Gleiss Lutz advised Deutsche Beteiligungs AG (“DBAG”), a private equity company, on its holding in Dieter Braun GmbH (“Braun”). DBAG-advised DBAG Fund VI will acquire a majority interest in the automotive supplier Braun from financial investor Seafort Advisors in a management buyout. Closing is subject to antitrust approvals and expected to be completed in January 2017.
Braun is a specialist and solutions provider in cable assembly and lighting for the automotive industry. In addition to its headquarters in Bayreuth, Germany, the company operates sites in the Czech Republic, Ukraine, Mexico and China, employing a staff of around 1,500. Braun is benefiting from an increasing amount of electric and electronic components in vehicles and from the trend by OEMs and suppliers to outsource production processes. It has positioned itself in the area of e-mobility with various applications.
Deutsche Beteiligungs AG, a listed private equity company, initiates closed-end private equity funds and invests alongside the DBAG funds in well-positioned mid-sized companies with potential for development. Assets under management or advice by the DBAG Group amount to approximately 1.8 billion euros.
Gleiss Lutz advised DBAG both on the transaction as well as on the acquisition financing, and coordinated an international team for the foreign jurisdictions. DBAG was represented by a Gleiss Lutz team headed by Dr. Jan Bauer (lead, partner) and Dr. Rüdiger Schmidt-Bendun (both corporate/M&A, Frankfurt), which included the following lawyers:
Dr. Jan Balssen (partner, Munich), Andreas Knossalla (both corporate/M&A), Dr. Eike Bicker (partner), Sabrina Hau (both compliance/corporate, Frankfurt), Frank Schlobach (partner), Dr. Jan-Alexander Lange, Patrick Steinhausen, Dr. Tajan Tober (all banking and finance, Frankfurt), Dr. Doris-Maria Schuster (partner), Christian Mathias (both employment, Frankfurt), Dr. Stefan Mayer (partner), Thorsten Glombik (both tax, Frankfurt), Dr. Eric Wagner (partner), Britta Kamp (both commercial/dispute Resolution, Stuttgart).
On the DBAG side, Florian Döring, head of Legal, and Maria Rostock-Bagdasarova (tax) were involved.
Gleiss Lutz regularly advises domestic and international private equity firms on investing in promising companies, including in the venture capital sector.
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