A team led by Vienna corporate partner Philipp Spatz advised the previous owners on the sale of Vienna based Mona Group (“Mona”) to US Hain Celestial Group. Mona is a showpiece of Austrian entrepreneurship: Founded by Austrian visionaries in 2001, Mona meanwhile became a leader in soy and other plant-based beverages and foods, selling its products all across Europe under the well-known Joya and Happy brands.

The purchaser is a wholly owned subsidiary of NASDAQ listed The Hain Celestial Group, Inc, a leading US organic and natural products company with operations in North America, Europe and India. The transaction closed July 24, 2015. The parties agreed to keep the purchase price confidential.

“I am very happy that we had the opportunity to participate in this interesting transaction in an innovative and rapidly growing industry. Challenges of the transaction included the short timeframe available for completing the deal as well as the coordination among our various clients, which included several venture capital groups and members of current and former management”, commented Philipp Spatz, who is a corporate partner in the Vienna office of Baker & McKenzie and led the team which advised on the transaction.

Baker & McKenzie regularly advises international and Austrian clients in M&A transactions. Only recently a team led by Philipp Spatz advised Austrian Post on the sale of its Hungarian subsidiary Feibra Magyarország in an auction process.

Legal Advisor to Sellers

Lead: Philipp Spatz (Partner, Vienna, Corporate)

Other attorneys involved: Marc Lager (Partner, Vienna, Competition), Stefan Arnold (Associate, Vienna, Corporate), Armin Assadi (Associate, Vienna, Corporate)