself world­wide as a renow­ned supplier of mili­tary tech­no­logy, but has also been a proven part­ner to the navies of nume­rous count­ries in the mari­time sector for many years. Rhein­me­tall alre­ady offers a selec­ted range of modern system compon­ents for mari­time appli­ca­ti­ons and is a leading global supplier of simu­la­tion solu­ti­ons and mari­time protec­tion systems in particular. 

Armin Papper­ger: “With the now agreed acqui­si­tion, we are decisi­vely advan­cing the conso­li­da­tion of the defense indus­try in Germany and Europe. In combi­na­tion with Rhein­me­tal­l’s compe­ten­cies, we are crea­ting a vital German power­house for state-of-the-art surface ships. The combi­ned capa­bi­li­ties of Rhein­me­tall and NVL gene­rate joint growth and enable a strong posi­tio­ning of our Group in the mari­time domain. At the same time, we are making a substan­tial contri­bu­tion to streng­thening the maritime
defense capa­bi­li­ties of Germany and NATO part­ner nations.” 

The current conflict situa­tion shows that military
asser­ti­ve­ness is also beco­ming incre­asingly important in the mari­time sector. Rhein­me­tall aims to meet the massi­vely incre­asing requi­re­ments of naval forces and the
rising budgets for procu­re­ment with high-perfor­mance system solutions
that have a state-of-the-art digi­tal infra­struc­ture and cover the entire
spec­trum — from the plat­form and elec­tro­nics to the sensors and effectors. 

NVL is a priva­tely mana­ged shipy­ard group with four shipy­ards in nort­hern Germany (Peene-Werft /
Wolgast, Blohm+Voss and Norderwerft/ Hamburg, Neue Jadewerft/ Wilhelms­ha­ven) and
inter­na­tio­nal loca­ti­ons. It employs a good 2,100 people world­wide, gene­ra­ted sales of around EUR 1 billion in the
2024 finan­cial year and is conside­red a pioneer in the rese­arch and
deve­lo­p­ment of auto­no­mous mari­time surface systems. Since its begin­nings around 150 years ago,
NVL has built around 1,000 ships at its shipy­ards and deli­vered them to over fifty diffe­rent navies and
coast guards, and is an estab­lished player both in mili­tary ship­buil­ding and
in ship main­ten­ance and repair. Previously known as Lürs­sen Defence, NVL was sepa­ra­ted from the
Yachts divi­sion in 2021 and contin­ued as an inde­pen­dent company within the family-run
Lürs­sen Group. NVL looks after fleets throug­hout their entire life cycle
and thus helps to keep the German Navy and Navies ready for action world­wide at all times

Rhein­me­tall wants to offer complete system solutions

Armin Papper­ger: “The acqui­si­tion will not only turn us into a produ­cer of floa­ting platforms
. As an inte­gra­ted naval power­house, we want to offer complete system solu­ti­ons. We will be able to offer our custo­mers all
valuable compon­ents in future programs from our partner
network as an inte­gra­ted solu­tion from a single source: Naval missiles and launchers,
main and secon­dary naval guns, missile defence, sensors and other electronics.
For the battle manage­ment system, we want to enable the inte­gra­tion and
Germa­niza­tion of exis­ting solu­ti­ons from our part­ner network.” 

A key success factor for Rhein­me­tall is that the Group alre­ady has excel­lent market access as a
supplier in the global naval busi­ness, has a presence in the
inter­na­tio­nal markets and enjoys the corre­spon­ding trust of its customers.
Another advan­tage for Rhein­me­tall is the expan­sion of produc­tion capa­ci­ties and
the expan­sion of the Group’s indus­trial base in nort­hern Germany. In parti­cu­lar with the
vehicle produc­tion of Rhein­me­tal­l’s Vehicle Systems divi­sion — which operates
sites in Kiel and Flens­burg, among others — synergy effects can be expec­ted on the basis of shared mate­rial and tech­no­logy expertise
.

NVL’s shipy­ards offer the oppor­tu­nity to utilize the exis­ting heavy infra­struc­ture, employee exper­tise and equip­ment capa­bi­li­ties to streng­then Vehicle Systems’ produc­tion and create capa­city reser­ves in the vehicle sector for the future. This enables Rhein­me­tall to avoid exces­sive infra­struc­ture invest­ments or exten­sive conver­si­ons of other produc­tion facilities. 

www.rheinmetall.com

Düssel­dorf — The Welsh darts equip­ment manu­fac­tu­rer Nodor Group, in which Infle­xion Private Equity Part­ners holds a majo­rity stake, has acqui­red Auto­darts GmbH. Auto­darts is a hard­ware and soft­ware plat­form for auto­ma­tic scoring in darts. The aim of the acqui­si­tion is to estab­lish darts not only as an analog pub game and in profes­sio­nal sport, but also to enable global online games. Auto­darts’ modern scoring tech­no­logy comple­ments the Nodor Group’s range of premium darts products. — Infle­xion was compre­hen­si­vely advi­sed by ARQIS on this transaction. 

The parties invol­ved have agreed not to disc­lose details of the tran­sac­tion, such as the purchase price.

The Nodor Group, based in Bridgend, Wales, is a leader in the manu­fac­ture of dart­boards, darts and access­ories. The group of compa­nies, which includes the Winmau and Red Dragon brands, employs around 1,000 people world­wide and exports its products to over 100 count­ries. At the end of 2024, Infle­xion Private Equity Part­ners acqui­red a majo­rity stake in Nodor. 

Auto­darts GmbH, based in Erzhau­sen, Hesse, manu­fac­tures systems for auto­ma­tic scoring. Came­ras are moun­ted above or around the dart­board to detect where the darts land and auto­ma­ti­cally calcu­late the score. This enables seam­less online play and a networked, data-driven, global darts community. 

An ARQIS team led by Dr. Jörn-Chris­tian Schulze provi­ded compre­hen­sive legal advice to the Nodor Group on this tran­sac­tion. Infle­xion Private Equity Part­ners is thus once again rely­ing on ARQIS’ advice, as was recently the case with the acqui­si­tion of the finanzen.net Group from Axel Springer. 

Advi­sor Nodor Group/Inflexion Private Equity Part­ners: ARQIS (Düssel­dorf)

Core team: Dr. Jörn-Chris­tian Schulze (Lead Part­ner), Chris­tos Chou­de­lou­dis (Mana­ging Asso­ciate), Ivo Erte­kin (Asso­ciate, all Tran­sac­tions), Part­ners: Tobias Neufeld (HR Law), Marcus Noth­hel­fer (IP, Munich), Coun­sel: Chris­tian Judis (Compli­ance, Munich), Jens Knip­ping (Tax), Nora Strat­mann (Commer­cial, Munich), Martin Wein­gärt­ner (Tran­sac­tions), Mana­ging Asso­cia­tes: Dr. Maxi­mi­lian Back­haus (Tran­sac­tions), Marina Bume­der (HR Law, Munich), Rolf Tichy (IP, Munich), Asso­cia­tes: Rebecca Gester (Commer­cial, Munich), Paulina Hütt­ner (IP, Munich), Johanna Klin­gen (Data Law), Tim Meyer-Meisel (Tran­sac­tions), Senior Legal Specia­list: Qing Xia (Tran­sac­tions)

About INFLEXION

INFLEXION Private Equity Part­ners Holdings LLP is a leading inde­pen­dent private equity firm head­quar­te­red in London. With over 20 years’ expe­ri­ence and £2.5 billion of assets under manage­ment, we work with excep­tio­nal manage­ment teams to build market-leading busi­nesses across multi­ple sectors and geogra­phies. — https://inflexionprivateeph.app

About ARQIS

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

Munich/ Bad Sobern­heim — Siloco GmbH & Co KG has acqui­red NOVOCONT System­bau GmbH and NOVORENT GmbH & Co KG. Siloco was compre­hen­si­vely advi­sed on this tran­sac­tion by the inter­na­tio­nal law firm Bird & Bird.
.
Siloco GmbH & Co. KG is a tradi­tio­nal family busi­ness from Hamburg, which has been active as a trading and service company for the cons­truc­tion indus­try for over 100 years. The company has grown steadily since 1919 and offers a wide range of cons­truc­tion site equipment. 

NOVOCONT System­bau GmbH and NOVORENT GmbH & Co. KG are compa­nies in Bad Sobern­heim that specia­lize in the plan­ning, produc­tion, main­ten­ance, sale and rental of system buil­dings and their turn­key assem­bly. With their Europe-wide network of part­ners, they are able to respond to all requi­re­ments indi­vi­du­ally, quickly and without compro­mi­sing on quality. The compa­nies have estab­lished them­sel­ves as inno­va­tive provi­ders of modu­lar cons­truc­tion solu­ti­ons and have many years of experience. 

With this stra­te­gic acqui­si­tion, Siloco GmbH & Co. KG is expan­ding its port­fo­lio to include highly specia­li­zed system cons­truc­tions and streng­thening its posi­tion as a full-service provi­der for the cons­truc­tion indus­try. The acqui­si­tion of NOVOCONT System­bau GmbH and NOVORENT GmbH & Co. KG enables Siloco GmbH & Co. KG to signi­fi­cantly expand its plan­ning exper­tise and to utilize the Europe-wide part­ner network as well as the long-term expe­ri­ence in the turn­key assem­bly of system buil­dings in various indus­tries of the acqui­red compa­nies. Siloco GmbH & Co. KG would like to invest jointly in the further deve­lo­p­ment of the companies. 

Advi­sor Siloco GmbH & Co KG: Bird & Bird 

Part­ner Dr. Sandra Schuh, LL.M. (photo, lead), Coun­sel Dr. Ole Brühl, and Asso­ciate Michelle Pohl (all Corporate/M&A), Part­ner Dr. Barbara Geck, Senior Asso­ciate Carina Wirtz and Asso­ciate Henry Nico­lai (all Employ­ment Law) and Senior Coun­sel Elie Kauf­man, LL.M., Asso­cia­tes Amelia Weber and Nirary Gorges (all Real Estate), Part­ner Dr. Michael Jüne­mann and Senior Asso­ciate Timo Förs­ter (both Finan­cing & Finan­cial Regu­la­tion), Coun­sel Michael Brüg­ge­mann (Tax), all Frankfurt.

As a leading inter­na­tio­nal law firm, Bird & Bird is the part­ner for ever­yone who wants to defend and streng­then their super­powers. Thanks to our orig­ins in IP law, we under­stand the core of every company, the requi­re­ments of the market and compe­ti­tion and how to achieve sustainable success. We call it sector focus. And with this DNA, we are now your law firm for all legal issues rela­ting to tech­no­logy, digi­ta­liza­tion and regu­la­tion. With over 1,600 lawy­ers in 33 offices in 23 count­ries, we are repre­sen­ted in Europe, North America, the Middle East, Asia-Paci­fic and Africa and main­tain close rela­ti­onships with law firms in other parts of the world. In Germany, we are repre­sen­ted by more than 280 lawy­ers in Düssel­dorf, Frank­furt, Hamburg and Munich. For more infor­ma­tion visit www.twobirds.com.

Munich/Olpe - McDer­mott Will & Schulte advi­sed the syndi­cate of lenders, consis­ting of ABN Amro, CIC Private Debt, LBBW and ODDO BHF, on the refi­nan­cing of the acqui­si­tion of Schell GmbH & Co KG by Para­gon Partners.

After 93 years of successful company history in family hands, the siblings Andrea and Joachim Schell signed an agree­ment in April to sell their company to the owner-mana­ged, private Para­gon Group to secure the company’s succes­sion and keep SCHELL on course for growth.

The inno­va­tive and fast-growing Schell GmbH & Co KG employs 450 people world­wide. With its water-saving fittings, SCHELL offers future-proof solu­ti­ons for sustainable and resource-conser­ving water use. Whether in public faci­li­ties, commer­cial enter­pri­ses or private house­holds — SCHELL solu­ti­ons help to opti­mize water and energy consump­tion, effec­tively reduce costs and at the same time make a valuable contri­bu­tion to envi­ron­men­tal and climate protection. 

“By handing over our company to Para­gon Betei­li­gungs­ge­sell­schaft, we are ensu­ring that our company remains stable in the long term and will conti­nue to operate successfully in the future. The new owners will actively conti­nue the exis­ting growth stra­tegy,” explain Andrea and Joachim Schell, share­hol­ders of Schell GmbH & Co KG.

Schell, based in Olpe, is the global market leader in water manage­ment systems and angle valves. A specia­list in fittings, sani­tary tech­no­logy products and digi­tal solu­ti­ons for main­tai­ning drin­king water quality. The company employs around 450 people and is active in more than 80 countries. 

Para­gon is an owner-mana­ged invest­ment company that has been inves­t­ing in estab­lished medium-sized compa­nies in German-spea­king count­ries since it was foun­ded in 2004. The Munich-based company mana­ges equity capi­tal of more than 2.4 billion euros. 

Advi­sors to lenders: McDer­mott Will & Schulte, Munich

Ludwig Zesch, Dr. Matthias Weis­sin­ger (both Finance, both lead), Dr. Maxi­mi­lian Meyer (Coun­sel, Tax, Frank­furt), Asso­ciate: Bastiaan Wolters (Finance, Frank­furt), Konstan­tin Stro­bel (Tran­sac­tion Lawyer)

Munich/ Saarbrücken/ Luxembourg/LUX / Woustviller/FR / Lyon/FR — The French Groupe Pare­des Orapi (GPO) has acqui­red 100% of the shares in the opera­ting compa­nies of the Tous­saint Group in France (Tous­saint France) and Luxem­bourg (REDELUX) as well as the online store Propris­simo SAS. — Concen­tro Manage­ment AG provi­ded full support to the share­hol­ders of the Tous­saint Group in the course of the inter­na­tio­nal M&A process. 

The Jaro­li­meck family expan­ded the busi­ness of the German Tous­saint Group (N. Tous­saint & Co. GmbH), one of the three leading suppli­ers of profes­sio­nal hygiene and clea­ning products in Germany, to France back in 1981 and deve­lo­ped a successful Euro­pean group of compa­nies in the 1990s and 2000s through further stra­te­gic acqui­si­ti­ons and start-ups in France and Luxem­bourg. Today, with two subsi­dia­ries, five logi­stics loca­ti­ons and around one hundred employees in north-eastern France and Luxem­bourg, the group is one of the largest regio­nal suppli­ers of profes­sio­nal clea­ning and hygiene products, clea­ning machi­nes and equip­ment and asso­cia­ted services. 

Pare­des was foun­ded in 1942 in Villeur­banne, France, and has specia­li­zed in profes­sio­nal hygiene products and services ever since. Orapi has been active on the French hygiene and disin­fec­tion market since 1968 and is known for its wide range of products from clea­ning chemi­cals and disin­fec­tion solu­ti­ons to main­ten­ance services. At the begin­ning of 2024, Pare­des acqui­red a majo­rity stake in Orapi. The resul­ting Groupe Pare­des Orapi, head­quar­te­red near Lyon, has around 1,500 employees (1,200 of whom are in France) and the largest inte­gra­ted hygiene provi­der in France with a total turno­ver of around EUR 450 million .

With the take­over, GPO secu­res important market shares to further expand its market leader­ship in France and also gains access to the Luxem­bourg market. The group of compa­nies will conti­nue with Julian Jaro­li­meck as mana­ging direc­tor of the group, who will be retai­ned along with all employees in France and Luxem­bourg. The names Tous­saint and Rede­lux, which have been estab­lished in the market, will be retained. 

The German acti­vi­ties rela­ting to N. Tous­saint & Co. GmbH (with its various subsi­dia­ries) are not part of the tran­sac­tion and will be further deve­lo­ped in Germany in the future with a high level of commit­ment from the Jaro­li­meck family. In the future, a stra­te­gic coope­ra­tion between the compa­nies N. Tous­saint and Pare­des at Euro­pean level is also planned. 

“Both groups focus on high-quality and inno­va­tive hygiene and clea­ning solu­ti­ons and we are ther­e­fore deligh­ted to have found the perfect part­ner in GPO, who shares our values,” says Jürgen Jaro­li­meck. “We are very proud of the path we have trave­led in France and Luxem­bourg over the past 40 years and look forward to the further joint acti­vi­ties of both groups. In addi­tion, toge­ther with N. Tous­saint and the employees in Germany, we have great ambi­ti­ons to further deve­lop TOPSERV on the German market,” conti­nues Liane Jarolimeck. 

Fran­çois Thuil­leur, CEO of Groupe Pare­des Orapi, is deligh­ted about “the great addi­tion of the Tous­saint compa­nies in France and Luxem­bourg,” and “we are expan­ding our family-run group of compa­nies to include a market player — also family-run — with the same values, a first-class repu­ta­tion and high-quality products and services. In addi­tion, we are conso­li­da­ting our market posi­tion as number 1 in France and at the same time expan­ding into the lucra­tive Luxem­bourg market with the acqui­si­tion of the second largest provider.”

Lars Werner, Part­ner, and Phil­ipp Goller, Senior Project Mana­ger, at Concen­tro Manage­ment AG, add: “We would like to thank the Jaro­li­meck family for their trust, GPO for the cons­truc­tive and plea­sant coope­ra­tion and the advi­sory teams on the seller and buyer side for their focu­sed approach. Conclu­ding a trans­na­tio­nal deal with four French and one Luxem­bourg company within such a short period of time requi­res a high level of commit­ment at all levels and cons­truc­tive coope­ra­tion on an equal footing.”

Liane Jaro­li­meck also empha­si­zes the close and successful coope­ra­tion in this project: “We would like to thank the entire Concen­tro team for their great support. We have always found their advice to be extre­mely compe­tent, commit­ted and trustworthy.”

A team from Groupe FIBA and FIDAL Avocats (both from France) provi­ded legal/tax advice on the seller side of the transaction.
Groupe Pare­des Orapi was advi­sed on the tran­sac­tion by a multi­di­sci­pli­nary team from BDO, Akilys Avocats and the Hardis Group.

Advi­sor Jaro­li­meck family, Tous­saint Group: Concen­tro Manage­ment AG, Munich

Lars Werner (Mana­ging Part­ner), Phil­ipp Goller (Senior Project Mana­ger), Sönke Storm (Project Mana­ger), Fabi­enne Frech (Consul­tant), Niels Venus (Consul­tant)

Siège social de FIBA: Frédé­ric Wagner, Arnaud Vezy, Marie Flesch

FIDAL Avocats: Clarisse Vidal

Concen­tro Manage­ment AG is a medium-sized consul­ting company specia­li­zing in corpo­rate deve­lo­p­ment, tran­sac­tions (corpo­rate finance/M&A consul­ting) and turn­arounds. With over 40 employees at four loca­ti­ons in Germany, Concen­tro works in an imple­men­ta­tion and success-orien­ted manner. The aim is to gene­rate added value for the custo­mer through an indi­vi­dual consul­ting service. — www.concentro.de

Stutt­gart — HEUKING has provi­ded compre­hen­sive legal advice to the long-estab­lished dairy Rücker on the plan­ned take­over by MEGGLE Holding SE. The tran­sac­tion was led by HEUKING lawy­ers Dr. Rainer Hersch­lein and Dr. Emanuel Teichmann. 

The long-estab­lished company Rücker, with sites in Aurich and Wismar, is one of the leading private dairies in nort­hern Germany and has stood for exper­tise in milk and cheese proces­sing for over 130 years. In the 2024 finan­cial year, the company achie­ved a turno­ver of around 500 million euros and employed around 615 people. 

MEGGLE Holding SE, another family-owned company with a long tradi­tion, is taking over the Rücker compa­nies. MEGGLE has been pursuing a consis­tent growth stra­tegy for years and is streng­thening the stra­te­gi­cally important cheese product segment in parti­cu­lar with this take­over. MEGGLE had alre­ady taken an important step in this area in 2021 with today’s MEGGLE Cheese GmbH. 

The tran­sac­tion will provide Rücker with a long-term part­ner who shares its corpo­rate values and wants to conti­nue on its growth path. Rücker empha­si­zes that the tran­sac­tion will secure the future of the company, its loca­ti­ons and employees, while at the same time further streng­thening invest­ments in inno­va­tion and quality. 

The tran­sac­tion is subject to appr­oval by the rele­vant anti­trust authorities.

Consul­tant Rücker GmbH: HEUKING

Dr. Rainer Hersch­lein, LL.M. (Ford­ham Univer­sity), Dr. Emanuel Teich­mann (both lead, both corpo­rate law / M&A, private equity), both Stuttgart;
Fabian G. Gaffron (tax law), Hamburg, Dr. Frede­rik Wiemer (anti­trust law), Hamburg; Chris­toph Hexel (employ­ment law), Düssel­dorf; Dr. Chris­tian Stras­ser (liti­ga­tion & arbi­tra­tion), Munich; Bene­dikt Raisch (corpo­rate law / M&A), Stutt­gart; Michael Kreis­ler, LL.M. (invest­ment control), Berlin; Carina Bart (employ­ment law), Stutt­gart; Bettina Nehe­i­der (public law), Munich 

Advi­sor MEGGLE: Gleiss Lutz 

The follo­wing Gleiss Lutz team led by Dr. Rainer Loges (part­ner) and Franz-Ferdi­nand Guggen­mos (both corporate/M&A, both Munich) advi­sed MEGGLE Holding SE:

Peter Stef­fen Carl (Part­ner), Dr. Adrian Schulz, Dr. Valen­tin Zemm­rich, Ansgar Grosch (all Corporate/M&A, all Munich), Dr. Johan­nes Niewerth (Part­ner, Hamburg), Lesley Milde, Jonas Tafel (all Real Estate),
Dr. Johann Wagner (Part­ner), Dr. Markus Günther (both Tax, all Hamburg), Dr. Matthias Werner (Part­ner), Dr. Jose­fine Börner, Magda­lena Rauch (all IP/Tech, all Munich), Dr. Doris-Maria Schus­ter (Part­ner,
Hamburg), Dr. Jonas Hofer (Stutt­gart), Dr. Julian Glau (all employ­ment law, Hamburg), Dr. Chris­tian Hamann (part­ner, Berlin), Dr. Manuel Klar (both data protec­tion law), Dr. Iris Bene­dikt-Bucken­leib (coun­sel, anti­trust law, both Munich), Dr. Jacob von Andreae (part­ner), Matthias Hahn (both public law/foreign trade law, both Düssel­dorf), Dr. Thomas Kulzer (coun­sel, banking & finance, Frankfurt).

Colo­gne — DEUTZ AG has signed an agree­ment to acquire 100% of the shares in SOBEK Group GmbH, ther­eby ente­ring the defense market. The SOBEK Group specia­li­zes in drive systems for drones, among other things. The German company with three loca­ti­ons in Baden-Würt­tem­berg and Hesse is active in seve­ral specia­li­zed fields of appli­ca­tion, inclu­ding motor sports, aero­space and medi­cal technology. 

Among other things, the company supplies seve­ral top Formula 1 and Formula E teams with high-perfor­mance pumps based on its elec­tric motors and control elec­tro­nics. This is an attrac­tive market that enables signi­fi­cant double-digit margins and demands the highest stan­dards. Howe­ver, the grea­test poten­tial curr­ently lies in the drone busi­ness, which is growing stron­gly due to geopo­li­ti­cal deve­lo­p­ments and the incre­asing importance of unman­ned defense systems. With this acqui­si­tion, DEUTZ is syste­ma­ti­cally conti­nuing its ‘Dual+’ stra­tegy of broa­de­ning its base, beco­ming less depen­dent on the cycli­cal combus­tion engine busi­ness and syste­ma­ti­cally expan­ding its defense business. 

Sebas­tian C. Schulte (photo © Deutz), CEO of Deutz, explains: “Sobek gives us direct access to the rapidly growing defense market and crea­tes the basis for stra­te­gi­cally deve­lo­ping it beyond the use of clas­sic drives.” The expan­sion of the defense busi­ness is part of the corpo­rate stra­tegy to become less depen­dent on the cycli­cal busi­ness with combus­tion engines.

Drones are one of NATO’s top areas of investment

Drones are now one of NATO’s top areas of invest­ment, as the requi­re­ments profile of many armed forces is chan­ging: away from tradi­tio­nal plat­forms and towards auto­no­mous and highly mobile systems. Unman­ned aerial systems (UAVs) in parti­cu­lar are taking center stage, as they are conside­red cost-effi­ci­ent, quickly available and opera­tio­nally flexi­ble. Mili­tary requi­re­ments are funda­men­tally chan­ging the exis­ting drone busi­ness: away from the volume-driven B2C busi­ness of Asian provi­ders and towards secu­rity-criti­cal Euro­pean B2G solu­ti­ons that make Europe and Germany geopo­li­ti­cally independent. 

For DEUTZ, the acqui­si­tion is a logi­cal next step on the path from compo­nent manu­fac­tu­rer to system provi­der, from which other busi­ness segments will also bene­fit. The highly inte­gra­ted elec­tric drives from SOBEK offer great syner­gies with regard to alter­na­tive drives in the off-high­way sector, parti­cu­larly in control tech­no­logy. The growing system respon­si­bi­lity in aero­space and defense opens up new potential. 

With around 70 employees, SOBEK expects to gene­rate sales in the low to mid double-digit million euro range with a signi­fi­cant double-digit EBIT margin in the current finan­cial year 2025.

The tran­sac­tion is expec­ted to be comple­ted shortly.

Advi­sor to Deutz AG: Belgravia 

Belgra­via advi­sed on this tran­sac­tion as exclu­sive buy-side M&A advisor
Team: Dr. Björn Röper (Mana­ging Part­ner), Diet­mar Rath (Part­ner), Chris­tian Olsen (Senior Vice Presi­dent), André Lauschke, Associate
www.belgravia-co.com

Frank­furt a. M. / London — The inter­na­tio­nal private equity firms Bain Capi­tal and Cinven have signed a binding agree­ment to sell a majo­rity stake in STADA Arznei­mit­tel AG (“STADA”) to CapVest Part­ners LLP (“CapVest”). Since the take­over by the two PE compa­nies, Stada has grown by nine percent annu­ally and now gene­ra­tes annual sales of more than four billion euros. — The gene­rics manu­fac­tu­rer was conside­red one of the hottest IPO candi­da­tes this year. 

Bain Capi­tal and Cinven acqui­red STADA in 2017 and subse­quently delis­ted the company from the stock exch­ange. Since then, they have supported the manage­ment team in trans­forming STADA from a tradi­tio­nal German gene­rics manu­fac­tu­rer into a leading, broad-based global health­care plat­form with a stra­te­gic focus on the three areas of consu­mer health­care, gene­rics and specialty phar­maceu­ti­cals. Under the owner­ship of Bain Capi­tal and Cinven, STADA has increased its sales to over EUR 4 billion, achie­ved an average annual growth rate of 9 percent and more than doubled its EBITDA (adjus­ted earnings before inte­rest, taxes, depre­cia­tion and amortization). 

Bain Capi­tal and Cinven have supported STADA in over 25 targe­ted acqui­si­ti­ons to further expand its market presence in Europe and beyond. The most important acqui­si­ti­ons include the Nizoral brand from John­son & John­son, Walm­ark and port­fo­lios of various consu­mer health­care brands from Glax­oS­mit­h­Kline and Sanofi. Thanks to the invest­ments and exper­tise of both compa­nies, STADA is now one of the leading health­care and phar­maceu­ti­cal groups in Europe. 

CapVest as new part­ner with exten­sive expe­ri­ence in health­care invest­ments. With exten­sive indus­try know­ledge and a strong track record in health­care invest­ments, CapVest is the ideal part­ner to accom­pany STADA in its next phase of growth. CapVest also shares the prin­ci­ples that have shaped STADA’s
success to date: respon­si­ble owner­ship, opera­tio­nal excel­lence and long-term value creation. 

Upon comple­tion of the tran­sac­tion, Bain Capi­tal and Cinven intend to retain a mino­rity stake in STADA — a clear sign of their confi­dence in the company’s contin­ued growth poten­tial and the exper­tise of the manage­ment team.

Peter Gold­schmidt, CEO of STADA, said: “Bain Capi­tal and Cinven have been excel­lent part­ners on our jour­ney to become a global market leader in consu­mer health­care, gene­rics and specialty phar­maceu­ti­cals. Their support and confi­dence in our vision has enab­led us to acce­le­rate our growth, drive inno­va­tion and expand inter­na­tio­nally. We look forward to buil­ding on our leading posi­tion toge­ther with CapVest.”

Dr. Michael Siefke, Part­ner at Bain Capi­tal, said: “Since our invest­ment in 2017, we are proud to have accom­pa­nied STADA on its path to beco­ming a leading pharma plat­form in Europe. Toge­ther with Cinven and the outstan­ding manage­ment team, we were able to scale the consu­mer health­care busi­ness, streng­then the gene­rics busi­ness and expand the specialty phar­maceu­ti­cals segment. The successful exit demons­tra­tes the growth poten­tial of the company and the great commit­ment of its employees.”

Bruno Schick, Co-Mana­ging Part­ner and Head of DACH at Cinven, added: “STADA has deve­lo­ped extre­mely well in recent years. Toge­ther with Bain Capi­tal and the manage­ment team, we have supported STADA in shar­pe­ning its stra­te­gic focus, expan­ding its inter­na­tio­nal presence and inves­t­ing heavily in inno­va­tion, digi­ta­liza­tion and opera­tio­nal excellence
. The estab­lish­ment of an agile manage­ment team and modern gover­nance struc­tures was central to this. With the new owner­ship struc­ture and CapVest by our side, we look forward to conti­nuing STADA’s jour­ney as a mino­rity investor.” 

Jeffe­ries and Roth­schild & Co are support­ing the tran­sac­tion as M&A advi­sors. In addi­tion, Bain and Cinven were advi­sed on the tran­sac­tion by Morgan Stan­ley, JP Morgan, Gold­man Sachs and Deut­sche Bank in addi­tion to their role as global IPO coor­di­na­tors. Other advi­sors included Kirk­land & Ellis, EY, BCG and ERM. — Finan­cial details of the tran­sac­tion were not disc­lo­sed. The closing is subject to the 

About Cinven

Cinven is a leading inter­na­tio­nal private equity firm focu­sed on buil­ding world-class global busi­nesses. Cinven focu­ses on six sectors: Consu­mer, Busi­ness Services, Finan­cial Services, Health­care, Indus­tri­als and TMT (Tech­no­logy,
Media and Tele­com­mu­ni­ca­ti­ons). Cinven has offices in major centers such as London, Frank­furt, Paris, Milan, Luxem­bourg, Madrid, New York and Guern­sey. The firm takes a respon­si­ble approach to its port­fo­lio compa­nies, their employees, suppli­ers, local commu­ni­ties, the
envi­ron­ment and society as a whole. 

The manage­ment compa­nies of the Cinven Funds, Cinven Capi­tal Manage­ment (V) Gene­ral Part­ner Limi­ted, Cinven Capi­tal Manage­ment (VI) Gene­ral Part­ner Limi­ted, Cinven Capi­tal Manage­ment (VII) Gene­ral Part­ner Limi­ted and Cinven Capi­tal Manage­ment (SFF) Gene­ral Part­ner Limi­ted, are each licen­sed and regu­la­ted by the Guern­sey Financial
Services Commis­sion. Cinven Limi­ted, the advi­ser to the manage­ment compa­nies of the Cinven funds, is a regu­la­ted entity by the Finan­cial Conduct Autho­rity. In this press release, ‘Cinven’ means, indi­vi­du­ally or coll­ec­tively, as the context requi­res, Cinven Holdings Guern­sey Limi­ted, Cinven Part­ner­ship LLP and their respec­tive part­ners (as defi­ned in the Compa­nies Act 2006) and/or funds mana­ged or advi­sed by any of the foregoing.
http://www.cinven.com or 

About Bain Capital

Foun­ded in 1984, Bain Capi­tal is one of the worl­d’s leading private invest­ment firms. We are commit­ted to deli­ve­ring sustainable
results for our inves­tors, teams, compa­nies and the commu­ni­ties in which we operate. As a private part­ner­ship, we lead with convic­tion and a culture of colla­bo­ra­tion — advan­ta­ges that enable us to deve­lop inno­va­tive invest­ment approa­ches, capi­ta­lize on oppor­tu­ni­ties and deli­ver excep­tio­nal results. Our global plat­form invests in five core areas: Private Equity, Growth & Venture, Capi­tal Solu­ti­ons, Credit & Capi­tal Markets and Real Assets. We are repre­sen­ted in 24 loca­ti­ons on four conti­nents, employ more than 1,850 people and have assets under manage­ment of around USD 185 billion. — www.baincapital.com

About STADA Arznei­mit­tel AG

STADA Arznei­mit­tel AG is based in Bad Vilbel, Hesse. The company focu­ses on a three-pillar stra­tegy consis­ting of consu­mer health­care products, gene­rics and specialty phar­maceu­ti­cals. STADA Arznei­mit­tel AG sells its products in more than 120 count­ries world­wide. In finan­cial year 2024, STADA achieved
Group sales of €4,059 million and adjus­ted earnings before inte­rest, taxes, depre­cia­tion and amortization. 

Advi­sor CAPVEST: Will­kie Farr & Gallag­her LLP

The Will­kie team compri­sed part­ners David Arnold (Corporate/PE, London), Dr. Nils Röver (Corporate/PE, Munich/Hamburg), Andrew Gray (Corporate/PE, London, all three lead), Dr. Kamyar Abrar, Georg
Linde (both Corporate/PE, Frank­furt), Dr. Bettina Bokeloh, Dr. Patrick Meiisel (both Tax, Frank­furt), Matthias Schr­a­der (Liti­ga­tion, Frank­furt), Rita Mitchell (Liti­ga­tion, London), Rahul Saha (Anti­trust, London), Dr. Georg Weiden­bach (Anti­trust, Frank­furt), Dr. Richard Roeder (Compli­ance, Munich), Anne Kleff­mann (Employ­ment, Munich), Coun­sel Jacob Ahme (Corporate/PE, Munich/Hamburg), Henning Aufderhaar
(real estate law), Harry Nett­lau (liti­ga­tion), Martin Waskow­ski (employ­ment law, all Frank­furt), Alaric Green (anti­trust law, London) as well as asso­cia­tes Nils Bock, Patrick Kemper, Melina Terwes­ten, Jonas Volk, Sophie Wollen­we­ber (all corporate/PE), Dr. Phil­ipp Stein­hau­sen (finance) Dr. Chris­tian Wert­h­mül­ler (real estate law), Sascha Wink­ler (employ­ment law, all Frank­furt), Fabiola Haas, Maxi­mi­lian Schatz, Micheal Wies­ner, Dr. Zeno Wirtz (all corporate/PE), Dr. Maxi­mi­lian Schlutz (compli­ance) and Laurin Havlik (anti­trust law, all Munich).

Advi­sor STADA: POELLATH advi­sed the manage­ment of STADA in connec­tion with the invest­ment by CapVest regar­ding the manage­ment parti­ci­pa­tion with the follo­wing Munich team:

Dr. Bene­dikt Hohaus (Part­ner, Manage­ment Parti­ci­pa­ti­ons, M&A/PE)
Silke Simmer, LL.M. (Coun­sel, Manage­ment Parti­ci­pa­ti­ons, M&A/PE)
Ida Süß, LL.M. (UCLA) (Senior Asso­ciate, Manage­ment Parti­ci­pa­ti­ons, M&A/PE)

About Will­kie Farr & Gallag­her LLP

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

Frank­furt am Main — Deut­sche Betei­li­gungs AG (DBAG) is inves­t­ing in MAIT GmbH (MAIT). The company is a leading digi­ta­liza­tion part­ner for SMEs. In a manage­ment buy-out (MBO), the DBAG-advi­sed private equity fund DBAG Fund VIII will acquire all shares in MAIT. The closing of the purchase agree­ment is subject to regu­la­tory appr­ovals and is sche­du­led for the fourth quar­ter. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the purchase price. In the course of the MBO, the mana­ging direc­tors and other mana­gers will substan­ti­ally reinvest in MAIT.

From system house to holi­stic solu­tion provi­der for ERP, PLM and IT

MAIT’s history dates back to 1957. Origi­nally an office orga­niza­tion company, it initi­ally deve­lo­ped into a system house before beco­ming an end-to-end digi­ta­liza­tion part­ner for the manu­fac­tu­ring indus­try with its head­quar­ters in Rott­weil. The company ranks 6th in the Lünen­donk list of the top 10 medium-sized IT consul­ting and soft­ware inte­gra­tion compa­nies and has more than 25 loca­ti­ons spread across Germany, Austria, Switz­er­land and Bene­lux. From there, around 900 employees support around 7,000 custo­mers. Most of these are medium-sized manu­fac­tu­ring companies. 

MAIT’s inte­gra­ted solu­tion port­fo­lio — consis­ting of PLM-ERP soft­ware and IT services — forms a compre­hen­sive offe­ring along the entire value chain. This supports custo­mers on their long-term digi­tal trans­for­ma­tion jour­ney. The aim is to create a “digi­tal home” for all product, produc­tion-rela­ted and commer­cial data. This crea­tes a digi­tal busi­ness frame­work that supports MAIT’s custo­mers in beco­ming sustainable, effi­ci­ent and trans­pa­rent “model-based” and data-driven compa­nies. PLM (Product Life­cy­cle Manage­ment) and ERP (Enter­prise Resource Plan­ning) solu­ti­ons are highly rele­vant for compa­nies in the manu­fac­tu­ring indus­try. MAIT is one of the largest and longest-stan­ding stra­te­gic part­ners of leading global soft­ware compa­nies for their imple­men­ta­tion. In order to meet custo­mer-speci­fic requi­re­ments, MAIT supple­ments PLM and ERP systems with its own soft­ware modu­les. The company also offers cloud and mana­ged services. 

The high level of custo­mer satis­fac­tion is reflec­ted in the long-term nature of the busi­ness rela­ti­onships. More than 60% of all custo­mer rela­ti­onships have exis­ted for more than a decade. 

Jannick Hune­cke (© dbag), member of the Manage­ment Board of Deut­sche Betei­li­gungs AG, says: “With MAIT, we are support­ing a leading digi­ta­liza­tion part­ner for indus­trial SMEs that fits seam­lessly into our port­fo­lio. More than 20 percent of this port­fo­lio now consists of compa­nies in the IT services and soft­ware sector. MAIT combi­nes in-depth, end-to-end process know-how with excel­lent tech­no­lo­gi­cal exper­tise and has a strong base of recur­ring reve­nues. We will support MAIT’s manage­ment in shaping the next phase of growth.”

The tran­sac­tion unders­cores DBAG’s role as a pace­set­ter in the resur­gent German M&A market: after the invest­ment in FinMatch, MAIT is alre­ady the second invest­ment within a few weeks. “We are selec­tively seizing oppor­tu­ni­ties in an envi­ron­ment that is still charac­te­ri­zed by uncer­tainty. This dyna­mic demons­tra­tes our ability to iden­tify and deve­lop first-class growth compa­nies even in chal­len­ging phases,” conti­nues Jannick Hunecke. 

Market envi­ron­ment and strategy

Accor­ding to indus­try analy­ses, the market for PLM services will grow by nine to twelve percent annu­ally until 2030; pene­tra­tion in medium-sized mecha­ni­cal and plant engi­nee­ring compa­nies is only around 50 percent. Driven by cost pres­sure, regu­la­tory requi­re­ments and shorter deve­lo­p­ment cycles, demand is rising conti­nuously. Thanks to long-stan­ding part­ner­ships with market-leading tech­no­logy part­ners and a proven buy-and-build stra­tegy — 24 successfully inte­gra­ted acqui­si­ti­ons to date — MAIT is excel­lently posi­tio­ned to bene­fit from this trend. 

Stefan Niehus­mann, CEO of MAIT, comm­ents on the tran­sac­tion: “With DBAG, we are gaining an expe­ri­en­ced part­ner who under­stands our busi­ness model and will support our growth in the long term. After 24 successfully inte­gra­ted acqui­si­ti­ons, DBAG’s exper­tise opens up new oppor­tu­ni­ties for us to roll out our plat­form inter­na­tio­nally and offer our custo­mers even more compre­hen­sive solutions.”

Toge­ther with MAIT, DBAG plans to struc­ture further add-on acqui­si­ti­ons. The aim is to use the frag­men­ta­tion of the market for further deve­lo­p­ment and to expand and further scale the inter­na­tio­nal business. 

About DBAG

Deut­sche Betei­li­gungs AG (DBAG), listed on the stock exch­ange since 1985, is one of Germany’s most renow­ned private equity compa­nies. As an inves­tor and fund advi­sor, DBAG’s invest­ment focus has tradi­tio­nally been on medium-sized compa­nies with a focus on well-posi­tio­ned compa­nies with deve­lo­p­ment poten­tial, prima­rily in the DACH region. The sector focus is on produ­cers of indus­trial goods, indus­trial service provi­ders and Indus­try­Tech compa­nies — i.e. compa­nies whose products enable auto­ma­tion, robo­tics and digi­ta­liza­tion — as well as compa­nies from the IT services, soft­ware, health­care, envi­ron­ment, energy and infra­struc­ture sectors. DBAG has also been active in Italy since 2020 and has had its own office in Milan since 2021. 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. — www.dbag.de

Salzburg/ Düsseldorf/ Wipper­fürth — Dreyer Capi­tal has acqui­red BAFATEX Bellin­groth GmbH & Co KG. Just Finance acted as exclu­sive finan­cial advi­sor to Dreyer Capi­tal in this tran­sac­tion. BAFATEX Bellin­groth GmbH & Co KG was advi­sed by BELGRAVIA & CO on this transaction. 

Thanks to a struc­tu­red and closely coor­di­na­ted finan­cing process, the tran­sac­tion was imple­men­ted quickly and bindin­gly. The focus was on the conti­nua­tion and stra­te­gic deve­lo­p­ment of a specia­li­zed hidden cham­pion in the SME sector. The trus­ting coope­ra­tion between all parties and the clear stra­te­gic focus formed the basis for a successful tran­sac­tion process. 

BAFATEX Bellin­groth

BAFATEX Bellin­groth is an estab­lished supplier of tech­ni­cal nonwo­vens based in North Rhine-West­pha­lia. For over 60 years, the company has been deve­lo­ping and produ­cing high-quality scrims for appli­ca­ti­ons in the cons­truc­tion, textile and pack­a­ging indus­tries as well as in light­weight cons­truc­tion and the sports sector. The hando­ver to a new owner­ship struc­ture took place as part of a forward-looking succes­sion solu­tion. The exis­ting manage­ment will be gradu­ally supple­men­ted and inte­gra­ted into the future deve­lo­p­ment in the long term. 

Dreyer

Dreyer is an entre­pre­neu­rial family office based in Austria with many years of expe­ri­ence in inves­t­ing in medium-sized compa­nies in the DACH region. The focus is on sustainable growth, opera­tio­nal deve­lo­p­ment and long-term part­ner­ships. The invest­ment in BAFATEX fits stra­te­gi­cally into the exis­ting port­fo­lio and is to be further expan­ded with an expe­ri­en­ced manage­ment team. The tran­sac­tion was hand­led by Dreyer Capi­tal GmbH under the leader­ship of Konstan­tin Dreyer. 

Konstan­tin Dreyer (photo © Dreyer), Mana­ging Part­ner of Dreyer Capi­tal, Salz­burg, on the coope­ra­tion with Just Finance:
“The acqui­si­tion of BAFATEX was a stra­te­gi­cally important step for us, in which relia­bi­lity, speed and struc­tu­ral thin­king were key. Our finan­cing consul­tant Markus Fong and Just Finance GmbH not only convin­ced us profes­sio­nally in terms of finan­cing, but also orga­ni­zed the entire finan­cing process with fore­sight and prag­ma­tism. Espe­ci­ally in the important sub-process of finan­cing, it is valuable for us as a family office to have a part­ner at our side who under­stands our entre­pre­neu­rial mind­set and reacts flexi­bly to complex requirements.”

Markus Fong, Mana­ging Direc­tor of Just Finance:
“The succes­sion solu­tion for BAFATEX impres­si­vely demons­tra­tes how the combi­na­tion of a successful hidden cham­pion in the SME sector and a highly profes­sio­nal family office can secure and deve­lop value in the long term.”

Advi­sor Dreyer Group: Just Finance — www.justfinance.de

Consul­tant BAFATEX Bellin­groth GmbH & Co KG: BELGRAVIA & CO. —www.belgravia-co.com

Munich — Global law firm Reed Smith is one of the main spon­sors of the inter­na­tio­nal confe­rence pema­com for private equity and M&A profes­sio­nals on Septem­ber 23, 2025 in Munich, one of the leading confe­ren­ces for cross-border mergers and acqui­si­ti­ons and private equity investments.

Since 2010, pema­com has been taking place annu­ally in paral­lel to the Okto­ber­fest in Munich with a growing number of visi­tors. What once began as a networ­king event in a small circle has deve­lo­ped over the years into a plat­form for inter­di­sci­pli­nary exch­ange on current deve­lo­p­ments in the markets, the economy and stra­te­gies for deal­ing with them. 

As this year’s keynote spea­ker, Prof. Dr. Herfried Münk­ler, one of Germany’s most influ­en­tial poli­ti­cal scien­tists, will give a lecture on the ques­tion “Make it great again — but how?” — how Europe can assert itself in the new geostra­te­gic world order.

“pema­com connects experts and direct market parti­ci­pants from leading German compa­nies, private equity funds, insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors and consul­ting firms and offers a top-class plat­form for exch­ange and networ­king against the back­drop of the current chal­lenges for PE and M&A,” says Dr. Niko­laus von Jacobs, Part­ner at Reed Smith in Munich and Co-Chair of pema­com (Photo© Reed Smith).

The focus of this year’s pema­com is on the econo­mic policy chal­lenges faced by inter­na­tio­nally opera­ting compa­nies in connec­tion with customs duties, import rest­ric­tions and invest­ment controls. This is accom­pa­nied by key issues rela­ting to digi­tal busi­ness models, future pros­pects for the health­care, biotech­no­logy and life scien­ces sectors as well as the ongo­ing deve­lo­p­ment of arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence and the resul­ting conse­quen­ces for the inter­na­tio­nal tran­sac­tion market. 

Niko­laus von Jacobs adds: “It will be exci­ting to see how trans­at­lan­tic trade rela­ti­ons deve­lop in the coming months and years. For many compa­nies, ente­ring into stra­te­gic part­ner­ships across conti­nents could be a solu­tion to gain access to inter­na­tio­nal markets.”

Infor­ma­tion on the pema­com event on 23.9.2025 at the Baye­ri­scher Hof in Munich and the current program can be found on the website www.pemacom.com

About Reed Smith

Reed Smith is a leading inter­na­tio­nal law firm. The firm has been in exis­tence for more than 140 years and compri­ses >30 offices with 3,000 employees, inclu­ding 1,700 lawy­ers in Europe, the US, the Middle East and Asia.
For more infor­ma­tion, please visit www.reedsmith.com

Frank­furt a. M. — McDer­mott Will & Schulte has advi­sed the inter­na­tio­nal B2B data provi­der Cognism on the sale of Mainz-based NETSTAG GmbH to the French digi­tal marke­ting provi­der Posi­tive Group. The tran­sac­tion was comple­ted yester­day. Cognism, head­quar­te­red in London, is a leading sales intel­li­gence plat­form and provi­der of Euro­pean B2B data foun­ded in 2015. 

NETSTAG specia­li­zes in the deve­lo­p­ment, marke­ting and distri­bu­tion of web appli­ca­ti­ons, mobile appli­ca­ti­ons and inter­net-based soft­ware solutions.

Advi­sor Cognism Limi­ted: McDer­mott Will & Schulte, Frankfurt

Dr. Felix Ganzer, photo © MWE (Lead), Fatema Orjela (London; both Private Equity), Dr. Florian Schie­fer (Tax), Dr. Chris­tian Dries­sen-Rolf (Employ­ment), Dr. Claus Färber (Coun­sel, IP, Munich); Asso­ciate: Dr. Chris­tian Lebrecht (Regu­la­tory)

About McDer­mott Will & Schulte

Leading orga­niza­ti­ons turn to our inter­na­tio­nal law firm, McDer­mott Will & Schulte, to better navi­gate legal chal­lenges, colla­bo­rate with leaders and achieve stron­ger results. Our more than 1,750 lawy­ers in over 20 offices world­wide rely on data-driven insights, close networ­king and unique indus­try expe­ri­ence to deli­ver on our promise: Always Better. In Germany, McDer­mott Will & Schulte Rechts­an­wälte Steu­er­be­ra­ter LLP advi­ses you. — www.mwe.com/de

Colo­gne — GÖRG has compre­hen­si­vely advi­sed Enca­vis AG on the acqui­si­tion of a wind farm project in Sundern-Allen­dorf, Sauer­land. The tran­sac­tion for the wind farm, which is still under cons­truc­tion, compri­ses five Nordex N163 wind turbi­nes with a total capa­city of 34 MW. 

The seller, PNE AG, is buil­ding the wind farm and will hand over the turn­key project to Enca­vis. The wind farm, loca­ted around 50 kilo­me­ters from Dort­mund, is sche­du­led to go into opera­tion in the first half of 2026. With the expec­ted annual elec­tri­city produc­tion of 92 GWh, around 22,800 house­holds can be supplied with green energy. 

Enca­vis also relied on a GÖRG team led by Thoralf Herbold as well as Dr. Ruth Büchl-Winter and Dr. Ilka Mainz for this tran­sac­tion. The advice included the legal due dili­gence of the project as well as the draf­ting and nego­tia­tion of all project and acqui­si­tion agreements. 

GÖRG regu­larly advi­ses inves­tors, opera­tors and project deve­lo­pers on the acqui­si­tion, sale and realiza­tion of energy gene­ra­tion plants in the fields of wind, solar and storage technologies.

Enca­vis is one of the leading produ­cers of elec­tri­city from rene­wa­ble ener­gies in Europe. The company opera­tes a broadly diver­si­fied port­fo­lio of onshore wind parks, ground-moun­ted solar instal­la­ti­ons and battery storage systems in 13 Euro­pean count­ries — inclu­ding Germany, Italy, Spain, Denmark and the Nether­lands. Enca­vis also offers insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors attrac­tive invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties in rene­wa­ble energy instal­la­ti­ons. With a total instal­led capa­city of over 3.8 giga­watts, Enca­vis makes a signi­fi­cant contri­bu­tion to a sustainable energy supply and the achie­ve­ment of Euro­pean climate targets. 

Advi­sor Enca­vis AG: GÖRG Part­ner­schaft von Rechts­an­wäl­ten mbB
Thoralf Herbold, photo © Goerg (Lead, Part­ner, Energy Law, Cologne)
Dr. Ruth Büchl-Winter (Part­ner, Corpo­rate Law/M&A, Cologne)
Dr. Ilka Mainz (Asso­ciate Part­ner, Energy Law, Cologne)
Niklas Fietz (Senior Asso­ciate, Public Commer­cial Law, Cologne)
Nele Motzek (Senior Asso­ciate, Finan­cing, Cologne)

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

Nuremberg/ Frank­furt a. M. — Ardian, one of the worl­d’s leading inde­pen­dent invest­ment firms, has arran­ged a unitran­che finan­cing for Carlyle Tech (Carlyle Europe Tech­no­logy Part­ners) to acquire Ingen­tis. The Nurem­berg-based company is a leading soft­ware provi­der that supports compa­nies in the visua­liza­tion, design, analy­sis and plan­ning of orga­niza­tio­nal and person­nel structures. 

Carlyle is acqui­ring the shares with equity from the CETP V fund from the previous inves­tor Maguar Capi­tal Part­ners, an invest­ment company that focu­ses on invest­ments in small and medium-sized B2B soft­ware compa­nies, prima­rily in the DACH region. In addi­tion, members of Ingen­tis’ exis­ting manage­ment team will also take a signi­fi­cant stake in the company as part of the transaction. 

Foun­ded in 1997, Ingen­tis is an inno­va­tive soft­ware provi­der serving around 2,000 compa­nies and hundreds of blue-chip clients world­wide, inclu­ding many Fortune 500 and DAX compa­nies. Ingen­tis’ soft­ware plat­form helps compa­nies visua­lize, analyze and opti­mize their orga­niza­tio­nal struc­tures and human resour­ces data to make more infor­med stra­te­gic decis­i­ons. The main product Org.Manager is compa­ti­ble with more than sixty HCM systems and is expe­ri­en­cing incre­asing demand worldwide. 

The finan­cing provi­ded by Ardian will enable future growth initia­ti­ves and targe­ted acqui­si­ti­ons and support Ingen­tis in its goal to become one of the worl­d’s leading plat­forms in the growing orga­niza­tio­nal design and analy­sis market.

The tran­sac­tion under­lines the proven colla­bo­ra­tion of Ardian’s Private Credit team with Carlyle Tech and their joint expe­ri­ence in deve­lo­ping successful soft­ware compa­nies such as SER, GBTEC and now Ingen­tis. Ardian also has a long-stan­ding presence and an expe­ri­en­ced team in the DACH region. 

“We are plea­sed about the rene­wed coope­ra­tion with the soft­ware specia­list Carlyle Tech. Ingen­tis offers an attrac­tive invest­ment oppor­tu­nity in a fast-growing market and is charac­te­ri­zed by a very solid finan­cial base and an inno­va­tive and inter­na­tio­nally sought-after product port­fo­lio,” says Lukas Stepa­nek (photo © ardian), Head of Private Credit DACH & Mana­ging Direc­tor, ardian. 

About ARDIAN

Ardian is a leading global inde­pen­dent invest­ment firm. The company mana­ges or advi­ses assets worth around US$ 180 billion for more than 1,720 inves­tors world­wide. Thanks to its exten­sive exper­tise in private equity, real assets and credit, Ardian offers a wide range of invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties as well as custo­mi­zed invest­ment solu­ti­ons — tail­o­red to inves­tors’ needs: Ardian Custo­mi­zed Solu­ti­ons enables insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors to access best-in-class mana­gers across all asset clas­ses through a custo­mi­zed port­fo­lio. Ardian Private Wealth Solu­ti­ons also offers a range of services speci­fi­cally geared to high net worth indi­vi­du­als. Ardian’s employees are also the company’s largest share­hol­der group. Ardian atta­ches great importance to their deve­lo­p­ment, as well as a culture of coope­ra­tion based on an active exch­ange of know­ledge and expe­ri­ence. The more than 1,050 employees at 19 office loca­ti­ons in Europe, North and South America, Asia and the Middle East follow the prin­ci­ples of respon­si­ble invest­ment. Ardian’s mission is to make a posi­tive contri­bu­tion to society through its invest­ments and to create value that lasts. Ardian aims to deli­ver excel­lent returns in line with high ethi­cal stan­dards and social respon­si­bi­lity. At Ardian, ever­yone is dedi­ca­ted to buil­ding successful compa­nies for the long term. www.ardian.com

Düsseldorf/ Zurich (CH) / Berlin — YPOG advi­sed a consor­tium of inves­tors led by Kurma Part­ners on the EUR 21 million finan­cing round of the biotech company Evla­Bio. The finan­cing round was led by Kurma Part­ners, toge­ther with Boeh­rin­ger Ingel­heim Venture Fund, AdBio Part­ners, HTGF and NRW.BANK.

With the new funds, Evla­Bio will advance the deve­lo­p­ment of its lead candi­date — a novel mono­clonal anti­body targe­ting the FGF23/FGFR4 signal­ing cascade, a key driver of cardiac remo­de­ling in pati­ents with chro­nic kidney dise­ase (CKD). The therapy speci­fi­cally targets the treat­ment of left ventri­cu­lar hyper­tro­phy, a common and severe compli­ca­tion of CKD. 

Hadrien Bouchez (photo © Kurma), Part­ner at Kurma Part­ners: “The team’s precli­ni­cal data and scien­ti­fic foun­da­tion are impres­sive. Evla­Bio addres­ses a highly rele­vant medi­cal need that has not yet been adequa­tely addressed.” 

Evla­Bio is a life science company focu­sed on the deve­lo­p­ment of first-in-class thera­peu­tics for cardio­vas­cu­lar and cardio­re­nal dise­a­ses. The lead program addres­ses the FGFR4/FGF23 signal­ing cascade, which is a key driver of cardiac remo­de­ling in chro­nic kidney dise­ase. By deve­lo­ping novel mecha­nisms based on sound science, Evla­Bio aims to create new treat­ment para­digms for CKD pati­ents with high unmet medi­cal need. 

Our colle­agues at Walder Wyss supported the inves­tor consor­tium on Swiss legal and tax issues.

Advi­sor to the inves­tor consor­tium: YPOG

Dr. Martin Scha­per (Tran­sac­tions), Part­ner, Berlin
Jörg Schr­ade (Tax), Part­ner, Munich
Dr. Bene­dikt Flöter (IP/IT/Data Protec­tion), Part­ner, Hamburg
Ciro D’Ame­lio (Tran­sac­tions), Asso­ciate, Berlin
Chris­toph Cordes (IP/IT/Data Protec­tion), Asso­ciate, Berlin
Boris Schin­zel (Tran­sac­tions), Asso­ciate, Berlin
Ninetta Klein­dienst (Tax), Asso­ciate, Munich

www.ypog.com

Munich — ARQIS has provi­ded compre­hen­sive legal advice to the newly foun­ded KOMI Group on the acqui­si­tion of the IT infra­struc­ture busi­ness spun off from Konica Minolta. The spin-off was part of a complex carve-out. In the course of this, the KOMI Group was repo­si­tio­ned as an inde­pen­dent IT service provi­der with a clear focus on medium-sized compa­nies. In future, Konica Minolta will focus on the remai­ning areas of profes­sio­nal prin­ting and digi­tal busi­ness models. 

The new provi­der, KOMI Group, offers mana­ged services, IT secu­rity solu­ti­ons, infra­struc­ture consul­ting and modern appli­ca­ti­ons for the digi­tal work­place for medium-sized compa­nies. KOMI is also taking over the exis­ting custo­mer and project struc­tures of Konica Minol­ta’s previous IT infra­struc­ture business. 

The Munich-based invest­ment company Liberta Part­ners supported the tran­sac­tion as an inves­tor and active spar­ring part­ner. As an entre­pre­neu­rial invest­ment company, Liberta invests in medium-sized compa­nies with deve­lo­p­ment poten­tial and aims to provide them with finan­cial support as well as struc­tu­ral and opera­tio­nal development. 

An ARQIS team led by part­ner Dr. Mauritz von Einem (photo © Arqis) and coun­sel Dennis Reisich provi­ded compre­hen­sive advice to the KOMI Group, initia­ted by Liberta Part­ners, on the carve-out, take­over and restruc­tu­ring of the busi­ness. In addi­tion to corpo­rate law aspects, inclu­ding the crea­tion of a new corpo­rate struc­ture, ARQIS, led by Lisa-Marie Niklas, advi­sed on employ­ment law aspects of the carve-out. ARQIS has regu­larly advi­sed Liberta Part­ners on tran­sac­tions, successful plat­form invest­ments such as the current carve-out and fund struc­tu­ring for seve­ral years. 

Advi­sor KOMI Group/Liberta Part­ners: ARQIS (Munich)

Dr. Mauritz von Einem (Part­ner, Lead, Tran­sac­tions), Lisa-Marie Niklas (Part­ner, Co-Lead, HR Carve-Out, Düssel­dorf, HR Law), Dennis Reisich (Coun­sel, Co-Lead, Transactions/Tax), Part­ners: Johan­nes Landry (Düssel­dorf, Finan­cing), Dr. Ulrich Lien­hard (Düssel­dorf, Real Estate), Tobias Neufeld (Düssel­dorf, Data Law), Marcus Noth­hel­fer (IP), Coun­sel: Nora Strat­mann (Commer­cial), Mana­ging Asso­cia­tes: Tim Brese­mann, Diana Pucho­wezki (both Düssel­dorf, Real Estate), Rolf Tichy (IP), Asso­cia­tes: Dr. Lina Alami, Luzia Schulze Froning (Düssel­dorf, both HR Law), Rebecca Gester (Commer­cial), Paulina Hütt­ner, Dr. Julia Wild­gans (both IP), Johanna Klin­gen (Düssel­dorf, Data Law), Giulia Kögel (Tran­sac­tions), Legal Specia­list: Konstan­ti­nos Strem­pas (Tran­sac­tions) .

About ARQIS

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

Hatten — DRS Invest­ment (DRS) has acqui­red a stake in the Austrian auction service provi­der AURENA. — HEUKING provi­ded compre­hen­sive legal advice to DRS and its subsi­dia­ries, inclu­ding DRS KVG GmbH, on the struc­tu­ring, launch and closing of the special AIF Skywards GmbH & Co KG as well as on the acqui­si­tion of the majo­rity stake by the fund in AURENA. 

In addi­tion to the tran­sac­tion, HEUKING also advi­sed on the launch of a manage­ment parti­ci­pa­tion program in AURENA. DRS Invest­ment is invol­ved in the fund as initiator. 

DRS Invest­ment SE is a German private invest­ment company with a focus on tech­no­logy-enab­led service compa­nies (“tech-enab­led services”). The invest­ment focus is on scalable service plat­forms that enable opera­tio­nal excel­lence and sustainable value crea­tion through the use of tech­no­logy. Since its foun­da­tion in 2017, DRS has actively supported its port­fo­lio compa­nies in their long-term development. 

Since its foun­da­tion in 2012, AURENA has estab­lished itself as the market leader in Austria — an end-to-end digi­ta­li­zed auction process and its own high-perfor­mance auction plat­form make it possi­ble to auction large quan­ti­ties of goods in the shor­test possi­ble time. Over 12,700 auctions have been held to date. More than 180 employees are invol­ved in auction projects in Austria and neigh­bor­ing Euro­pean countries. 

The aim of the part­ner­ship is further geogra­phi­cal expan­sion, parti­cu­larly in Germany. Andreas Spie­gel, foun­der and Mana­ging Direc­tor of DRS Invest­ment SE, explains: “With the acqui­si­tion of AURENA, we are gaining a tech­no­lo­gi­cally advan­ced auction service provi­der for our DRS port­fo­lio. Our aim is to estab­lish AURENA as the leading plat­form for asset liqui­da­tion throug­hout Europe.” 

HEUKING advi­sed DRS Invest­ment SE and DRS KVG GmbH under the lead manage­ment of Dr. Chris­toph Grin­gel and Ulrich Weide­mann on the struc­tu­ring of the special AIF Skywards GmbH & Co. KG as well as on the acqui­si­tion of the majo­rity stake (and struc­tu­ring of the transaction).

In addi­tion to HEUKING, DRS Invest­ment SE was advi­sed by PWC (Stefa­nie Tiele­mann) and in Austria by Dorda Rechts­an­wälte GmbH (Chris­tian Ritschka). The sellers of AURENA were advi­sed by Brandl Talos (Roman Rericha) and Ego Humrich Wyen (Jan-Henning Wyen, Achim Spengler). 

Advi­sor DRS Invest­ment SE: HEUKING

Dr. Chris­toph Grin­gel (lead), (invest­ment funds),
Ulrich Weide­mann (lead), (private equity / corpo­rate law),
Klaus Weinand-Härer (tax law / private equity),
Frank Holl­stein (corpo­rate law / M&A),
Thalia Roth (invest­ment funds), all Frankfurt

Munich — Penguin Random House Verlags­gruppe acqui­res Cross Cult Enter­tain­ment and expands its port­fo­lio to include comics, manga and manhwa. With the acqui­si­tion of Cross Cult Enter­tain­ment, Penguin Random House Verlags­gruppe is ente­ring the graphic lite­ra­ture segment. — Gütt Olk Feld­haus advi­sed Penguin Random House Verlags­gruppe on the acqui­si­tion of the Cross Cult Enter­tain­ment group. 

The exis­ting manage­ment team of Cross Cult will remain on board and will conti­nue to run the busi­ness as usual. — The Penguin Random House publi­shing group is a leading German-language consu­mer publi­shing group with loca­ti­ons in Munich, Güters­loh, Berlin and Gerlin­gen and employs almost 1,000 people. 

Cross Cult was foun­ded in 2001 and today publishes mainly comics and manga for young people and adults under the imprints Cross Cult, Manga Cult, Manhwa Cult and CROCU.

The comple­tion of the tran­sac­tion is still subject to appr­oval by the anti­trust authorities.

GOF provi­ded legal advice to the Penguin Random House publi­shing group in all phases of the tran­sac­tion process.

Legal advi­sors Penguin Random House Publi­shing Group: Gütt Olk Feldhaus

Dr. Heiner Feld­haus (Part­ner, Corporate/M&A, Lead), Thomas Becker (Of Coun­sel, IP/IT/Data Protec­tion), Matthias Uelner (Coun­sel, Corporate/M&A), Tobias Berg­meis­ter (Asso­ciate, Corporate/M&A)

Kind & Drews, Düssel­dorf: Dr. Ernesto Drews (Part­ner, Tax Law)

Finken­hof, Frank­furt am Main: Dr. Lorenzo Matthaei, Karo­lina Astner (both part­ners), Maxi­mi­lian Stock­mann (all restruc­tu­ring law advice)

Blom­stein, Berlin: Dr. Max Klasse (part­ner), Dr. Julia Lotze (both merger control)

Pusch Wahlig Work­place Law, Munich: Ingo Sappa (Part­ner), Dr. Miriam Engler (Asso­ciate) (both Employ­ment Law)

About Gütt Olk Feldhaus

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

Hamburg — The Hansea­tic Broking Center Group (HBC), an owner-mana­ged plat­form for insu­rance brokers, welco­mes Bridge­point as a new share­hol­der. The globally active inves­tor with head­quar­ters in London is taking over the shares from Preser­va­tion Capi­tal Part­ners. The foun­ders and the manage­ment team will remain signi­fi­cantly inves­ted and will lead HBC into the next growth phase toge­ther with Bridgepoint. 

Since its foun­da­tion in 2022, HBC has estab­lished itself as one of the leading inde­pen­dent insu­rance broker groups in the German-spea­king region. The company serves over 40,000 custo­mers in a variety of diffe­rent insu­rance sectors, mana­ges a premium volume of more than 600 million euros and has quadru­pled its EBITDA since it was foun­ded — through orga­nic growth and targe­ted acquisitions. 

“Our vision was clear from the start: we want to create a plat­form that offers SMEs access to specia­li­zed, inde­pen­dent advice and modern digi­tal solu­ti­ons — close to the custo­mer, profes­sio­nally strong and entre­pre­neu­rial,” explains Gert Schloss­ma­cher, Execu­tive Chair­man and co-foun­der of HBC. “Bridge­point brings not only a deep under­stan­ding of our market, but also the opera­tio­nal expe­ri­ence to realize our ambi­ti­ons at scale. Toge­ther we will acce­le­rate our growth stra­tegy and further deve­lop an attrac­tive ecosys­tem for custo­mers, part­ners and insu­r­ers. We thank PCP for buil­ding HBC toge­ther over the past three years” 

With the new part­ner­ship, HBC will conti­nue to drive forward the expan­sion of its MGA exper­tise, the digi­ta­liza­tion of its plat­form and its expan­sion in the DACH region. Recent acqui­si­ti­ons such as LTA (travel insu­rance), HYV Schoma­cker (yacht insu­rance) and Schin­ner (commer­cial property insu­rance) under­line HBC’s stra­te­gic ambi­tion to streng­then its posi­tion in line with the needs of its custo­mer groups. 

“We believe in the value of inde­pen­dent, specia­li­zed consul­ting — espe­ci­ally for medium-sized compa­nies that are often under­re­pre­sen­ted in the market,” says Hauke Martin­sen, CEO and co-foun­der of HBC. “With Bridge­point, we have a part­ner at our side who not only faci­li­ta­tes growth finan­ci­ally, but also supports it with stra­te­gic exper­tise. This bene­fits not only us — but above all our custo­mers and partners.” 

Cars­ten Kratz, Part­ner at Bridge­point and Head of DACH, is deligh­ted: “SMEs form the back­bone of the German economy — but are clearly under­ser­ved when it comes to custo­mi­zed insu­rance solu­ti­ons. HBC impres­ses with its entre­pre­neu­rial team, clear specia­liza­tion and impres­sive growth. We see enorm­ous poten­tial to support the company in further expan­ding its exper­tise, digi­ta­liza­tion and regio­nal expansion.”

Chris Brack­mann, Part­ner at Bridge­point, respon­si­ble for DACH invest­ments, adds: “HBC is an outstan­ding company in a struc­tu­rally attrac­tive market: foun­der-led, fast-growing and with a clear track record. The condi­ti­ons for buil­ding a true cham­pion in the DACH region could hardly be better. We look forward to working with Gert, Hauke, Sebas­tian, Johan­nes and the team to make this vision a reality.”

It was a plea­sure to accom­pany Gert and his team during the start-up phase of HBC. In just three years, they have succee­ded in estab­li­shing one of the most dyna­mic and fastest-growing plat­forms in the Euro­pean insu­rance distri­bu­tion market. Our goal from the outset was to support the team in buil­ding a first-class plat­form for insu­rance distri­bu­tion. We are proud of what we have achie­ved toge­ther and look forward to watching HBC’s contin­ued progress under Bridge­poin­t’s leader­ship,” said Jeroen Bischops and Armin Holei­sen of Preser­va­tion Capi­tal Partners.

The tran­sac­tion is subject to the usual regu­la­tory appr­ovals and is expec­ted to be comple­ted in the third quar­ter of 2025.

About HBC

Hansea­tic Broking Center (HBC) is a dyna­mi­cally growing, owner-mana­ged plat­form for insu­rance brokers and under­wri­ting agents based in Hamburg. Crea­ted in 2022 through the merger of seve­ral estab­lished specia­list brokers, HBC now serves over 40,000 custo­mers in 15 insu­rance sectors and mana­ges a premium volume of more than 600 million euros. The group combi­nes regio­nal custo­mer proxi­mity and profes­sio­nal specia­liza­tion with scalable struc­tures and digi­tal solu­ti­ons — tail­o­red to the requi­re­ments of medium-sized companies. 

About Bridge­point

Bridge­point is one of the worl­d’s leading private asset inves­tors with a focus on high-growth mid-market compa­nies in the private equity, infra­struc­ture and private credit sectors. With over $75 billion in assets under manage­ment and a strong local presence in Europe, North America and Asia, Bridge­point combi­nes global invest­ment power with deep market know­ledge and indus­try exper­tise. — www.bridgepointgroup.com

About Preser­va­tion Capi­tal Partners

Preser­va­tion Capi­tal Part­ners (PCP) is a private equity firm specia­li­zing in the busi­ness and finan­cial services sector with a focus on growth invest­ments in Western Europe. Foun­ded in 2017, PCP invests in market-leading compa­nies and has exten­sive expe­ri­ence in insu­rance distri­bu­tion, inclu­ding invest­ments in BMS, BPL and Optio. — www.preservationcapitalpartners.com

Advi­sor Bridge­point: Kirk­land & Ellis, Frankfurt

Sebas­tian Pitz (lead), Dr. Tobias Larisch (both Private Equity/M&A), Tim Nobe­reit (Tax, Munich), Dr. Alex­an­der Längs­feld (Debt Finance, Munich); Asso­cia­tes: Alex­an­der Herzog, Dr. Mattias Prange, Jenia Dimit­rova, Melissa Afraz, Fabian Water­höl­ter (all Private Equity/M&A; all three Munich)
Kirk­land & Ellis, London: Vanessa Xu, Alex­an­der Bond (both Debt Finance); Asso­ciate: Emma Shi (Debt Finance)

— www.kirkland.com

Frank­furt am Main — The Frank­furt-based invest­ment company VR Equi­typ­art­ner (“VREP”) has sold its signi­fi­cant mino­rity stake in Zimmer & Hälbig Holding (“Zimmer & Hälbig”), a leading specia­list for refri­ge­ra­tion, air condi­tio­ning and venti­la­tion tech­no­logy. The buyer of the shares is VINCI Ener­gies, part of VINCI, one of the worl­d’s leading groups for cons­truc­tion, cons­truc­tion-rela­ted services and concessions. 

Zimmer & Hälbig, based in Biele­feld, West­pha­lia, is one of Germany’s leading provi­ders in the plan­ning, instal­la­tion and main­ten­ance of refri­ge­ra­tion, air condi­tio­ning and venti­la­tion tech­no­logy and tech­ni­cal buil­ding services in non-resi­den­tial buil­dings. The company provi­des the tech­ni­cal know-how for project plan­ning (consul­ting, tech­no­logy selec­tion, cons­truc­tion plan­ning) and instal­la­tion of logi­sti­cally and tech­ni­cally sophisti­ca­ted refri­ge­ra­tion, air condi­tio­ning and venti­la­tion systems. The focus is on sustainable energy solu­ti­ons for complex buil­dings. Zimmer & Hälbig prima­rily serves fast-growing and non-cycli­cal indus­tries such as clean­rooms, data centers, health­care and the public sector and is charac­te­ri­zed by a decen­tra­li­zed struc­ture with seve­ral loca­ti­ons in Germany. 

VREP joined Zimmer & Hälbig, which now has over 320 employees, in 2022 as part of a manage­ment buy-out and supported the manage­ment in the consis­tent imple­men­ta­tion of the active orga­nic and inor­ga­nic growth stra­tegy. This included the expan­sion to curr­ently seven loca­ti­ons and nine service centers, the expan­sion of the value chain through the estab­lish­ment of the new measu­re­ment and control tech­no­logy divi­sion and the acqui­si­tion of the service and main­ten­ance specia­list Airtech GmbH in Tutt­lin­gen in Octo­ber 2023. Zimmer & Hälbig will be inte­gra­ted into the VINCI Ener­gies Buil­ding Solu­ti­ons network with 150 busi­ness units in Germany, thus expan­ding the range of multi-tech­ni­cal solu­ti­ons for buildings. 

“Zimmer & Hälbig has estab­lished itself as an extre­mely successful company thanks to its excel­lent market posi­tio­ning and the high quality of its manage­ment,” explains Chris­tian Futter­lieb, Mana­ging Direc­tor at VR Equi­typ­art­ner. “The team’s strong entre­pre­neu­rial commit­ment, clear commer­cial focus and in-depth exper­tise have contri­bu­ted signi­fi­cantly to this deve­lo­p­ment. We are convin­ced that Zimmer & Hälbig is well posi­tio­ned for the future and has found a good home and a strong part­ner for its future deve­lo­p­ment in VINCI Energies. ”

Achim Hense­ler, Mana­ging Direc­tor of Zimmer & Hälbig, adds: “VREP has been the right part­ner for us since 2022 to successfully imple­ment key growth steps — with stra­te­gic exper­tise, opera­tio­nal support and a clear focus on the essen­ti­als. The colla­bo­ra­tion has been charac­te­ri­zed by trust and profes­sio­na­lism right from the start. We would like to express our sincere thanks for this and are now looking forward to conti­nuing on our chosen course at VINCI Energies.”

The tran­sac­tion is still subject to appr­oval by the anti­trust autho­ri­ties. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose details of the contract.

About VR Equitypartner

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

The tran­sac­tion team at VR Equitypartner:

Michael Vogt (photo © Vrep), Alex­an­der Bernin­ger, Markus Huber, Jens Schöf­fel and Patrick Heinze

Consul­ting firms invol­ved in the tran­sac­tion by VREP:

M&A: Cars­ten Burger, DC Advisory
Legal: Dr. Lars Laeger, ARQIS
Commer­cial: Matthias Müller, Deloitte
Finan­cial: Florian Teuner, Deloitte
Tax: Marcus Roth, Deloitte

Milan/London/Paris/Munich — Ambi­enta SGR S.p.A. (“Ambi­enta”), a leading Euro­pean invest­ment mana­ger pionee­ring sustainable envi­ron­men­tal invest­ments in private and public markets, announ­ces that its port­fo­lio company Offi­cine Macca­ferri S.p.A. (“Macca­ferri” or the “Group”), a leading global provi­der of envi­ron­men­tal engi­nee­ring solu­ti­ons, with a busi­ness presence in over 130 count­ries, has acqui­red CPT Group (“CPT”), an Italian company specia­li­zed in advan­ced mecha­ni­zed tunnell­ing tech­no­lo­gies and robo­tic prefa­bri­ca­tion systems for under­ground infrastructure.

CPT was foun­ded over 30 years ago and is based in Nova Mila­nese (Italy). The company supplies major cons­truc­tion compa­nies world­wide in the fields of tunnel cons­truc­tion and infra­struc­ture. Its product range includes robot-assis­ted prefa­bri­ca­tion systems (Robo­fac­tory), produc­ti­vity moni­to­ring soft­ware for tunnel boring machi­nes (TBM) and ecolo­gi­cally desi­gned spacers. As a pioneer in the appli­ca­tion of Indus­try 4.0 prin­ci­ples to the prefa­bri­ca­tion of tunnel boring machine (TBM) segments, CPT has helped to drive auto­ma­tion on under­ground cons­truc­tion sites. Its tech­no­lo­gies have alre­ady been successfully used by Macca­ferri for the instal­la­tion of its semi-auto­ma­tic steel ribs. CPT opera­tes in Europe, South East Asia and Austra­lia and is known for making the cons­truc­tion of tunnel linings in geolo­gi­cally complex envi­ron­ments more resource effi­ci­ent, safer and faster. 

With this acqui­si­tion, Offi­cine Macca­ferri will become one of the worl­d’s largest indus­trial compa­nies able to offer a fully inte­gra­ted plat­form for tunnel cons­truc­tion, inclu­ding both tradi­tio­nal systems (steel ribs, fibers, seals) and mecha­ni­cal solu­ti­ons (Robo­fac­tory, TBMs, digi­tal tech­no­lo­gies). The merged group will serve a growing addressa­ble market of EUR 1 billion and further conso­li­date Macca­fer­ri’s trans­for­ma­tion into a tech­no­logy leader in sustainable infrastructure. 

This tran­sac­tion is another mile­stone in Macca­fer­ri’s growth trajec­tory under Ambi­en­ta’s owner­ship. Since Ambi­en­ta’s entry at the begin­ning of 2024, the Group has pursued a targe­ted M&A stra­tegy while conti­nuing to grow orga­ni­cally and advan­cing its ESG commitment. 

The global tunnell­ing market is expe­ri­en­cing strong struc­tu­ral growth driven by incre­asing urba­niza­tion, climate-resi­li­ent infra­struc­ture invest­ments and the comple­xity of modern under­ground projects. Mecha­ni­zed tunnell­ing is beco­ming incre­asingly important due to its speed, safety and adap­ta­bi­lity to complex envi­ron­ments. At the same time, tradi­tio­nal excava­tion methods remain an important and widely used solu­tion in tunnel cons­truc­tion and remain an essen­tial part of Macca­fer­ri’s exper­tise and value propo­si­tion. In this context, the inte­gra­tion of CPT will allow Macca­ferri to expand its range of tech­ni­cal solu­ti­ons to operate in high-growth regi­ons and meet the incre­asing demand of the global tunnel­ing market for dura­ble and envi­ron­men­tally friendly under­ground infrastructures. 

CPT’s tech­no­logy is directly aligned with Ambi­en­ta’s envi­ron­men­tal impact assess­ment (EIA). The Robo­fac­tory plat­form enables auto­ma­ted 24-hour produc­tion that signi­fi­cantly increa­ses produc­ti­vity while redu­cing envi­ron­men­tal impact — redu­cing the use of release oil by 25 percent and the number of concrete defects by 30 percent. These inno­va­tions contri­bute to safer cons­truc­tion sites, lower mate­rial consump­tion and better tracea­bi­lity of opera­ti­ons.

Andrea Ventu­rini, Private Equity Part­ner of Ambi­enta, said: “This acqui­si­tion demons­tra­tes Offi­cine Macca­fer­ri’s ambi­tion to become the global plat­form for tech­ni­cal solu­ti­ons for climate change adapt­a­tion. With CPT, the Group streng­thens its ability to deve­lop new busi­nesses, inte­grate cutting-edge tech­no­lo­gies and act as a conso­li­da­tor in highly specia­li­zed indus­trial niches. This is a further step towards buil­ding a diver­si­fied and resi­li­ent leader in all key infra­struc­ture markets.”

Stefano Susani, CEO of Offi­cine Macca­ferri, added: “The inte­gra­tion of CPT provi­des us with a unique oppor­tu­nity to grow our tunnell­ing busi­ness into a global leader in mecha­ni­zed and tradi­tio­nal solu­ti­ons comple­men­ted by advan­ced indus­trial robo­tic auto­ma­tion. We see signi­fi­cant poten­tial to create long-term value by offe­ring major custo­mers world­wide an inte­gra­ted plat­form that supports the most complex and stra­te­gic under­ground infra­struc­ture projects through inno­va­tion, relia­bi­lity and sustainability.”

Klaus Pini, co-foun­der of CPT, said: “Joining Offi­cine Macca­ferri is a natu­ral evolu­tion for CPT. We share the same indus­trial values, the same long-term vision and the same commit­ment to tech­ni­cal excel­lence. This part­ner­ship will allow us to acce­le­rate the deve­lo­p­ment of our tech­no­lo­gies and provide even grea­ter added value to our custo­mers and the tunnel­ing indus­try worldwide.”

About Ambi­enta

Ambi­enta is a Euro­pean invest­ment mana­ger foun­ded in 2007 and a pioneer in sustainable invest­ments in private equity, public markets and private credit. With offices in Milan, London, Paris and Munich, Ambi­enta mana­ges over €4 billion in assets and is supported by a growing global inves­tor base. The company invests in compa­nies that are driven by envi­ron­men­tal mega­trends and whose products or services contri­bute to impro­ving resource effi­ci­ency or redu­cing pollu­tion. Using a science-based approach, Ambi­enta iden­ti­fies pioneers in the real economy — compa­nies that gene­rate strong finan­cial returns while having a measura­ble posi­tive envi­ron­men­tal impact. 

As an indus­try pioneer, Ambi­enta was one of the first signa­to­ries to the United Nati­ons Prin­ci­ples for Respon­si­ble Invest­ment (UN PRI) in 2012. In 2019, the company recei­ved certi­fi­ca­tion as a B Corpo­ra­tion — a seal of appr­oval for compa­nies that meet the highest stan­dards in terms of social and envi­ron­men­tal impact, trans­pa­rency and respon­si­bi­lity. In 2020, Ambi­enta joined the Insti­tu­tio­nal Inves­tors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC), a leading Euro­pean initia­tive of insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors for climate protec­tion. In 2023, Ambi­enta set another exam­ple and became one of the few asset mana­gers to become an indus­try role model by commit­ting to the Science Based Targets Initia­tive (SBTi), which defi­nes science-based climate targets for compa­nies. www.ambientasgr.com

Munich — The inde­pen­dent invest­ment company Egeria has acqui­red a stake in Junge Die Bäcke­rei, a leading provi­der of chain-based bakery and gastro­nomy concepts in nort­hern Germany. The Junge family will remain closely asso­cia­ted with the company as share­hol­ders and in an advi­sory capa­city. Toge­ther with Egeria, the company is pursuing the goal of further expan­ding its market posi­tion in exis­ting regi­ons and stra­te­gi­cally expan­ding into new markets. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose finan­cial details. Comple­tion of the tran­sac­tion is still subject to the usual offi­cial approvals.

The tradi­tio­nal company based in Lübeck was foun­ded by the Junge family in 1897 and today opera­tes 210 bran­ches and three produc­tion faci­li­ties in Lübeck, Rostock and Greifs­wald. Junge Die Bäcke­rei. stands for a high level of verti­cal inte­gra­tion, distinc­tive opera­tio­nal excel­lence and effi­ci­ency. With entre­pre­neu­rial vision and a unique, family-orien­ted corpo­rate culture, the company has deve­lo­ped into the leading provi­der of branch-based bakery and gastro­nomy concepts in nort­hern Germany. Junge Die Bäcke­rei. is parti­cu­larly well-known among its custo­mers for the high quality of its products, the variety of its range and the feel-good atmo­sphere and excel­lent service in its bran­ches. Today, the company employs over 5,000 people. 

EGERIA Group

Egeria, an inde­pen­dent invest­ment company specia­li­zing prima­rily in private equity, invests prima­rily in medium-sized compa­nies with an enter­prise value of up to EUR 500 million. Egeria’s private equity port­fo­lio compri­ses invest­ments in more than 20 compa­nies with around 14,000 employees and a total turno­ver of around EUR 2.5 billion. —https://egeriagroup.com

Advi­sor Egeria: POELLATH advi­sed Egeria on all legal and tax aspects of the acqui­si­tion with the follo­wing Munich team

Dr. Michael Best (Part­ner, Structure/Tax)
Dr. Barbara Koch-Schulte (Part­ner, Manage­ment Participation)
Dr. Tobias Deschen­halm (Coun­sel, Structure/Tax)
Dr. Michael de Toma (Senior Asso­ciate, Manage­ment Participation)
Corne­lius L. Roth (Senior Asso­ciate, Structure/Tax)
Dr. Maxi­mi­lian Link (Senior Asso­ciate, Manage­ment Participation)

www.poellath.com

Munich — Certi­vity has raised 13.3 million euros in a Series A finan­cing round. The Munich-based RegTech company is deve­lo­ping the first struc­tu­red, AI-supported plat­form for mana­ging tech­ni­cal compli­ance. The round was led by Almaz Capi­tal and UVC Part­ners, with rene­wed parti­ci­pa­tion from exis­ting inves­tors Early­bird X, High-Tech Grün­der­fonds (HTGF) and Plug and Play. The fresh capi­tal will be used to acce­le­rate the market launch stra­tegy, drive forward product deve­lo­p­ment and enable expan­sion into new sectors and inter­na­tio­nal markets.

Foun­ded in 2021 by Nico Waegerle, Bogdan Bereczki, Jörg Ulmer and Sami Vaara­ni­emi, Certi­vity addres­ses one of the most unde­re­sti­ma­ted but crucial problems in modern engi­nee­ring: regu­la­tory compli­ance. Engi­neers often spend 30 to 50 percent of their time working through frag­men­ted legal and regu­la­tory docu­ments to ensure that their products comply with appli­ca­ble regu­la­ti­ons and stan­dards. Errors in this process lead to product recalls, safety issues and billi­ons of dollars in fines. — Certi­vity will funda­men­tally change this. 

The company offers a struc­tu­red, AI-native SaaS plat­form that trans­forms complex regu­la­tory docu­ments into struc­tu­red, machine-reada­ble compli­ance infor­ma­tion. It auto­ma­tes the entire process — from reques­t­ing and conti­nuously updating regu­la­tory content to inte­gra­ting it into the process. Certi­vity enables compa­nies to deve­lop products faster while incre­asing secu­rity and compli­ance with all manda­tory regulations. 

“With this funding, we are scaling our plat­form to become the leading solu­tion in tech­ni­cal compli­ance — start­ing with the auto­mo­tive indus­try. Addi­tio­nally, we are scaling into other sectors such as rail, medi­cal devices, consu­mer goods, defense, aero­space and more,” says Nico Waegerle, CEO and co-foun­der of Certi­vity. “We are expan­ding our regu­la­tory coverage, impro­ving our AI and deepe­ning inte­gra­tion with common tools. This is how we trans­form compli­ance from a costly manda­tory requi­re­ment into a compe­ti­tive advan­tage for our customers.” 

“Certi­vity has funda­men­tally chan­ged our approach to regu­la­tory compli­ance. Our deve­lo­p­ment proces­ses are much more effi­ci­ent and we save a signi­fi­cant amount of manual effort,” says Nico­las Maurin, Mana­ger Regu­la­tion & Stan­dards at Aptiv.

How the plat­form works: trans­forming regu­la­tory comple­xity into struc­tu­red knowledge

Certi­vi­ty’s plat­form digi­ti­zes and struc­tures regu­la­tory content from over 50 juris­dic­tions using a proprie­tary digi­tiza­tion pipe­line and regu­la­tory know­ledge graph. This gives engi­nee­ring and compli­ance teams full tracea­bi­lity and real-time insight into regu­la­tory chan­ges. AI-based modu­les conso­li­date chan­ges to diffe­rent versi­ons of regu­la­ti­ons and clas­sify, extract and gene­rate tech­ni­cal requi­re­ments from unstruc­tu­red legal texts. 

Instead of mana­ging compli­ance in isola­ted docu­ments or Excel spreadsheets, teams can now orga­nize regu­la­tory requi­re­ments, inter­pre­ta­ti­ons, appr­ovals and legal refe­ren­ces in a struc­tu­red way in product-speci­fic compli­ance projects. Through deep inte­gra­tion with requi­re­ments manage­ment tools such as Jama, Pola­rion, DOORS and others, compli­ance infor­ma­tion flows seam­lessly into the deve­lo­p­ment process — crea­ting an inte­gra­ted, networked, audi­ta­ble and scalable process. 

Laying the foun­da­tion for compli­ance on an indus­trial scale

“Certi­vity is setting a new stan­dard for how compli­ance is inte­gra­ted into product deve­lo­p­ment,” says Amanda Birken­holz, Prin­ci­pal at UVC Part­ners. “They solve a huge and cumber­some problem for any orga­niza­tion with regu­la­tory requi­re­ments. Compli­ance chal­lenges are no longer the excep­tion — they are the rule. The ques­tion today is no longer: Which products are subject to regu­la­tory requi­re­ments? It is: Which are not?” 

About Certi­vity

Certi­vity is a RegTech company that trans­la­tes regu­la­tory comple­xity into clarity and speed. With the help of modern AI tech­no­logy and Large Language Models (LLMs), we trans­form globally appli­ca­ble regu­la­ti­ons into struc­tu­red, machine-reada­ble data. This crea­tes a new form of compli­ance intel­li­gence that enables digi­tal and end-to-end work processes. 

Our plat­form supports deve­lo­p­ment and compli­ance teams in under­stan­ding regu­la­tory requi­re­ments more quickly, imple­men­ting them effi­ci­ently and inte­gra­ting them seam­lessly into exis­ting deve­lo­p­ment proces­ses. This lowers costs, redu­ces risks, impro­ves colla­bo­ra­tion — and acce­le­ra­tes the market launch of new products. 

About UVC Partners

UVC Part­ners is a Munich and Berlin-based early-stage venture capi­tal firm that invests in Euro­pean B2B start­ups in the fields of enter­prise soft­ware, arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence, deep tech, climate tech and mobi­lity. With more than €600 million in assets under manage­ment, the fund typi­cally invests between €1 million and €10 million initi­ally and up to €30 million in total per company. UVC Part­ners’ invest­ments include Flix, Isar Aero­space, planqc, Proxima Fusion, Reverion, Tacto, TWAICE, Deep­Drive and STABL. The port­fo­lio compa­nies bene­fit from the team’s exten­sive invest­ment and exit expe­ri­ence as well as from the close coope­ra­tion with Unter­neh­mer­TUM, Euro­pe’s leading center for inno­va­tion and entre­pre­neur­ship, in parti­cu­lar to acce­le­rate market entry.