Berlin, March 2021 — The Ameri­­can-French luxury inves­tor L Catter­ton has acqui­red a stake in BIRKENSTOCK. The indi­rect share­hol­ders of the Birken­stock Group, Chris­tian and Alex Birken­stock, retain an econo­mic inte­rest. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the details of the agree­ment. The tran­sac­tion is subject to appr­oval by the rele­vant compe­ti­tion authorities.

The stra­te­gic part­ner­ship with L Catter­ton is the next step for the global life­style brand BIRKENSTOCK to conti­nue to grow stron­gly in future markets such as China and India. In Europe and America, BIRKENSTOCK will further streng­then its leading market posi­tion by inves­t­ing in its German sites and expan­ding produc­tion, logi­stics and sales. In addi­tion, further deve­lo­p­ment of the direct-to-consu­­mer busi­ness and expan­sion of the company’s own e‑commerce plat­forms are planned.

Deloitte provi­ded compre­hen­sive support to Birken­stock GmbH & Co KG during the prepa­ra­tion of the entry of an inves­tor and the imple­men­ta­tion of a bidding process until the successful sale to the stra­te­gic part­ner L Catter­ton. Thanks to the inter­di­sci­pli­nary coope­ra­tion of Deloitte Legal’s legal advi­sors with Deloitte experts from the Tax and Finan­cial Advi­sory areas and the compre­hen­sive consu­mer goods indus­try exper­tise, the rele­vant aspects for this complex tran­sac­tion were covered. Seam­less coope­ra­tion with the teams of the Ameri­can invest­ment bank Gold­man Sachs, which was brought in to find an inves­tor, also contri­bu­ted to the success of the transaction.

Advi­sor Birken­stock Group: Deloitte Legal
Dr. Julia Peter­sen (Part­ner, Corporate/M&A, Berlin, Lead), Chris­to­fer Mellert (Part­ner, Corporate/M&A, Düssel­dorf), Albrecht Kind­ler (Part­ner, Corporate/M&A, Düssel­dorf), Dr. Klaus Pilz (Coun­sel, Corporate/M&A, Berlin), Dr. Juliane Wert­her-Bontje (Coun­sel, Corporate/M&A Berlin), Dr. Moritz Erkel (Asso­ciate, Corporate/M&A, Berlin), Nata­lia Vost (Asso­ciate, Corporate/M&A, Berlin) Dr. Char­lotte Sander (Part­ner Labor Law, Hano­ver), Alex­an­der Deja (Asso­ciate, Labor Law, Hano­ver), Felix Skala, LL.M. (Part­ner, Anti­trust Law, Hamburg), Katha­rina Zicker­mann, LL.M. (Asso­ciate, Anti­trust, Hamburg), Sebas­tian von Rueden (Part­ner, IT/IP, Düssel­dorf), Sonja Baier (Asso­ciate, IT/IP Düssel­dorf) Deloitte Tax: Stefan Grube (Part­ner, MP Tax & Legal Deloitte Germany, Düssel­dorf), Olga Metcher (Direc­tor, Düssel­dorf), Ann-Pascale Horst­mann (Consul­tant, Düssel­dorf), Marc Puls (Senior Mana­ger, Düssel­dorf), Chris­tian Dohm­gans (Senior Mana­ger, Düssel­dorf) Deloitte Finan­cial Advi­sory: Kars­ten Holl­asch (Part­ner, Sector Lead Consu­mer Indus­try Deloitte Germany, Dussel­dorf) Roland Basler (Direc­tor, Dussel­dorf), Caro­lin Kopy­ciok (Mana­ger, Dussel­dorf), Jaque­lien Ursprung (Senior Mana­ger, Dussel­dorf); Felix Bauchro­witz (Mana­ger) and Julian Opfer­kuch (Senior) For USA: Gibbons P.C.: Terry Myers, Frank Cannone, Peter Flagel Invest­ment Bank: Gold­man Sachs