Berlin — The invest­ment company Odewald KMU II (board of direc­tors from left: Oliver Schön­knecht, Heiko Arnold, Joachim von Ribben­trop) acqui­res a majo­rity stake in GIATA GmbH. Since 1996, GIATA has been support­ing its custo­mers in the tourism indus­try as a leading provi­der of “non-booka­­ble content”, conti­nuously setting new stan­dards in hotel content proces­sing and distri­bu­tion. The foun­ding share­hol­ders have taken a signi­fi­cant stake in the company and will remain at the company’s dispo­sal for the long term. Odewald KMU II was advi­sed by Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek.

Its modu­lar product range enables GIATA to offer complete solu­ti­ons tail­o­red to the indi­vi­dual custo­mer. In doing so, GIATA combi­nes inno­va­tive tech­no­lo­gies such as Arti­fi­cial Intel­li­gence and Digi­tal Finger­prin­ting with careful, manual rese­arch. Custo­mers from over 70 count­ries include almost all inter­na­tio­nally known tour opera­tors and travel agency chains, online travel agen­cies, the global travel distri­bu­tion systems and inter­na­tio­nally known travel portals. GIATA has thus estab­lished itself as the market leader in the market segments served by the company in the rapidly growing global tourism market.

To support further growth, the foun­ding share­hol­ders have ente­red into a part­ner­ship with Odewald KMU, Berlin, an invest­ment company specia­li­zing in high-growth medium-sized compa­nies. To this end, Odewald KMU has acqui­red a majo­rity stake in GIATA. The foun­ding share­hol­ders have taken a signi­fi­cant stake in the company and will remain at the company’s dispo­sal for the long term. The common goal of the share­hol­ders is to conti­nue to grow sustain­ably in the coming years with the exis­ting product range and to successfully posi­tion the product inno­va­tions curr­ently being laun­ched on the market. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the amount of the invest­ment or further details of the shareholding.

The Odewald KMU II Fund has a volume of 200 million euros and invests in high-growth medium-sized compa­nies. The focus is on compa­nies in the fields of “German engi­nee­ring”, intel­li­gent services and health. Most recently, Odewald KMU II inves­ted in Langer & Laumann Inge­nieur­büro GmbH and heiz­ku­rier GmbH in Janu­ary 2018 with the support of Pär Johansson’s team. Kris­tina Schnei­der has also just successfully comple­ted the first add-on acqui­si­tion for heiz­ku­rier GmbH.

Advi­sor Odewald KMU II: Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek
Dr. Pär Johans­son (Lead), Kris­tina Schnei­der, LL.M., Dr. Chris­toph Schork, LL.M., Tim Remmel, LL.M. (all Private Equity, Corporate/M&A), all Colo­gne Dr. Sascha Sche­wiola (Labor Law), Dr. Verena Hoene, LL.M. (IP), both Colo­gne, Dr. Philip Kemper­mann, LL.M., Michael Kuska, LL.M., LL.M. (IT) both Düsseldorf.