Gleiss Lutz has advised Pinegrove Opportunity Partners (“Pinegrove”) on the acquisition of a stake of approximately 21% of the share capital of the listed sino AG (“sino”) held by HSBC Trinkaus & Burkhardt Gesellschaft für Bankbeteiligungen mbH (“HSBC”).
Pinegrove, headquartered in San Francisco, is a dedicated venture and growth secondaries firm that invests in leading mid-to-late-stage technology companies. The company is backed by renowned asset management firms HRTG Partners (formerly Sequoia Heritage) and Brookfield and manages assets of over USD 2 billion.
sino is a German financial services institution headquartered in Düsseldorf, specializing in high-end brokerage services for particularly active private investors (heavy traders). The company is also known as an early investor in Trade Republic Bank GmbH and is listed on the Open Market of Düsseldorf Stock Exchange. With the acquisition of this stake, Pinegrove becomes the largest single shareholder of sino. HSBC had previously held the stake for a period of 25 years.
Completion of the transaction is subject to regulatory approval in the context of the qualifying holding procedure by the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin).
The following Gleiss Lutz team led by Dr. Christian Cascante (lead, partner), Dr. Julius-Vincent Ritz and Laurenz Scheuring (all M&A, all Stuttgart) advised Pinegrove on this transaction:
Dr. Melina Grauschopf (M&A, Munich), Dr. Christian Hissnauer (partner), Aike Würdemann, Tobias Kempf (all Financial Regulation, Frankfurt), Dr. Jacob von Andreae (partner), Aylin Hoffs (counsel), Vivien Etzkorn (all Foreign Trade Law, all Düsseldorf), Dr. Johannes Hertfelder (partner), Dr. Daniela Dirlewanger (both Competition/Antitrust, both Stuttgart), Dr. Rut Steinhauser (partner), Josefine Chakrabarti (Counsel), Dr. Sophie Bahr (all Berlin), Eva Schiebsdat (Munich) (all Employment), Dr. Katja Lehr (counsel, Banking & Finance, Frankfurt), Dr. Simon Wagner (counsel, dispute resolution, Stuttgart), Dr. Alexander Molle (partner), Jan Hinrichs (counsel, both IP/Tech, both Berlin).
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