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Dr. Nadine Hartung strengthens Raue in the area of Corporate/M&A

Posted on by Tatjana Anderer

Berlin — Raue is expan­ding its corpo­rate and tran­sac­tional team with the addi­tion of Dr. Nadine Hartung (photo © Raue) as Equity Part­ner on March 1, 2023. Dr. Nadine Hartung specia­li­zes in corpo­rate law and M&A advice in the health­care sector and was previously a part­ner at McDer­mott Will & Emery in Munich.

Dr. Nadine Hartung advi­ses natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal inves­tors as well as health­care provi­ders on corpo­rate law, M&A tran­sac­tions, contract draf­ting and corpo­rate gover­nance and compli­ance issues. Her clients include private equity and venture capi­tal funds, medi­cal care centers (MVZ), opera­tors of hospi­tals and nursing homes, as well as phar­maceu­ti­cal compa­nies and medi­cal device manu­fac­tu­r­ers. It is recom­men­ded by Legal 500, Best Lawy­ers and Handelsblatt.

Dr. Nadine Hartung studied and recei­ved her docto­rate in Marburg. From 2010 to 2016, she worked at Henge­ler Muel­ler in Berlin and Frank­furt am Main before joining McDer­mott Will & Emery LLP in 2016. In 2013/2014, she spent a second­ment in the M&A team of Cravath, Swaine & Moore in New York.

Dr. Hartung explains the reasons for her move to Raue: “Raue offers nume­rous syner­gies to my advi­sory prac­tice, espe­ci­ally in corpo­rate law and VC advi­sory as well as in health­care law and digi­tal economy. I look forward to working with my colle­agues at Raue to further expand tran­sac­tional advice focu­sed on the health­care sector in particular.”

Raue Mana­ging Part­ner Dr. Wolf­ram Hertel: “We are very plea­sed that Dr. Hartung has joined us. With her, we have found an expe­ri­en­ced part­ner perso­na­lity who has deve­lo­ped an indus­try-focu­sed advi­sory offe­ring — this fits perfectly with our own stra­te­gic approach. We conti­nue to focus on growth in advi­sing regu­la­ted indus­tries and technologies.”

Prof. Dr. Andreas Nelle, Part­ner at Raue in the Corpo­rate and M&A prac­tice, says of Dr. Hartung’s arri­val: “Dr. Hartung is an excel­lent addi­tion to our private equity / venture capi­tal advi­sory prac­tice. With her, we will further increase our exper­tise in advi­sing tran­sac­tions, in parti­cu­lar also for natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal inves­tors in the health­care industry.”

Dr. Katha­rina Wodarz, part­ner at Raue in the health­care sector adds: “Dr. Nadine Hartung is an almost ideal addi­tion for us. She has known the health­care sector for many years and is fami­liar with its complex regu­la­tion. This allows for seam­less colla­bo­ra­tion with our strong regu­la­tory team when advi­sing on new busi­ness models and transactions.”

With the addi­tion of Dr. Nadine Hartung, Raue’s Corporate/M&A, PE/VC prac­tice compri­ses a total of 14 profes­sio­nals (six equity part­ners, one coun­sel, one senior asso­ciate, one of coun­sel and five associates).

About RAUE

Raue is an inter­na­tio­nally active law firm based in Berlin. She provi­des compre­hen­sive advice to natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal compa­nies and public enti­ties on invest­ment projects, tran­sac­tions, regu­la­tory issues and conten­tious dispu­tes. www.raue.com.

KKR: Harald Dürr now responsible for Family Capital business in the DACH region

Posted on by Tatjana Anderer

Frank­furt — KKR, a leading global inves­tor, has appoin­ted Harald Dürr (photo) as Mana­ging Direc­tor of KKR’s Client and Part­ner Group (CPG) to lead its Family Capi­tal client busi­ness in the DACH region. In his role, Harald Dürr will focus on expan­ding KKR’s offe­ring for family offices and further streng­thening KKR’s posi­tio­ning in the DACH region. He also beco­mes part of KKR’s Family Capi­tal team in EMEA, which was estab­lished in 2014 to build long-term, trus­ted rela­ti­onships with high net worth fami­lies and entrepreneurs.

Harald Dürr spent more than 25 years at Deut­sche Bank, where he held various manage­ment posi­ti­ons and was respon­si­ble for the Family Capi­tal divi­sion, most recently as Senior Rela­ti­onship Mana­ger and Mana­ging Direc­tor in Frank­furt. In these roles, he focu­sed on complex client situa­tions and became a trus­ted advi­sor to some of the bank’s most important clients, inclu­ding family offices, busi­ness foun­ders and entre­pre­neurs. He also helped the bank increase its market share among the top 500 fami­lies in Germany.

Previously, he was a member of the advi­sory board of two German medium-sized compa­nies, where he addi­tio­nally advi­sed an inter­na­tio­nal wealthy family in connec­tion with their German invest­ments. Chris­tian Ollig, Part­ner and Head of DACH at KKR, said: “We are very plea­sed to have Harald Dürr join our growing team. With his exten­sive expe­ri­ence in serving family offices and entre­pre­neurs, Harald is an excel­lent addi­tion to our Client and Part­ner Group in the DACH region. We are plea­sed to have Harald Dürr join our team and lead KKR’s rela­ti­onships with this special group of inves­tors as we conti­nue to expand our presence in Germany.”

Harald Dürr, Mana­ging Direc­tor, CPG at KKR in Germany, said: “I am deligh­ted to join KKR’s team in Frank­furt. I look forward to lever­aging my expe­ri­ence, know­ledge and network in the German asset manage­ment market to further streng­then KKR’s exten­sive offe­ring in the DACH region and attract new inves­tors in the growing family capi­tal space.”

Harald Dürr’s appoint­ment is part of KKR’s ongo­ing efforts to expand its team in the DACH region and follows a number of appoint­ments in KKR’s Client and Part­ner Group, inclu­ding the appoint­ment of Hagen Raab as a Direc­tor in 2018 and Steven Bayly as a
Mana­ging Direc­tor in 2021, as well as the appoint­ment of Moritz Mondo­vits, who joined KKR in 2022 as Prin­ci­pal toge­ther with Hanna Kunz­mann as Asso­ciate. KKR’s Client and Part­ner Group is respon­si­ble for advi­sing and serving KKR’s Limi­ted Part­ners and works to further diver­sify KKR’s client base. The team is respon­si­ble for attrac­ting new inves­tors from all regi­ons and from various insti­tu­ti­ons. By incre­asingly expan­ding its capa­bi­li­ties in this area, KKR aims to address the growing importance of family offices and intro­duce them to the full range of KKR’s invest­ment opportunities.

About KKR

KKR is a leading global inves­tor provi­ding alter­na­tive asset manage­ment, capi­tal markets and insu­rance solu­ti­ons. The focus is on gene­ra­ting attrac­tive invest­ment returns through a long-term and disci­pli­ned invest­ment approach, employ­ing highly skil­led profes­sio­nals and support­ing growth at its invest­ment proper­ties and in the commu­ni­ties where KKR has a presence. KKR finan­ces funds that invest in private equity, credit products, real assets, and — through stra­te­gic part­ners — hedge funds. KKR’s insu­rance subsi­dia­ries offer reti­re­ment, life and reinsu­rance products under the manage­ment of Global Atlan­tic Finan­cial Group. www.kkr.com, Twit­ter @KKR_Co.

Deutsche Beteiligungs AG: Generation change on the Board of Management

Posted on by Tatjana Anderer

Frank­furt am Main — The Spokes­man of the Board of Manage­ment of Deut­sche Betei­li­gungs AG (DBAG), Tors­ten Grede, intends to resign as a member and Spokes­man of the Board of Manage­ment at the end of Febru­ary 2023 in the best possi­ble agree­ment with the Super­vi­sory Board. This was announ­ced today by Tors­ten Grede and the Super­vi­sory Board of DBAG. The new spokes­man for the Execu­tive Board from March 1, 2023 is to be Execu­tive Board member Tom Alzin. Mela­nie Wiese (photo) will join the DBAG Manage­ment Board as the new Chief Finan­cial Offi­cer on Janu­ary 1, 2023, taking over respon­si­bi­lity for Finance from Tors­ten Grede.

“My decis­ion to ask the Super­vi­sory Board to prema­tu­rely termi­nate my service on the Manage­ment Board after 32 years of service to DBAG marks the comple­tion of the long-plan­ned gene­ra­tio­nal change on the Manage­ment Board,” Grede said today. And: “I am parti­cu­larly plea­sed that it will be my long-time colle­agues who, toge­ther with Mela­nie Wiese, will steer DBAG’s fortu­nes in the future, and that the Super­vi­sory Board will entrust my colle­ague Tom Alzin with the office of Spokes­man of the Manage­ment Board.”

The Manage­ment Board of DBAG curr­ently has three members. In addi­tion to Mr. Grede and Mr. Alzin, this is Jannick Hune­cke. Tors­ten Grede has been a member of the Execu­tive Board since 2001 and has been Spokes­man of the Execu­tive Board since 2013.

“The Super­vi­sory Board would like to express its sincere thanks to Tors­ten Grede for the many years of successful coope­ra­tion,” said Dr. Hendrik Otto, Chair­man of DBAG’s Super­vi­sory Board today. And: “He has played a key role in shaping DBAG’s stra­te­gic deve­lo­p­ment and growth and has played a major role in estab­li­shing DBAG as one of the leading German private equity firms with assets under manage­ment or advi­sory of 2.5 billion euros.”

Tom Alzin will become the new Spokes­man of the Manage­ment Board of DBAG as of March 1, 2023. He joined DBAG in 2004 and has been a member of the Manage­ment Board since 2021. “I am very plea­sed about the confi­dence of the Super­vi­sory Board. I am convin­ced that DBAG is follo­wing the right path with its strong posi­tio­ning as one of Germany’s most renow­ned private equity firms and our new stra­te­gic initia­ti­ves. These include the expan­sion of our acti­vi­ties in the Italian market, the exten­sion of our range of equity solu­ti­ons for medium-sized and prima­rily family-mana­ged compa­nies, and the focus on sectors that bene­fit from struc­tu­ral growth. I will do ever­y­thing in my power to further advance the dyna­mic deve­lo­p­ment of the company,” said Tom Alzin.

Mela­nie Wiese worked for the energy compa­nies E.ON SE, Innogy SE, Essen, and Bayern­werk AG, Regens­burg, between 2017 and 2022 — most recently as a member of the boards of Innogy SE and Bayern­werk AG, respon­si­ble for finance (CFO, Bayern­werk AG). Previously, as Head of Accoun­ting & Report­ing at Innogy SE and Head of Group Accoun­ting at E.ON SE, she was invol­ved in a wide range of topics, inclu­ding group accoun­ting, M&A tran­sac­tions, taxes, control­ling and finan­cing. Previously, she headed the inter­na­tio­nal shared service orga­niza­tion of the tech­no­logy group ZF Fried­richs­ha­fen (2014 to 2017) and before that worked as a manage­ment consul­tant at Accen­ture Manage­ment Consul­ting and The Hackett Group.

“We are very plea­sed that in Mela­nie Wiese we have been able to attract a proven finan­cial expert with many years of manage­ment expe­ri­ence from German indus­try,” Super­vi­sory Board Chair­man Dr. Hendrik Otto said today. And: “Conti­nuity and a long-term orien­ta­tion are the corner­sto­nes of the private equity busi­ness; this is also reflec­ted in the smooth gene­ra­tio­nal change on the Manage­ment Board, and this is what DBAG’s Manage­ment Board also stands for in its new composition.”

Wiese expects nume­rous chal­lenges at her new employer. In the shadow of the nega­tive capi­tal market deve­lo­p­ment, DBAG had to absorb a loss of 98 million euros in the past fiscal year (until the end of Septem­ber 2022).

About DBAG

Deut­sche Betei­li­gungs AG (DBAG), listed on the stock exch­ange since 1985, is one of Germany’s most renow­ned private equity compa­nies. As an inves­tor and fund advi­sor, DBAG’s invest­ment focus has tradi­tio­nally been on medium-sized compa­nies with a focus on well-posi­tio­ned compa­nies with deve­lo­p­ment poten­tial, prima­rily in the DACH region. The indus­try focus is on manu­fac­tu­ring compa­nies, indus­trial service provi­ders and Indus­try­Tech compa­nies — i.e. compa­nies whose products enable auto­ma­tion, robo­tics and digi­tiza­tion — as well as compa­nies from the broad­band tele­com­mu­ni­ca­ti­ons, IT services, soft­ware and health­care sectors. Since 2020, DBAG has also been repre­sen­ted in Italy with its own office in Milan. Assets mana­ged or advi­sed by the DBAG Group amount to appro­xi­m­ately 2.5 billion euros.

Wolf-Henning Scheider becomes CEO of Private Equity at Partners Group

Posted on by Tatjana Anderer

Zug (Switz­er­land) — Part­ners Group, a leading global private markets firm, announ­ces the appoint­ment of Wolf-Henning Schei­der as Part­ner and Head of Private Equity. Mr. Schei­der will be based at the company’s head­quar­ters in Baar-Zug, Switz­er­land. Mr. Schei­der to replace David Layton, Part­ners Group’s Chief Execu­tive Offi­cer (“CEO”), as Head of Private Equity. Mr. Layton had retai­ned leader­ship of the private equity divi­sion after being named co-CEO in 2018 and sole CEO in 2021.

Mr. Schei­der is curr­ently CEO and Chair­man of the Board of Manage­ment of the ZF Group, a global
Tech­no­logy company that manu­fac­tures systems for passen­ger cars, commer­cial vehic­les and indus­trial tech­no­logy and gene­ra­tes sales of over 38 billion euros.
Previously, he served as CEO and Chair­man of the Manage­ment Board of the MAHLE Group. Mr. Schei­der began his career at Robert Bosch in 1987 and later became a member of the company’s Board of Management.

At Part­ners Group, Mr. Schei­der will focus speci­fi­cally on the firm’s control private equity port­fo­lio, which is focu­sed on four verti­cals: Goods & Products, Health & Life, Services and Tech­no­logy. This port­fo­lio includes more than 100 compa­nies in 23 count­ries and and employs more than 250,000 people as of March 31, 2022.

David Layton, Part­ner and CEO of Part­ners Group, says: “We are deligh­ted to welcome Wolf to Part­ners Group. While the term ‘private equity’ conju­res up a Wall Street image for some, our private equity approach today is about buil­ding busi­nesses — it’s about entre­pre­neu­rial leader­ship, strategy,
opera­tio­nal excel­lence and culture. With more than three deca­des of senior manage­ment expe­ri­ence, Wolf is ideally posi­tio­ned to deepen the opera­tio­nal exper­tise that under­lies our trans­for­ma­tive invest­ment efforts.”

Wolf-Henning Schei­der, comm­ents: “After a long career in indus­try leading compa­nies to success, I am deligh­ted to have the oppor­tu­nity to contri­bute my expe­ri­ence to Part­ners Group’s broad port­fo­lio. I look forward to working with the impres­sive private equity team to execute the firm’s stra­tegy of trans­for­ma­tive inves­t­ing. Part­ners Group’s empha­sis on entre­pre­neu­rial owner­ship as a driver of invest­ment perfor­mance means that Part­ners Group places a high value on opera­tio­nal experience.

With its unique opera­ting model and strong track record, Part­ners Group Part­ners Group has attrac­ted a number of top opera­tors to its invest­ment teams. The firm recently announ­ced the appoint­ment of Ben Breier as Part­ner and Head of the U.S. Private Equity Health & Life indus­try verti­cal. Prior to joining Part­ners Group, Mr. Breier had many years of expe­ri­ence in the health­care sector,
most recently as CEO of Kind­red Health­care, one of the largest provi­ders of health­care services in the United States.

Stef­fen Meis­ter, Execu­tive Chair­man of the Board, Part­ners Group, added: “At Part­ners Group, we believe that the public and private markets are swap­ping roles and that the private market will be the one respon­si­ble for the growth and sustaina­bi­lity of the real economy in the future. As the indus­try grows into this role, we can learn from successful indus­trial and tech­no­logy conglo­me­ra­tes that share the seve­ral charac­te­ristics with today’s private market compa­nies and their diver­si­fied asset port­fo­lios. The best compa­nies are charac­te­ri­zed by stra­te­gic rigor, indus­trial logic and opera­tio­nal value crea­tion — all criti­cal tools for buil­ding busi­nesses. For this reason, we selec­tively recruit expe­ri­en­ced employees from market-leading compa­nies into manage­ment posi­ti­ons within our invest­ment busi­ness. We welcome Wolf and Ben to Part­ners Group and look forward to working with them.”

About Part­ners Group

Part­ners Group is a leading global private markets firm. Since 1996, the firm has inves­ted over USD 170 billion in private equity, private real estate, private debt and private infra­struc­ture on behalf of its clients around the world. Part­ners Group is a commit­ted, respon­si­ble inves­tor and stri­ves to
through active parti­ci­pa­tion in and deve­lo­p­ment of growing compa­nies, attractive
Real estate and important infra­struc­ture. With over $127 billion in assets under manage­ment as of Decem­ber 31, 2021, Part­ners Group mana­ges a broad range of insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors, sove­reign wealth funds sove­reign wealth funds, family offices and indi­vi­du­als around the world. The company employs more than 1,500
profes­sio­nals in 20 offices world­wide and has regio­nal head­quar­ters in Baar-Zug, Switzerland;
Denver, USA, and Singa­pore. The company has been listed on the SIX Swiss Exch­ange since 2006 (symbol: PGHN). www.partnersgroup.com

YPOG: Andreas Rodin from POELLATH joins as Associated Partner

Posted on by Tatjana Anderer

Berlin — Corpo­rate law firm YPOG is expan­ding its fund struc­tu­ring prac­tice in Berlin and has streng­the­ned its team with Poellath foun­ding part­ner Andreas Rodin. The lawyer with a docto­rate in law joins the firm as an Asso­cia­ted Part­ner. Beyond fund struc­tu­ring exper­tise, he is known for his wealth of expe­ri­ence in regu­la­tory and tax law.

At YPOG, Rodin will conti­nue his work focu­sed on the struc­tu­ring of private equity and venture capi­tal funds and will be invol­ved in the trai­ning and deve­lo­p­ment of junior lawyers.

“With Andreas Rodin joining YPOG as an Asso­cia­ted Part­ner, YPOG is speci­fi­cally streng­thening its exper­tise in the area of fund struc­tu­ring. Espe­ci­ally our young colle­agues will bene­fit from his exper­tise and wealth of expe­ri­ence” says YPOG part­ner Fabian Euhus.

“I am very much looking forward to the exci­ting task and unique oppor­tu­nity to help shape the funds prac­tice of this dyna­mi­cally growing law firm. Being part of a young and ambi­tious team at YPOG allows me to contri­bute my expe­ri­ence gained over many years and to accom­pany espe­ci­ally the young colle­agues on their way”, Andreas Rodin adds.

About Andreas Rodin

Andreas Rodin was a foun­ding part­ner of the renow­ned law firm Poellath+ in 1997, where he played a major role in buil­ding up the inter­na­tio­nally reco­gni­zed funds prac­tice. After leaving at the end of 2021, he briefly worked at Poellath spin-off Orbit. He was a board member of the German Private Equity and Venture Capi­tal Asso­cia­tion (BVK), where he was respon­si­ble for the legal and tax concerns of the German private equity sector. Since 2004, he has been consul­ted as an expert by the Finance Commit­tee of the German Bundes­tag on all legis­la­tive proce­du­res concer­ning private equity. Andreas Rodin is regu­larly named in leading and inde­pen­dent rankings as one of the most important experts for fund struc­tu­ring and tax advice in Germany.

About YPOG

YPOG is a specialty tax and busi­ness law firm prac­ti­cing in the core areas of Corpo­rate, Funds, Corpo­rate Liti­ga­tion, Tax, Tran­sac­tions, IP/IT, Notary Services, Banking + Finan­cial Services, FinTech + Block­chain, Family Busi­nesses and High Net Worth Individuals/Family Offices. The YPOG team advi­ses a wide variety of clients. These include emer­ging tech­no­logy compa­nies and family-run medium-sized enter­pri­ses as well as corpo­ra­ti­ons and private equity/venture capi­tal funds. YPOG is one of the leading addres­ses for venture capi­tal, private equity and fund struc­tu­ring in Germany. The firm and its part­ners are natio­nally and inter­na­tio­nally ranked by JUVE, Best Lawy­ers, Legal 500, Focus, and Cham­bers and Part­ners. Today, YPOG employs more than 100 expe­ri­en­ced lawy­ers, tax advi­sors, tax specia­lists and a notary in three offices in Berlin, Hamburg and Colo­gne. www.ypog.law .

From left to right: Andreas Bösenberg, Johannes Fleck, Jan Markus Drees and Maximilian Finkbeiner

NORD Holding launches new Euro 125 million small cap fund

Posted on by Tatjana Anderer

Hano­ver / Frank­furt a. M. — The invest­ment company NORD Holding is laun­ching a small cap fund with a target volume of appro­xi­m­ately € 125 million. This is accom­pa­nied by the opening of a new office in Frank­furt am Main with a small cap team that has been well estab­lished for many years. Equity invest­ments of up to € 25 million per invest­ment in medium-sized compa­nies in the DACH region with an EBITDA of up to € 5 million (majo­rity invest­ments and selec­tive mino­ri­ties) are to be made.

NORD Holding, with its more than 50-year history and successful track record in the mid cap segment, is expan­ding its acti­vi­ties in the German-spea­king small cap sector. The new small cap vehicle will be provi­ded with € 50 million by NORD Holding so that the first invest­ments can be made imme­dia­tely. The target volume of the new small cap fund is € 125 million, which will be provi­ded by NORD Holding’s exis­ting inves­tor network and new fund investors.

The stra­te­gic expan­sion of the NORD Holding acti­vi­ties is a conti­nua­tion of the successful growth course of the tradi­tio­nal company from Hano­ver. Most recently, NORD Holding was alre­ady one of the most active German medium-sized inves­tors in 2020 and 2021.

The value crea­tion approach for the stra­te­gic further deve­lo­p­ment of the port­fo­lio compa­nies and the focus on sectors and digi­tiza­tion will also be pursued by the small cap team in the future. Thus, the new port­fo­lio compa­nies bene­fit from the broad exper­tise of the entire NORD Holding organization.

For the new office in Frank­furt am Main a complete team around Jan Markus Drees could be won. In addi­tion to him, Maxi­mi­lian Fink­bei­ner, Johan­nes Fleck (photo) and Marga­rita Decker are also moving to NORD Holding. The team has a successful track record and many years of collaboration.

Andreas Bösen­berg (photo left), Mana­ging Direc­tor of NORD Holding, says: “Setting up a dedi­ca­ted small cap fund is the logi­cal deve­lo­p­ment of NORD Holding’s successful growth course. We are plea­sed to welcome our new colleagues.”

About NORD Holding

With a history of more than 50 years and assets under manage­ment of € 2.5 billion, NORD Holding is one of the leading private equity and asset manage­ment compa­nies in Germany (www.nordholding.de). The focus is on the busi­ness areas of direct invest­ments and fund investments.

The focus of the direct busi­ness is on the struc­tu­ring and finan­cing of corpo­rate succes­sion models, the acqui­si­tion of group divisions/subsidiaries and the expan­sion finan­cing of medium-sized compa­nies. In contrast to most other finan­cial inves­tors, who only manage time-limi­ted funds, NORD Holding acts as a so-called “ever­green fund” with no time limit and invests from its own balance sheet. The company is curr­ently invol­ved with more than 15 compa­nies in Germany and other German-spea­king countries.

The Fund Invest­ments busi­ness unit targets the micro and small cap segment of mid-market-orien­ted private equity funds in Europe. The focus here is on primary, secon­dary and co-invest­ments. NORD Holding focu­ses stron­gly on buyout mana­gers newly estab­lished on the market, opera­tio­nal invest­ment stra­te­gies and also regu­larly acts as an anchor investor.

Dr. Volkmar Bruckner joins Clifford Chance

Clifford Chance grows private equity team in Munich

Posted on by Tatjana Anderer

Munich — The inter­na­tio­nal law firm Clif­ford Chance streng­thens its German private equity team with the high-cali­ber part­ner addi­ti­ons of Dr. Volk­mar Bruck­ner (photo) and Dr. Mark Aschen­bren­ner as well as with the senior asso­ciate Dr. Samuel From­melt. All new hires will work out of Clif­ford Chance’s Munich office and will at the same time further streng­then the German and inter­na­tio­nal tran­sac­tion team with their exper­tise and market experience.

As an expe­ri­en­ced private equity specia­list, Dr. Volk­mar Bruck­ner advi­ses inves­tors, manage­ment teams and compa­nies in complex regio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal large cap and mid cap as well as M&A tran­sac­tions, in parti­cu­lar lever­a­ged buy-outs, carve-outs and joint ventures.

Dr. Mark Aschen­bren­ner has estab­lished hims­elf in the private equity scene thanks to his diverse expe­ri­ence from various high-profile acqui­si­ti­ons and is reco­gni­zed as one of the up-and-coming private equity part­ners of the new generation.

Dr. Samuel From­melt advi­ses private equity and finan­cial inves­tors on M&A tran­sac­tions. He has exten­sive expe­ri­ence advi­sing clients across sectors, prima­rily on invest­ments in unlis­ted compa­nies, public take­overs, co-invest­ments and secon­dary transactions.

Volk­mar Bruck­ner, Mark Aschen­bren­ner and Samuel From­melt join Clif­ford Chance from Kirk­land & Ellis in Munich. The exact date of the change has not yet been determined.

Dr. Peter Dieners, Mana­ging Part­ner of Clif­ford Chance in Germany: “For us, Munich and private equity advice belong toge­ther. Lawyer perso­na­li­ties such as Volk­mar Bruck­ner, Mark Aschen­bren­ner and Samuel From­melt are ther­e­fore a perfect fit for us. With their excep­tio­nal market profile and at the same time great ambi­tion, they enrich us on our way to the top of the German market. With them, our important Munich presence will be ideally comple­men­ted and even more powerful, even for very large projects and tran­sac­tions. We also want to grow further in the private equity area.”

Dr. Anselm Raddatz, Head of the Private Equity Group at Clif­ford Chance in Germany, said: “We are very plea­sed with the new addi­ti­ons. The great new team in Munich shar­pens our private equity profile locally and will make a great contri­bu­tion to provi­ding our clients with even more know-how and clout for the successful and safe realiza­tion of their invest­ments for their tran­sac­tions in Germany and Europe.”

Clif­ford Chance is growing stra­te­gi­cally at its offices in Düssel­dorf, Frank­furt and Munich. Parti­cu­larly in the strong Munich market, the firm is streng­thening its focus on broad-based and thus signi­fi­cantly more compre­hen­sive and effi­ci­ent tran­sac­tion and finan­cing advice for private equity houses and other finan­cial investors.

Clif­ford Chance’s global private equity prac­tice provi­des large teams in Europe, the Middle East, Asia Paci­fic and the US with market-leading exper­tise to advise finan­cial inves­tors and funds across the full spec­trum of their acti­vi­ties. Recently, the firm’s German teams have assis­ted clients in these high-profile tran­sac­tions, among others:

Medi­cal diagno­stics and labo­ra­tory services provi­der Synlab and finan­cial inves­tors Cinven, OTPP and Novo Holdings on Synlab’s IPO on the Frank­furt Stock Exch­ange; Perm­ira on the acqui­si­tion of leading Euro­pean CNS specialty pharma company Neur­ax­ph­arm from Apax; Triton on the acqui­si­tion of premium kitchen supplier SCHOCK from IK Invest­ment Partners.

About Clif­ford Chance

Clif­ford Chance, one of the world’s leading law firms, is present for its clients with around 3,400 legal advi­sors in all major busi­ness centers around the world. In Germany, Clif­ford Chance is repre­sen­ted by around 300 lawy­ers, audi­tors, tax advi­sors and soli­ci­tors in Düssel­dorf, Frank­furt am Main and Munich.

JP Pfander new partner of Proventis Partners in Zurich

Posted on by Tatjana Anderer

Zurich — Proven­tis Part­ners, one of the largest inde­pen­dent M&A advi­sory firms in the DACH region, under­pins its successful growth course with another key person­nel appoint­ment: Dr. Jan-Phil­ipp (JP) Pfander beco­mes a new part­ner in the Zurich office and will drive the stra­te­gic expan­sion of the tran­sac­tion busi­ness as well as the advi­sory services in the chemi­cal sector toge­ther with Dr. Uwe Nickel.

Prior to joining Proven­tis Part­ners, Jan-Phil­ipp Pfander was Mana­ging Direc­tor at Moelis & Company. He headed EMEA Chemi­cals and Mate­ri­als there. Until 2015, he was Mana­ging Direc­tor at J.P.Morgan and respon­si­ble for EMEA Chemi­cals. From 2001 to early 2007, he was head of the Euro­pean Chemi­cals sector at Lehman Brot­hers. Jan-Phil­ipp Pfander began his career at McKin­sey & Company.

In a career span­ning more than 30 years, Jan-Phil­ipp Pfander has advi­sed on a wide range of global and regio­nal M&A and capi­tal markets tran­sac­tions in chemi­cals and rela­ted sectors for stra­te­gists and finan­cial inves­tors. Among others, Jan-Phil­ipp Pfander has advi­sed Evonik, Symrise, Nouryon, Lonza, Marquardt & Bahls, Syngenta, Brenn­tag, ADNOC, Altana and Lanxess in the past.

At Proven­tis Part­ners, Jan-Phil­ipp Pfander will consis­t­ently expand the range of services for clients in the chemi­cal indus­try toge­ther with Uwe Nickel. He will contri­bute his many years of expe­ri­ence in M&A and corpo­rate finance as well as his proven exper­tise in the chemi­cal indus­try to the support of M&A proces­ses. He stands for the hands-on approach coupled with a long expe­ri­ence in invest­ment banking and stra­te­gic consulting.

“We are very appre­cia­tive to have such an expe­ri­en­ced chemi­cal expert as Jan-Phil­ipp Pfander join Proven­tis Part­ners as an M&A and indus­try specia­list. Jan-Phil­ipp brings to us a deep under­stan­ding of the needs of compa­nies in almost all sectors of the chemi­cal indus­try and knows how to trans­late the chal­lenges of these indus­tries into oppor­tu­ni­ties for our clients. His expe­ri­ence in invest­ment banking, his deal track record and last but not least his large network perfectly comple­ment Proven­tis’ exper­tise in the global chemi­cal indus­try. Thus, we gene­rate a unique selling propo­si­tion in the chemi­cal M&A advi­sory segment”, explai­ned Uwe Nickel, Mana­ging Part­ner of Proven­tis Part­ners Zurich.

“I am plea­sed to join Proven­tis Part­ners to further deve­lop the chemis­try exper­tise toge­ther with Uwe Nickel and the exis­ting team. We are buil­ding on an excel­lent repu­ta­tion of the company as a respon­si­ble, stra­te­gic part­ner for medium-sized compa­nies.” “Deli­ve­ring solu­tion-orien­ted, inno­va­tive and inde­pen­dent M&A and corpo­rate finance advice to stra­te­gists and finan­cial inves­tors — regio­nally active and globally connec­ted, is the goal,” says Jan-Phil­ipp Pfander. “The new role combi­nes my many years of expe­ri­ence in inter­na­tio­nal M&A and corpo­rate finance advi­sory with Proven­tis Part­ners’ exis­ting expe­ri­ence in mana­ging chemi­cal compa­nies, thus comple­men­ting each other ideally.”

“I expect a sustained increase in tran­sac­tion volu­mes in the sector over the next few years, due to the shift in supply chains, and the chan­ges in demand for chemi­cals and mate­ri­als that will accom­pany the “Green Revo­lu­tion”. My goal with Proven­tis Part­ners is to provide the ideal consul­ting services for our clients in this chal­len­ging environment.”

In the chemi­cal sector, Proven­tis Part­ners alre­ady has a long track record and is an active member of the global Merger Alli­ance. Thanks to Jan-Phil­ipp Pfander’s contri­bu­tion, Proven­tis Part­ners will conti­nue to expand the chemi­cal sector inter­na­tio­nally as a focus sector since 2020.

About Dr. Jan-Phil­ipp (JP) Pfander

Born in Frank­furt, he star­ted his career at McKin­sey & Company in Hamburg. After 10 years of top manage­ment consul­ting to chemi­cal and indus­trial compa­nies on stra­tegy, port­fo­lio manage­ment, M&A and perfor­mance opti­miza­tion, he joined Lehman Brot­her in London in 2001 in the M&A team and became Head of Chemi­cals Sector for Europe. At the begin­ning of 2007, he joined J.P.Morgan as Sector Head EMEA Chemi­cals. In mid-2015, Jan-Phil­ipp Pfander became Part­ner and Mana­ging Direc­tor at Moelis & Company with respon­si­bi­lity for Chemi­cals and Mate­ri­als in the EMEA region.

Dr. Jan-Phil­ipp (JP) Pfander studied micro­bio­logy at the Tech­ni­cal Univer­sity of Munich and holds a PhD in busi­ness admi­nis­tra­tion from the Univer­sity of Oldenburg.

About Proven­tis Partners

Proven­tis Part­ners is a part­ner-led M&A advi­sory firm whose clients include a majo­rity of mid-sized family busi­nesses, corpo­rate subsi­dia­ries and private equity funds. With more than 30 M&A advi­sors, Proven­tis Part­ners is one of the largest inde­pen­dent M&A consul­tancies in the German-spea­king region and looks back on 20 years of M&A expe­ri­ence and more than 300 comple­ted tran­sac­tions. The M&A advi­sors with offices in Zurich, Hamburg, Colo­gne and Munich are active in the sectors Indus­tri­als & Chemi­cals, Busi­ness Services, Consu­mer & Retail, TMT, Health­care and Energy & Sustaina­bi­lity. Exclu­sive member­ship in Mergers Alli­ance — an inter­na­tio­nal part­ner­ship of leading M&A specia­lists — enables Proven­tis Part­ners to assist clients in 30 count­ries in key markets world­wide. Mergers Alli­ance members, with over 200 M&A profes­sio­nals, provide Proven­tis Part­ners, and thus its clients, with unique access to local markets in Europe, North America, Latin America, Asia and Africa. www.proventis.com

Joachim Braun, Silverfleet Capital

Silverfleet acquires ec4u and BULPROS

Posted on by Tatjana Anderer

Frank­furt a. Main — ec4u and BULPROS join forces under the majo­rity parti­ci­pa­tion of Silver­fleet Capi­tal to offer their custo­mers a new gene­ra­tion of digi­tal cloud expe­ri­ence services. Shear­man & Ster­ling advi­sed Silver­fleet Capi­tal on the finan­cing provi­ded by Ares for the acqui­si­tion of ec4u and BULPROS.

ec4u and BULPROS join forces to offer their custo­mers a new gene­ra­tion of digi­tal cloud expe­ri­ence services. The joint plat­form will employ around 1,400 people at 25 sites in a total of eleven countries.

ec4u, head­quar­te­red in Karls­ruhe, and BULPROS, head­quar­te­red in Sofia, Bulga­ria, have alre­ady been working toge­ther as part­ners in the field of digi­tal cloud solu­ti­ons since 2018. The foun­ders and exis­ting manage­ment teams of both compa­nies will remain on board as share­hol­ders and will conti­nue to manage the merged company. The merger is subject to the custo­mary regu­la­tory approval.

ec4u was foun­ded in 2000 and specia­li­zes in the digi­tal trans­for­ma­tion of busi­ness-criti­cal proces­ses in the areas of marke­ting, sales, service and e‑commerce across the entire custo­mer life­cy­cle. The company offers its custo­mers consul­ting services, tech­ni­cal imple­men­ta­tion, and ongo­ing deve­lo­p­ment and opera­tion of CRM systems. ec4u has successfully comple­ted a total of more than 800 trans­for­ma­tion projects, prima­rily in Germany, Austria and Switz­er­land. The company employs more than 400 experts at seve­ral Euro­pean locations.

BULPROS, foun­ded in 2010, is a provi­der of digi­tal trans­for­ma­tion services. This includes digi­tal solu­ti­ons imple­men­ta­tion, cyber­se­cu­rity, cloud migra­tion and mana­ged services, and tech­no­logy services. BULPROS opera­tes world­wide and employs more than 1,000 people at 20 loca­ti­ons in Europe and North America. The company has been named as one of the fastest growing tech­no­logy compa­nies by leading indus­try analysts — inclu­ding Deloitte’s Tech­no­logy Fast 50 in CE report and the Finan­cial Times 100 Europe.

In addi­tion to their highly compe­ti­tive service port­fo­lios and the high level of exper­tise of their employees, the two compa­nies also have strong rela­ti­onships with stra­te­gic tech­no­logy part­ners such as Sales­force, Micro­soft, SAP, Oracle, IBM, Cisco and Snowflake.

The invest­ment in ec4u and BULPROS builds on Silver­fleet Capital’s exten­sive expe­ri­ence with compa­nies in the tech­no­logy sector: Tech­no­lo­gi­cal change is a key macro trend under­pin­ning Silver­fleet Capital’s invest­ment approach. The private equity firm’s recent invest­ments include Trust­Quay, a provi­der of trust, corpo­rate and fund admi­nis­tra­tion services, and Coll­ec­tia, a credit manage­ment services plat­form. Previous successful invest­ments in this area include Phase One, Ipes and TMF.

“ec4u and BULPROS are leaders in the market for cloud-based, digi­tal solu­ti­ons for enter­pri­ses. This is a market that is very attrac­tive and offers high growth poten­tial. We are plea­sed to be able to support them in the future to fully exploit this poten­tial,” comm­ents Dr. Chris­tian Süss, Part­ner at Silver­fleet Capi­tal.

“Both ec4u and BULPROS have strong stra­te­gic part­ner­ships with the leading play­ers in the digi­tal plat­form space. We will support both compa­nies in explo­ring further coope­ra­tion and expan­sion oppor­tu­ni­ties,” adds Joachim Braun (photo), Part­ner at Silver­fleet Capi­tal.

At Silver­fleet, Dr. Chris­tian Süss, Joachim Braun, Benja­min Hubner and Jenni­fer Regehr were respon­si­ble for the tran­sac­tion. The invest­ment company was advi­sed on the tran­sac­tion by Latham & Watkins (Corpo­rate & Tax Legal), Shear­man & Ster­ling (Finance Legal), Nauta­Du­tilh (Legal), PwC (Finan­cial), wdp (IT), Grant Thorn­ton (Tax), Kambou­rov (Legal), Noerr (Legal), Schön­herr (Legal), Bär & Karrer (Legal), Kear­ney (Commer­cial) and MD Advi­sors (Debt Advi­sory). Funding was provi­ded by Ares.

About Silver­fleet Capital
Silver­fleet Capi­tal is an inde­pen­dent pan-Euro­pean private equity firm that invests in middle-market compa­nies and is a long-stan­ding client of Shear­man & Sterling.

The Shear­man & Ster­ling team led by part­ner Winfried M. Carli included asso­cia­tes Andreas Breu and Daniel Wagner (all Munich-Finance).

About Shear­man & Sterling
Shear­man & Ster­ling is an inter­na­tio­nal law firm with 25 offices in 13 count­ries and appro­xi­m­ately 850 lawy­ers. In Germany, Shear­man & Ster­ling has offices in Frank­furt and Munich. The firm is one of the inter­na­tio­nal market leaders in advi­sing on complex cross-border tran­sac­tions. World­wide, Shear­man & Ster­ling prima­rily advi­ses inter­na­tio­nal corpo­ra­ti­ons and large natio­nal compa­nies, finan­cial insti­tu­ti­ons, and large mid-sized compa­nies. For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.shearman.com.

FGvW strengthens corporate practice in Frankfurt with Dr. Annette Bödeker

Posted on by Tatjana Anderer

Frank­furt — The commer­cial law firm 
Fried­rich Graf von West­pha­len & Partner
 (FGvW) is further expan­ding its office in Frank­furt am Main. With Dr. Annette Böde­ker, the firm gains a proven corporate/M&A expert and notary as a new part­ner. FGvW thus also streng­thens the notary’s office in Frank­furt, which since April 2020 has been 
Dr. Chris­toph Börskens
 was newly established.

Dr. Annette Böde­ker will join the firm on March 1, 2021, from Arnold & Porter, where she was a part­ner in the firm’s sole German office and respon­si­ble for the firm’s corporate/M&A busi­ness. She star­ted her career at Henge­ler Muel­ler, then moved to Link­la­ters, where she was a part­ner in the corpo­rate depart­ment for seve­ral years. Dr. Böde­ker also has many years of expe­ri­ence in U.S. law firms, having been with Orrick in 2009 and Arnold & Porter Kaye Scho­ler since 2012. In addi­tion to the social consul­ting of large, inter­na­tio­nal compa­nies and banks, the focus of their acti­vi­ties is the support of compa­nies from the medium-sized busi­ness sector. As a part­ner of Arnold & Porter, Dr. Böde­ker also advi­sed on tran­sac­tions from the Arnold & Porter network, where she regu­larly worked closely with colle­agues from London and the USA.

“Our Frank­furt am Main loca­tion has recei­ved a considera­ble boost in recent months — we are consis­t­ently conti­nuing along this path,” explains Mana­ging Partner 
Dr. Barbara Mayer
. “We are plea­sed that with Dr. Annette Böde­ker we are gaining another renow­ned and profes­sio­nally excel­lent rein­force­ment in the area of Corporate/M&A. After having expan­ded the Frank­furt office in recent years, espe­ci­ally in real estate law, employ­ment law, IP and the notary’s office, we will now also conti­nue to grow in the tran­sac­tional area,” adds Mana­ging Part­ner Annette Bödeker. 
Cars­ten Laschet
.

FGvW’s corpo­rate prac­tice has a strong presence nati­on­wide. In cross-office coope­ra­tion, FGvW has built up exper­tise in all matters of corpo­rate law — company forma­ti­ons, reor­ga­niza­tion of group struc­tures, prepa­ra­tion of share­hol­ders’ meetings and gene­ral meetings, corpo­rate finance issues. This also includes advi­sing inves­tors on the acqui­si­tion of listed compa­nies, tradi­tio­nal M&A busi­ness and advi­sing on joint ventures in Germany and abroad.

“Fried­rich Graf von West­pha­len & Part­ner is a leading German law firm with an excel­lent repu­ta­tion and strong inter­na­tio­nal orien­ta­tion,” commen­ted Dr. Annette Böde­ker on her decis­ion to join FGvW. “I alre­ady know long-stan­ding clients of FGvW from the phar­maceu­ti­cal and medi­cal tech­no­logy sectors as clients of Arnold & Porter. With FGvW’s Berlin office, the firm also has proven experts in tech­no­logy and venture capi­tal tran­sac­tions. FGvW is thus the ideal plat­form for my stron­gly inter­na­tio­nally orien­ted business.”

Norton Rose Fulbright strengthens private equity practice

Posted on by Tatjana Anderer

Munich, — Global busi­ness law firm Norton Rose Fulbright is streng­thening its private equity team in Munich with Bernd Dreier as Coun­sel, effec­tive Janu­ary 18, 2021.

Bernd Dreier joins Norton Rose Fulbright from AIG Europe, where he was most recently Head of M&A DACH, respon­si­ble for the W&I insu­rance busi­ness for Germany, Austria and Switz­er­land. In addi­tion to his insu­rance law and S&I exper­tise, he brings many years of expe­ri­ence in M&A and private equity, where he worked for seve­ral years as a lawyer at Henge­ler Muel­ler and Allen & Overy and as Gene­ral Coun­sel at EMH Partners.

Dr. Stefan Feuer­rie­gel, Head of Germany, comm­ents: “We are plea­sed to have gained Bernd Dreier as a reco­gni­zed and expe­ri­en­ced colle­ague for our private equity prac­tice, espe­ci­ally in the finan­cial insti­tu­ti­ons sector. In addi­tion, his expe­ri­ence in the insu­rance indus­try is an ideal match for the deve­lo­p­ment and expan­sion of our insu­rance prac­tice in Germany. With almost 10 part­ners and more than 10 coun­sel and asso­cia­tes working across the prac­tice groups Corpo­rate, Tax, Real Estate and Dispu­tes in the insu­rance area, we have an extre­mely powerful team in the German market.”

Bernd Dreier added: “I am deligh­ted to be able to support the Norton Rose Fulbright team with my many years of exper­tise in the future and, toge­ther with my colle­agues, to accom­pany the German private equity and insu­rance prac­tice on its way to the next stage of development.”

Bernd Dreier studied law at the Univer­sity of Passau and Macqua­rie Univer­sity, Sydney and holds a Master of Laws (LL.M.) from Colum­bia Law School in New York.

About Norton Rose Fulbright

Norton Rose Fulbright is a global busi­ness law firm. With more than 4,000 lawy­ers in over 50 offices world­wide in Europe, the United States, Canada, Latin America, Asia, Austra­lia, Africa and the Middle East, we advise leading natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal companies.

We offer our clients compre­hen­sive advice in all major indus­tries. These include Finan­cial Insti­tu­ti­ons; Energy; Infra­struc­ture, Mining and Commo­di­ties; Trans­por­ta­tion; Tech­no­logy and Inno­va­tion; and Life Scien­ces and Health­care. Our global Risk Advi­sory Group combi­nes this exten­sive indus­try expe­ri­ence with its exper­tise in legal, regu­la­tory, compli­ance and gover­nance matters. This enables us to provide our clients with prac­ti­cal solu­ti­ons to the legal and regu­la­tory risks they face.

The Swiss asso­cia­tion Norton Rose Fulbright helps to coor­di­nate the acti­vi­ties of Norton Rose Fulbright members, but does not provide legal advice to clients. Norton Rose Fulbright has offices in more than 50 cities world­wide, inclu­ding London, Hous­ton, New York, Toronto, Mexico City, Hong Kong, Sydney and Johan­nes­burg. nortonrosefulbright.com/legal-notices

Weil to grow by more than 5% in 2020 — Manuel-Peter Fringer becomes partner

Posted on by Tatjana Anderer

Frank­furt a. M./ Munich — The German offices of the inter­na­tio­nal law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP have again recor­ded good growth > of 5 percent in the current fiscal year due to their good market posi­tion, espe­ci­ally in the areas of restruc­tu­ring and private equity. To reflect this once again very posi­tive deve­lo­p­ment, the follo­wing lawy­ers have been appoin­ted Coun­sel with effect from Janu­ary 1, 2021: Dr. Matthias Eiden (Restruc­tu­ring, Frank­furt), Julian Schwa­ne­beck (Private Equity, Frank­furt), Florian Wessel (Private Equity, Munich).

In addi­tion, Manuel-Peter Fringer (photo) was also elec­ted part­ner of the firm effec­tive Janu­ary 1, 2021. Mr. Fringer is a part­ner in the private equity prac­tice in the firm’s Munich office and advi­ses on cross-border tran­sac­tions. Most recently, he advi­sed KKR and Noval­pina Capi­tal, among others, on various transactions.
“The elec­tion of Manuel-Peter Fringer as Part­ner, as well as the appoint­ment of three addi­tio­nal attor­neys in both of the firm’s German offices as Coun­sel, is a reflec­tion of the firm’s contin­ued success story and will allow us to conti­nue to capi­ta­lize on future growth poten­tial and further expand our market posi­tion,” said Prof. Dr. Gerhard Schmidt, Mana­ging Part­ner of the German offices.

Below is a list of some of the manda­tes that the firm has acted as legal coun­sel for this year, and which have contri­bu­ted signi­fi­cantly to its success:
* Exide Tech­no­lo­gies as part of a compre­hen­sive restruc­tu­ring of the entire Group and a realignment of the Euro­pean group of compa­nies (Germany, France, Scan­di­na­via, Bene­lux, Spain, Portu­gal) and its subse­quent sale
* Advent Inter­na­tio­nal on the acqui­si­tion of a stake in Aareon AG
* Olym­pic Enter­tain­ment Group (share­hol­der Noval­pina Capi­tal) in the realignment of its online busi­ness activities.
* Inter­na­tio­nal inves­tor group in the bidding process for Avaloq
* Terreal when buying Creaton
* Santé Cie (port­fo­lio company of Ardian) on the acqui­si­tion of Aposan.

Michael Riemenschneider now with Athos Family Office of the Strüngmann Brothers

Posted on by Tatjana Anderer

Munich — In the future, 45-year-old Michael Riemen­schnei­der will be part of the manage­ment team of the Strüng­mann family’s single family office Athos.

For half a year it was quiet around Michael Riemen­schnei­der, the former mana­ging direc­tor of Reimann Inves­tors, where he made nume­rous direct invest­ments. Then it became known that Riemen­schnei­der has been one of three mana­ging direc­tors since the begin­ning of July, along with Helmut Jeggle and Thomas Maier. Athos is the single family office of brot­hers Thomas and Andreas Strüng­mann, the foun­ders and former owners of Hexal.

The 45-year-old was previously Mana­ging Direc­tor of the Single Family Office of those members of the Reimann family of entre­pre­neurs who parted with their stake in the former family busi­ness at the end of the 1990s for more than 13 years. He had left the family office at the end of 2019. From 2000 to 2005, the indus­trial engi­neer with a docto­rate in busi­ness admi­nis­tra­tion was a stra­tegy consul­tant at the Boston Consul­ting Group.

Ambienta SGR renews Board of Directors nominates Carla Ferrari as President

Posted on by Tatjana Anderer

Ambi­enta SGR renews its Board of Direc­tors and nomi­na­tes Carla Ferrari (photo) as Presi­dent. After twelve years as Chair­man of the Board of Direc­tors, Anto­nio Segni hands over the mandate to Carla Ferrari. Alfredo Alta­villa has also been appoin­ted to the Board as a non-execu­tive direc­tor Ambi­enta SGR SpA (“Ambi­enta”), Europe’s largest sustaina­bi­lity-focu­sed invest­ment company, appoints Carla Ferrari as Presi­dent of the Board of Directors.

Carla Ferrari holds senior posi­ti­ons in a number of Italian blue chip finan­cial insti­tu­ti­ons. Having previously served as a non-execu­tive direc­tor on Ambienta’s board from 2008 to 2012, Carla now takes over the role from Anto­nio Segni, who is leaving the board after twelve years of service. In addi­tion, Alfredo Alta­villa is appoin­ted to the Board as a non-execu­tive direc­tor. Alta­villa holds a number of key posi­ti­ons in leading Italian and inter­na­tio­nal indus­trial companies.

Nino Tron­chetti Provera, Mana­ging Part­ner and foun­der of Ambi­enta, stated: “I would like to thank the previous Board of Direc­tors for their excel­lent work. My special thanks go to Anto­nio Segni, who was Chair­man of the Board for twelve years and assu­med this role only a few months after Ambi­enta was foun­ded. At the same time, I welcome the return of Carla Ferrari and extend a warm welcome to Alfredo Alta­villa: I am sure that toge­ther we will achieve further important goals. I am very plea­sed to have a woman at the head of Ambienta’s Board of Direc­tors: this is the best start for the next three years, which will play a signi­fi­cant role for the company.”

About Ambi­enta
Ambi­enta is a sustaina­bi­lity-focu­sed asset mana­ger with AUM of appro­xi­m­ately €1.5 billion and a leader in apply­ing envi­ron­men­tal sustaina­bi­lity trends to invest­ments. Ambi­enta opera­tes from Milan, London and Dussel­dorf and focu­ses on invest­ments in private and public compa­nies driven by envi­ron­men­tal mega­trends. In the private equity markets, Ambi­enta mana­ges the largest pool of capi­tal for this stra­tegy in the world and has made thirty-eight invest­ments across Europe in the resource effi­ci­ency and envi­ron­men­tal sectors.

Goodwin advises Storm Ventures on Series C of €60 million for solarisBank

Posted on by Tatjana Anderer

Frank­furt a.M. — The inter­na­tio­nal law firm Good­win has advi­sed Storm Ventures on a €60 million Series C finan­cing round for sola­ris­Bank.

The finan­cing round was led by HV Holtz­brinck Ventures; in addi­tion to Storm Ventures, Vulcan Capi­tal and Samsung Cata­lyst Fund parti­ci­pa­ted. The strength of the round is also reflec­ted in the fact that about half of the funding was raised from exis­ting inves­tors; these were led by yabeo and supported by BBVA, SBI Group, ABN AMRO Ventures, Global Brain, Hegus and Lake­star.

Storm Ventures is a Sili­con Valley-based venture capi­tal firm focu­sed on early-stage invest­ments in leading B2B compa­nies, inclu­ding Aire­space (sold to Cisco), Blues­hift, Echo­Sign (sold to Adobe), Marketo (sold to Adobe), MobileI­ron, Sendoso, Splash­top and Work­ato. The company has also inves­ted in leading Euro­pean start­ups, inclu­ding Algo­lia, Digi­tal Shadows and Talkdesk.

Berlin-based sola­ris­Bank AG is the first banking-as-a-service plat­form with a full banking license that enables compa­nies to offer their own finan­cial products. APIs give part­ners access to the bank’s modu­lar services. Inclu­ding the current Series C finan­cing round, sola­ris­Bank has raised a total of more than 160 million euros in the past four years.

Advi­sors Storm Ventures: Good­win, Frank­furt a.M./Silicon Valley
Gregor Klenk, Photo (Private Equity, Frank­furt); Craig Schmitz (FinTech, Sili­con Valley/Los Ange­les; both Lead); Asso­ciate: Joana Pamu­kova (Private Equity, Frankfurt)

Bright Capital configures financing for SOPRONEM Greven

Posted on by Tatjana Anderer

Frank­furt a.M. — McDer­mott Will & Emery advi­sed German mid-market finan­cier Bright Capi­tal on a credit faci­lity for SOPRONEM Greven GmbH, a port­fo­lio company of Quan­tum Capi­tal Part­ners.

With the help of highly auto­ma­ted and flexi­ble machi­nes, SOPRONEM Greven GmbH produ­ces a range of liquid deter­gents, care products and clea­ning agents specia­li­zing in private labels at its site in Greven and curr­ently employs more than 160 people. Throug­hout Europe, the company is one of the largest manu­fac­tu­r­ers of deter­gents and clea­ning agents.

McDer­mott regu­larly advi­ses Bright Capi­tal on finan­cings, most recently on a credit faci­lity to finance Beyond Capital’s acqui­si­tion of 19 opti­cal stores in Germany.

Advi­sors to Bright Capi­tal: McDer­mott Will & Emery, Frankfurt
Dr. Oliver Hahn­elt (photo), LL.M. (Lead), Dr. Niko­las Kout­sós (Coun­sel; both Financing)

AI: PXL Vision secures CHF 4.6 million seed funding

Posted on by Tatjana Anderer

Zurich — ETH spin-off PXL Vision has deve­lo­ped an arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence-based soft­ware plat­form for the secure and auto­ma­ted veri­fi­ca­tion of iden­ti­ties. Now the company is recei­ving CHF 4.6 million in a seed finan­cing round to expand its tech­no­logy and grow inter­na­tio­nally. The finan­cing round was led by SIX Fintech Ventures, with other inves­tors inclu­ding ZKB, High-Tech Grün­der­fonds, Arab Bank and expe­ri­en­ced busi­ness angels Beat Schil­lig and David Studer.

Every year, billi­ons of perso­nal data records are stolen and often used for frau­du­lent purpo­ses. Trust in digi­tal inter­ac­tions is ther­e­fore central, and more and more compa­nies are moving to iden­tify their custo­mers beyond doubt. To do this, they need digi­tal solu­ti­ons that are secure, cost-effec­tive, easy to manage, and comply with regu­la­tory requirements.

Flexi­ble iden­tity veri­fi­ca­tion in real time
PXL Vision has deve­lo­ped a digi­tal KYC veri­fi­ca­tion plat­form that is parti­cu­larly modu­lar compared to the compe­ti­tion and can ther­e­fore be used very flexi­bly by busi­ness custo­mers. The plat­form uses Arti­fi­cial Intel­li­gence to authen­ti­cate an iden­tity docu­ment via the smart­phone camera with mini­mal user inter­ac­tion and verify the user’s iden­tity via a liveness check and facial match with a video selfie. In addi­tion to Swis­sID, the leading Swiss iden­tity provi­der, major compa­nies such as Sunrise, Salt, UPC and ZKB also rely on PXL Vision’s technology.

There are many areas of appli­ca­tion for these compa­nies: From taking out a cell phone subscrip­tion online, regard­less of loca­tion, to opening bank accounts elec­tro­ni­cally in just a few minu­tes, such as with ZKB’s Frankly app for saving for retirement.

Growth finan­cing completed
Since its foun­da­tion three years ago, PXL Vision has estab­lished itself in the Swiss market. The team size has grown from four to over forty members and important entre­pre­neu­rial awards such as the Swiss Econo­mic Award 2019, the W.A. De Vigier Award 2019 and the Swiss­com Startup Chall­enge Award 2019 have been won. The company also successfully comple­ted both the SAP.iO and F10 Fintech Incu­ba­tor & Acce­le­ra­tor programs.

“Having proven that we can compete against large and estab­lished play­ers in a very compe­ti­tive market, it is now time to expand beyond the country’s borders,” said PXL Vision CEO Michael Born (photo: 2nd from left), who foun­ded the company in 2017 toge­ther with Nevena Shamoska (photo: 1st from left), Roxana Porada (photo: 4th from left), Lucas Sommer and Karim Nemr (photo: 3rd from left). The inter­di­sci­pli­nary and expe­ri­en­ced manage­ment team had alre­ady worked toge­ther for seve­ral years at Dacuda AG and had successfully sold Dacuda assets to Florida-based Magic Leap before foun­ding PXL Vision in March 2017.

Andreas Iten, Head of SIX Fintech Ventures, who will support PXL Vision as a board member in the upco­ming growth phase.

Access to growth capi­tal will enable PXL Vision to further expand its product port­fo­lio and enter new markets and indus­tries. The funding is expec­ted to move PXL Vision forward quickly. “We are inves­t­ing prima­rily in the intel­li­gence and scala­bi­lity of our tech­no­logy, as well as in buil­ding the busi­ness inter­na­tio­nally. We will substan­ti­ally expand the sales, marke­ting and deve­lo­p­ment teams to further drive growth,” said Karim Nemr, PXL Vision’s chief busi­ness officer.

About PXL Vision
PXL Vision AG is a Swiss high-tech spin-off of the Swiss Fede­ral Insti­tute of Tech­no­logy (ETH). PXL Vision provi­des leading solu­ti­ons for auto­ma­ting and impro­ving iden­tity veri­fi­ca­tion and custo­mer onboar­ding through auto­ma­ted soft­ware solu­ti­ons based on the latest deve­lo­p­ments in compu­ter vision and machine lear­ning. PXL is head­quar­te­red in Zurich, Switz­er­land, and has R&D centers in Novi Sad, Serbia, and Yere­van, Armenia.

About High-Tech Gründerfonds
The seed inves­tor High-Tech Grün­der­fonds (HTGF) finan­ces tech­no­logy start-ups with growth poten­tial. With a volume of around EUR 900 million spread across three funds and an inter­na­tio­nal part­ner network, HTGF has supported almost 600 start-ups since 2005. His team of expe­ri­en­ced invest­ment mana­gers and start-up experts supports the young compa­nies with know-how, entre­pre­neu­rial spirit and passion. The focus is on high-tech start-ups from the fields of digi­tal busi­ness models, indus­trial tech, life scien­ces, chemis­try and rela­ted busi­ness areas.

More than EUR 2.4 billion in capi­tal has been inves­ted in the HTGF port­fo­lio by exter­nal inves­tors in more than 1,500 follow-on finan­cing rounds to date. In addi­tion, the fund has alre­ady successfully sold shares in more than 100 compa­nies. Inves­tors in the public-private part­ner­ship include the German Fede­ral Minis­try for Econo­mic Affairs and Energy, KfW Capi­tal, the Fraun­ho­fer-Gesell­schaft and the 32 companies.

P+P advises Forestay Capital on Series C financing in Zenjob

Posted on by Tatjana Anderer

Digi­tal employ­ment service provi­der Zenjob has successfully closed a €27 million ($30 million) Series C funding round. The lead inves­tor is Forestay Capi­tal, an affi­liate of Ernesto Bertarelli’s (photo) family office Waypo­int Capi­tal. Other inves­tors include exis­ting inves­tors Redal­pine, Acton Capi­tal, AXA Venture Part­ners and Atlan­tic Labs.

Zenjob uses an app to place student assistants with large and medium-sized compa­nies in the logi­stics, retail and office sectors. New custo­mers are intro­du­ced digi­tally to all proces­ses and can then request staff via an online booking portal. In this way, compa­nies can quickly and flexi­bly find tempo­rary staff to respond to short-term person­nel requi­re­ments or seaso­nal fluc­tua­tions. Job candi­date matching also allows students to find a job in their area on the same day. By its own account, Zenjob reaches 15,000 students every day via the app. Curr­ently, the Berlin-based company is alre­ady repre­sen­ted in 14 cities.

Zenjob enables its custo­mers to achieve high effi­ci­ency gains and takes care of the entire process for tempo­rary staf­fing, from recrui­ting to invoi­cing. Algo­rithms will also help to predict person­nel demand even better.

P+P Pöllath + Part­ners advi­sed Forestay Capi­tal, a fund belon­ging to Waypo­int Capi­tal Group, on the finan­cing round with the follo­wing team:

Chris­tian Tönies, LL.M. Eur.(Part­ner, Lead Part­ner, M&A/Venture Capi­tal, Munich/Berlin), Dr. Sebas­tian Gerlin­ger, LL.M. (Coun­sel, M&A/Venture Capi­tal, Munich/Berlin), Adal­bert Makos (Coun­sel, M&A/Venture Capi­tal, Munich), Andreas Kühnert (Senior Asso­ciate, M&A/Venture Capi­tal, Munich), Markus Döll­ner (Asso­ciate, M&A/Venture Capi­tal, Munich)

Stefan Kaltenbacher takes over as Head of Healthcare from Bryan, Garnier & Co.

Posted on by Tatjana Anderer

Paris/Munich — Stefan Kalten­ba­cher (56), photo, will head Bryan, Garnier and Co. ’s German-spea­king invest­ment banking acti­vi­ties in the life scien­ces sector (DACH region) from May 1, 2020. The new Mana­ging Direc­tor has exten­sive gene­ral manage­ment expe­ri­ence in the phar­maceu­ti­cal and medi­cal tech­no­logy indus­try as well as in private equity: Among other things, he was respon­si­ble for the Nort­hern and Central Euro­pean busi­ness of the medi­cal tech­no­logy company Care­Fu­sion (now part of Becton Dick­in­son), led the medi­cal device sector of John­son & John­son in Germany and Austria, and was a member of John­son & Johnson’s Stra­tegy Team Europe. Prior to that, he worked in Paris and London as direc­tor for the inter­na­tio­nal diagno­stics divi­sion of Bayer AG. Most recently, as Mana­ging Direc­tor of an owner-mana­ged, inde­pen­dent M&A consul­tancy, he advi­sed a large number of growth compa­nies and estab­lished compa­nies in the German-spea­king region and was Senior Advi­sor to Deut­sche Betei­li­gungs­ge­sell­schaft, Frank­furt, on its enga­ge­ments in the life scien­ces sector.

“Parti­cu­larly in the life scien­ces sector, indus­try expe­ri­ence is abso­lut­ely essen­tial and we are deligh­ted to have gained such an expe­ri­en­ced indus­try expert for our German team,” empha­si­zes Falk Müller-Veerse, who as Part­ner is respon­si­ble for Bryan, Garnier & Co.’s busi­ness in the DACH region.

The health­care indus­try is a central focus of the invest­ment bank for tech­no­logy compa­nies, which was foun­ded in Paris and London in 1996: Bryan, Garnier & Co. was invol­ved in the successful Nasdaq IPO of biotech company BionTech, accom­pa­nied medi­cal tech­no­logy company Medar­tis to the Swiss stock exch­ange, and orchestra­ted a number of private finan­cing rounds of life scien­ces start-ups with global inves­tors, among others.

About Bryan, Garnier & Co
Bryan, Garnier & Co, foun­ded in 1996 in Paris and London, is an invest­ment bank focu­sed on Euro­pean growth compa­nies with a presence in London, Paris, Munich, Stock­holm, Oslo, Reykja­vík, New York, Palo Alto and Shang­hai. As an inde­pen­dent full-service invest­ment bank, it offers compre­hen­sive finan­cing advice and support along the entire life cycle of its clients — from initial finan­cing rounds to a poten­tial sale or IPO with subse­quent follow-up finan­cing. The range of services includes equity analy­sis, equity sales and trading, private and public capi­tal raising, and M&A advi­sory for growth compa­nies and their inves­tors. The focus is on the growth sectors of tech­no­logy, health­care, bran­ded and consu­mer goods, and busi­ness services. Bryan Garnier is a regis­tered broker and licen­sed with the FCA in Europe and FINRA in the US.

BÖAG Börsen AG acquires majority stake in ICF BANK

Posted on by Tatjana Anderer

Hamburg — BÖAG Börsen AG acqui­res the majo­rity of shares in ICF BANK AG from the company’s foun­ders. As part of the tran­sac­tion, BÖAG Börsen AG (photo: Hamburg Stock Exch­ange), the spon­so­ring company of the stock exch­an­ges in Düssel­dorf, Hamburg and Hano­ver, also secu­red an option on further shares. With the acqui­si­tion of the majo­rity of shares, BÖAG Börsen AG streng­thens its posi­tion and sets the course for further joint inno­va­tive growth. The tran­sac­tion is still subject to appr­oval by boards and the rele­vant regu­la­tory authorities.

The current stra­te­gic part­ner­ship between BÖAG Börsen AG and ICF BANK AG is based on years of successful coope­ra­tion. Since 2017, ICF BANK AG has acted as a market maker in Quotrix, the elec­tro­nic trading system of the Düssel­dorf Stock Exch­ange. Since the begin­ning of 2020, she has been respon­si­ble for trading in equi­ties, bonds, invest­ment funds as well as ETPs on the Düssel­dorf Stock Exch­ange as an order book mana­ger. The posi­tio­ning in the “Capi­tal Markets” and “Brokerage Services” busi­ness areas opens up addi­tio­nal sources of growth and earnings along­side the origi­nal secu­ri­ties trading business.

BÖAG Börsen AG is the owner of the broker-supported stock exch­an­ges in Düssel­dorf, Hamburg and Hano­ver as well as the elec­tro­nic trading plat­forms Quotrix and LS Exch­ange. Toge­ther, the three exch­an­ges, inclu­ding their trading plat­forms, have more than 50,000 listings of secu­ri­ties (equi­ties, open-end funds/ETFs, bonds, parti­ci­pa­tion certi­fi­ca­tes and certificates/ETCs). Trading parti­ci­pants include dome­stic credit insti­tu­ti­ons and finan­cial services companies.

ICF BANK AG is a secu­ri­ties trading bank with around 65 employees head­quar­te­red in Frank­furt. With its IT subsi­dia­ries ICF SYSTEMS AG and Novis Soft­ware GmbH, it is one of the leading service and solu­tion provi­ders for all aspects of secu­ri­ties trading in Germany.

Advi­sors to BÖAG Börsen AG: Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek
Dr. Michael Dröge, Dr. Jörg Schewe(both M&A/Corporate), both lead, Julia Cramer (Capi­tal Markets), Sven Johann­sen (Capi­tal Markets, Banking Super­vi­sion), all Hamburg

Reifen Baierlacher sells to Goodyear

Posted on by Tatjana Anderer

Munich - Hübner Schlös­ser & Cie (HSCie) exclu­si­vely advi­sed the share­hol­ders of Reifen Baier­la­cher KG on the sale to the Goodyear Group. The manage­ment team, inclu­ding mana­ging part­ner Manuel Baier­la­cher, will remain with the company and, toge­ther with the new inves­tor, will conti­nue to actively drive Reifen Baierlacher’s growth stra­tegy in the future. With this tran­sac­tion, Goodyear further expands its sales and distri­bu­tion struc­ture, adds value to its products and brands and streng­thens its presence in an important key market.

Reifen Baier­la­cher will conti­nue to operate with a high degree of inde­pen­dence and flexi­bi­lity, main­tai­ning its medium-sized custo­mer and employee focus while bene­fiting from the strong brand reco­gni­tion and struc­tures of a globally active tire manu­fac­tu­rer. “This tran­sac­tion repres­ents the combi­na­tion of one of Germany’s leading tire trading compa­nies with one of the world’s best-known tire brands. The combi­na­tion with Goodyear will enable Baier­la­cher to further roll out its successful busi­ness model and posi­tion itself even more stron­gly in a conso­li­da­ting market envi­ron­ment. We are plea­sed to have advi­sed the Baier­la­cher family in the sales process,” explains Sabine Moel­ler (photo), part­ner at HSCie.

HSCie advi­sed the sellers in all steps of the sales process. The mana­ging part­ner comm­ents: “We reali­zed from the very first minute that the decis­ion to choose HSCie as our M&A advi­sor was the right one. Throug­hout the entire consul­ting period, we recei­ved extre­mely compe­tent, friendly and goal-orien­ted support. The profes­sio­na­lism and compe­tence of our cont­act persons was impres­sive. We are glad to have chosen HSCie and thank the consul­tants involved.”

About Reifen Baierlacher
Reifen Baier­la­cher is a German tire whole­sale and retail company based in Weil­heim near Munich. Retail compri­ses the busi­ness with new repla­ce­ment tires and comple­men­tary services for end custo­mers in the Southern Germany region. Whole­sale compri­ses the Europe-wide busi­ness with repla­ce­ment tires. For more infor­ma­tion on Reifen Baier­la­cher, visit www.baierlacher.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 160 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.

Thüga Erneuerbare Energien acquires two wind farms and two solar farms each

Posted on by Tatjana Anderer

Thüga Erneu­er­bare Ener­gien GmbH & Co. KG(THEE) is expan­ding its port­fo­lio with two exis­ting wind farms in Bran­den­burg and Rhine­land-Pala­ti­nate and two solar farms in Meck­len­burg-Western Pome­ra­nia. This increa­ses THEE ’s wind energy port­fo­lio by 13.6 MW to appro­xi­m­ately 282 MW. In 2018/2019, THEE had alre­ady acqui­red six solar parks, some of which are opera­ted by its subsi­diary THEE Solar GmbH & Co. KG. With the current acqui­si­tion of the two addi­tio­nal projects, THEE’s solar energy port­fo­lio increa­ses by 3.2 MWp to 14.2 MWp. The muni­ci­pal inves­tor thus curr­ently opera­tes a total of 27 wind farms and eight solar farms. Taylor Wessing ’s energy team, led by Hamburg-based part­ner Cars­ten Bartholl (pictu­red), provi­ded legal advice to THEE on the acqui­si­ti­ons, as it has seve­ral times in the past. These are not isola­ted cases: last year alone, the firm’s energy team advi­sed on rene­wa­ble energy projects with a scope of more than 2,500 MW at various stages of deve­lo­p­ment in Europe and overseas.

Thüga Erneu­er­bare Ener­gien GmbH & Co. KG (THEE), based in Hamburg, is a joint venture between seve­ral compa­nies in the Thüga Group. All compa­nies are mino­rity share­hol­ders in THEE. In prin­ci­ple, parti­ci­pa­tion in THEE is open to all compa­nies of the Thüga Group. THEE invests in rene­wa­ble energy gene­ra­tion projects with a focus on Germany. The aim of THEE is to bundle know-how and capi­tal in order to expand its own energy produc­tion from rene­wa­ble sources in the coming years.

Legal advi­sors Thüga Erneu­er­bare Ener­gien: Taylor Wessing
Lead Part­ner Cars­ten Bartholl (Part­ner M&A/Corporate, Head of Energy), Hannes Tutt (Salary Part­ner, Commer­cial Real Estate, Hamburg), Dr. Markus Böhme, LL.M. (Salary Part­ner, Regu­la­tory Energy Law, Düssel­dorf), Lars Borchardt (Asso­ciate, Envi­ron­men­tal Plan­ning & Regu­la­tory); Chris­tian Kupfer (Asso­ciate, Corporate/Energy), Jasmin Schlee (Asso­ciate, Corporate/Energy), all Hamburg, unless other­wise stated.

Weil with strong growth in the current fiscal year

Posted on by Tatjana Anderer

Munich/ Frank­furt a. Main — The German offices of the inter­na­tio­nal law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP have recor­ded strong growth in the current finan­cial year and are on track to set a new reve­nue record. The Munich loca­tion in parti­cu­lar attrac­ted atten­tion this year with a 20% growth rate.

Dr. Ansgar Wimber (photo) also elec­ted part­ner of the firm effec­tive Janu­ary 1, 2020. Dr. Wimber is a part­ner in the private equity prac­tice in the firm’s Frank­furt office and advi­ses on cross-border tran­sac­tions. Most recently, he advi­sed Advent Inter­na­tio­nal and Noval­pina Capi­tal, among others, on various tran­sac­tions. “With the elec­tion of Dr. Wimber as Part­ner and the appoint­ment of a total of six lawy­ers at the Munich and Frank­furt offices as Coun­sel, Weil is excel­lently posi­tio­ned to conti­nue its high growth rate in the future,” said Prof. Dr. Gerhard Schmidt, Mana­ging Part­ner of the German offices.

To accom­mo­date this signi­fi­cant growth, the follo­wing attor­neys have been appoin­ted as Coun­sel effec­tive Janu­ary 1, 2020:
* Manuel-Peter Fringer (Private Equity, Munich)
* Thomas Zimmer­mann (Finance, Munich)
* Benja­min Rapp (Tax, Munich)
* Dr. Konstan­tin Hoppe (Liti­ga­tion, Munich)
* Svenja Wach­tel (Liti­ga­tion, Munich)
* Konrad v. Buch­waldt (Corpo­rate, Frankfurt).

Signi­fi­cant manda­tes which the firm has advi­sed on this year and which have contri­bu­ted signi­fi­cantly to its success include advi­sing Upfield (prin­ci­pal share­hol­der KKR) on the acqui­si­tion of Arivia, KKR on the acqui­si­tion of heidel­pay from AnaCap, TCV on its invest­ment in Flix­Bus, Apax Digi­tal on its invest­ment in Signa­vio, Noval­pina Capi­tal on its take private and squeeze out of Olym­pic Enter­tain­ment Group.

Weil, Gotshal & Manges
Weil, Gotshal & Manges is an inter­na­tio­nal law firm with more than 1,100 lawy­ers, inclu­ding appro­xi­m­ately 300 part­ners. Weil is head­quar­te­red in New York and has offices in Boston, Dallas, Frank­furt, Hong Kong, Hous­ton, London, Miami, Munich, Paris, Beijing, Prince­ton, Shang­hai, Sili­con Valley, Warsaw and Washing­ton, D.C.

Philipp Freise becomes co-head of PE business KKR Europe

Posted on by Tatjana Anderer

London — Promo­tion for Phil­ipp Freise (photo) — the KKR part­ner will become the new co-head of KKR’s Euro­pean private equity busi­ness with imme­diate effect. In the future, he will lead the company toge­ther with the Italian Mattia Caprioli. Both will jointly assume respon­si­bi­lity for day-to-day opera­ti­ons. They report to Johan­nes Huth, who heads KKR’s acti­vi­ties in Europe. Phil­ipp Freise had recently made a name for hims­elf with deals on the German media market.

With this move, KKR is restruc­tu­ring its private equity leader­ship. The posi­ti­ons Freise and Caprioli will assume in addi­tion to their exis­ting duties were previously headed by Johan­nes Huth.

Dr. Tanja Emmerling: new partner at HTGF

Posted on by Tatjana Anderer

Berlin — Since March 2018, Dr. Tanja Emmer­ling (41, photo) has headed the Berlin office of High-Tech Grün­der­fonds (HTGF). Now she has been appoin­ted part­ner. “After the extre­mely successful and rapid estab­lish­ment of the Berlin office, we are very plea­sed to streng­then the exten­ded manage­ment team with Tanja. This way, we gain even more impact for HTGF as a whole,” explains Dr. Alex von Fran­ken­berg, Mana­ging Part­ner of HTGF. This means that there are eleven part­ners in total, more than a quar­ter of whom are women.

Ms. Emmer­ling has been a member of the HTGF team since 2014. AI, IoT, Mobi­lity & Logi­stics, IT Secu­rity, Block­chain and SaaS compa­nies are her passion. She is invol­ved as a start-up mentor and is a welcome guest on various panels. Before joining HTGF, she was Head of New Ventures respon­si­ble for incu­ba­tion and corpo­rate ventures in a media company. “Being able to repre­sent Europe’s most active seed inves­tor as a part­ner in Berlin offers incre­di­ble oppor­tu­ni­ties to get new compa­nies off the ground,” Ms. Emmer­ling is plea­sed to say.

Berlin is an important loca­tion for HTGF. The metro­po­lis is a central hub for start-ups, inter­na­tio­nal inves­tors and compa­nies. A team of five invest­ment mana­gers is alre­ady working there. “But we have not only expan­ded the team in Berlin. New invest­ment mana­gers have also come on board at the Bonn office. With around 220 tran­sac­tions per year — that means new invest­ments, follow-up finan­cing and exits — the need for excel­lent invest­ment mana­gers has contin­ued to grow,” explains Dr. Alex von Frankenberg.

About High-Tech Gründerfonds
The seed inves­tor High-Tech Grün­der­fonds (HTGF) finan­ces tech­no­logy start­ups with growth poten­tial. With a total volume of EUR 895.5 million distri­bu­ted across three funds and an inter­na­tio­nal part­ner network, HTGF has alre­ady supported more than 550 start­ups since 2005. His team of expe­ri­en­ced invest­ment mana­gers and startup experts supports the young compa­nies with know-how, entre­pre­neu­rial spirit and passion. The focus is on high-tech start-ups in the soft­ware, media and Inter­net sectors, as well as hard­ware, auto­ma­tion, health­care, chemi­cals and life scien­ces. More than EUR 2 billion in capi­tal has been inves­ted in the HTGF port­fo­lio by exter­nal inves­tors in more than 1,400 follow-on finan­cing rounds to date. The fund has also successfully sold shares in more than 100 compa­nies. www.htgf.de

Dr. Oliver von Rosenberg Dr. Oliver von Rosenberg from Görg to Heuking

Posted on by Tatjana Anderer

Colo­gne — Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek wins M&A expert Dr. Oliver von Rosen­berg (photo) toge­ther with team from Görg. Dr. Oliver von Rosen­berg, LL.M. (54) and Dr. Alex­an­der Jüngst (37) will join the Colo­gne office of Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek as equity part­ners as of Janu­ary 1, 2020. Toge­ther with them, asso­cia­tes Dr. Kers­tin Goeck and Maxi­mi­lian Spitz­horn-Storck join Heuking from Görg.

The renow­ned M&A part­ner von Rosen­berg has many years of expe­ri­ence in advi­sing on German and cross-border M&A tran­sac­tions. His clients include large private equity funds and compa­nies in the energy sector. With his team, he regu­larly advi­ses medium-sized compa­nies and large family busi­nesses as well as family offices. He also has exten­sive exper­tise in the area of restructuring.

Dr. Oliver von Rosen­berg comple­ted his law studies at the Ruhr Univer­sity Bochum and George­town Univer­sity Law Center. In 1999, he worked as Foreign Coun­sel at one of the leading law firms in the U.S. in Los Ange­les. Prior to joining Görg in 2016, von Rosen­berg was a part­ner (since 1995 as an attor­ney) at Fresh­fields Bruck­haus Derin­ger from 2002 to 2016. In his subse­quent three years as a part­ner at Görg, he contin­ued to secure manda­tes for large cap funds such as CVC Capi­tal Part­ners, Ardian and Oakley, as well as nume­rous large medium-sized compa­nies for his team.

Dr. Alex­an­der Jüngst has exten­sive expe­ri­ence in advi­sing on M&A and private equity tran­sac­tions as well as restruc­tu­ring. In addi­tion to tran­sac­tion expe­ri­ence, Jüngst also has special exper­tise in stock corpo­ra­tion and group law, limi­ted liabi­lity company law, corpo­rate gover­nance and capi­tal markets law.

Jüngst comple­ted his law studies at the Albert Ludwig Univer­sity in Frei­burg im Breis­gau, the Univer­sité de Lausanne, Switz­er­land, and the Univer­sity of Colo­gne. He star­ted his career at Link­la­ters in Corporate/M&A before joining Görg in Janu­ary 2019.

“We are extre­mely plea­sed to have Dr. Oliver von Rosen­berg and Dr. Alex­an­der Jüngst join us with their asso­cia­tes. The expe­ri­en­ced colle­ague Dr. von Rosen­berg and his team are an excel­lent addi­tion to our Corporate/M&A prac­tice,” said Dr. Pär Johans­son, Mana­ging Part­ner of the firm and based in Colo­gne. “With the four new addi­ti­ons, we are expan­ding our exper­tise in M&A not only in Colo­gne, but across all firms.”

Dr. Oliver von Rosen­berg is also convin­ced that the change is wort­hwhile for both sides. “I am looking forward to my new role at a firm that has one of its main areas of focus in M&A,” von Rosen­berg said of his team’s move.

Itziar Estevez Latasa is a new partner at Iris Capital

Posted on by Tatjana Anderer

Berlin — Iris Capi­tal, one of Europe’s leading venture capi­tal firms, brings Itziar Este­vez Latasa (photo) on board as a part­ner. Based in Munich, she will be respon­si­ble for late-stage invest­ments in the DACH region.

Itziar Este­vez Latasa brings over ten years of VC expe­ri­ence and specia­li­zes in late stage and growth capi­tal invest­ments. Its focus here is prima­rily on invest­ments in the areas of B2B soft­ware, data analy­tics, cyber secu­rity and Indus­try 4.0.

Most recently, she spent ten years as a venture inves­tor at Next47 and Siemens Venture Capi­tal. Her previous invest­ments and port­fo­lio respon­si­bi­li­ties include Black Duck (acqui­red by Synop­sys), Brain­cube, Pola­rion (acqui­red by Siemens), Wurld­tech (acqui­red by GE), Ence­lium (acqui­red by OSRAM).

Prior to that, Itziar Este­vez Latasa worked at The Boston Consul­ting Group as a consul­tant specia­li­zing in private equity and energy projects and in project manage­ment at BMW.

Iris Capital’s Germany team is led by Curt Gunsen­hei­mer, Mana­ging Part­ner: “We are very happy and proud to welcome Itziar as our new late-stage part­ner. Her expe­ri­ence in indus­trial and corpo­rate envi­ron­ments toge­ther with her exper­tise in tech inves­t­ing will be a great addi­tion to our team in Berlin. We see her as a key figure in iden­ti­fy­ing emer­ging German compa­nies and unicorns.”

About Iris Capital
Iris Capi­tal is a Euro­pean venture capi­tal firm specia­li­zing in the digi­tal economy. Iris Capi­tal invests in compa­nies at various stages of growth, from start­ups to late stage and growth play­ers. Due to its parti­cu­lar specia­liza­tion in indi­vi­dual indus­tries and over 30 years of expe­ri­ence, as well as the support of its corpo­rate spon­sors, Iris Capi­tal actively accom­pa­nies the compa­nies in its own port­fo­lio. Iris Capi­tal has offices in Paris, Berlin, San Fran­cisco, Tel Aviv, Tokyo and Dubai.

Iris­Next is a fund of Iris Capi­tal, backed as inves­tors by leading compa­nies such as Orange, Publi­cis, Valeo and Bridge­stone, as well as finan­cial inves­tors and insti­tu­ti­ons such as Bpifrance and BRED Banque Popu­laire. Its holdings include Adjust, Careem, Happy­Car, Kyriba, Open-Xchange, Mojio, reBuy, Scality, Searchme­trics, Shift Tech­no­logy, Studi­temps, Talend, Talon.One and Unu Motors. www.iriscapital.com

Pericap joins Clairfield International

Posted on by Tatjana Anderer

Frank­furt a. Main — Frank­furt-based corpo­rate finance boutique Peri­cap AG has joined Clair­field Inter­na­tio­nal. Effec­tive July 01, 2019, the two foun­ders Prof. Dr. Serge Ragotzky and Michael Haas have joined the Clair­field Group as partners.

Dr. Serge Ragotzky (photo) has many years of expe­ri­ence in M&A and capi­tal markets. After holding profes­sio­nal posi­ti­ons at Sal. Oppen­heim, HSBC and UBS for six years as Mana­ging Direc­tor respon­si­ble for the German corpo­rate finance busi­ness of the pan-Euro­pean invest­ment bank Kepler Cheu­vreux (form­erly Kepler Capi­tal Markets). Since 2014, he has also been Profes­sor of Invest­ment Banking at HfWU Nürtingen-Geislingen.

Michael Haas, CFA , who holds a degree in busi­ness mathe­ma­tics, foun­ded Peri­Cap toge­ther with Dr. Ragotzky in 2013 and has since been advi­sing medium-sized and high-growth compa­nies in the areas of M&A and capi­tal raising. Previously, Michael Haas also spent six years at Kepler Cheu­vreux, most recently as Direc­tor Corpo­rate Finance. Other profes­sio­nal posi­ti­ons include BDO Tran­sac­tion Services, Bank­haus Lampe M&A and NIBC Infra­struc­ture Finan­cing. Clair­field Inter­na­tio­nal — one of the world’s leading M&A consul­tancies for midmar­ket tran­sac­tions — has thus once again expan­ded its circle of partners.

The addi­tion of the Frank­furt office brings Clairfield’s total number of part­ners in Germany to ten. Further team addi­ti­ons at the Düssel­dorf and Stutt­gart loca­ti­ons are plan­ned for the second half of the year. Dr. Albert Schander, Foun­der and Mana­ging Part­ner of Clair­field in Germany, said, “We are deligh­ted that Serge and Michael have chosen Clair­field and that with this team we will further streng­then our indus­try exper­tise in the tech­no­logy, consu­mer goods and real estate sectors and also expand our know-how in the areas of capi­tal markets advi­sory and valuation.”

About Clair­field International
Clair­field Inter­na­tio­nal is the asso­cia­tion of leading invest­ment banking bouti­ques with holding head­quar­ters in Geneva. The Clair­field Group curr­ently includes 38 offices in 22 coun­try orga­niza­ti­ons with a total of more than 300 employees. Clair­field Inter­na­tio­nal has been repea­tedly reco­gni­zed by Thom­son Reuters as one of the world’s leading midmar­ket M&A consul­tancies for tran­sac­tions up to €500m.

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