Hamburg — DLA Piper has advi­sed Hamburg-based KRAHN Chemie Group, part of the globally active Otto Krahn Group, on the acqui­si­tion of majo­rity stakes in six compa­nies from Jollis AB & Part­ners, Sweden. In order to bundle the new acti­vi­ties, KRAHN Nordics AB was foun­ded, in which KRAHN Chemie holds the majo­rity with the parti­ci­pa­tion of some of the previous owners of the acqui­red compa­nies. With annual sales of appro­xi­m­ately EUR 1.3 billion, the Otto Krahn Group has around 1,600 employees at 36 loca­ti­ons worldwide.

The acqui­red compa­nies include Gothen­­burg-based AmphoChem AB, a leading Scan­di­na­vian distri­bu­tor of indus­trial chemi­cals, addi­ti­ves as well as specialty chemi­cals, and Pemco Addi­ti­ves AB, another leading Scan­di­na­vian distri­bu­tor active in the fuel, lubri­cants and petro­che­mi­cal industries.

In addi­tion, the tran­sac­tion included the indi­rect acqui­si­tion of shares in Temper Tech­no­logy AB, Gothen­burg, which produ­ces sustainable and energy-effi­ci­ent heat trans­fer fluids and anti­freeze, BGM Logi­stics AB, Gothen­burg, a provi­der of logi­stics solu­ti­ons for warehousing, third-party logi­stics and distri­bu­tion in Sweden, and Pemco-Trigue­ros Addi­ti­ves Spain S.L., Alicante, which covers the distri­bu­tion of addi­ti­ves and base oils for use in fuels, indus­trial and auto­mo­tive formu­la­ti­ons in Spain.

In the course of the tran­sac­tion, KRAHN Chemie also acqui­red 100% of Petrico Ltd., Sand­bach, England, in which Pemco Addi­ti­ves AB was previously the indi­rect majo­rity owner. Petrico distri­bu­tes highly specia­li­zed petro­leum products and chemi­cal products for the lubri­cants and addi­ti­ves industry.

DLA Piper, under the lead manage­ment of Sebas­tian Decker (photo)In recent years, we have successfully advi­sed the Otto Krahn Group on various natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal tran­sac­tions, most recently on the acqui­si­tion of shares in the Greek company Inter­Ac­tive S.A. at the begin­ning of 2020 and previously on the acqui­si­tion of eMBe by KRAHN Chemie as well as on the acqui­si­tion of the WIPAG Group by ALBIS PLASTIC and its joint venture with William Barnet & Son in the USA.

“Sebas­tian Decker and his team are very prudent and thorough, yet prag­ma­tic and respon­sive, even in complex tran­sac­tions. The team­work within the DLA team and with the client is outstan­ding and the willing­ness and ability to get invol­ved in the — also commer­cial — details of a tran­sac­tion are parti­cu­larly note­wor­thy” says Axel Sebbesse, Chief Deve­lo­p­ment Offi­cer and Head of M&A at Otto Krahn Group.

The inter­na­tio­nal team of DLA Piper was under the joint lead of part­ner Sebas­tian Decker and senior asso­ciate Sophie von Mandels­loh (both Corporate/M&A, Hamburg). Also present from the Frank­furt office were Part­ner Semin O, Coun­sel Sergej Bräuer and Asso­ciate Alex­an­der Rösch (all Anti­trust), from Leeds, UK, Part­ners Andrew Davies (Corpo­rate) and Jane Hannon (Employ­ment) and Asso­cia­tes Simon Winterburn (Corpo­rate) and Char­lotte Need­ham (Employ­ment), from Stock­holm, Sweden, part­ners Magnus Oskars­son (Corpo­rate) and Björn Rustare (Employ­ment), senior asso­ciate Kris­tina Stavne and asso­ciate Björn Torsteins­rud (both Corpo­rate), and from the Madrid, Spain, office, legal direc­tor Remei Sanchez and asso­ciate Maria Gutier­rez (both Corporate).

The in-house team of the Otto Krahn Group was led by Axel Sebbesse (Chief Deve­lo­p­ment Offi­cer and Head of M&A) and Fabian Maerz (Direc­tor Tax & Legal).

About DLA Piper

DLA Piper is one of the world’s leading commer­cial law firms, with offices in more than 40 count­ries in Africa, Asia, Austra­lia, Europe, the Middle East, and North and South America. In Germany, DLA Piper is repre­sen­ted by more than 250 lawy­ers at its offices in Frank­furt, Hamburg, Colo­gne and Munich. In certain juris­dic­tions, this infor­ma­tion may be conside­red attor­ney adver­ti­sing. For more infor­ma­tion, visit: www.dlapiper.com