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News

Hamburg — Senseca has acqui­red ACS Control-System, a German company specia­li­zing in indus­trial auto­ma­tion and measu­re­ment tech­no­logy. The tran­sac­tion includes the trans­fer of all shares of ACS Control-System to Senseca. ACS will conti­nue to operate under its exis­ting brand name during a tran­si­tion period. 

Foun­ded in 1990 and head­quar­te­red in Eggen­fel­den, ACS Control-System has made a name for itself in the deve­lo­p­ment of high-quality, IoT-enab­led products for measu­ring level, pres­sure, tempe­ra­ture and flow. These solu­ti­ons are widely used in the water manage­ment, power gene­ra­tion, phar­maceu­ti­cal and mecha­ni­cal engi­nee­ring sectors. 

The acqui­si­tion is part of Senseca’s compre­hen­sive stra­tegy to expand its indus­trial offe­ring and meet the growing demand for intel­li­gent, sustainable auto­ma­tion solu­ti­ons. “ACS adds important tech­no­lo­gies to our port­fo­lio and streng­thens our ability to offer complete measu­re­ment systems,” said Chris­tian Unter­ber­ger, CEO of Senseca. “This supports our goal of helping custo­mers auto­mate proces­ses and make better decis­i­ons based on relia­ble data.” 

ACS will be gradu­ally inte­gra­ted into Sense­ca’s opera­ti­ons, with a focus on lever­aging syner­gies between the two compa­nies’ rese­arch and deve­lo­p­ment depart­ments and expan­ding ACS’s reach through Sense­ca’s global distri­bu­tion network. “We share a commit­ment to robust, dura­ble products and have both inves­ted heavily in inno­va­tion,” said Joachim Stümpfl, CEO of ACS. “Joining forces with Senseca gives us the oppor­tu­nity to scale our tech­no­lo­gies inter­na­tio­nally and contri­bute to a broa­der indus­try portfolio.” 

The inte­gra­tion also brings imme­diate bene­fits for Sense­ca’s product deve­lo­p­ment stra­tegy. “ACS will signi­fi­cantly acce­le­rate the market intro­duc­tion of seve­ral key tech­no­lo­gies,” says Walter Vogels­ber­ger, Vice Presi­dent Busi­ness Unit Indus­try. “By inte­gra­ting radar and ultra­so­nic level measu­re­ment, we can now offer a broa­der range of measu­re­ment prin­ci­ples, ensu­ring that our custo­mers get the right solu­ti­ons for their speci­fic challenges.” 

The current owners, Joachim and Mari­anne Stümpfl, will conti­nue to hold important posi­ti­ons at Senseca. Their contin­ued invol­vement will support a smooth tran­si­tion and ensure the conti­nuity of ACS’ busi­ness acti­vi­ties, which Joachim Stümpfl will lead as Mana­ging Director. 

“This is a stra­te­gic step for both compa­nies,” added Unter­ber­ger. “With ACS, we are not only gaining new tech­no­lo­gies, but also a team that shares our values and our vision for the future of indus­trial measu­re­ment technology.” 

The role of Proven­tis Partners

Proven­tis Part­ners supports Senseca as exclu­sive M&A advi­sor in its expan­sion in Europe. — In addi­tion to iden­ti­fy­ing the specia­list for indus­trial auto­ma­tion and measu­re­ment tech­no­logy and cont­ac­ting the share­hol­ders, Proven­tis Part­ners carried out the stra­te­gic analy­sis of the target company and accom­pa­nied the further tran­sac­tion process until the successful closing. 

The Proven­tis Part­ners tran­sac­tion team consis­ted of Torben Gott­schau (Part­ner, Hamburg) and Leon Holt­mann (Vice Presi­dent, Hamburg).

About ACS Control System

ACS Control-System GmbH was foun­ded in 1990 by Hermann Stümpfl and has been active in the field of indus­trial auto­ma­tion ever since. The company is curr­ently mana­ged by Mari­anne Stümpfl and Joachim Stümpfl. 

Start­ing with the manu­fac­ture of level measu­ring devices, ACS has conti­nuously expan­ded its product range. Today, the company offers a broad port­fo­lio of in-house deve­lo­ped solu­ti­ons, inclu­ding control­lers, recor­ders, meters, sensors and UPS devices. 

With over 30 years of expe­ri­ence, ACS is a relia­ble part­ner for indus­trial measu­re­ment tech­no­logy. The tech­no­lo­gies cover level, pres­sure, tempe­ra­ture and flow and are desi­gned to meet modern requi­re­ments, espe­ci­ally in IoT envi­ron­ments. ACS serves indus­tries such as water manage­ment, power gene­ra­tion, phar­maceu­ti­cals and mecha­ni­cal engineering. 

Inno­va­tion and tech­no­lo­gi­cal deve­lo­p­ment remain at the heart of all ACS acti­vi­ties. — www.acs-controlsystem.com

About Senseca

Senseca stri­ves for excel­lence in connec­ting the physi­cal and digi­tal worlds through inno­va­tive measu­re­ment solu­ti­ons for a wide range of para­me­ters: Level, flow, pres­sure, tempe­ra­ture, conduc­ti­vity, light, wind, humi­dity as well as the measu­re­ment of meteo­ro­lo­gi­cal data.

The products can be found in all major appli­ca­ti­ons rela­ted to mega­trends, such as smart cities, rene­wa­ble energy, agri­cul­ture, water manage­ment, health­care and phar­maceu­ti­cals. Ready to meet the chal­lenges of the IoT. 

In accordance with the highest indus­try and envi­ron­men­tal stan­dards, Senseca manu­fac­tures its products in state-of-the-art faci­li­ties in Germany, Italy, UK and Spain. — Senseca is a team of over 350 dedi­ca­ted experts united by a passion for world-class measu­re­ment tech­no­logy and a belief in making a valuable contri­bu­tion to a sustainable world. 

Senseca is a port­fo­lio company of GENUI. — www.senseca.com

About GENUI

GENUI is an invest­ment company foun­ded by renow­ned entre­pre­neurs and invest­ment experts. GENUI makes long-term commit­ments with the mission of crea­ting sustainable growth and social value. Within the frame­work of profes­sio­nal gover­nance, the compa­nies are given access to people with their own entre­pre­neu­rial expe­ri­ence, rele­vant exper­tise and a directly usable network. — www.genui.de

About Proven­tis Partners

Proven­tis Part­ners is a part­ner-led M&A advi­sory firm whose clients are predo­mi­nantly medium-sized family busi­nesses, corpo­rate groups and private equity funds. With 30 M&A advi­sors, Proven­tis Part­ners is one of the leading inde­pen­dent M&A consul­tancies in the German-spea­king region and can look back on more than 20 years of M&A expe­ri­ence and over 430 comple­ted tran­sac­tions. The M&A consul­tants with offices in Frank­furt, Hamburg and Zurich are active in the indus­trial, chemi­cals & mate­ri­als, services, tech­no­logy & media, consu­mer goods & retail and health­care sectors. The exclu­sive member­ship in the Mergers Alli­ance — an inter­na­tio­nal part­ner­ship of leading M&A specia­lists — enables Proven­tis Part­ners to support clients in 30 count­ries in the most important markets world­wide. The members of the Mergers Alli­ance, with more than 250 M&A profes­sio­nals, offer Proven­tis Part­ners and its clients unique access to local markets in Europe, North America, Latin America, Asia and Africa.

www.proventis.com

News

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

News

Stutt­gart — Gleiss Lutz has advi­sed Chinese Suns­hine Lake Pharma Co., Ltd. on the German law aspects of its IPO on the Hong Kong Stock Exch­ange and the priva­tiza­tion of its subsi­diary YiChang HEC.

In connec­tion with the IPO of Suns­hine Lake Pharma, Gleiss
Lutz has prepared a legal opinion on its prin­ci­pal German subsi­diary, HEC Pharm GmbH.

The priva­tiza­tion was effec­ted through a merger of YiChang HEC with Suns­hine Lake Pharma by way of acqui­si­tion, wher­eby new H shares of Suns­hine Lake Pharma were offe­red as compen­sa­tion for the acqui­si­tion of the H shares of the rele­vant share­hol­ders of YiChang HEC. The priva­tiza­tion and the IPO were condi­tio­nal upon each other. Upon comple­tion, YiChang HEC was delis­ted and Suns­hine Lake Pharma was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exch­ange, with the share­hol­ders of YiChang HEC beco­ming share­hol­ders of Suns­hine Lake Pharma through a share swap as part of the privatization. 

Suns­hine Lake Pharma is a verti­cally inte­gra­ted phar­maceu­ti­cal company enga­ged in the rese­arch and deve­lo­p­ment, manu­fac­tu­ring and commer­cia­liza­tion of phar­maceu­ti­cal products, with a focus on inno­va­tive medi­ci­nes. The company is also active in the areas of modi­fied new drugs, gene­rics and biosimilars. 

Advi­sor to Suns­hine Lake Pharma: Gleiss Lutz

Led by Dr. Michael Burian (Part­ner, Frank­furt) and Dr. Yixiao Li (both M&A, Stuttgart).
Dr. Anselm Chris­ti­an­sen (Part­ner, Stutt­gart), Sonja Hilgert (Berlin),
Alex­an­dra Brücher (all M&A, Stutt­gart), Dr. Stephan Aubel (Part­ner,
Capi­tal Markets Law, Frank­furt), Dr. Enno Burk (Part­ner), Christoph
Schoppe, Dr. Xiao Chen (all Health­care & Life Scien­ces, all Berlin),
Dr. Jacob von Andreae (Part­ner), Aylin Hoffs (Coun­sel, both
Foreign Trade Law, both Düssel­dorf), Dr. Ocka Stumm (Part­ner), Dr.
Johan­nes Heck (both Tax Law, both Frank­furt), Jose­fine Chakrabarti
(Coun­sel, Employ­ment Law, Berlin), Maxi­mi­lian Leisenheimer
(Real Estate Law, Frank­furt), Dr. Simon Wagner (Coun­sel, Commercial,
Stutt­gart), Simon Clemens Wegman (Data Protec­tion Law, Berlin).

www.gleisslutz.com

News

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.

News

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

News

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.

News

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

News

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

News

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

News

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

News

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.

News

Düssel­dorf — ARQIS has provi­ded compre­hen­sive legal advice to the CURA Group on the sale of its two clinic loca­ti­ons in Bad Saul­gau, Baden-Würt­tem­berg. Follo­wing comple­tion of the tran­sac­tion, the MEDIAN Group will take over the Klinik am schö­nen Moos and the Bad Saul­gau acute clinic from CURA, both of which specia­lize in psycho­so­ma­tic acute and reha­bi­li­ta­tion medi­cine. With around 150 employees, both hospi­tals treat around 2,200 pati­ents a year. The closing of the tran­sac­tion is still subject to merger control clearance by the German Fede­ral Cartel Office.

The CURA Group is a private provi­der of health­care services and has been opera­ting senior living and care faci­li­ties as well as reha­bi­li­ta­tion clinics since 1995. The Group employs over 5,300 people at 46 loca­ti­ons throug­hout Germany. 

The MEDIAN Group is a leading Euro­pean provi­der of mental health, specia­li­zed care and reha­bi­li­ta­tion services. With over 31,000 employees in 410 faci­li­ties in Germany, the UK and Spain, MEDIAN cares for more than 309,000 pati­ents and resi­dents every year. 

An ARQIS team led by Dr. Jörn-Chris­tian Schulze provi­ded compre­hen­sive legal advice to the CURA Group on the sale of the two faci­li­ties as part of a bidding process. Dr. Ulrich Lien­hard, Part­ner in the Real Estate depart­ment at ARQIS, advi­sed with a team on real estate law aspects of the tran­sac­tion. ARQIS once again provi­ded CURA with legal support. 

Advi­sor CURA Group: ARQIS (Düssel­dorf)

Dr. Jörn-Chris­tian Schulze (Part­ner, Lead), Seve­rin Stef­fens, photo © Arqis (Mana­ging Asso­ciate, both Tran­sac­tions), Dr. Ulrich Lien­hard (Part­ner, Real Estate), Part­ner: Thomas Chwa­lek (Tran­sac­tions), Coun­sel: Jens Knip­ping, Dennis Reisich (Munich, both Tax), Martin Wein­gärt­ner (HR Law), Mana­ging Asso­cia­tes: Laura Ally Rizzi, Dr. Maxi­mi­lian Back­haus (Tran­sac­tions), Tim Brese­mann (Real Estate), Marina Bume­der (HR Law, Munich), Luise Schü­ling (Regu­la­tory), Rolf Tichy (IP), Asso­cia­tes: Dr. Bern­hard Gröhe (Regu­la­tory), Lia Papis­me­dova (Real Estate), Senior Legal Specia­list: Qing Xia

M&A advi­sor for CURA: WMCF 

www.wm-cf.com

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

News

Berlin/London — Hypax, a Berlin and London-based private equity firm focu­sed on carve-outs and opera­tio­nal value crea­tion, has acqui­red 3A Compo­si­tes Mobi­lity AG (Switz­er­land) and 3A Compo­si­tes Mobi­lity SA (Poland) — which toge­ther operate under the name 3AC Mobi­lity — as part of a carve-out tran­sac­tion from Schwei­ter Tech­no­lo­gies AG (SWTQ:SWX). The finan­cial terms of the tran­sac­tion were not disc­lo­sed. Schwei­ter Tech­no­lo­gies is a Tier 1 supplier of light­weight compon­ents for the rail, road and defense industries. 

3AC Mobi­lity is a leading Euro­pean manu­fac­tu­rer of high-perfor­mance compo­site compon­ents for the rail, road and defense indus­tries. The company opera­tes two inde­pen­dent manu­fac­tu­ring and deve­lo­p­ment sites in Alten­rhein, Switz­er­land, and Mielec, Poland. Toge­ther, they offer their custo­mers a unique one-stop store for modu­lar light­weight systems in 2D and 3D design, such as sand­wich floors, front modu­les, cock­pits, struc­tu­ral compon­ents and shelters. 

With a history of over 70 years in Swiss precis­ion manu­fac­tu­ring, 3AC Mobi­lity supplies well-known OEMs throug­hout Europe and has recently expan­ded successfully into high-growth defense appli­ca­ti­ons. The company has strong inno­va­tion and deve­lo­p­ment capa­bi­li­ties and a broadly diver­si­fied custo­mer base with long-stan­ding rela­ti­onships with major rail and bus manufacturers. 

Phil­ipp Ster­kel, Mana­ging Part­ner at Hypax, comm­ents: “3AC Mobi­lity is exactly the kind of hidden cham­pion we are looking for: a company with proprie­tary tech­no­lo­gies, a strong market posi­tion in a growing market and signi­fi­cant value crea­tion poten­tial. The mobi­lity and defense indus­tries are curr­ently under­go­ing funda­men­tal chan­ges — from the tran­si­tion to climate neutra­lity to increased geopo­li­ti­cal vola­ti­lity. 3AC Mobi­li­ty’s solu­ti­ons are directly aligned with these mega­trends and we see promi­sing oppor­tu­ni­ties to expand our market presence, product port­fo­lio and inter­na­tio­nal reach. As an inde­pen­dent company, 3AC Mobi­lity will bene­fit from our active support as we work toge­ther to acce­le­rate growth, drive opera­tio­nal excel­lence and further pene­trate the mobi­lity and defense markets. We are proud to welcome the team to the Hypax platform.” 

About 3A Compo­si­tes Mobility

3AC Mobi­lity is a leading supplier of light­weight compo­site compon­ents for the rail, road and defense indus­tries. With sites in Alten­rhein, Switz­er­land and Mielec, Poland, the company offers modu­lar compo­site systems such as sand­wich panels, front modu­les for trains, cock­pits and shel­ters. With over 300 employees, state-of-the-art produc­tion capa­ci­ties and long-stan­ding OEM rela­ti­onships, 3AC Mobi­lity is the prefer­red part­ner for high-quality light­weight solu­ti­ons in the mobi­lity sector. 

About Hypax

Hypax is a Berlin and London based invest­ment firm specia­li­zing in corpo­rate carve-outs and mid-market compa­nies where value can be enhan­ced through growth and opera­tio­nal impro­ve­ments. The funds mana­ged by Hypax have capi­tal commit­ments of €120 million. With a strong opera­tio­nal focus, Hypax supports compa­nies and their manage­ment teams through peri­ods of tran­si­tion and stra­te­gic trans­for­ma­tion. — www.hypax.com

News

Hano­ver — The fitness studio groups all inclu­sive Fitness and FIT STAR will be joining forces in future. The plan­ned merger of the two chains in fall 2025 — subject to anti­trust appr­oval — will create one of the largest fitness provi­ders in Germany and the largest in Bavaria. 

all inclu­sive fitness with a focus on expansion

With the acqui­si­tion, the NORD Holding subsi­diary all inclu­sive Fitness is expan­ding its network by 20 addi­tio­nal studios and incre­asing Group turno­ver by around EUR 40 million. The number of loca­ti­ons grows to 160, the member­ship base to around 610,000 and the number of employees to around 2,750. The declared goal of beco­ming the leading provi­der in the Premium Value segment in the medium term and opera­ting 250 clubs with over one million members nati­on­wide by 2028 is thus a decisive step closer.

“This merger is a mile­stone for our vision of provi­ding people at every stage of life with access to high-quality fitness while conti­nuing to grow as a company,” says Stephan Schulan, CEO of all inclu­sive Fitness. “We are not only expan­ding our network, but also crea­ting new trai­ning offers and inspi­ring commu­nity experiences.” 

Relia­bi­lity for members

For the appro­xi­m­ately 140,000 members of FIT STAR, ever­y­thing will remain the same for the time being: Prices, opening hours, teams, trai­ning offers and the Ladies Areas will remain unch­an­ged. At the same time, they will bene­fit from an expan­ded port­fo­lio in future — inclu­ding inno­va­tive formats such as Hyrox, func­tional trai­ning and commu­nity events. The inte­gra­tion of the FIT STAR brand is plan­ned by the second quar­ter of 2026. From then on, all studios will be mana­ged under the joint all inclu­sive Fitness brand. Until then, the exis­ting clubs will conti­nue to operate under the FIT STAR name. 

“It is important to us that our members can rely on conti­nuity — with a breath of fresh air in the offe­ring at the same time,” empha­si­zes Andreas Bauer, former Mana­ging Direc­tor and foun­der of FIT STAR. “We are actively support­ing the tran­si­tion and are deligh­ted that we will be opera­ting toge­ther under the umbrella of all inclu­sive Fitness in the future.” 

Maxi­mi­lian Frey, Moritz Stolp and Niklas Thoma accom­pa­nied the tran­sac­tion on behalf of NORD Holding.

About all inclu­sive Fitness

all inclu­sive Fitness is one of the leading provi­ders in the premium value segment in Germany. The group was formed in 2020 from the merger of Jumpers Fitness and all inclu­sive Fitness. In 2025, all studios were brought toge­ther under the unified all inclu­sive Fitness brand to create a strong market presence. With 160 studios and around 610,000 members, all inclu­sive Fitness is now prima­rily repre­sen­ted in southern and western Germany. More than 2,750 employees ensure that members not only bene­fit from state-of-the-art equip­ment at central loca­ti­ons, but also expe­ri­ence a fami­liar and plea­sant trai­ning atmo­sphere. — www.ai-fitness.de

About NORD Holding

With over 50 years of history and assets under manage­ment of € 4.0 billion, NORD Holding is one of the leading private equity and asset manage­ment compa­nies in Germany. The focus is on the busi­ness areas of direct invest­ments and fund investments. 

The focus of the direct busi­ness is on the struc­tu­ring and finan­cing of corpo­rate succes­sion models, the acqui­si­tion of group parts/subsidiaries and the expan­sion finan­cing of medium-sized compa­nies. In contrast to most other finan­cial inves­tors, who only manage time-limi­ted funds, NORD Holding acts as a so-called “ever­green fund” with no time limit and invests from its own balance sheet. The company is curr­ently invol­ved in over 13 compa­nies in Germany and other German-spea­king countries.

The Fund Invest­ments divi­sion targets the micro and small cap segment of SME-orien­ted private equity funds in Europe. The focus here is on primary, secon­dary and co-invest­ments. NORD Holding focu­ses stron­gly on buyout mana­gers newly estab­lished on the market, opera­tio­nal invest­ment stra­te­gies and also regu­larly acts as an anchor inves­tor. — www.nordholding.de

News

Frank­furt a. M. — Ank-Kaiser Sani­täts­haus GmbH (“Ank-Kaiser”) is conti­nuing its buy & build growth stra­tegy in Germany, estab­li­shing itself as one of the top 10 medi­cal supply retail groups in Germany. Sani­täts­haus Hage­nauer, with bran­ches in Plank­stadt and Schwet­zin­gen in Baden-Würt­tem­berg, is now streng­thening its presence in the Rhine-Neckar region and is opera­ting as a comple­men­tary branch of Sani­täts­haus Mayer & Rexing. 

In Octo­ber 2024, a fund advi­sed by Beyond Capi­tal Part­ners acqui­red Sani­täts­haus Mayer & Rexing GmbH (“M&R”) via its port­fo­lio company Ank-Kaiser. M&R is a leading regio­nal chain of medi­cal supply stores in Baden-Würt­tem­berg and Rhine­land-Pala­ti­nate, offe­ring a full range of medi­cal, reha­bi­li­ta­tion, after­care and health­care products through its now eleven medi­cal supply stores. 

Simon W. Geib, Mana­ging Direc­tor of Ank-Kaiser Sani­täts­haus GmbH: “We warmly welcome Sani­täts­haus Hage­nauer to the Ank-Kaiser family. With its many years of expe­ri­ence, the local team offers a compre­hen­sive and inno­va­tive range of products and services rela­ting to health, care and mobi­lity in sport, work and ever­y­day life as well as state-of-the-art analy­sis and measu­re­ment tech­no­logy such as biome­cha­ni­cal analy­ses and foot pres­sure measu­re­ments. By combi­ning with M&R, we are adding indi­vi­dual large-scale ortho­pae­dics and reha­bi­li­ta­tion tech­no­logy to the port­fo­lio of the bran­ches in Plank­stadt and Schwetzingen.”

“With this acqui­si­tion, the Ank-Kaiser Group is conti­nuing its roll-up stra­tegy and further expan­ding its posi­tion as a top 10 medi­cal supply chain and nati­on­wide profes­sio­nal health­care part­ner with compre­hen­sive medi­cal care at 31 loca­ti­ons in Germany,” says Chris­toph D. Kauter, Mana­ging Part­ner and foun­der of Beyond Capi­tal Partners.

About Sani­täts­haus Mayer & Rexing
Sani­täts­haus Mayer & Rexing offers ortho­pae­dic, sports and reha­bi­li­ta­tion tech­no­logy products and services and is available to its custo­mers as a profes­sio­nal health­care part­ner at eleven loca­ti­ons in Baden-Würt­tem­berg and Rhineland-Palatinate.
https://mayer-rexing.de

About Ank-Kaiser Sanitätshaus
Ank-Kaiser Sani­täts­haus is the leading medi­cal supply group in Rhine­land-Pala­ti­nate, focu­sing on medi­cal supply and reha­bi­li­ta­tion tech­no­logy solu­ti­ons for its custo­mers. The Ank-Kaiser Group has expan­ded over the past deca­des and now has 31 loca­ti­ons in Germany, offe­ring compre­hen­sive medi­cal care as a full-range provider.
https://www.ank-sanitaetshaus.de

About Beyond Capi­tal Partners
Beyond Capi­tal Part­ners is an invest­ment company that acqui­res majo­rity stakes in profi­ta­ble medium-sized compa­nies from the DACH region with a focus on the asset-light sectors of services, IT, soft­ware, health­care, life­style and enter­tain­ment via the funds it advi­ses. This tran­sac­tion bene­fits from the support of the Euro­pean Union under the InvestEU fund.
https://beyondcapital-partners.com

News

Hamburg — The X1F Group has acqui­red the accan­tec group as part of its growth stra­tegy. The accan­tec group has been opera­ting for over 20 years as a specia­li­zed consul­tancy and IT service provi­der for busi­ness intel­li­gence, data science and enter­prise soft­ware solu­ti­ons with a parti­cu­lar focus on SAP, Micro­soft, Jedox, SAS and IBM. 

Head­quar­te­red in Hamburg and with bran­ches in Frank­furt am Main, Colo­gne, Heidel­berg and Berlin, the accan­tec group employs over 70 BI experts who are active in deman­ding BI and data science projects. In addi­tion to archi­tec­ture design, advan­ced analy­tics and data warehousing, the range of services also includes the deve­lo­p­ment of cloud plat­forms on AWS, Google Cloud and Azure as well as compre­hen­sive mana­ged services — espe­ci­ally for custo­mers from regu­la­ted indus­tries such as banking, insu­rance, phar­maceu­ti­cals and healthcare. 

With this acqui­si­tion, X1F is expan­ding its service port­fo­lio in a stra­te­gi­cally rele­vant growth area.

The X1F Group unites specia­li­zed IT and consul­ting units under one roof to provide compa­nies with holi­stic support in their digi­tal trans­for­ma­tion — from stra­tegy to tech­ni­cal imple­men­ta­tion, with a clear focus on quality, inno­va­tion and sustainability.

Advi­sor: As exclu­sive M&A advi­sor, Sanco­via initia­ted the tran­sac­tion and provi­ded compre­hen­sive support to the X1F Group throug­hout the entire process.

About SANCOVIA

We are an owner-mana­ged, exclu­sive and inde­pen­dent M&A mid-market consul­tancy with ten offices in Zurich, Düssel­dorf, Frank­furt am Main, Munich, Ravens­burg, Leip­zig, Madrid, Amster­dam, London and Warsaw. We have a unique hands-on part­ner approach, seeing oursel­ves as a part­ner to the entre­pre­neur and remai­ning at their side until the desi­red success has been achieved. 

We speak the language of entre­pre­neurs and inves­tors and provide the top quality services that you would other­wise only get from large consul­tancies and the Big 4 for our medium-sized clients throug­hout Europe. —www.sancovia.com

News

Munich — The biotech­no­logy start-up Evla­Bio GmbH, which deve­lops inno­va­tive thera­pies for the treat­ment of left ventri­cu­lar hyper­tro­phy in chro­nic kidney dise­ase, has raised € 21 million in its seed finan­cing round. The finan­cing round was led by the French VC firm Kurma Part­ners, with AdBio Part­ners (Paris, Barce­lona), Boeh­rin­ger Ingel­heim Venture Fund, NRW.Venture (NRW Bank) and High-Tech Grün­der­fonds as co-inves­tors. The finan­cing round is one of the largest of its kind in the DACH region in recent years. 

Evla­Bio aims to acce­le­rate the comple­tion of precli­ni­cal deve­lo­p­ment and the tran­si­tion to IND-enab­ling studies. — The start-up’s treat­ment approach origi­nally comes from Lead Disco­very Center GmbH (LDC), a company foun­ded in 2008 by the tech­no­logy trans­fer orga­niza­tion Max Planck Inno­va­tion, and was deve­lo­ped in colla­bo­ra­tion with KHAN Tech­no­logy Trans­fer Fund I GmbH & Co. KG (KHAN‑I).

Evla­Bio, with offices in Düssel­dorf and Zurich, is a life science start-up specia­li­zing in the deve­lo­p­ment of a first-in-class thera­peu­tic for the treat­ment of left ventri­cu­lar hyper­tro­phy in pati­ents with chro­nic kidney disease.

An ARQIS team led by part­ner Dr. Mauritz von Einem, who regu­larly advi­ses start-ups, provi­ded Evla­Bio AG with compre­hen­sive legal support during this finan­cing round. The mandate came about through a perso­nal cont­act with the foun­der of Evla­Bio. Adves­tra advi­sed on Swiss law with a team led by Dr. Alex­an­der von Jeinsen. 

Advi­sor Evla­Bio GmbH: ARQIS (Munich)

Dr. Mauritz von Einem (Part­ner, Tran­sac­tions, Venture Capi­tal, Lead), Johan­nes Landry (Tran­sac­tions, Düssel­dorf), Lisa-Marie Niklas (HR Law, Düssel­dorf), Marcus Noth­hel­fer (IP), of Coun­sel: Prof. Dr. Chris­toph von Einem (Tran­sac­tions, Venture Capi­tal), Coun­sel: Jens Knip­ping (Düssel­dorf), Dennis Reisich (both Tax), Dr. Roua Schmitz (HR Law, Venture Capi­tal), Nora Strat­mann (Commer­cial), Mana­ging Asso­cia­tes: Dr. Hanna Caesar (HR Law, Düssel­dorf), Anselm Graf (Tran­sac­tions, Venture Capi­tal, Rolf. Roua Schmitz (HR Law), Nora Strat­mann (Commer­cial), Mana­ging Asso­cia­tes: Dr. Hanna Caesar (HR Law, Düssel­dorf), Anselm Graf (Tran­sac­tions, Venture Capi­tal), Rolf Tichy (IP), Asso­ciate: Giulia Kögel (Tran­sac­tions, Venture Capital).

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.

News

Frank­furt a. Main — The leading medium-sized inter­na­tio­nal phar­maceu­ti­cal company Ethy­ph­arm S.A.S., Saint-Clou­d/France has signed a purchase agree­ment for the rights to the Euro­pean Arga­tro­ban busi­ness of Mitsu­bi­shi Tanabe Pharma Corpo­ra­tion, Osaka/Japan and other compa­nies of the Mitsu­bi­shi Tanabe Pharma Group. Arga­tro­ban mono­hy­drate is a selec­tive anti­throm­bin agent used in the treat­ment of hepa­rin-indu­ced throm­bo­cy­to­pe­nia type II (HIT type II). Due to the company struc­tures, the comple­xity of the rights to the product and the invol­vement of other opera­tio­nal inter­me­dia­ries for the manu­fac­ture of the Arga­tro­ban active ingre­di­ent, the tran­sac­tion was carried out by way of an asset deal. 

Ethy­ph­arm is a leading mid-sized inter­na­tio­nal phar­maceu­ti­cal company with strong Euro­pean roots that manu­fac­tures and supplies essen­tial medi­ci­nes with a focus on hospi­tal care, central nervous system (severe pain and addic­tion) and inter­nal medi­cine. The acqui­si­tion streng­thens Ethy­phar­m’s port­fo­lio of essen­tial medicines. 

In addi­tion to Mitsu­bi­shi Tanabe Pharma Corpo­ra­tion, the sellers were its subsi­dia­ries Mitsu­bi­shi Tanabe Pharma Europe Ltd, London/United King­dom and Mitsu­bi­shi Tanabe Pharma GmbH, Düsseldorf.

Advi­sor Ethy­ph­arm: Schad­bach Rechtsanwälte

Kai Schad­bach, LL.M. (Photo © Schad­bach Rechts­an­wälte, lead), Konstan­tin Warno­wizki and Sören Brost (all M&A), Dr. Petra Weipert and Annette Kuhlen-Leis (both employ­ment law) and Dr. Marco Brand (commer­cial law).

About Schad­bach Attor­neys at Law

Schad­bach Rechts­an­wälte is a natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal commer­cial law firm based in Frank­furt am Main. Our clients are predo­mi­nantly medium-sized compa­nies and inter­na­tio­nal groups of compa­nies who value our firm’s exper­tise in corpo­rate law as well as our contrac­tual and tran­sac­tional expe­ri­ence, e.g. in the M&A and private equity market. In addi­tion to corporate/M&A, other areas of advice include (inter­na­tio­nal) commer­cial law, direc­tors’ and offi­cers’ liabi­lity and proce­du­ral law. — www.schadbach.com

News

Aachen — Follo­wing a successful final closing, the Tech­Vi­sion Fund (TVF) II now has a fund volume of more than € 50 million. TVF II is the fourth gene­ra­tion of venture capi­tal funds1 mana­ged by the TVF Manage­ment GmbH team. The fund invests in the most promi­sing tech start-ups in various verti­cals from the pre-seed and seed phase onwards. The focus is on teams from the Rhineland/NRW and Eure­gio Meuse-Rhine (Netherlands/Belgium) regions. 

Public and private inves­tors back high-growth tech start-ups

The TVF relies on a strong inves­tor ecosys­tem. In addi­tion to NRW.BANK, Spar­kasse Aachen and other regio­nal savings banks, this also includes nume­rous entre­pre­neu­rial private inves­tors from the fund’s network. — New inves­tors include Helaba (Landes­bank Hessen-Thürin­gen) and entre­pre­neurs such as Erich Borsch (Co-Foun­der Aixigo), Jürgen and Leo May (JM Holding), Alex­an­der Stoff­ers (next audit, Co-Foun­der Modell Aachen) as well as Dr. Reik Winkel and Dr. Chris­tian Augus­tin (foun­ders of indu­rad GmbH). 

Focus on early-stage companies

Since 2007, the expe­ri­en­ced TVF team has finan­ced and deve­lo­ped over 40 inno­va­tive start-ups in the fields of biotech, soft­ware, semi­con­duc­tors, mecha­ni­cal engi­nee­ring, deep tech, medtech and new mate­ri­als. Since the launch of TVF II in 2023, five start-ups have alre­ady been financed: 

membion GmbH: The company from Roet­gen (near Aachen) has deve­lo­ped an inno­va­tive tech­no­logy for waste­wa­ter treat­ment. This can save up to 75 percent instal­la­tion space and over 90 percent energy compared to the current stan­dard. In Decem­ber 2023, TVF II inves­ted five million euros toge­ther with the DeepT­ech & Climate Fund (DTCF).

Viva­lyx GmbH: Viva­lyx has crea­ted the liquid “Omni­sol” — a type of synthe­tic blood — to better preserve organs that are remo­ved for trans­plan­ta­tion. In combi­na­tion with its own “Flow­s­tore” trans­port system, it is possi­ble to trans­port organs over much longer distances and peri­ods of time without dama­ging them. In April 2024, TVF II inves­ted around EUR 7 million with co-inves­tors to tackle the appr­oval proces­ses in the USA (FDA) and Europe (CE).

Black Semi­con­duc­tor GmbH: The semi­con­duc­tor start-up from Aachen has deve­lo­ped an important tech­no­logy for connec­ting micro­chips based on graphene. This makes data trans­mis­sion more powerful and energy-effi­ci­ent, which is beco­ming incre­asingly important for data centers, espe­ci­ally in view of the growing compu­ting requi­re­ments of AI. Toge­ther with leading inter­na­tio­nal venture capi­tal funds and IPCEI funding from the state of North Rhine-West­pha­lia and the Fede­ral Repu­blic of Germany, the DeepT­ech company recei­ved around 250 million euros. 

IonKraft GmbH: A spin-off from the Insti­tute of Plas­tics Proces­sing (IKV) at RWTH Aachen Univer­sity, IonKraft has deve­lo­ped a coating process for plas­tic contai­ners that inhi­bits diffu­sion into, out of and through them, makes them resistant to chemi­cals and protects the contents. This elimi­na­tes the need for multi-layer solu­ti­ons, replaces PFAS-contai­ning layers and ensu­res recy­cla­bi­lity. To acce­le­rate the company’s growth, TVF II inves­ted EUR 3.5 million toge­ther with co-inves­tors in Novem­ber 2024. 

Plan­ted GmbH: Plan­ted offers a SaaS plat­form for CSRD report­ing and ESG moni­to­ring to support service compa­nies in achie­ving their sustaina­bi­lity goals. Custo­mers are also able to auto­ma­ti­cally offset their emis­si­ons through their own climate protec­tion projects (refo­re­sta­tion). In Decem­ber last year, TVF II and co-inves­tors inves­ted a total of EUR 3.8 million in the Colo­gne-based company. 

From foun­da­tion to startup to inde­pen­dent company

TVF focu­ses on the early finan­cing phases of start­ups and is often the first insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tor. It sees itself as a go-to VC in the incre­asingly successful startup ecosys­tem in the Rhine­land and the border region in Belgium and the Nether­lands. The pool of inno­va­tions in this focus region is large: a start-up ecosys­tem has deve­lo­ped around inter­na­tio­nally renow­ned rese­arch insti­tu­ti­ons and univer­si­ties as well as with an estab­lished consul­ting and invest­ment network, which, with the NRW start-up capi­tal Aachen, is one of the leading ones in Germany. As a part­ner of the Gate­way Factory, which has just recei­ved milli­ons of euros in funding, the TVF is actively invol­ved in the further expan­sion and success of the Aachen-Düssel­dorf-Colo­gne start-up region. 

The fund will run until 2035. “We have the stay­ing power to support compa­nies until they are strong enough for inter­na­tio­nal inves­tors,” says Dr. Ansgar Schlei­cher, Mana­ging Part­ner of the Tech­Vi­sion Fund. “With our current resour­ces, we are excel­lently posi­tio­ned to enable further deep tech teams to become successful compa­nies. We are always at the side of the start-ups, not only as finan­ciers, but also as entre­pre­neu­rial spar­ring part­ners and strategists.” 

1 The prede­ces­sor funds were the Seed Fonds Aachen I + II and the still active Tech­Vi­sion Fonds I.

News

Marn­heim — The startup for breed-speci­fic dog food Hey Holy has closed a Series A finan­cing round of EUR 5.7 million. The round was led by VC Five Seasons Ventures, which specia­li­zes in Food­Tech. Exis­ting inves­tors Slingshot Ventures, Feast Ventures and a family office in the consu­mer segment also parti­ci­pa­ted, along with seve­ral busi­ness angels from the industry. 

Hey Holy intends to use the fresh capi­tal prima­rily to expand the team, extend the product range and expand the digi­tal brand presence. Hey Holy’s goal is to estab­lish breed-speci­fic nutri­tion as the new stan­dard in the pet market. 

Florian Kozok, Jules Michels and Marie Hille­brand from the law firm V14 advi­sed the startup for breed-speci­fic dog food Hey Holy on a Series A finan­cing round in the amount of EUR 5.7 million.

www.heyholy.com

Consul­tant: V14

Florian Kozok, Jules Michels, Marie Hillebrand

About V14

V14 is a Berlin-based law firm specia­li­zing in growth capi­tal, tech­no­logy and media. — www.v14.de

News

Munich — The invest­ment company Liberta Part­ners is support­ing the expan­sion of the NOBIX Group: With the acqui­si­tion of Huth Commu­ni­ca­ti­ons GmbH, an IT system house based in Kehl and specia­li­zing in tax consul­tants and medium-sized compa­nies, the Group is further expan­ding its DATEV & VoIP exper­tise and streng­thening its presence in southwest Germany.

Huth Commu­ni­ca­ti­ons supports tax firms and medium-sized compa­nies in the areas of IT infra­struc­ture, DATEV solu­ti­ons and modern VoIP tele­phony. Foun­der Sebas­tian Huth remains on board as Mana­ging Direc­tor and brings his many years of expe­ri­ence to the group. 

“The acqui­si­tion is a typi­cal exam­ple of our buy-and-build stra­tegy in the IT segment: focu­sed, effi­ci­ently imple­men­ted and with a high stra­te­gic fit. We value part­ner­ship-based tran­sac­tions that streng­then our plat­form in a targe­ted manner and enable sustainable growth.” — Nils von Wietz­low (photo), Part­ner at Liberta Partners.

The NOBIX Group, which is actively supported by Liberta Part­ners, unites specia­li­zed IT and digi­ta­liza­tion part­ners under one roof — with a focus on mana­ged services, appli­ca­ti­ons and infra­struc­ture for SMEs.

“The inte­gra­tion of Huth Commu­ni­ca­ti­ons is a logi­cal step in our buy-and-build stra­tegy. The specia­liza­tion in law firms and compa­nies in the region, coupled with a deep under­stan­ding of appli­ca­ti­ons and VoIP exper­tise, ideally comple­ments the exis­ting NOBIX port­fo­lio,” says Julius Wölfer, Corpo­rate Deve­lo­p­ment Mana­ger at Liberta Partners.

About Liberta Partners

Liberta Part­ners is an entre­pre­neu­rial invest­ment company based in Munich. Since 2016, Liberta has been inves­t­ing in medium-sized compa­nies with deve­lo­p­ment poten­tial — with a focus on sustainable growth, opera­tio­nal excel­lence and active further deve­lo­p­ment. —www.liberta-partners.com

About the NOBIX Group

The NOBIX Group is a medium-sized system house group with a focus on mana­ged print, infra­struc­ture and secu­rity solu­ti­ons as well as appli­ca­ti­ons such as DATEV and docu­ment manage­ment. The group has around 220 employees at seven loca­ti­ons in southern Germany and unites specia­li­zed IT compa­nies under one roof. — https://nobix-group.de

News

Berlin — Berlin-based start-up Peec AI has secu­red EUR 7 million in growth capi­tal in a rapid finan­cing round just five months after the company was foun­ded. The finan­cing round was led by early-stage inves­tor 20VC. Other inves­tors include TS Ventures, Antler, Fore­word VC, Identity.VC, Combi­na­tion VC and S20. 

The startup is deve­lo­ping an AI-supported search analy­sis plat­form for marke­ting teams to better under­stand and opti­mize brand presence in Large Language Model (LLM)-based search systems such as ChatGPT or Perple­xity. Florian Kozok, Jules Michels and Marie Hille­brand from the law firm 

Peec AI has achie­ved a considera­ble level of reve­nue in the past four months: EUR 650,000 in annual recur­ring reve­nue (ARR) with a current monthly increase of around EUR 80,000. Due to this rapid growth, the startup was able to conclude pre-seed finan­cing of EUR 1.8 million back in April. The seed invest­ment of EUR 5.2 million follo­wed just a few weeks later. — V14 advi­sed the Berlin-based startup Peec AI on both finan­cing rounds tota­ling EUR 7 million within a short period of time. 

The fresh capi­tal will be used for product deve­lo­p­ment, talent deve­lo­p­ment and inter­na­tio­nal expansion.

Consul­tant Peec AI: V14

Florian Kozok, Jules Michels, Marie Hillebrand

About V14

V14 is a Berlin-based law firm specia­li­zing in growth capi­tal, tech­no­logy and media.

News

Frank­furt / Vienna / Wetz­lar / Monheim am Rhein — multi­weigh GmbH (“multi­weigh”), a global market leader in the deve­lo­p­ment and manu­fac­ture of tech­no­lo­gi­cally advan­ced combi­na­tion scales with a focus on the food indus­try, is streng­thening the port­fo­lio of Adeleon Invest GmbH (“Adeleon”). The sellers of the 100% stake — consis­ting of the Düssel­dorf-based invest­ment company INVICTO Holding (“INVICTO”) and the foun­der of multi­weigh Frank Schmehl — were exclu­si­vely advi­sed in the sales process by MP Corpo­rate Finance, a leading inter­na­tio­nal M&A consul­tancy specia­li­zing in the Euro­pean indus­trial sector. 

Tech­no­logy leader for precise weig­hing technology

multi­weigh GmbH, foun­ded in 2001 and based in Wetz­lar, Hesse, deve­lops and produ­ces modern combi­na­tion scales, control elec­tro­nics and soft­ware on an area of 5,000 m². The systems are used world­wide in the food indus­try, for exam­ple for salads, cheese, snacks, frozen vege­ta­bles, muesli, pet food and selec­ted non-food appli­ca­ti­ons. The products are charac­te­ri­zed by their modu­lar design, direct drive tech­no­logy, top perfor­mance in terms of hygiene and main­ten­ance-free opera­tion, as well as precise weig­hing results. Since 2017, the food tech player with an inter­na­tio­nal track record has been part of the port­fo­lio of INVICTO Holding, an invest­ment company specia­li­zing in small-cap tran­sac­tions in Germany. With this tran­sac­tion, INVICTO — toge­ther with Frank Schmehl, the foun­der and previous share­hol­der of multi­weigh — is selling 100% of the shares to Adeleon Invest. 

Long-term growth stra­tegy with Adeleon Invest

Adeleon Invest is a family-run and long-term orien­ted invest­ment company based in Monheim am Rhein, which specia­li­zes in sustainable part­ner­ships in the DACH and Bene­lux regi­ons with a total of nine subsi­dia­ries and over 600 employees. Toge­ther with foun­der Frank Schmehl, who will conti­nue in his role as CEO as part of the tran­sac­tion, Adeleon aims to take multi­weig­h’s alre­ady strong market posi­tion as an inter­na­tio­nal tech­no­logy leader for high-quality food proces­sing machi­nes to a new level. 

MP Corpo­rate Finance further expands its sector expertise

For MP Corpo­rate Finance, the comple­ted sale marks the 63rd successfully advi­sed tran­sac­tion in the Elec­tro­nics, Tech & IoT sector. The M&A team led by Roman Göd, Foun­ding and Mana­ging Part­ner and expert for the elec­tro­nics sector at MP, once again demons­tra­tes its in-depth indus­try know­ledge and global inves­tor network in order to target suita­ble stra­te­gic and finan­cial inves­tors. Roman Göd comm­ents: “We are deligh­ted that with Adeleon Invest we have gained a long-term orien­ted part­ner who consis­t­ently supports multi­weig­h’s growth stra­tegy. The successful tran­sac­tion in this curr­ently very dyna­mic market envi­ron­ment once again confirms our exper­tise in the inter­na­tio­nal place­ment of leading tech­no­logy compa­nies in the indus­trial SME sector.” 

Frank Schmehl, foun­der and CEO of multi­weigh, adds: “MP was a relia­ble and profes­sio­nal part­ner throug­hout the entire process. The struc­tu­red approach, the high level of indus­try exper­tise and the inter­na­tio­nal network were decisive for the successful comple­tion of the transaction.”

Ferdi­nand von Hammer­stein from INVICTO Holding comm­ents: “Thanks to MP, we were able to achieve an excel­lent result. The clarity of commu­ni­ca­tion, the high level of relia­bi­lity and the targe­ted approach in a dyna­mic process envi­ron­ment are parti­cu­larly noteworthy.”

About MP Corpo­rate Finance

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

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Basel, Switz­er­land / Munich, Germany — NUCLIDIUM, a clini­cal-stage radio­phar­maceu­ti­cal company deve­lo­ping a proprie­tary copper-based ther­ano­stic plat­form, announ­ced the closing of its Series B finan­cing round of CHF 79 million (EUR 84 million). The round was led by Kurma Growth Oppor­tu­ni­ties Fund, Ange­lini Ventures, Welling­ton Part­ners and Neva SGR (Intesa Sanpaolo Group), with parti­ci­pa­tion from DeepT­ech & Climate Fonds (DTCF), Bayern Kapi­tal, Vives Part­ners, Eura­zeo, NRW.BANK and High­Light Capi­tal, as well as exis­ting investors. 

The proceeds will be used to advance the clini­cal deve­lo­p­ment of NUCLI­DI­UM’s copper-61/cop­per-67 (61Cu/67Cu) ther­ano­stic pipe­line in various onco­logy indi­ca­ti­ons. In paral­lel, the company will expand its produc­tion and manu­fac­tu­ring capa­bi­li­ties through a global manu­fac­tu­ring network. 

NUCLI­DI­UM’s diffe­ren­tia­ted plat­form combi­nes tumor-targe­ting mole­cu­les with copper isoto­pes — copper-61 for diagno­stics and copper-67 for therapy — to over­come current limi­ta­ti­ons in radio­ther­ano­stics, such as subop­ti­mal clini­cal effi­cacy and manu­fac­tu­ring comple­xity. Diagno­stic results from initial clini­cal studies in these indi­ca­ti­ons show better lesion detec­tion and tumor-to-back­ground ratios compared to clini­cally appro­ved tracers. Initial data was recently presen­ted at SNMMI 2025 by Dr. Gary Ulaner, MD, PhD, demons­t­ra­ting a favorable safety profile and poten­ti­ally impro­ved imaging perfor­mance of 61Cu-Nuri­Pro™ compared to current PET imaging stan­dards, suggest­ing great clini­cal poten­tial and broa­der poten­tial for the ther­ano­stic pairing of 61Cu/67Cu. Early thera­peu­tic data from the two lead compounds Nuri­Pro™ and Trace­NET™ show good tumor-to-back­ground ratios in meta­sta­tic prostate cancer and neuro­en­do­crine tumors, inclu­ding breast cancer. 

“NUCLIDIUM is ente­ring the next clini­cal phases with its compounds for the diagno­sis and treat­ment of meta­sta­tic prostate cancer, neuro­en­do­crine tumors and breast cancer,” said Leila Jaafar, PhD, CEO and co-foun­der of NUCLIDIUM. “Our copper-based radio­ther­ano­stics are desi­gned for seam­less use in hospi­tal work­flows, care and waste manage­ment, making these thera­pies more acces­si­ble worldwide.” 

With this finan­cing, NUCLIDIUM will further expand its global produc­tion and manu­fac­tu­ring network for diagno­stics and thera­peu­tics, grow its inter­na­tio­nal team and streng­then its stra­te­gic colla­bo­ra­tion with hospi­tals and acade­mic centers, initi­ally in Europe and North America.

In connec­tion with the finan­cing round, Dr. Daniel Parera, Part­ner at Kurma Part­ners, Dr. Regina Hodits, Mana­ging Direc­tor at Ange­lini Ventures, and Liliana Nord­bakk, Life Scien­ces Part­ner at Neva SGR, will join the Board of Direc­tors of NUCLIDIUM.

Consul­tant NUCLIDIUM:

The Series B finan­cing was supported by VISCHER AG and Walder Wyss, Switz­er­land, as legal advisors.

About NUCLIDIUM

NUCLIDIUM AG is a clini­cal-stage biotech­no­logy company pionee­ring the deve­lo­p­ment of next-gene­ra­tion copper-based radio­phar­maceu­ti­cals for the diagno­sis and treat­ment of cancer. Through the use of copper isoto­pes — copper-61 for diagno­stics and copper-67 for therapy — NUCLIDIUM is crea­ting a diffe­ren­tia­ted plat­form that has the poten­tial to over­come exis­ting limi­ta­ti­ons in radiotheranostics. 

The company’s opera­ti­ons in Switz­er­land and Germany combine inno­va­tive chemis­try, deep clini­cal exper­tise and stra­te­gic manu­fac­tu­ring capa­bi­li­ties to provide scalable, acces­si­ble and clini­cally supe­rior ther­ano­stic solu­ti­ons to pati­ents world­wide. NUCLI­DI­UM’s mission is to increase the reach and effi­cacy of radio­ther­ano­stics while addres­sing criti­cal unmet medi­cal needs in onco­logy and women’s health.

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Bietig­heim-Bissin­gen — Dürr AG has ente­red into an agree­ment with a subsi­diary of Stellex Capi­tal Manage­ment LLC (Stellex) on the sale of its envi­ron­men­tal tech­no­logy busi­ness with an enter­prise value of € 385 million. This compri­ses the areas of exhaust air puri­fi­ca­tion tech­no­logy and sound insu­la­tion systems and forms the Clean Tech­no­logy Systems Envi­ron­men­tal divi­sion within the Dürr Group. With this sale, the mecha­ni­cal and plant engi­nee­ring company is comple­ting the simpli­fi­ca­tion of the Group struc­ture announ­ced a year ago and under­li­ning its stra­te­gic focus on the auto­ma­tion of produc­tion proces­ses. At the same time, the Group is acqui­ring a stake of around 25% in Envi­ron­men­tal Technology. 

The enter­prise value of the envi­ron­men­tal tech­no­logy busi­ness is around € 385 million. After deduc­ting the costs for the acqui­si­tion of the reverse take­over and other tran­sac­tion-rela­ted costs, the Dürr Group expects net proceeds of around € 250 million. This is to be used to streng­then the Group by redu­cing debt. The closing of the tran­sac­tion is subject to the usual appr­oval requi­re­ments and is expec­ted to take place in the fourth quar­ter of 2025. 

Dürr had announ­ced in mid-2024 that it was exami­ning stra­te­gic opti­ons for the envi­ron­men­tal tech­no­logy busi­ness, inclu­ding a possi­ble sale. The sale that has now been agreed will enable the Group to achieve its goal of a leaner struc­ture with just three divi­si­ons instead of five. At the same time, the company is now focu­sing consis­t­ently on its core busi­ness with auto­ma­ted and sustainable produc­tion tech­no­lo­gies. Dürr had alre­ady sold the Danish filling tech­no­logy company Agram­kow in the previous year as part of the simpli­fi­ca­tion of the Group struc­ture. In addi­tion, the busi­ness with the auto­mo­tive indus­try was bund­led in the new Auto­mo­tive divi­sion at the begin­ning of 2025. 

With its owner Stellex, the envi­ron­men­tal tech­no­logy busi­ness is well posi­tio­ned to expand its leading posi­tion and has the resour­ces to support the expec­ted growth. In 2024, the envi­ron­men­tal tech­no­logy busi­ness gene­ra­ted sales of € 407 million and employed around 1,300 people, inclu­ding around 450 in Germany. The head­quar­ters are loca­ted in Bietig­heim-Bissin­gen, and the busi­ness is opera­ted at 16 loca­ti­ons in 12 count­ries worldwide. 

Dürr’s envi­ron­men­tal tech­no­logy systems are used in various end markets and sectors, for exam­ple in the chemi­cal indus­try, auto­mo­tive produc­tion and odor removal.

Concen­tra­tion on the core business 

Dr. Jochen Weyrauch, CEO of Dürr AG: “The envi­ron­men­tal tech­no­logy busi­ness has grown stron­gly in recent years and has estab­lished itself as a global market leader. Howe­ver, it lies outside our stra­te­gic core busi­ness around auto­ma­tion tech­no­logy. The new owner, Stellex, ther­e­fore offers better oppor­tu­ni­ties for further growth in envi­ron­men­tal tech­no­logy. The sale will make the Dürr Group leaner and shar­pen its stra­te­gic focus. We will use the proceeds from the sale to streng­then our company.”

Kart­hik Achar, Part­ner at Stellex: “We are deligh­ted to become the new owner of Dürr’s Clean Tech­no­logy Systems Envi­ron­men­tal divi­sion. We see the divi­sion as a leading global provi­der of envi­ron­men­tal filtra­tion and air pollu­tion control solu­ti­ons, which are key tech­no­lo­gies for a wide range of indus­trial and adja­cent markets. The long-stan­ding custo­mer rela­ti­onships are proof of the company’s tech­ni­cal expertise.” 

New fore­cast for net finan­cial status and review of the
Admi­nis­tra­tive structures

Based on the expec­ted net proceeds from the sale, Dürr AG is adjus­ting its forecast
for the net finan­cial status as at Decem­ber 31, 2025 to € ‑250 to ‑300 million.
The previous fore­cast was € ‑500 to ‑550 million. — The dispo­sal of Envi­ron­men­tal Tech­no­logy and the sale of Agram­kow, which will be comple­ted in 2024, will reduce the Dürr Group by around 10% in terms of sales. Against this back­drop, the company is curr­ently revie­w­ing its admi­nis­tra­tive struc­tures. The aim is to adapt the admi­nis­tra­tive area to the new size of the company and at the same time make it more efficient. 

Advi­sor Dürr AG: Blätt­chen & Partner 

Blätt­chen & Part­ner provi­ded Dürr Systems AG with econo­mic advice on the manage­ment parti­ci­pa­tion in the sale of the envi­ron­men­tal tech­no­logy business.
— www.blaettchen.de

About Dürr AG

The Dürr Group is a leading global mecha­ni­cal and plant engi­nee­ring company with parti­cu­lar exper­tise in the tech­no­logy fields of auto­ma­tion, digi­ta­liza­tion and energy effi­ci­ency. Its products, systems and services enable highly effi­ci­ent and sustainable manu­fac­tu­ring proces­ses — prima­rily in the auto­mo­tive indus­try and for manu­fac­tu­r­ers of furni­ture and wooden houses, but also in sectors such as chemi­cals, phar­maceu­ti­cals, medi­cal products, elec­tro­nics and battery produc­tion. In 2024, the company gene­ra­ted sales of € 4.7 billion. The Dürr Group has around 18,400 employees and 139 loca­ti­ons in 33 count­ries. On Janu­ary 1, 2025, the former Paint and Final Assem­bly Systems and Appli­ca­tion Tech­no­logy divi­si­ons were merged to form the new Auto­mo­tive divi­sion. Since then, the Dürr Group has been opera­ting in the market with four divisions: 

  • Auto­mo­tive: pain­ting tech­no­logy, final assem­bly, test­ing and filling technology
  • Indus­trial Auto­ma­tion: Auto­ma­ted assem­bly and test­ing systems for auto­mo­tive compon­ents, medi­cal products and consu­mer goods as well as balan­cing solu­ti­ons and coating systems for battery electrodes
  • Wood­wor­king: Machi­nes and systems for the wood­wor­king industry
  • Clean Tech­no­logy Systems Envi­ron­men­tal: exhaust air puri­fi­ca­tion systems and noise protec­tion systems

About Stellex Capital

Stellex Capi­tal is a private equity firm with offices in New York, London, Pitts­burgh and Detroit and over $5 billion in assets under manage­ment. Indus­tries of parti­cu­lar focus include aero­space, defense and govern­ment services, trans­por­ta­tion and logi­stics, manu­fac­tu­ring, real economy and busi­ness services, food proces­sing and tech­no­logy-enab­led services. → www.stellexcapital.com.

Advi­sor Stellex Capi­tal: Sidley Austin

News

Rheinau/ Nidderau/ Ulm/ Munich — The Gimv port­fo­lio company E.GRUPPE, a leading provi­der of elec­tro­tech­ni­cal solu­ti­ons for indus­trial and energy custo­mers, is expan­ding its range of services and regio­nal coverage with the acqui­si­tion of the LET Group.

The E.GRUPPE was foun­ded in 2021. The aim is to build a leading elec­tri­cal engi­nee­ring company with a focus on energy and auto­ma­tion tech­no­logy and a high degree of verti­cal inte­gra­tion: from consul­ting and plan­ning to engi­nee­ring, produc­tion, instal­la­tion, service and main­ten­ance of custo­mer-speci­fic elec­tri­cal engi­nee­ring systems. 

With over 50 years of market expe­ri­ence, the LET Group, with the compa­nies LET Lüdde­cke, LET Services, ESV Erfur­ter Schalt­schrank­bau and IMB Energy Systems, will now supple­ment the E.GRUPPE’s exis­ting service and product port­fo­lio with addi­tio­nal tech­ni­cal exper­tise such as unin­ter­rup­ti­ble power supplies. In addi­tion, the acqui­si­tion will deepen exis­ting exper­tise in distri­bu­tion and control cabi­net cons­truc­tion as well as auto­ma­tion tech­no­logy. Follo­wing the take­over, the E.GRUPPE will unite 365 employees at 10 loca­ti­ons and thus achieve signi­fi­cant coverage in central and southern Germany. The aim is to offer custo­mers a broad range of services and products with exten­sive exper­tise in custo­mi­zed elec­tro­tech­ni­cal systems in energy and auto­ma­tion technology. 

The manage­ment team of the LET Group comm­ents on the growth poten­tial within the E.GRUPPE: “The merger with the E.GRUPPE is an important step for us to further drive our growth and to be able to offer our custo­mers even more compre­hen­sive elec­tri­cal engi­nee­ring. LET stands for tech­no­lo­gi­cal excel­lence and uncom­pro­mi­sing relia­bi­lity in complex, syste­mic solu­ti­ons for our deman­ding custo­mers. As part of a strong group, we gain addi­tio­nal oppor­tu­ni­ties to expand our regio­nal presence, further deve­lop our services and tap into new poten­tial. At the same time, we are crea­ting a stable, future-orien­ted envi­ron­ment with long-term pros­pects for our employees.”

Maja Marko­vic, Part­ner at Gimv’s Sustainable Cities Plat­form in the DACH region (photo © Gimv), adds: “With the acqui­si­tion of the LET Group, we as E.GRUPPE are crea­ting a leading provi­der of custo­mer-speci­fic elec­tri­cal engi­nee­ring in the growing and attrac­tive market with incre­asing requi­re­ments due to elec­tri­fi­ca­tion, digi­ta­liza­tion and the expan­sion of rene­wa­ble ener­gies. Toge­ther with the manage­ment and employees, we are conti­nuing the E.GRUPPE’s growth trajec­tory in order to bundle exper­tise and offer a compre­hen­sive, future-orien­ted port­fo­lio of solu­ti­ons along the elec­tri­cal engi­nee­ring value chain.”

The tran­sac­tion is subject to custo­mary condi­ti­ons, inclu­ding appr­oval by the compe­ti­tion autho­ri­ties. Further finan­cial details are not disclosed.

About Gimv

Gimv is a Euro­pean invest­ment company with over 45 years of expe­ri­ence in private equity, listed on Euron­ext Brussels and a member of the Euron­ext BEL ESG Index. Gimv curr­ently has a port­fo­lio of more than EUR 1.6 billion, consis­ting of around 61 port­fo­lio compa­nies with a total turno­ver of EUR 4.5 billion and more than 20,000 employees. 

Gimv iden­ti­fies inno­va­tive, leading compa­nies with high growth poten­tial and supports them sustain­ably on their way to market leader­ship. Each of the five invest­ment plat­forms Consu­mer, Health­care, Life Scien­ces, Smart Indus­tries and Sustainable Cities is mana­ged by a dedi­ca­ted and compe­tent team based in Gimv’s home markets — Bene­lux, France and DACH — and supported by an exten­sive inter­na­tio­nal network of experts. www.gimv.com

About E.GRUPPE

The E.GRUPPE aims to bundle tech­ni­cal exper­tise, exploit growth poten­tial in a targe­ted manner and offer custo­mers compre­hen­sive, future-orien­ted elec­tri­cal engi­nee­ring from a single source. Through orga­nic growth and the inte­gra­tion of specia­li­zed and regio­nally estab­lished compa­nies, a leading group of compa­nies has emer­ged in the highly frag­men­ted elec­tri­cal engi­nee­ring sector. The E.GRUPPE offers its compa­nies and employees long-term growth and deve­lo­p­ment pros­pects — and crea­tes the basis for sustainable joint success. You can find more infor­ma­tion about E.GRUPPE at www.egruppe.com/

About LET Group

The LET Group, head­quar­te­red in Ulm, is a provi­der of compre­hen­sive elec­tri­cal engi­nee­ring solu­ti­ons for indus­trial and energy custo­mers. The company specia­li­zes in switch cabi­net and distri­bu­tion board cons­truc­tion as well as solu­ti­ons for unin­ter­rup­ti­ble power supplies and impres­ses with its tech­ni­cal exper­tise and highly available system compon­ents deve­lo­ped in-house. The LET Group compri­ses the four compa­nies LET Lüdde­cke, LET Services, ESV Erfur­ter Schalt­schrank­bau and IMB Energy Systems, which are repre­sen­ted at a total of seven loca­ti­ons with around 200 employees. The group supports its custo­mers along the entire process chain — from plan­ning, produc­tion and commis­sio­ning through to service and main­ten­ance — and thus offers relia­ble, custo­mer-speci­fic solu­ti­ons from a single source. Further infor­ma­tion about the LET Group can be found at www.let-gruppe.de/

News

Colo­gne — Oppen­hoff has advi­sed Compa­gnie de Saint-Gobain on the sale of Müns­ter­land-based Saint-Gobain Brüg­ge­mann Holz­bau GmbH, inclu­ding all opera­ting proper­ties, to Köster Holding SE. — Saint-Gobain Brüg­ge­mann, which specia­li­zes in the manu­fac­ture of timber modu­les and the cons­truc­tion of turn­key buil­dings in timber cons­truc­tion, employs 190 people and has successfully comple­ted nume­rous resi­den­tial and commer­cial buil­dings as well as educa­tio­nal buil­dings in timber cons­truc­tion since its foun­da­tion in 1957. 

As an inter­na­tio­nal leader in sustainable cons­truc­tion, Compa­gnie de Saint-Gobain deve­lops, produ­ces and distri­bu­tes mate­ri­als and services for the cons­truc­tion sector and indus­trial markets. Saint-Gobain is present in 80 count­ries worldwide. 

Köster Holding SE, head­quar­te­red in Osna­brück, is one of the leading cons­truc­tion compa­nies in Germany with around 2,000 employees at over 20 loca­ti­ons. The company offers complete solu­ti­ons for cons­truc­tion projects in the fields of buil­ding cons­truc­tion, civil engi­nee­ring and turn­key construction. 

The Oppen­hoff team, led by Myriam Baars-Schil­ling (Corporate/M&A), compri­sed Sebas­tian Gutmann, Dr. Maike Mestmä­cker, Dr. Matthias Klefisch (all Corporate/M&A), Dr. Stefa­nie Minzen­may, Julia Höyng, Anto­nia van Dam (all Real Estate), Dr. Gunnar Knorr, Martin Bran­den­bur­ger-Nonnast (both Tax), Dr. Daniel Dohrn, Dr. Agnès Rein­hold (both Anti­trust), Jörn Kuhn, Moritz Coché and Dr. Johan­nes Kaes­bach (all Employment).

The tran­sac­tion was hand­led in-house at Compa­gnie de Saint-Gobain by Matthias Zenner (Head of Legal and Compli­ance) and Eva Beutin (in-house lawyer).

Oppen­hof­f’s M&A team, which has recei­ved nume­rous awards in indus­try hand­books, has been advi­sing natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal compa­nies on tran­sac­tions and corpo­rate law matters for deca­des. Most recently, the team advi­sed the MRH Trowe Group on the acqui­si­tion of Heubeck AG, the SCHELL share­hol­ders on the sale to Para­gon Part­ners and the Sicame Group on the take­over of Kronen­berg Frei­lei­tungs­ar­ma­tu­ren GmbH. 

About Oppen­hoff

The full-service law firm Oppen­hoff finds indus­try-speci­fic solu­ti­ons for groups, large owner-mana­ged compa­nies and finan­cial inves­tors. More than 100 lawy­ers advise on all important areas of commer­cial and tax law.
Oppen­hoff & Part­ner Rechts­an­wälte Steu­er­be­ra­ter mbB (“Oppen­hoff”) is a part­ner­ship regis­tered in the part­ner­ship regis­ter of the Essen Local Court with the regis­tra­tion number PR 1850 and its regis­tered office in Colo­gne. A list of the part­ners autho­ri­zed to repre­sent the firm is available at https://www.oppenhoff.eu/de/

News

Munich/ Ravens­burg — The Munich-based edtech start-up Edurino has secu­red 17 million euros in its Series B. The team plans to use the fresh capi­tal for inter­na­tio­nal expan­sion, new products and a stron­ger retail presence. The round is led by Ravens­bur­ger Next Ventures as lead inves­tor and summi­teer, the invest­ment company of series foun­der Sven Schulz. 

In addi­tion to exis­ting inves­tors such as b2venture, DN Capi­tal, Tengel­mann Ventures, FJ Labs, Emerge, G‑FUND and Jens Bege­mann, busi­ness angels such as Stefan Winners and Frede­rik Vollert also parti­ci­pa­ted. Edurino intends to use the new capi­tal in parti­cu­lar to expand its digi­tal plat­form, double the number of trading part­ners and expand into new markets — inclu­ding an immi­nent market entry in the UK. 

The start-up is pursuing three key growth targets: the further deve­lo­p­ment of the plat­form with new lear­ning content and hybrid products, the inter­na­tio­nal roll­out — inclu­ding to the UK — and doubling its presence in bricks-and-mortar retail by the end of 2025.

EDURINO was foun­ded in Munich in 2021 by Irene Klemm and Fran­ziska Meyer to give child­ren a respon­si­ble, playful intro­duc­tion to the world of digi­tal educa­tion. The plat­form combi­nes educa­tio­nal games, ergo­no­mic input tools and anima­ted charac­ters that teach clas­sic school and future skills such as reading, logi­cal thin­king, coding and envi­ron­men­tal know­ledge. EDURINO has alre­ady sold over one million products. 

Ravens­bur­ger sees the Edurino concept as a pionee­ring combi­na­tion of analog play and digi­tal educa­tion. Mana­ging Direc­tor at Ravens­bur­ger Thomas Bleyer says: “Edurino has succee­ded in buil­ding a meaningful bridge between analog play and digi­tal educa­tion. With its clear educa­tio­nal concept and child-friendly imple­men­ta­tion, the team not only impres­ses child­ren and parents, but also us as a part­ner. We see Edurino as having the poten­tial to help shape digi­tal early educa­tion world­wide in the long term.”

Sven Schulz, foun­der of Summi­teer, empha­si­zes: “Edurino combi­nes pedago­gi­cal exper­tise with state-of-the-art tech­no­logy to create a lear­ning plat­form that inspi­res child­ren and convin­ces parents. We see Edurino as having great poten­tial to make a lasting impact on the educa­tio­nal land­scape and look forward to actively shaping this jour­ney as a partner.”

Consul­tant Ravens­bur­ger and b2venture: V14, Berlin

Dr. Clemens Waitz, Falko Brüg­ge­mann, Alexis von Krue­de­ner and Simo­nié Schlombs from the law firm V14 advi­sed Ravens­bur­ger and b2venture on the finan­cing of Edurino.

Dr. Clemens Waitz
Falko Brüggemann
Alexis von Kruedener
Simo­nié Schlombs

About V14

V14 is a Berlin-based law firm specia­li­zing in growth capi­tal, tech­no­logy and media.

About Ravens­bur­ger Next Ventures

“Next Ventures” is Ravens­bur­g’s program for inno­va­tion projects and start-up invest­ments. The Group provi­des a double-digit million euro sum for this purpose and invests in up to four projects per year. The focus is on busi­ness areas that fit thema­ti­cally with Ravens­bur­ger. Inte­res­ted start-ups and foun­ding teams can cont­act the invest­ment team via nextventures@ravensburger.com. “Next Ventures” is part of the company’s stra­tegy to grow through inno­va­tion, invest­ment and inter­na­tio­nal orien­ta­tion. — www.ravensburger-group.com/nextventures

About Ravens­bur­ger

Ravens­bur­ger AG is an inter­na­tio­nal group of compa­nies with seve­ral renow­ned toy brands. Its mission is: “We inspire people to disco­ver what is really important.” The company’s most important brand, the Ravens­bur­ger blue triangle, is one of the leading Euro­pean brands for games, puzzles and crea­tive products as well as for German-language books for child­ren and young people. Toys bearing the blue triangle are sold world­wide. In addi­tion, the inter­na­tio­nal brands BRIO and Think­Fun expand the Group’s product range. Since its foun­da­tion in 1883, Ravens­bur­ger has been a family busi­ness charac­te­ri­zed by tradi­tion and estab­lished values. In 2024, 2,483 employees gene­ra­ted a turno­ver of 790 million euros. Ravens­bur­ger has its own facto­ries in Ravens­burg, Poli­cka (Czech Repu­blic) and Banská Bystrica (Slova­kia).

About Summi­teer

Summi­teer is an invest­ment company foun­ded by entre­pre­neur and former Akasol CEO Sven Schulz that invests in start-ups and growth compa­nies with scalable, sustainable and inno­va­tive busi­ness models. Summi­te­er’s mission is to create sustainable value with the compa­nies in its port­fo­lio, support­ing the prospe­rity of our society while play­ing an active role in shaping an envi­ron­men­tally friendly future. — www.summiteer.com

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