Graz/Frankfurt/Freiburg — The globally active high-tech company AVL List GmbH has acqui­red shares in FIFTY2 Tech­no­logy GmbH, based in Frei­burg. FIFTY2 has deve­lo­ped the inno­va­tive soft­ware tool Preon­Lab, which enables the simu­la­tion of previously unrea­lizable fluid dyna­mics use cases.

A successful sales part­ner­ship has alre­ady exis­ted between the two compa­nies for seve­ral years. The entry of AVL as a share­hol­der now rein­forces this part­ner­ship. With this step, AVL streng­thens and expands its simu­la­tion compe­ten­cies. Compared to conven­tio­nal solu­ti­ons, Preon­Lab opens up new possi­bi­li­ties for custo­mers to simu­late fluids in consider­a­bly less time, with less effort and impres­sive display capa­bi­li­ties. This simu­la­tion tech­ni­que is used in parti­cu­lar by the auto­mo­tive industry.

AVL is the world’s largest inde­pen­dent company for the deve­lo­p­ment, simu­la­tion and test­ing of power­train systems (hybrid, combus­tion engi­nes, trans­mis­si­ons, elec­tric motors, batte­ries and soft­ware) for passen­ger cars, commer­cial vehic­les and large engi­nes. AVL employs over 10,400 people world­wide. In 2018, sales amoun­ted to 1.75 billion euros.

FIFTY2 Tech­no­logy GmbH was foun­ded as a startup in 2015. Rese­arch on the Preon­Lab soft­ware tool began a decade ago at the Univer­sity of Frei­burg and is based on using mathe­ma­tics and compu­ter code to create simu­la­ti­ons that repli­cate nature. Physi­cal simu­la­ti­ons can help provide insights early in the deve­lo­p­ment cycle in many areas of engi­nee­ring. Engi­neers are thus enab­led to produce more inno­va­tive and safer products.

FIFTY2 Tech­no­logy GmbH and its two foun­ding share­hol­ders and mana­ging direc­tors, Markus Ihmsen and Jens Corne­lis, were compre­hen­si­vely advi­sed on the tran­sac­tion by an M&A team from the commer­cial law firm Fried­rich Graf von West­pha­len & Part­ner (FGvW) in Frei­burg, led by part­ner Dr. Hendrik Thies. The cont­act between FIFTY2 and FGvW came about through a recommendation.

AVL List GmbH was advi­sed by the Frank­furt office of CMS Hasche Sigle, led by Dr. Jochen Schlot­ter.

Advi­sor to FIFTY2 Tech­no­logy GmbH and its foun­ding share­hol­ders: Fried­rich Graf von West­pha­len & Part­ner, Freiburg
Dr. Hendrik Thies, Part­ner (Lead Part­ner, Corpo­rate, M&A)
Dr. Jan Henning Martens, Part­ner (Corpo­rate, Start­ups, Venture Capital)
Dr. Stefan Lammel, Part­ner (Corpo­rate Finance)
Dr. Morton Douglas, Part­ner (IP)
Dr. Matthias Jüne­mann, Part­ner (Family Law/Inheritance Law)