Author: Tatjana Anderer

Munich — Latham & Watkins LLP advi­sed CDH Invest­ments (CDH) on the acqui­si­tion of a signi­fi­cant stake in WOW Tech Group, a leading global provi­der of premium sensory health and well­ness products. The manage­ment of WOW Tech Group as well as the exis­ting inves­tors will remain share­hol­ders of WOW Tech Group and will conti­nue to hold stra­te­gic and opera­tio­nal func­tions. WOW Tech Group was advi­sed by ARQIS Attor­neys at Law .

As one of the worl­d’s leading suppli­ers, WOW Tech Group specia­li­zes in the deve­lo­p­ment, manu­fac­ture and marke­ting of high-quality products for lovemaking.

CDH, with offices in Singa­pore, Hong Kong and Beijing, mana­ges assets of appro­xi­m­ately USD 20 billion. The company has invest­ments in over 150 compa­nies focu­sed on consu­mer goods and health­care industries.

Latham & Watkins LLP advi­sed CDH with the follo­wing team:
Dr. Rainer Trau­gott (Part­ner, Lead, Munich), Susanne Decker (Part­ner, Frank­furt), Hanno Witt, Dr. Thomas Diek­mann, Dr. Hendrik Ley, Anja Schind­ler, Dr. Andreas Holzgreve, (all Asso­ciate, Private Equity), Dr. Ulf Kieker (Coun­sel, Tax), Thomas Weit­kamp (Part­ner), Ludwig Zesch, Phil­ipp Büch­ler (both Asso­ciate, all Banking and Finance, all Munich), Joachim Gritt­mann (Coun­sel, Regu­la­tory, Frank­furt), Dr. Jana Dammann (Coun­sel, Hamburg) Jan Voll­kam­mer (Asso­ciate, both Anti­trust, Frank­furt), Anne Kleff­mann (Part­ner), Annika Juds (Asso­ciate, both Labor Law, Munich) as well as lawy­ers from Latham’s Hong Kong office.

Advi­sors WOW Tech Group: ARQIS Rechts­an­wälte (Düssel­dorf)
ARQIS advi­sed Johan­nes Graf Plet­ten­berg, the foun­der and CEO of WOW Tech Group (WOW Tech), a Berlin-based sex toy manu­fac­tu­rer, in connec­tion with the sale of his busi­ness shares to Singa­pore-based private equity group CDH Invest­ments (CDH) and his subse­quent re-invest­ment in the target group.
Dr. Jörn-Chris­tian Schulze (Lead; Corporate/M&A); Coun­sel: Dr. Stepha­nie Lenze (Labor Law); Asso­cia­tes: Dr. Maxi­mi­lian Back­haus (Corporate/M&A); Martin Wein­gärt­ner (Labor Law)

Munich — SKW Schwarz Rechts­an­wälte advi­sed the German single family office MAGNUS Holding on the acqui­si­tion of a majo­rity stake in DREHTAINER GmbH.

DREHTAINER GmbH is a leading manu­fac­tu­rer of special contai­ners and special vehicle compon­ents. With the new majo­rity owner, the company is coun­ting on constant busi­ness deve­lo­p­ment in the long term; toge­ther with the new owner, growth in key markets is also to be driven forward.

DREHTAINER deve­lops and produ­ces modu­lar systems for infra­struc­tures and vehic­les whose level of protec­tion can be custo­mi­zed. The inter­na­tio­nal custo­mer base of the owner-mana­ged company includes nume­rous NATO armed forces as well as OEMs in the defense and aero­space industries.

The single family office MAGNUS Holding is a long-term orien­ted inves­tor that supports its port­fo­lio compa­nies in their sustainable deve­lo­p­ment. The focus is on the aero­space and defense, medi­cal tech­no­logy and phar­maceu­ti­cal primary pack­a­ging sectors.

Advi­sors to MAGNUS Holding: SKW Schwarz Rechts­an­wälte, Munich
Dr. Matthias Nord­mann, Photo (Lead, Corporate/M&A), Eva Bona­cker (Coun­sel, Corporate/M&A), Heiko Wunder­lich (Tax Law), Hanna Karl (Coun­sel, Labor Law), Stefan C. Schi­cker, LL.M. (IP), Dr. Katrin Hansen (Asso­ciate, Commercial)

SKW Schwarz Rechts­an­wälte is an inde­pen­dent German law firm with over 130 lawy­ers in five loca­ti­ons. SKW Schwarz advi­ses compa­nies ranging from owner-mana­ged busi­nesses to listed stock corpo­ra­ti­ons, as well as private clients, in all major areas of natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal busi­ness law.

Geneva, Switz­er­land — Firmenich announ­ced that it has ente­red into exclu­si­vity with Ardian, Tike­hau Capi­tal and family share­hol­ders to acquire Les Déri­vés Rési­ni­ques et Terpé­ni­ques (“DRT”). DRT is a world leader in plant-based chemis­try, mainly from pine trees, and is one of the leading suppli­ers globally of high quality, rene­wa­ble ingredients.

“I am thril­led to bring DRT’s unique capa­bi­li­ties for deve­lo­ping sustainable ingre­di­ents to Firmenich. This propo­sed combi­na­tion builds on our busi­ness part­ner­ship of more than 30 years and our estab­lished track record of successful co-deve­lo­p­ment in a long-stan­ding joint venture,” said Patrick Firmenich, Chair­man of the Board, Firmenich. “We thank Ardian and Tike­hau Capi­tal for their strong steward­ship and we are deligh­ted to welcome all DRT colle­agues to Firmenich. We share the same passion for our custo­mers, sustaina­bi­lity, as well as strong family values.”

“Firmenich would be the ideal home for DRT,” said Thibault Basquin, Head of Ameri­cas Invest­ment and Mana­ging Direc­tor at Ardian Buyout. “I would like to warmly thank Laurent Laba­tut and his team for our part­ner­ship over the past few years. Ardian has enab­led DRT to acce­le­rate its growth, invest in new projects and enhance its sustaina­bi­lity approach. Firmenich has been an important stra­te­gic part­ner for DRT for many years and would be uniquely posi­tio­ned to bring DRT’s product deve­lo­p­ment capa­bi­li­ties to the next level. As a family-owned busi­ness that is commit­ted to inno­va­tion, Firmenich will provide a great envi­ron­ment for DRT’s colleagues.”

Emma­nuel Lail­lier, Head of Private Equity at Tike­hau Capi­tal added: “Tike­hau Capi­tal has supported DRT’s growth stra­tegy and global deve­lo­p­ment for six years. We are today very plea­sed to help bring DRT and Firmenich toge­ther, which is a key step for the conti­nua­tion of its development.”

“DRT would further streng­then our leading Perfu­mery & Ingre­di­ents busi­ness enab­ling us to offer our custo­mers the worl­d’s best palette of rene­wa­ble and sustainable ingre­di­ents,” said Gilbert Ghos­tine, CEO, Firmenich. “DRT would bring new capa­bi­li­ties in health & nutri­tion, cosme­tics, as well as a number of new markets, inclu­ding adhe­si­ves, coatings and agri­cul­ture. This acqui­si­tion rein­forces our presence in France, which is our second largest market where we have been estab­lished for more than 120 years. I look forward to part­ne­ring with all our custo­mers to support their trans­for­ma­tion for a sustainable future.”

“We share a long-stan­ding rela­ti­onship with Firmenich as it is one of our main part­ners,” explains Laurent Laba­tut, CEO of DRT. “Firmenich is renow­ned for its cutting-edge rese­arch that feeds into the broa­dest and finest ingre­di­ents palette. Our joint inno­va­tion capa­bi­li­ties would open up new oppor­tu­ni­ties to support our clients across our entire product port­fo­lio. Toge­ther we look forward to opening a new chap­ter with a shared ambi­tion to design best-in-class sustainable ingre­di­ents for our customers.”

DRT is at the fore­front of deve­lo­ping sustainable, rene­wa­ble and natu­rally-deri­ved ingre­di­ents from terpe­nes and rosin deri­va­ti­ves. DRT offers green alter­na­ti­ves for a range of appli­ca­ti­ons and markets. Foun­ded in 1932 and head­quar­te­red in Dax, France, DRT deve­lo­ped a unique, back­ward inte­gra­ted busi­ness model over many deca­des, inclu­ding access to sustainable raw mate­ri­als, best-in-class extra­c­tion and distil­la­tion capa­bi­li­ties and advan­ced inno­va­tion proces­ses. DRT has been a family-owned company for most of its history and has grown thanks to its commit­ment to long-stan­ding rela­ti­onships with its suppli­ers and its customers.

DRT has a turno­ver in excess of €550 million, employs more than 1,500 people around the world and is opera­ting through a global foot­print with four produc­tion sites loca­ted in France, two in the USA, two in India and one in China.

Finan­cial terms of the deal have not been disc­lo­sed. The propo­sed tran­sac­tion remains subject to seve­ral condi­ti­ons inclu­ding the consul­ta­tion of the rele­vant employee repre­sen­ta­ti­ves and custo­mary appr­ovals by the anti­trust authorities.
Firmenich was advi­sed by Gold­man Sachs Inter­na­tio­nal, Raphaël Finan­cial Advi­sory and Bredin Prat. Ardian was advi­sed by Citigroup, Roth­schild & Co, Latham & Watkins and White & Case.

About Firmenich
Firmenich is the worl­d’s largest priva­tely-owned perfume and taste company, foun­ded in Geneva, Switz­er­land, in 1895. Driven by its purpose to create posi­tive emoti­ons to enhance well­be­ing, natu­rally, Firmenich has desi­gned many of the worl­d’s best-known perfu­mes and tastes, brin­ging delight to over four billion consu­mers every day. Renow­ned for its world-class rese­arch and crea­ti­vity, as well as its leader­ship in sustaina­bi­lity, each year, Firmenich invests 10% of its turno­ver in R&D to under­stand and share the best that nature has to offer respon­si­bly. Firmenich had an annual turno­ver of 3.9 billion Swiss francs at the end of June 2019. More infor­ma­tion about Firmenich is available at www.firmenich.com.

About DRT
Foun­ded in 1932, DRT specia­li­zes in the deve­lo­p­ment of gum rosin and turpen­tine extra­c­ted from pine resin. DRT’s head office is loca­ted in Dax, France and sells its products around the world. DRT has a diver­si­fied product port­fo­lio of more than 300 ingre­di­ents addres­sing a variety of end markets. DRT opera­tes 9 manu­fac­tu­ring faci­li­ties either directly or with joint venture part­ners. More infor­ma­tion about DRT is available at www.drt.fr

About Ardian
Ardian is a world-leading private invest­ment house with assets of US$ 96bn mana­ged or advi­sed in Europe, the Ameri­cas and Asia. The company is majo­rity-owned by its employees. It keeps entre­pre­neur­ship at its heart and focu­ses on deli­ve­ring excel­lent invest­ment perfor­mance to its global inves­tor base. Through its commit­ment to shared outco­mes for all stake­hol­ders, Ardian’s acti­vi­ties fuel indi­vi­dual, corpo­rate and econo­mic growth around the world.

Holding close its core values of excel­lence, loyalty and entre­pre­neur­ship, Ardian main­ta­ins a truly global network, with more than 680 employees working from fifteen offices across Europe (Frank­furt, Jersey, London, Luxem­bourg, Madrid, Milan, Paris and Zurich), the Ameri­cas (New York, San Fran­cisco and Sant­iago) and Asia (Beijing, Singa­pore, Tokyo and Seoul). It mana­ges funds on behalf of around 1,000 clients through five pillars of invest­ment exper­tise: Fund of Funds, Direct Funds, Infra­struc­ture, Real Estate and Private Debt. More infor­ma­tion about Ardian is available at https://www.ardian.com/fr

About Tike­hau Capital
Tike­hau Capi­tal is an asset manage­ment and invest­ment group which mana­ges € 25.8bn of assets under manage­ment (as at 31 Decem­ber 2019) and share­hol­ders’ equity of € 3.1 billion (as at 30 June 2019). The Group invests in various asset clas­ses (private debt, real-estate, private equity, capi­tal markets stra­te­gies), inclu­ding through its asset manage­ment subsi­dia­ries, on behalf of insti­tu­tio­nal and private inves­tors. Control­led by its mana­gers, along­side leading insti­tu­tio­nal part­ners, Tike­hau Capi­tal employs more than 500 staff (as at 30 Septem­ber 2019) in its Paris, London, Amster­dam, Brussels, Luxem­bourg, Madrid, Milan, New York, Seoul, Singa­pore and Tokyo offices.

Munich — Inter­na­tio­nal private equity inves­tor Bridge­point acqui­res a majo­rity stake in Phar­ma­Zell from DPE Deut­sche Private Equity and Maxburg Capi­tal Part­ners. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the purchase price.

Phar­ma­Zell is a leading inde­pen­dent manu­fac­tu­rer of Active Phar­maceu­ti­cal Ingre­di­ents (API) in the highly stable and specia­li­zed API market. There, the company has a diver­si­fied port­fo­lio of more than 70 active ingre­di­ents and is an indus­try leader in a full range of products for the treat­ment of respi­ra­tory, inflamm­a­tory and liver dise­a­ses driven by life­style chan­ges. Many of the company’s products require special treat­ment proces­ses and/or tech­no­lo­gies. Phar­ma­Zell, head­quar­te­red in Raub­ling (near Munich), opera­tes four state-of-the-art produc­tion and R&D sites in Germany, Italy and India and employs over 900 people worldwide.

Bridge­point mana­ges more than €29 billion in assets provi­ded by global inves­tors. These include public and private pension funds, asset mana­gers, family offices, inde­pen­dent autho­ri­ties and insu­rance compa­nies around the world.

Advi­sors Phar­ma­Zell: P+P Pöllath + Part­ners advi­sed the manage­ment around CEO Oliver Bolzern.
Dr. Bene­dikt Hohaus (Part­ner, Lead Part­ner, MPP, M&A/Private Equity)
Dr. Roman Sten­zel (Coun­sel, MPP, M&A/Private Equity)
Silke Bande­ner (Asso­ciate, MPP, M&A/Private Equity, all Munich)

Vier­sen / Munich — As part of a succes­sion plan, funds advi­sed by Bregal Unter­neh­mer­ka­pi­tal have acqui­red a majo­rity stake in the hidden cham­pion EA Elek­tro-Auto­ma­tik. The goal of the long-term part­ner­ship is to conti­nue EA’s successful history and further growth. Shear­man & Ster­ling advi­sed the banks on acqui­si­tion finan­cing of EA Elek­tro-Auto­ma­tik by Bregal.

EA-Elek­tro-Auto­ma­tik GmbH & Co KG is Germany’s leading manu­fac­tu­rer in labo­ra­tory power supply, high perfor­mance power supplies and elec­tro­nic loads. In 1974, Helmut Nolden foun­ded the company with the vision of deve­lo­ping highly quali­fied power supply systems for all appli­ca­ti­ons. Today, EA-Elek­tro-Auto­ma­tik is a globally active, medium-sized company.

What began in 1974 in a base­ment work­shop with the first deve­lo­p­ment of fixed-voltage power supplies for the labo­ra­tory and hobby sector has quickly deve­lo­ped into one of the most sought-after suppli­ers of highly complex solu­ti­ons. Today, EA produ­ces on 10,000m² at its main site in Vier­sen, has subsi­dia­ries in China as well as in the USA and employs about 250 people. Foun­ded by Mana­ging Direc­tor Helmut Nolden, the company has been growing stron­gly for years, supp­ly­ing custo­mers in the indus­trial, alter­na­tive energy, elec­tro­che­mi­cal, process tech­no­logy and tele­com­mu­ni­ca­ti­ons sectors. EA devices for test­ing high-perfor­mance elec­tri­cal compon­ents also make an important contri­bu­tion to the global deve­lo­p­ment of electromobility.

EA opera­tes in a market that is expe­ri­en­cing high growth and bene­fiting from long-term macro trends such as incre­asing elec­tri­fi­ca­tion, rising connec­ti­vity (smart home, IoT and Indus­try 4.0), shorter product life cycles and grea­ter battery usage. Bregal comm­ents: “We are looking forward to working toge­ther in this promi­sing envi­ron­ment and expect EA to conti­nue on its path of sustainable success through its high level of inno­va­tion, excel­lent custo­mer rela­ti­onships and broad product diver­sity. Toge­ther with the manage­ment and employees, we also want to open up new growth paths and future pros­pects, such as by further streng­thening EA’s presence in the USA and Asia, laun­ching new inno­va­tive products, and making further invest­ments in the Vier­sen site, inclu­ding a signi­fi­cant expan­sion of produc­tion capacity.”

Shear­man & Ster­ling advi­sed a consor­tium of banks led by Commerz­bank on the finan­cing of the acqui­si­tion of a majo­rity stake in EA Elek­tro-Auto­ma­tik, a leading supplier of power elec­tro­nics, by Bregal Unter­neh­mer­ka­pi­tal advi­sed funds as part of a succes­sion plan.

The Shear­man & Ster­ling team led by part­ner Winfried M. Carli (Germany-Finance) included Sven Opper­mann (Germany‑M&A/Finance).

About Bregal Entre­pre­neu­rial Capital
Bregal Unter­neh­mer­ka­pi­tal curr­ently mana­ges around 2.5 billion euros (assets under manage­ment), of which 1.2 billion euros are available for new invest­ments. — Bregal Unter­neh­mer­ka­pi­tal is part of a family busi­ness that has grown over gene­ra­ti­ons. The focus is on majo­rity or mino­rity share­hol­dings, prima­rily in medium-sized compa­nies in Germany, Austria and Switz­er­land. These invest­ments are inde­pen­dent of deve­lo­p­ments on the finan­cial markets. With pati­ent capi­tal, an entre­pre­neu­rial approach and a spirit of part­ner­ship, we can focus on the success of our invest­ments and help them create sustainable value. Parti­cu­larly important are finan­cial stabi­lity, a high degree of flexi­bi­lity, short decis­ion-making paths and a high degree of entre­pre­neu­rial free­dom for the companies.

About Shear­man & Sterling
Shear­man & Ster­ling is an inter­na­tio­nal law firm with 24 offices in 13 count­ries and appro­xi­m­ately 850 lawy­ers. In Germany, Shear­man & Ster­ling is repre­sen­ted at the Frank­furt office. The firm is one of the inter­na­tio­nal market leaders in advi­sing on complex cross-border tran­sac­tions. World­wide, Shear­man & Ster­ling prima­rily advi­ses inter­na­tio­nal corpo­ra­ti­ons and large natio­nal compa­nies, finan­cial insti­tu­ti­ons, and large mid-sized compa­nies. For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.shearman.com.

Coll­ec­tia is a provi­der of debt coll­ec­tion and debt purchase services with more than 13,000 corpo­rate custo­mers in Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Germany.

Munich, London, Brøndby — Euro­pean private equity firm Silver­fleet Capi­tal has acqui­red a majo­rity stake in Coll­ec­tia A/S, a credit manage­ment service provi­der based in Brøndby, Denmark. Details of the tran­sac­tion will not be disclosed.

Coll­ec­tia was foun­ded in 1998 and today is a rapidly growing provi­der of debt coll­ec­tion and debt purchase services. Head­quar­te­red in Brøndby, the company opera­tes mainly in the Danish market and has also estab­lished a smal­ler market presence in Sweden, Norway and Germany. With more than 175 employees, Coll­ec­tia curr­ently hand­les more than 600,000 active cases for appro­xi­m­ately 13,000 corpo­rate clients.

Coll­ec­tia has a mature proprie­tary tech­no­logy plat­form as well as an exten­sive credit data­base and advan­ced data analy­tics capa­bi­li­ties. This makes Coll­ec­tia a clearly diffe­ren­tia­ted company with the poten­tial to gain addi­tio­nal market share in both exis­ting and new markets. In recent years, the company has diver­si­fied its service port­fo­lio: In addi­tion to its core busi­ness of debt coll­ec­tion services, it has expan­ded its receiv­a­bles purcha­sing acti­vi­ties and laun­ched a new credit rating infor­ma­tion service in Denmark. Coll­ec­tia has also made seve­ral acqui­si­ti­ons to expand its presence in Scan­di­na­via and Germany.

Silver­fleet Capi­tal has many years of expe­ri­ence in finan­cial services and focu­ses on lever­aging advan­ta­ge­ous macro dyna­mics. In Coll­ec­tia’s case, incre­asing regu­la­tion in Denmark and across the EU is driving the outsour­cing of debt coll­ec­tion proces­ses to specia­li­zed service provi­ders; also, Coll­ec­tia expects that addi­tio­nal, new regu­la­tion in the coming years will lead to an incre­asing volume of problem loan and debtor port­fo­lios that banks and compa­nies will resell to specialists.

With the invest­ment from Silver­fleet, Coll­ec­tia intends to further acce­le­rate its growth course. The aim is to conti­nue to draw on the excel­lent tech­no­logy-based proces­ses in order to further deve­lop the Coll­ec­tion Solu­ti­ons area. The receiv­a­bles purcha­sing area is to be expan­ded, and the company’s inter­na­tio­nal expan­sion is to be further driven by targe­ted verti­cal niche acquisitions.

Mark Pias­e­cki (photo), Part­ner at Silver­fleet Capi­tal, says: “With Coll­ec­tia, we have gained a tech­no­lo­gi­cally savvy company with a core busi­ness in Denmark as a part­ner that offers many oppor­tu­ni­ties for growth on both a natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal level. We look forward to working closely with Coll­ec­tia’s expe­ri­en­ced manage­ment team and to buil­ding on past succes­ses and reali­zing the company’s poten­tial together.”

Chris­tian la Cour Valen­tin, CEO of Coll­ec­tia, adds: “Silver­fleet Capi­tal shares our stra­te­gic vision for the future of Coll­ec­tia and under­stands where the parti­cu­lar strengths of our company lie. Toge­ther with its expe­ri­ence, capi­tal strength and network, the company is an ideal part­ner to expand our growth strategy.”

Coll­ec­tia marks the eleventh invest­ment for Silver­fleet Capi­tal from the current fund. The Silver­fleet port­fo­lio includes compa­nies from the UK, France, Bene­lux, Scan­di­na­via and Germany.

At Silver­fleet Capi­tal, Mark Pias­e­cki, Karl Eidem, Robert Knight, Johan Boork and Farhad Tatar were respon­si­ble for the current tran­sac­tion. The invest­ment company was advi­sed on the tran­sac­tion by Houli­han Lokey (M&A), Deloitte (Debt, Commer­cial, Finan­cial & Tax), Bruun & Hjejle, Travers Smith and McFar­la­nes (all Legal), Rud Peder­sen (Regu­la­tory), BearingPoint(IT) and Quan­tum Data Analy­tics (Finan­cial). Debt finan­cing was provi­ded by Alcen­tra and Sydbank.

About Silver­fleet Capital
Silver­fleet Capi­tal has been active as a private equity inves­tor in the Euro­pean mid-market for more than 30 years. The 32-strong invest­ment team works from Munich, London, Paris, Stock­holm and Amsterdam.

Scan­di­na­via is one of the geogra­phi­cal target regi­ons for Silver­fleet Capi­tal; the company is parti­cu­larly active in Denmark. The invest­ment in Coll­ec­tia in 2020 marks Silver­fleet Capi­tal’s fourth plat­form invest­ment in Denmark since 2013; other recent tran­sac­tions include the successful exits of Phase One in 2019 and Cimbria in 2016.

Ten invest­ments have alre­ady been made from the second inde­pen­dent fund closed in 2015 with a volume of 870 million euros: The Masai Clot­hing Company, a whole­sa­ler and retailer of women’s fashion head­quar­te­red in Denmark; Coven­tya, a French deve­lo­per of specialty chemi­cals; Sigma Compon­ents, a UK-based manu­fac­tu­rer of precis­ion compon­ents for civil avia­tion; Life­time Trai­ning, a provi­der of trai­ning programs based in the United King­dom; Pumpen­fa­brik Wangen, a manu­fac­tu­rer of specialty pumps based in Germany; Riviera Travel, an escor­ted group tour and cruise opera­tor based in the United King­dom; 7days, a German supplier of medi­cal work­wear; Prefere Resins, a leading phen­o­lic and amino resin manu­fac­tu­rer in Europe, CARE Fertility, a leading opera­tor of ferti­lity clinics in the United King­dom, and BOA Core­Dux, a leading desi­gner and manu­fac­tu­rer of custom, high-purity metal hoses for criti­cal indus­trial applications.

Silver­fleet Capi­tal also main­ta­ins an invest­ment team specia­li­zing in smal­ler middle-market compa­nies, which has alre­ady made two successful invest­ments: STAXS Conta­mi­na­tion Control Experts, a leading supplier of clean­room access­ories in the Bene­lux (comple­ted in Janu­ary 2019), and Micro­gen Finan­cial Systems, a leading provi­der of trust and fund admi­nis­tra­tion soft­ware for the trust and corpo­rate services industry.

Silver­fleet achie­ves value growth by inves­t­ing in compa­nies in its core sectors that bene­fit from speci­fic, long-term trends. Silver­fleet supports these compa­nies in their future growth stra­te­gies. As part of these stra­te­gies, invest­ments are made in orga­nic growth drivers, inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion, stra­te­gic acqui­si­ti­ons or opera­tio­nal impro­ve­ment proces­ses. Since 2004, Silver­fleet Capi­tal has inves­ted €2.1 billion in 32 companies.

Silver­fleet specia­li­zes in four key indus­tries: Busi­ness and Finan­cial Services, Health­care, Manu­fac­tu­ring, and Retail and Consu­mer Goods.

Since 2004, the private equity inves­tor has inves­ted 30% of its assets in compa­nies head­quar­te­red in the DACH region, 33% in the UK and Ireland, 18% in Scan­di­na­via, and 15% in France and the Bene­lux (includes an invest­ment sourced in Belgium and head­quar­te­red in the US).

Silver­fleet Capi­tal has a solid invest­ment track record. Most recently, Silver­fleet sold Phase One, a leading tech­no­logy company in the field of high-end digi­tal camera systems and for image proces­sing soft­ware (invest­ment multi­ple 4.6x); Ipes, a leading provi­der of outsour­cing services for Euro­pean private equity compa­nies (invest­ment multi­ple 3.7x); CCC, one of the leading BPO services provi­ders in Europe; and Cimbria, a Danish manu­fac­tu­rer of agri­cul­tu­ral equip­ment (invest­ment multi­ple cannot be disc­lo­sed for legal reasons); Kalle, a German manu­fac­tu­rer of arti­fi­cial sausage sticks (invest­ment multi­ple 3.5x); OFFICE, a UK-based foot­wear retailer (invest­ment multi­ple 3.4x); and Aesica, a leading phar­maceu­ti­cal CDMO company (invest­ment multi­ple 3.3x).

Kirk­caldy, Scotland/ Munich — Shear­man & Ster­ling has advi­sed Frost­krone Food Group (Frost­krone), a port­fo­lio company fund advi­sed by EMERAM, on the finan­cing of its add-on acqui­si­tion of Inno­vate Foods.

Inno­vate Foods, based in Kirk­caldy, Scot­land, manu­fac­tures frozen finger foods and snacks for the whole­sale, retail and food service markets. Foun­ded by Tony Dumbreck, the company is one of the leading finger food manu­fac­tu­r­ers in the UK.

EMERAM is an inde­pen­dent Munich-based invest­ment company for German-spea­king medium-sized compa­nies. Funds advi­sed by EMERAM provide capi­tal for the further deve­lo­p­ment of compa­nies with a fund volume of €400 million. EMERAM sees itself as a long-term busi­ness deve­lo­p­ment part­ner for compa­nies in the three areas of Consu­mer, Services and Tech­no­logy. — Shear­man & Ster­ling regu­larly advi­ses EMERAM on finan­cing transactions.

Advi­sor to EMERAM: Shear­man & Sterling
Part­ner Winfried M. Carli and Asso­ciate Andreas Breu (Germany-Finance).

About Shear­man & Sterling
Shear­man & Ster­ling is an inter­na­tio­nal law firm with 24 offices in 13 count­ries and appro­xi­m­ately 850 lawy­ers. In Germany, Shear­man & Ster­ling is repre­sen­ted at the Frank­furt office. The firm is one of the inter­na­tio­nal market leaders in advi­sing on complex cross-border tran­sac­tions. World­wide, Shear­man & Ster­ling prima­rily advi­ses inter­na­tio­nal corpo­ra­ti­ons and large natio­nal compa­nies, finan­cial insti­tu­ti­ons, and large mid-sized compa­nies. For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.shearman.com.

Munich, Frank­furt a. Main — Inter­na­tio­nal law firm Clif­ford Chance has advi­sed global finan­cial inves­tor KKR and Regge­borgh on the sale of tele­com­mu­ni­ca­ti­ons company Deut­sche Glas­fa­ser to EQT and OMERS. The tran­sac­tion is expec­ted to close in the second quar­ter of 2020, subject to custo­mary regu­la­tory approvals.

Deut­sche Glas­fa­ser was foun­ded in 2011. In 2015, KKR acqui­red a majo­rity stake from Dutch inves­tor Regge­borgh. With KKR’s invest­ment, Deut­sche Glas­fa­ser has become the fastest growing provi­der of giga­bit Inter­net connec­tions via fiber-to-the-home (“FTTH”) in Germany. With the opera­tio­nal and finan­cial support of KKR, the company inves­ted over EUR 1.2 billion in fiber-optic infra­struc­ture and its roll-out in under­ser­ved rural and subur­ban commu­ni­ties in Germany. For exam­ple, Deut­sche Glas­fa­ser increased the number of fiber-optic connec­tions to more than 600,000 house­holds and 5,000 companies.

Accor­ding to plans by EQT and OMERS, Deut­sche Glas­fa­ser will be merged with EQT port­fo­lio company inexio to form a leading FTTH provi­der in rural Germany. EQT will hold 51 percent of the combi­ned group, while Cana­dian pension fund OMERS will own 49 percent.

Clif­ford Chance had alre­ady advi­sed KKR on its invest­ment in Deut­sche Glas­fa­ser in 2015. In addi­tion, a Clif­ford Chance team had recently advi­sed Deut­sche Glas­fa­ser on a 1.8 billion refi­nan­cing to further expand fiber infra­struc­ture in Germany.

Clif­ford Chance M&A Part­ner Markus Muhs said of the tran­sac­tion: “We are plea­sed to have advi­sed KKR throug­hout its invest­ment in Deut­sche Glas­fa­ser with a strong team of M&A, finan­cing and regu­la­tory experts. In this tran­sac­tion, we were once again able to contri­bute our indus­try exper­tise and many years of expe­ri­ence in the tele­com­mu­ni­ca­ti­ons and tech­no­logy sector.”

The Clif­ford Chance team that advi­sed KKR and Regge­borgh on the sale was led by part­ners Markus Muhs (Munich) and Frede­rik Mühl (Frank­furt, both Corporate/Private Equity/M&A).

About Clif­ford Chance
Clif­ford Chance, one of the worl­d’s leading law firms, is present for its clients with around 3,400 legal advi­sors in all major busi­ness centers around the world. — In Germany, Clif­ford Chance is repre­sen­ted by around 300 lawy­ers, audi­tors, tax advi­sors and soli­ci­tors in Düssel­dorf, Frank­furt am Main and Munich.

Osnabrück/Rheine — The Osna­brück-based family equity company zwei.7 acqui­res a stake in the Ossen­berg Group. The Rheine-based company is the market leader for walking aids and fore­arm supports in Germany and, for its part, had taken over the second largest supplier in this market segment — Erwin Kowsky GmbH in Neumüns­ter — in the middle of last year.

The Ossen­berg Group is the leading German manu­fac­tu­rer of aids for the walking impai­red. The tradi­tio­nal company deve­lops, produ­ces and sells fore­arm walking aids, light metal canes and ortho­pe­dic aids. The medium-sized company, with around 100 employees, has been selling its products through specia­list dealers for around six deca­des — in recent years also very successfully worldwide.

Both compa­nies have agreed to further inten­sify the strong growth course of the past years in the future. Former share­hol­der Cars­ten Diek­mann will remain with the company as mana­ging part­ner. Frank Wieditz will leave the company in Febru­ary 2020. Both parties have agreed not to disc­lose finan­cial infor­ma­tion about the transaction.

For the Osna­brück-based two.7 family equity firm, this is the first successful acqui­si­tion in the Health­Care sector, since its foun­da­tion in spring 2018. Kars­ten Wulf (photo), co-owner of the buw Group for more than 30 years, had laun­ched the two.7 Group in Osna­brück after the successful sale of the call center (6,000 employees, sold to Conver­gys in 2016). The company’s goal is to actively invest in high-growth medium-sized compa­nies and, in doing so, to contri­bute Kars­ten Wulf’s deca­des of expe­ri­ence as a medium-sized entrepreneur.

“The Ossen­berg Group has pursued a convin­cing growth stra­tegy in recent years and, as a medium-sized company from Rheine, has built up a quality brand world­wide with its products in the mobi­lity indus­try. Toge­ther we want to conti­nue and expand this course,” says Kars­ten Wulf.

“We are glad to have found an entre­pre­neu­rial part­ner in the zwei.7 Group. The expe­ri­ence of Kars­ten Wulf and his part­ner Olaf Bock as successful entre­pre­neurs from Lower Saxony will help us to master the next growth steps. From entre­pre­neur to entre­pre­neur, we discuss at eye level and speak the same language, says Cars­ten Diek­mann, who has mana­ged the Ossen­berg Group in Rheine since 2007.

The tran­sac­tion was accom­pa­nied by tax advi­sor / lawyer Dr. Klaus Stein from Osna­brück.

About two.7
The tzwei.7 group was foun­ded in 2018 by Kars­ten Wulf in Osna­brück. The family equity house invests in high-growth medium-sized compa­nies and takes entre­pre­neu­rial risks with equity capi­tal. The aim is to estab­lish and expand a Euro­pean health care clus­ter of small and medium-sized successful compa­nies. The invest­ment in the Ossen­berg Group is the first successfully comple­ted tran­sac­tion in the Health Care portfolio.

About Ossen­berg
The Ossen­berg Group is the leading German manu­fac­tu­rer of ortho­pe­dic aids for the walking impai­red. Foun­ded in 2007 in Rheine in eastern West­pha­lia, the tradi­tio­nal company now sells its products world­wide. Last summer, Ossen­berg took over its compe­ti­tor Erwin Kowsky from Neumüns­ter. The Ossen­berg Group employs around 100 people and repor­ted sales of €16.7 million in 2019.