Ashurst advised a consortium comprising Deutsche Apotheker- und Ärztebank (apoBank), Bank of Ireland, DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral-Genossenschaftsbank, Frankfurt am Main (DZ Bank) and SEB AG on refinancing the DOREA Group, an operator of nursing and elderly facilities in Germany. The banks provide Quadriga Capital Private Equity Fund IV LP's portfolio company with an increased credit volume that DOREA intends to use to finance its expansion strategy.

DOREA was founded in 2015 with the takeover of five nursing homes. The company is pursuing a buy-and-build strategy and has completed 10 acquisitions over the last 18 months. With 44 nursing homes, 4,200 nursing beds, more than 3,200 employees and a turnover of around €140 million (2017), DOREA is today one of the 15 largest private operators of nursing and elderly facilities in Germany.

The Ashurst team was led by Munich-based finance partner Dr Bernd Egbers, assisted by counsel Dr Karsten Raupach and transaction manager Anna Caterina Zoth (both finance, Munich) as well as by associate Dr Jan Ulrich Heinemann (finance, Frankfurt). In the previous DOREA refinancing in September 2016, the banks - at the time DZ Bank and apoBank - were also supported by a team around Dr Egbers.

Alantra acted as debt advisor to the DOREA Group.

Ashurst is among the market leaders in relation to acquisition financings and refinancings in the consolidating German care home market. In the past 12 months the firm acted on the financing of the acquisition of the Margarethenhof Group and the Meritus senior centers by the DOREA Group, the financing of the acquisition of the Deutsche Intensivpflege Holding by Ergon as well as on the refinancing of the Deutsche Fachpflege Group.

Ashurst's German banking and finance practice advises both banks and alternative lenders, private equity firms and companies on domestic and cross-border acquisition, real estate, asset and infrastructure / project finance as well as on financial restructuring and corporate lendings.