Munich — Inter­na­tio­nal law firm Reed Smith provi­ded compre­hen­sive advice to Sphera Solu­ti­ons, an ESG port­fo­lio company of Blackstone, USA, on the acqui­si­tion of riskme­thods, a supply chain risk manage­ment soft­ware company based in Munich with subsi­dia­ries in the USA and Poland. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the purchase price.

The acqui­si­tion was made as part of a struc­tu­red sales process. During the tran­sac­tion, Sphera/Blackstone was compre­hen­si­vely assis­ted by an inter­di­sci­pli­nary team from Reed Smith in all rele­vant legal areas inclu­ding tech & data and antitrust/foreign trade law. The Reed Smith team was led by part­ners Siddesh Bale (USA) and Dr. Andreas Jürgens; part­ner Dr. Andreas Jürgens was respon­si­ble for legal advice in Germany and said “we are very plea­sed that our global team was able to successfully assist Sphera and Blackstone in this tran­sac­tion, brin­ging not only our many years of M&A expe­ri­ence but also our exper­tise in this important ESG market.”

About Sphera Solutions
Sphera says it is the leading provi­der of envi­ron­men­tal, social and gover­nance (ESG) perfor­mance and risk manage­ment soft­ware, data and consul­ting services focu­sed on envi­ron­ment, health, safety and sustaina­bi­lity (EHS&S), opera­tio­nal risk manage­ment and product steward­ship. For more than 30 years, Sphera has served over 6,700 custo­mers and more than one million users in 80 count­ries to help orga­niza­ti­ons keep their people safe, their products sustainable and their opera­ti­ons productive.

About riskme­thods GmbH
riskme­thods says it enables orga­niza­ti­ons world­wide to iden­tify, analyze and miti­gate all types of supply chain risk manage­ment (SCRM). riskme­thods’ soft­ware uses arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence (AI) and machine lear­ning to protect its clients’ supply chain network. Its soft­ware plat­form coll­ects supplier data and real-time infor­ma­tion, distin­gu­is­hes criti­cal signals from “noise,” and provi­des users with visi­bi­lity across multi­ple layers of their supply chain so they can miti­gate the risk of busi­ness disrup­tion and achieve supply chain visibility.
The company’s 200+ employees in 4 offices world­wide serve more than 225 enter­prise customers.

About Blackstone
Blackstone says it is the world’s largest alter­na­tive invest­ment firm. The company’s objec­tive is to create posi­tive econo­mic impact and long-term value for inves­tors and the compa­nies in which it invests. Assets under manage­ment of $941 billion include, on a global basis, invest­ment vehic­les focu­sed on private equity,
Focus real estate, public debt and equity, infra­struc­ture, life scien­ces, growth equi­ties, non-inves­t­­ment grade oppor­tu­ni­stic credit, real assets and secon­dary funds.

Reed Smith’s German team included:
Dr. Andreas Jürgens (Part­ner — Corporate/M&A, Frank­furt, Lead Partner)
Dr. Anette Gaert­ner (Part­ner — IP, Frankfurt)
Dr. Michaela Westrup (Part­ner — Anti­trust Law/Foreign Trade Law, Munich)
Daja Apetz-Dreier (Part­ner — Commercial/Dispute Reso­lu­tion, Munich)
Dr. Martin Bünning (Part­ner — Tax Law, Frankfurt)
Dr. Andreas Splitt­ger­ber (Part­­ner- Tech & Data, Munich)
Dr. Simon Grie­ser (Part­ner — Finance, Frankfurt)
Chris­tian Leuth­ner (Part­ner — Tech & Data, Frankfurt)
Dr. Philip Schmidt (Coun­sel — Corporate/M&A, Frankfurt)
Judith Becker (Coun­sel — Labor Law, Munich)
Irmela Dölle (Asso­ciate — Tech & Data, Frankfurt)
Julia Hoeren (Asso­ciate — Commercial/Dispute Reso­lu­tion, Munich)
Elisa Saier (Asso­ciate — Labor Law, Munich)
Vincent Magotsch (Asso­ciate — Labor Law, Munich)
Dr. Maria Otter­mann (Asso­ciate — Dispute Reso­lu­tion, Munich)
Sebas­tian Bitter (Asso­ciate — Anti­trust Law, Munich)
Phil­ipp Johan­nes Berg­mann (Asso­ciate — Banking & Finance, Munich)
Anselm Reinerts­ho­fer (Asso­ciate — Banking & Finance, Munich)
Carina Park (Asso­ciate — Tax Law, Frankfurt)

Further­more, lawy­ers from the US offices as well as from London and Leeds, UK, advi­sed on this chal­len­ging transaction.

About Reed Smith

Reed Smith is one of the leading inter­na­tio­nal law firms with more than 1,700 lawy­ers in 30 offices in Europe, the United States, the Middle East and Asia. For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.reedsmith.com