ETNA Capital acquires majority stake in Brolis Defense Group

Munich/ Frank­furt a. M. / Lithua­nia — ETNA Capi­tal, a Danish private equity firm focu­sed on invest­ments in defense, cyber secu­rity and criti­cal infra­struc­ture protec­tion, has acqui­red a majo­rity stake in Brolis Defence Group, UAB (“Brolis”). The tran­sac­tion is expec­ted to close in the second quar­ter of 2026, subject to regu­la­tory approvals. 

A WEIL team led by Dr. Kamyar Abrar advi­sed coun­sel Dr. Julia Schö­fer (Private Equity, Munich) toge­ther with part­ner Susanne Decker (Private Equity, Frank­furt) ETNA Capi­tal on this transaction.

On the Lithua­nian side, SERAINEN has the ETNA Capi­tal on the acqui­si­tion of a majo­rity stake in UAB Brolis Defense Group , on the Lithua­nian side. This is the largest private equity invest­ment in the defense sector in the Baltic States to date and the first invest­ment by ETNA Capi­tal, which was estab­lished last year. 

With the support of ETNA Capi­tal, Brolis intends to acce­le­rate product and tech­no­logy deve­lo­p­ment, expand its indus­trial capa­ci­ties and expand inter­na­tio­nally, ther­eby contri­bu­ting to Euro­pe’s tech­no­lo­gi­cal sove­reig­nty and resi­li­ence in the defense and secu­rity sector. Follo­wing the tran­sac­tion, the foun­ders will remain inves­ted with a signi­fi­cant mino­rity stake of around 40% and will conti­nue to run the company toge­ther with ETNA Capital. 

The tran­sac­tion unders­cores Weil’s strong private equity prac­tice in the defense and secu­rity tech­no­logy sector and demons­tra­tes the firm’s exper­tise in advi­sing on complex, stra­te­gi­cally signi­fi­cant invest­ments invol­ving sensi­tive tech­no­lo­gies and multi­na­tio­nal regu­la­tory issues.

ETNA Capi­tal, foun­ded in 2025 and backed by leading Danish pension funds, is a pan-Euro­­pean private equity firm head­quar­te­red in Copen­ha­gen with an addi­tio­nal office in Munich. The company focu­ses on invest­ments that streng­then Euro­pean resi­li­ence in stra­te­gi­cally criti­cal sectors, combi­ning private equity exper­tise with deep indus­try know­ledge and opera­tio­nal experience. 

Head­quar­te­red in Vilnius, Lithua­nia, Brolis is a leading deve­lo­per and manu­fac­tu­rer of advan­ced sensor tech­no­lo­gies in the fields of elec­­tro-optics, lasers and infrared. Foun­ded in 2011, the company opera­tes as a supplier to the defense sector and secu­rity agencies. 

WEIL acted as lead coun­sel to ETNA Capi­tal in all legal aspects of the tran­sac­tion, inclu­ding advice on regu­la­tory matters.

Team: Led by private equity part­ner Dr. Kamyar Abrar (Frank­furt) and coun­sel Dr. Julia Schö­fer (private equity, Munich) toge­ther with part­ner Susanne Decker (private equity, Frank­furt) and compri­sed part­ner Niklas Maydell (anti­trust, Brussels), part­ner Tom Richards and part­ner Kai Zhang (both finance, London), part­ner Neil Rigby (anti­trust, London), part­ner Shawn B. Cooley (Regu­la­tory, Washing­ton, D.C.), coun­sel Stef­fen Giolda (Regu­la­tory, Munich) and asso­cia­tes Alex­an­der Roth­stein (Private Equity, Frank­furt), Alex­an­der Reich (Tax, Frank­furt), Hans-Chris­­tian Mick (Finance, Frank­furt), Álvaro Salgado and Lucy Peck­ham (both Anti­trust, London/Brussels). WEIL worked closely with Sorai­nen as Lithua­nian legal coun­sel. — www.weil.com

About Weil

Weil, Gotshal & Manges is an inter­na­tio­nal law firm with more than 1,200 lawy­ers. Weil has offices in New York, Austin, Boston, Brussels, Dallas, Frank­furt, Hong Kong, Hous­ton, Los Ange­les, London, Miami, Munich, Paris, San Fran­cisco, Washing­ton, D.C. and Sili­con Valley. In Germany, the Ameri­can law firm has two offices in Frank­furt and Munich. The focus here is on provi­ding specia­li­zed advice to natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal clients on cross-border private equity and M&A tran­sac­tions, high-profile liti­ga­tion manda­tes, complex restruc­tu­rings and finan­cings as well as tax structuring.

About ETNA Capital

ETNA (foun­ded 2025) is a private equity firm dedi­ca­ted to streng­thening Euro­pean resi­li­ence by inves­t­ing in defense, cyber­se­cu­rity and criti­cal infra­struc­ture protec­tion compa­nies. Our invest­ment mandate extends across Europe. — We bring leading indus­try exper­tise and an exten­sive network and have an in-house value crea­tion team to support and deve­lop the compa­nies we invest in — with the aim of buil­ding world-class busi­nesses. www.etna.capital