DLA Piper has advised China International Marine Containers (Group) Ltd (“CIMC”), a Chinese commercial vehicle and logistics corporation, on the acquisition of Ziegler, based in the Swabian region of southern Germany.

CIMC paid some 55 million euros for the takeover of Ziegler following insolvency proceedings. The logistics company offers the south German medium-sized company an ideal basis for expanding its international business.

CIMC is a Chinese company in the commercial vehicle and logistics sector with its headquarters in Shenzhen. It employs approximately 63,000 people worldwide and had a turnover of 8.9 billion euros last year.

Founded in 1891, Ziegler is a manufacturer of fire fighting vehicles based in Giengen on the river Brenz in south Germany and employs more than 850 people in its international operations. The company supplies some 500 fire fighting vehicles each year to fire departments, municipalities and industrial companies around the world and generated a turnover of 172 million euros in 2012. Its product portfolio includes thesix-axle airport crash tenders, which are employed at numerous airports internationally.

The team from DLA Piper under the management of partner Dr Christoph Papenheim (Corporate, Frankfurt) included partners Dr Jan Dreyer, Dr Frank Roth (both Litigation & Regulatory, Cologne), Martin Heinsius (Tax, Frankfurt), Dr Jens Kirchner (Employment, Frankfurt), Mabel Lui (Corporate, Hong Kong) and Richard Fens (Corporate, Amsterdam), counsels Sven-Oliver Friedrich (Corporate, Frankfurt), Prof Dr Falko Tappen (Tax, Frankfurt), Dr Burkhard Führmeyer (Intellectual Property & Technology, Frankfurt) and Erwin Purba (Corporate, Indonesia) as well as associates Lin Liu, Andreas Weiss, Kristin Vogt (all Corporate, Frankfurt), Dr Gregor Schroll, Dr Ulrich Bartl (both Litigation & Regulatory, Cologne), Nadine Hesser, Karen Wilhelm (both Employment, Frankfurt), Aston Goad (Corporate, Indonesia) and Laura Smit (Corporate, Amsterdam).