Author: Tatjana Anderer

Frank­furt a. M. — A fund advi­sed by Palla­dio Part­ners (“Palla­dio”) has acqui­red 25% of the Rail­pool Group from Oakt­ree Capi­tal Manage­ment. The funds advi­sed by Palla­dio now hold a total of 50% in Rail­pool. The other 50% is held by GIC (Singa­pore Sove­reign Wealth Fund).

Rail­pool was foun­ded in Munich in 2008 and is now one of the leading rail vehicle rental compa­nies. With over 400 loco­mo­ti­ves, Rail­pool is one of the largest suppli­ers in Europe. The company is active in 14 Euro­pean countries.

P+P Pöllath + Part­ners advi­sed Palla­dio with the follo­wing team:
— Uwe Bärenz, Georg Grei­temann, Jens Stein­mül­ler (Part­ners, Private Equity, Berlin/Frankfurt)
— Daniel Wied­mann (Asso­cia­ted Part­ner, Anti­trust Law, Frankfurt)
— Tobias Lochen (Coun­sel, Private Equity, Berlin)
— Chris­tine Funk, Sebas­tian Garn­carz (Senior Asso­cia­tes, Private Equity, Berlin/Frankfurt)
— Xin Zhang (Asso­ciate, Anti­trust Law, Frankfurt)

Aachen/Mönchengladbach — S‑UBG Aachen invests from its SME fund S‑UBG AG in the manu­fac­tu­rer of cutting systems SATO GmbH from Mönchen­glad­bach. The holding company of the regio­nal savings banks thus holds one third of the shares in SATO GmbH, while the remai­ning shares are held equally by Mana­ging Direc­tor Holger Kerkow and Frank Heesen. Both had taken over the group of compa­nies after the depar­ture of the company’s foun­der Anton Hubert in May 2017.

The two succes­sors have expan­ded the work­force again to around 50 employees and have alre­ady imple­men­ted various product inno­va­tions. “With the growth capi­tal from S‑UBG, we would like to acce­le­rate the further growth of SATO GmbH,” says Kerkow. “Through the succes­sors in manage­ment and the expan­sion that has taken place so far, SATO is solidly posi­tio­ned. Our two co-part­ners bring the neces­sary exper­tise to further drive the posi­tive deve­lo­p­ment of the company,” says Harald Heide­mann, CEO of the S‑UBG Group.

Indi­vi­dual system solu­ti­ons for special machine construction
SATO GmbH deve­lops and manu­fac­tures system solu­ti­ons for flame and water­jet cutting systems, espe­ci­ally with plasma, oxyfuel as well as laser cutting tech­no­logy. Depen­ding on the mate­rial and the custo­mer’s appli­ca­tion, SATO designs the system indi­vi­du­ally and is thus in the field of special machine cons­truc­tion. The modu­lar design and a solid stock of requi­red compon­ents nevert­hel­ess enable fast deli­very times. Custo­mers include inter­na­tio­nal mecha­ni­cal and plant engi­nee­ring groups.

Mann­heim — The Frank­furt-based invest­ment company VR Equi­typ­art­ner GmbH is acqui­ring a mino­rity stake in Votro­nic Elec­tro­nic-Systeme GmbH & Co KG in Lauter­bach as part of a succes­sion plan. Homburg & Part­ner conduc­ted the commer­cial due dili­gence in the course of the transaction.

Votro­nic deve­lops and produ­ces elec­tro­nic compon­ents for motor­ho­mes, rescue, emer­gency and special vehic­les as well as boats. The product port­fo­lio includes on-board elec­tro­nic devices that signi­fi­cantly improve the usabi­lity and comfort of vehic­les. The company has firmly estab­lished itself in its niche segment, is now one of the market leaders there and has grown stron­gly in recent years.

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.

Homburg & Part­ner (H&P) is a specia­li­zed manage­ment consul­tancy with a focus on market stra­tegy, sales and pricing. The Private Equity Compe­tence Center combi­nes metho­do­lo­gi­cal and indus­try exper­tise to support compa­nies along the entire invest­ment process. In doing so, H&P focu­ses on the follo­wing seven indus­tries in parti­cu­lar with commer­cial due dili­gence and value enhance­ment projects:
(1) Auto­mo­tive (espe­ci­ally Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers)
(2) Buil­ding and cons­truc­tion mate­ri­als (ever­y­thing to do with buildings)
(3) Chemis­try (espe­ci­ally specialty chemistry)
(4) Health­care (in parti­cu­lar medi­cal tech­no­logy, phar­maceu­ti­cals and OTC)
(5) Indus­trial Goods and Engi­nee­ring (espe­ci­ally compo­nent suppli­ers and service providers)
(6) Consu­mer Invest­ment Goods
(7) Infor­ma­tion & Commu­ni­ca­tion Tech­no­logy (espe­ci­ally software)

Karls­ruhe — The tech­no­logy inves­tor LEA Part­ners invests in the LANDWEHR Group through its LEA Mittel­stands­part­ner Fund toge­ther with the long-stan­ding manage­ment team. The foun­ding family conti­nues to hold a stake in the company.

LANDWEHR has been deve­lo­ping and selling highly specia­li­zed HCM soft­ware products, espe­ci­ally for person­nel and buil­ding services compa­nies, since 1994 and is conside­red the market leader in the German market with more than 2,000 custo­mers. LANDWEHR also offers an indus­try solu­tion for event service provi­ders with inten­sive staff deploy­ment. In addi­tion, LAND­WEHR’s port­fo­lio is roun­ded off by soft­ware offe­rings for payroll accoun­ting and finan­cial accoun­ting. Another LANDWEHR divi­sion is services, trai­ning and server hosting.

As part of the tran­sac­tion, the manage­ment team of Marc Linkert, Hubert Ober­meyer and Thors­ten Temme will take over the manage­ment of the company from the Land­wehr family and acquire a stake in the company them­sel­ves. Marc Linkert, Mana­ging Direc­tor Sales, explains: “Streng­the­ned by the exper­tise and resour­ces of LEA Part­ners, we can decisi­vely drive our company forward in an important phase of deve­lo­p­ment: not only by expan­ding our exis­ting product and service offe­ring, but also in parti­cu­lar by inves­t­ing in further indus­try solu­ti­ons and in our sales and tech­no­logy organization.”

“We have selec­ted our new majo­rity share­hol­der very carefully. LEA Part­ners has an excel­lent repu­ta­tion as a part­ner of high-growth tech­no­logy compa­nies,” says Oliver Land­wehr. “We are proud that we have been able to successfully imple­ment a succes­sion plan that streng­thens LANDWEHR in the long term and fits the company’s culture.”

“The Land­wehr family, manage­ment team and employees of LANDWEHR have done an impres­sive job of buil­ding the company over the past few years and deve­lo­ping it into a fast-growing market leader,” said Sebas­tian Müller of LEA Part­ners. “Based on the high custo­mer value gene­ra­ted by LAND­WEHR’s fully inte­gra­ted soft­ware products in the partly highly regu­la­ted markets, we see substan­tial further growth poten­tial. In addi­tion, there are a variety of inor­ga­nic growth oppor­tu­ni­ties, which we want to examine in the course of a selec­tive buy & build stra­tegy and realize toge­ther with the manage­ment team.” www.leapartners.de

Munich/ Grün­wald — Hübner Schlös­ser & Cie (HSCie) exclu­si­vely advi­sed the share­hol­ders of Schahl­LED Light­ing GmbH on the sale of a majo­rity stake to the private equity fund Active Capi­tal Company (ACC). The mana­ging part­ners remain mino­rity share­hol­ders and, toge­ther with the new inves­tor, will conti­nue to actively promote the growth stra­tegy of Schahl­LED in the future. One of the goals set is now to bring the bene­fits of leading smart LED solu­ti­ons to a broa­der Euro­pean indus­trial custo­mer base.

“Envi­ron­men­tally friendly green tech­no­lo­gies and smart solu­ti­ons are play­ing an incre­asingly important role in today’s economy. With its range of intel­li­gent func­tional LED solu­ti­ons, Schahl­LED effi­ci­ently combi­nes both areas and has also opti­mally posi­tio­ned itself to bene­fit from the emer­ging trend towards an indus­trial Inter­net of Things. In Active Capi­tal Company, Schahl­LED has found the ideal part­ner to take the company to the next level and imple­ment their successful busi­ness model across Europe,” explains Sabine Moel­ler (photo), part­ner at HSCie and project mana­ger for this transaction.

HSCie advi­sed the sellers in all steps of the sales process. The two mana­ging part­ners comment, “We are plea­sed to have selec­ted HSCie as our advi­sor. With HSCie, we had a highly profes­sio­nal and compe­tent part­ner at our side in this crucial phase. In addi­tion to crucial inves­tor access and excel­lent process manage­ment and nego­tia­tion skills, HSCie also stands out for its huma­nity and unwa­ve­ring commitment.”

About Schahl­LED Lighting
Schahl­LED is a leading full-service provi­der of intel­li­gent LED light­ing solu­ti­ons with a focus on indus­trial appli­ca­ti­ons. The company’s prede­ces­sor was formed in 1999, while the company was estab­lished through a spin-off in 2006 and acqui­red by manage­ment in a manage­ment buy-in in 2012. Schahl­LED has its head­quar­ters in Munich and is active in the entire DACH region as well as in Poland. The company is a full-service provi­der from project design, manu­fac­tu­ring and deli­very of intel­li­gent LED light­ing systems, to instal­la­tion, soft­ware inte­gra­tion and data analy­sis. The company hand­les over a hundred major projects a year with a network of sales and service part­ners in nort­hern Germany, central Germany, Austria, Switz­er­land and Poland. www.schahlled.de.

About Active Capi­tal Company
Active Capi­tal Company is an inde­pen­dent private equity fund focu­sed on small and medium-sized compa­nies in the Nether­lands and Germany. ACC invests in compa­nies in the indus­trial, whole­sale and service sectors with sales of between EUR 10 and 100 million. Through an entre­pre­neu­rial and proac­tive approach, ACC maxi­mi­zes the long-term value of its invest­ments by assis­ting manage­ment in execu­ting value-added projects and provi­ding access to its exten­sive part­ner network. www.activecapitalcompany.com.

About HSCie
Hübner Schlös­ser & Cie, is an inter­na­tio­nally active, inde­pen­dent corpo­rate finance consul­ting firm based in Munich. In recent years, HSCie has comple­ted more than 150 tran­sac­tions in various indus­tries with a total volume of more than € 17 billion. HSCie is one of the leading consul­ting firms in Germany in the segment of medium-sized transactions.

Frank­furt a. M. — Funds advi­sed by KKR have announ­ced the purchase of i&u TV. i&u is a German tele­vi­sion produc­tion company foun­ded by Günther Jauch for both infor­ma­tion and enter­tain­ment formats. The company produ­ces TV shows such as “stern TV,” “Klein gegen Groß,” “Die Ulti­ma­tive Chart­show” and “Menschen, Bilder, Emotio­nen” for Germany’s highest-reach TV stati­ons. In addi­tion to Günther Jauch (photo), i&u works with show hosts such as Barbara Schö­ne­ber­ger, Thomas Gott­schalk, Kai Pflaume, Jörg Pilawa and Oliver Pocher.

i&u is to comple­ment the inde­pen­dent group of compa­nies for film and TV content that KKR is buil­ding around Tele München Gruppe and Univer­sum Film, which it alre­ady bought in Febru­ary 2019.

“After almost 20 years of successful work at i&u, my thanks go to all employees. Andreas Zaik will conti­nue to provide conti­nuity as Mana­ging Direc­tor and Editor-in-Chief. I, too, will be available to the company for seve­ral more years, both in front of and behind the camera. I am deligh­ted that i&u will now be part of a large media network. I have known and appre­cia­ted Fred Kogel for almost 40 years. With him at the helm of a powerful plat­form and the strong share­hol­der KKR, new oppor­tu­ni­ties will open up for i&u in the TV market and beyond,” said Günther Jauch.

Advi­sor KKR: Henge­ler Mueller
Active part­ners are Dr. Sebas­tian Schnei­der (M&A/Corporate Law, Berlin), Dr. Maxi­mi­lian Schiessl (M&A, Düssel­dorf), Dr. Stefan Rich­ter (M&A/Corporate Law), Dr. Albrecht Conrad (M&A/TMT) (both Berlin), Dr. Chris­tian Schwandt­ner (M&A/Corporate), Dr. Carl-Phil­ipp Eber­lein (Capi­tal Markets) (both Düssel­dorf), Dr. Jan D. Bonhage (Public Commer­cial Law, Berlin), Dr. Thors­ten Mäger (Anti­trust, Düssel­dorf), Dr. Martin Klein (Tax) and Hendrik Bocken­hei­mer (Labor Law) (both Frank­furt), Coun­sel Fabian Seip (TMT, Berlin) and Eckbert Müller (Labor Law, Frank­furt) and Asso­cia­tes Alex­an­der Bekier, Dr. Hermann Dahlitz, Jonas Brost, Marvin Vesper-Gräske, Dr. Tobias Bege­mann (all M&A, Berlin), Marius Marx, Maxi­mi­lian Reischl (both Tax, Frank­furt), Dr. Anja Balitzki (Anti­trust), Dr. Deniz Tschamm­ler (both Düssel­dorf) and Dr. Char­lotte Riemann (Berlin) (both Public Commer­cial Law).

Zug (Switz­er­land) — The funds Ufenau VI German Asset Light (incl. co-invest­ment funds) advi­sed by Ufenau Capi­tal Part­ners with a volume of EUR 560 million have been successfully closed. Like their prede­ces­sors, the funds were heavily oversubscribed.

In addi­tion to more than 50 well-known entre­pre­neu­rial perso­na­li­ties who belong to the network of Ufenau Indus­trie Part­ner, the circle of inves­tors could again be supple­men­ted by further insti­tu­tio­nal “blue chip” inves­tors from the USA, Europe (inclu­ding England) and Asia.

Ufenau VI follows the iden­ti­cal invest­ment stra­tegy as its successful prede­ces­sor funds. The focus is again on majo­rity invest­ments in “asset light” service compa­nies in Germany, Switz­er­land and Austria with reve­nues of 15 — 150 million euros and profi­ta­ble busi­ness models, active in the 5 sectors: Busi­ness Services, Educa­tion & Life­style, Healt­care, IT and Finan­cial Services. A syste­ma­tic buy & build stra­tegy supports the orga­nic growth of the companies.

In total, the new fund is aiming for a further 10 — 12 invest­ments in the D/A/CH region over the next few years. In paral­lel with the expan­sion of the busi­ness acti­vity, the team has been greatly enlar­ged and now compri­ses five part­ners and a total of over 20 invest­ment professionals.

Ralf Flore (photo), Mana­ging Part­ner: “We are very plea­sed that due to the plea­sing deve­lo­p­ments of our port­fo­lio compa­nies, the deve­lo­p­ment of our team and sustain­ably successful invest­ment stra­tegy, exis­ting and also renow­ned new inves­tors have placed their trust in us. On this basis, we will remain the prefer­red part­ner for, among other things, succes­sion situa­tions in German-spea­king count­ries in the future.”

AXON Part­ners, based in Zug and London, again acted as exclu­sive place­ment agent for the fundraising.

Zaisenhausen/ Stutt­gart — Finexx Unter­neh­mens­be­tei­li­gun­gen acqui­res a majo­rity stake in Sicko GmbH & Co KG as part of a long-term succes­sion plan. The company, based in Zaisen­hau­sen, Baden-Würt­tem­berg, deve­lops and sells solu­ti­ons for the digi­tiza­tion and auto­ma­tion of proces­ses in the wood­wor­king indus­try. The brot­hers Carl and Jochen Sicko are the sellers of the shares. They will conti­nue to be mana­ging direc­tors and also share­hol­ders via a reverse share­hol­ding. The aim of the part­ner­ship is to conti­nue to bene­fit from the incre­asing demand for auto­ma­tion in the market and, above all, to herald new growth steps at Sicko through addi­tio­nal profes­sio­na­liza­tion. The tran­sac­tion, the details of which have been agreed not to be disc­lo­sed, has alre­ady been completed.

Sick­o’s focus is on deve­lo­ping solu­ti­ons that help increase produc­tion effi­ci­ency by inter­lin­king machi­nes. Since its foun­da­tion in 1975 by Karl Sicko, the father of today’s mana­ging direc­tors, the company, which now has 40 employees, has grown steadily and serves nume­rous well-known custo­mers in the DACH region and world­wide, inclu­ding wood proces­sing compa­nies such as sawmills and planing mills, wood-based panel and furni­ture manu­fac­tu­r­ers, as well as wood machi­nery manu­fac­tu­r­ers. Annual sales exceed seven million euros; in view of well-filled order books, signi­fi­cant double-digit sales growth is expec­ted for the current year.

For Finexx, the tran­sac­tion marks the second invest­ment from its fund with a volume of 35 million euros, which was only closed at the end of 2018 — last Novem­ber, the specia­list for the further deve­lo­p­ment of medium-sized compa­nies acqui­red a majo­rity stake in GSE Vertrieb Biolo­gi­sche Nahrungs­er­gän­zung & Heil­mit­tel GmbH from Saar­brü­cken. At Sicko, the second invest­ment from the first Finexx fund, new invest­ments and addi­tio­nal know-how are now to be used to reach new levels of development.

“Sicko is a hidden cham­pion of the German SME sector and has an excel­lent repu­ta­tion in the indus­try. On this basis, we want to use new impe­tus to help drive forward the profes­sio­na­liza­tion of proces­ses and struc­tures as well as the expan­sion of capa­ci­ties, work­force and part­ner­ships. The deve­lo­p­ment of new busi­ness areas and markets as well as an expan­sion of the port­fo­lio are also on the list,” explains Matthias Heining (photo), who runs Finexx toge­ther with Dr. Markus Seilerand can draw on a combi­ned 30 years of opera­tio­nal and commer­cial exper­tise in the indus­trial and tech­no­logy sectors as well as in family-owned compa­nies. The market envi­ron­ment offers excel­lent pros­pects: In Germany, as the global market and tech­no­logy leader for wood­wor­king machi­nery, the importance of wood as a buil­ding mate­rial is incre­asing stron­gly again; many new appli­ca­ti­ons for the raw mate­rial are also emer­ging, inclu­ding in the wood-based mate­ri­als indus­try, pack­a­ging manu­fac­tu­r­ers, prefa­bri­ca­ted cons­truc­tion, energy gene­ra­tion, and window and front door cons­truc­tion. Dr. Seiler: “This increa­ses the need in produc­tion faci­li­ties for effec­tive, relia­ble machi­nes and systems that help drive intel­li­gent auto­ma­tion. Sicko has a key role to play in this.”

About Finexx
Finexx GmbH Unter­neh­mens­be­tei­li­gun­gen, based in Stutt­gart, is a consul­ting company foun­ded in 2013 that specia­li­zes in estab­lished medium-sized compa­nies. Typi­cal fields of acti­vity are growth invest­ment and acqui­si­tion finan­cing as well as the support of chan­ges in the share­hol­der struc­ture and succes­sion planning.

Finexx invests long-term funds (equity capi­tal of between 5 and 50 million euros), mainly in the form of majo­rity share­hol­dings, in compa­nies from the German-spea­king region, inclu­ding insu­rance compa­nies and pension funds. These have sales of EUR 10 million or more, a quali­fied manage­ment team, and can demons­trate sustainable earnings power and cash flow based on a successful busi­ness model.

The team has many years of indus­trial and manage­ment expe­ri­ence as well as profound know-how in the invest­ment sector — both are brought to bear for the successful further deve­lo­p­ment of compa­nies and in the asso­cia­ted change proces­ses. Finexx supports manage­ment by provi­ding active commer­cial and tech­ni­cal advice without inter­fe­ring with day-to-day opera­ti­ons, as well as a cross-indus­try network.
www.finexx.de

Munich — Water­land Private Equity acqui­res a majo­rity stake in Reha­con GmbH, one of the leading compa­nies for physio­the­rapy services in Germany. Shear­man & Ster­ling advi­sed Deut­sche Apothe­ker- und Ärzte­bank eG (apoBank) and Skan­di­na­viska Enskilda Banken AB (SEB) on the finan­cing of the acqui­si­tion of Reha­con Group.

Reha­con, based in Gelsen­kir­chen, opera­tes more than 100 therapy centers throug­hout Germany, making it one of the largest provi­ders on the market in Europe. With more than 600 employees, the vast majo­rity of whom work on-site with pati­ents in the therapy centers, the Group gene­ra­tes annual sales of around 36 million euros. The seller of the shares is Mr. Michael Reeder, the foun­der and mana­ging direc­tor of the group, who is taking a signi­fi­cant stake in Reha­con through Reeder Invest GmbH.

The foun­der of the company will also conti­nue to manage it. The tran­sac­tion, which is expec­ted to be comple­ted by March 2019, is still subject to appr­oval by the anti­trust autho­ri­ties. Details of the tran­sac­tion were not disclosed.

Advi­sor Water­land: Shear­man & Sterling
The Shear­man & Ster­ling team included part­ner Dr. Matthias Weis­sin­ger and legal assistant Constanze Herrle (both Germany-Finance).

About Water­land Private Equity
Water­land Private Equity has exten­sive expe­ri­ence in the health­care market. The current port­fo­lio of compa­nies includes MEDIAN, the leading private provi­der in Germany with more than 120 reha­bi­li­ta­tion clinics, the ATOS group of clinics specia­li­zing in ortho­pe­dics, the care service provi­der Schö­nes Leben, and two medi­cal prac­tice chains. Water­land is also invol­ved in Hanse­fit, a leading sports network for corpo­rate custo­mers with more than 1,400 affi­lia­ted fitness studios.

Water­land is an inde­pen­dent private equity invest­ment firm that helps entre­pre­neurs achieve their growth objec­ti­ves. Water­land has offices in Belgium (Antwerp), the Nether­lands (Bussum), the UK (Manches­ter), Germany (Munich and Hamburg), Switz­er­land (Zurich), Denmark (Copen­ha­gen) and Poland (Warsaw) and curr­ently mana­ges over €6 billion of inves­tor commitments.

Antwerp — Gimv acqui­res a majo­rity stake in Cool­world Rentals. The fast-growing company from the Nether­lands is active in the field of full-service rental of cooling and heating equip­ment to B2B custo­mers. The foun­ding Buij­zen family, foun­der Jack Buijns­ters and the manage­ment remain invol­ved. Upon comple­tion of the tran­sac­tion, Ruud van Mierlo, curr­ently Direc­tor Sales and Marke­ting, will be appoin­ted CEO. The current acting CEO Jack Buijns­ters moves to the advi­sory board and will conti­nue to play an active role in busi­ness deve­lo­p­ment. The tran­sac­tion is expec­ted to enable Cool­world Rentals to execute its ambi­tious growth plans. Gimv is thus expan­ding its Sustainable Cities plat­form, which mana­ges compa­nies that bene­fit from the need for sustainable products.

Cool­world Rentals, based in Waal­wijk, the Nether­lands (www.coolworld-rentals.com), is an inter­na­tio­nal specia­list in full-service rental of cooling and heating equip­ment. Since its foun­da­tion in 1993, the company has deve­lo­ped into a specia­li­zed supplier that rents out cold storage and free­zing cells as well as indus­trial solu­ti­ons for process cooling, air condi­tio­ning and heating. With a wide range of products and services, Cool­world can respond flexi­bly to its custo­mers’ ever-chan­ging needs for cooling and heating solu­ti­ons. Examp­les include capa­city bott­len­ecks, rebuilds, test arran­ge­ments, seaso­nal peaks or opera­tio­nal disrup­ti­ons. An inter­na­tio­nal network of own bran­ches, logi­stics depots and service points in the Nether­lands, Belgium, Germany, France, Austria and Switz­er­land guaran­tees a year-round service around the clock.

Cool­world opera­tes in many market segments and counts compa­nies from the food, retail, phar­maceu­ti­cal, chemi­cal, logi­stics and data center sectors among its custo­mers. In these custo­mers’ proces­ses, modern air condi­tio­ning tech­no­lo­gies are play­ing an incre­asingly important role due to the need for fres­her food, stric­ter requi­re­ments or envi­ron­men­tal legis­la­tion. Also, peak times often have to be absor­bed with tempo­rary solu­ti­ons. Cool­world can guaran­tee the neces­sary flexi­bi­lity, quality and service for this. In addi­tion, the company offers its custo­mers appro­priate services such as tech­ni­cal design, trans­port, main­ten­ance and repair, and remote moni­to­ring as part of an all-round support service, so that they can concen­trate on their core busi­ness. The combi­na­tion of tech­ni­cal exper­tise, full-service concept, a broad custo­mer port­fo­lio and high custo­mer loyalty are the basis for Cool­worl­d’s success.

With the invest­ment from Gimv, Cool­world aims to achieve its growth targets. This includes expan­ding acti­vi­ties in the home markets, broa­de­ning the port­fo­lio of energy-effi­ci­ent and sustainable products, and incre­asing opera­ting effi­ci­ency. A buy-and-build stra­tegy is also plan­ned for both exis­ting and new markets.

Rombout Poos and Roland Veld­hui­j­zen Van Zanten of the Gimv deal team: “Cool­world is a unique company in an attrac­tive segment that bene­fits from important trends that are in line with the stra­tegy of our Sustainable Cities invest­ment plat­form. We look forward to working with Ruud van Mierlo and his team to help shape Cool­worl­d’s contin­ued expan­sion and signi­fi­cant growth. We share the view that sustainable leasing solu­ti­ons are beco­ming incre­asingly important, have a simi­lar geogra­phic foot­print and are looking to grow inter­na­tio­nally. We will bring our exper­tise in air condi­tio­ning and leasing to support the group’s growth.”

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

About Gimv
Gimv is a Euro­pean invest­ment company with almost 40 years of expe­ri­ence in private equity. The company is listed on Euron­ext Brussels and curr­ently mana­ges appro­xi­m­ately €1.6 billion in around 50 port­fo­lio compa­nies, which toge­ther gene­rate sales of €2.5 billion with over 14,000 employees.

As a reco­gni­zed leader for selec­ted invest­ment plat­forms, Gimv iden­ti­fies entre­pre­neu­rial and inno­va­tive compa­nies with high growth poten­tial and supports them in their trans­for­ma­tion into market leaders. Gimv’s four invest­ment plat­forms are: Connec­ted Consu­mer, Health & Care, Smart Indus­tries and Sustainable Cities. Each of these plat­forms works with a compe­tent and dedi­ca­ted team in Gimv’s home markets (Bene­lux, France and Germany) and can count on an exten­ded inter­na­tio­nal network of experts.

Müns­ter — A Gleiss Lutz team has advi­sed US finan­cial inves­tor Tiger Global Manage­ment LLC on a multi-million venture capi­tal finan­cing for German start-up Flaschen­post, in connec­tion with the acqui­si­tion of a mino­rity stake in Flaschen­post. The Müns­ter-based company is recei­ving an invest­ment of €50 million from Tiger Global, which will be used in the first step for natio­nal growth and in the next for inter­na­tio­nal growth.

Bottle Post was foun­ded in 2016: via the company’s website, custo­mers can have drinks deli­vered within two hours. Flaschen­post opera­tes in eight German regi­ons and says it deli­vers up to 50,000 orders a week. Curr­ently, around 1,700 drivers, warehouse staff and office employees work for the company. In addi­tion to Tiger Global , other well-known venture capi­tal funds have inves­ted in Flaschen­post, inclu­ding Cherry Ventures and Vorwerk Ventures.

Tiger Global was foun­ded in New York City in 2001. The venture capi­tal and private equity inves­tor has one of its invest­ment focu­ses in the area of e‑commerce. Gleiss Lutz has regu­larly advi­sed Tiger Global on invest­ments in Germany for many years, such as Hitmeis­ter or Fein­tech­nik Eisfeld (Harry’s).

Advi­sor Tiger Global: Gleiss Lutz
Lead part­ners Dr. Jan Bals­sen (Part­ner, Private Equity) and Dr. Ralf Mors­häu­ser (Part­ner, Corporate/M&A, both Munich)
Dr. Olaf Hohle­fel­der (Munich), Dr. Hilmar Hütten (Düssel­dorf), Florian Schorn, Stepha­nie Daus­in­ger (both Munich, all Corporate/M&A), Dr. Iris Bene­dikt-Bucken­leib (Coun­sel, Anti­trust, Munich), Dr. Timo Bühler (Finan­cing Law, Frank­furt), Dr. Stef­fen Krie­ger (Part­ner, Düssel­dorf), Dr. Eva Heup (Munich), Jose­fine Chakrab­arti (Berlin, all Labor Law), Dr. Chris­tian Hamann (Part­ner, Berlin, Data Protec­tion), Dr. Phil­ipp Naab (Coun­sel, Frank­furt, Real Estate), Dr. Alex­an­der Molle (Part­ner, Berlin), Dr. Manuel Klar (Munich), Dr. Matthias Schilde (Berlin, all IP/IT), Dr. Britta Kamp (Stutt­gart, Litigation).

Munich — Only a few months after the take­over by the Munich-based indus­trial holding ADCURAM, the MEA Group has reali­zed an important acqui­si­tion: With Adolf Schrei­ber GmbH (ASM) from Münsin­gen, a tradi­tion-rich specia­list supplier beco­mes part of the inter­na­tio­nal cons­truc­tion supplier head­quar­te­red in Aich­ach. The tran­sac­tion has alre­ady been comple­ted; the parties have agreed not to disc­lose details.

ASM, the former Adolf Schrei­ber Metall­wa­ren­fa­brik, was foun­ded in 1872 and focu­sed on the produc­tion of high-quality gratings made of steel and stain­less steel more than 50 years ago. Nume­rous natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal custo­mers from indus­try, plant engi­nee­ring and cons­truc­tion rely on the company’s expe­ri­ence and high quality stan­dards. ASM produ­ces gratings for them indi­vi­du­ally in diffe­rent sizes, mate­rial thic­k­nes­ses and mesh widths on modern equipment.

As a future part of the Metal Appli­ca­ti­ons busi­ness area, ASM comple­ments MEA’s port­fo­lio with further high-quality stain­less steel gratings and contri­bu­tes important auto­ma­ted manu­fac­tu­ring capa­ci­ties for MEA’s steadily growing order volume.

“With the acqui­si­tion, MEA can further tigh­ten stra­te­gic levers in terms of busi­ness expan­sion with exis­ting custo­mers, deve­lo­p­ment of addi­tio­nal market segments, streng­thening of the distri­bu­tion network as well as further tech­no­lo­gi­cal deve­lo­p­ment,” says Dr. Phil­ipp Gusinde (photo), CEO of ADCURAM Group AG and member of the advi­sory board at MEA. Tors­ten Wende, Mana­ging Direc­tor of MEA Metal Appli­ca­ti­ons adds: “We plan to expand ASM’s company site in Münsin­gen, Swabia, into a compe­tence center for all of MEA’s high-quality stain­less steel produc­tion. We are very plea­sed to welcome ASM to the MEA Group.” ADCURAM had acqui­red the family-owned company, foun­ded in 1886, in the summer of 2018 and has since been imple­men­ting an ambi­tious stra­tegy for further growth and expan­sion. MEA employs around 700 people and, as one of the leading suppli­ers to the cons­truc­tion indus­try, manu­fac­tures not only special gratings but also, among other things, light wells, windows and drai­nage systems.

About ADCURAM
ADCURAM is a priva­tely owned indus­trial group. ADCURAM acqui­res compa­nies with poten­tial and deve­lops them actively and sustain­ably. For the future growth of the Group, the capi­tal-strong indus­trial holding company has a total of 300 million euros available for acqui­si­ti­ons. With the help of its own 40-strong team of experts, the indus­trial holding company conti­nues to deve­lop the port­fo­lio compa­nies stra­te­gi­cally and opera­tio­nally. Toge­ther, the group gene­ra­tes nearly 500 million euros in sales world­wide (2017) with six holdings and over 2,500 employees.

ADCURAM sees itself as an entre­pre­neu­rial inves­tor and invests in succes­sion plans and corpo­rate spin-offs. www.adcuram.com

About MEA
The MEA Group is an inter­na­tio­nal group of compa­nies with over 130 years of expe­ri­ence in the market, world­wide acti­vi­ties and produc­tion sites in France, the Czech Repu­blic, Roma­nia and China. Inno­va­tive products and solu­ti­ons make the MEA Group one of the leading suppli­ers to the cons­truc­tion indus­try. MEA offers its custo­mers a wide range of products for base­ment cons­truc­tion and drai­nage appli­ca­ti­ons as well as a compre­hen­sive range of gratings. The motto: “BUILDING SUCCESS”. MEA solu­ti­ons make cons­truc­tion profes­sio­nals’ jobs easier, faster and safer, helping them achieve real produc­ti­vity gains.
www.mea-group.com