Gleiss Lutz advised the Otto Bock Group, domiciled in Duderstadt, on the sale of its foam business to the listed Swiss company Conzzeta AG. The transaction is expected to be completed in the second half of 2017 and is still subject to merger control clearance and further customary closing conditions.
Investment fund Accent Equity 2012 has divested its majority stake in Akademibokhandeln Holding AB (publ) to Volati. Other sellers included J.P. Killberg & Son Bokhandelsaktiebolag and Stiftelsen Bokförlaget Natur & Kultur. Management reinvested alongside Volati.
Akademibokhandeln is the leading book retailer in Sweden with a 35% market share. The business includes, inter alia, 80 in-house and 28 franchised bricks and mortar stores spread across Sweden with an assortment of books, board games and office goods under the trademarks Akademibokhandeln and Bokus.
Squire Patton Boggs and La Salle Corporate have advised on the sale of Warrington-based Mark Thompson Transport Limited to UK haulage and warehouse company Kinaxia Logistics.
Established in 1989, Mark Thompson Transport is focused on the through-the-night logistics and supply-chain sector. The company has seen substantial growth in recent years built on its high levels of customer focus, reliable cost effective service and use of state-of-the-art technology. It has a strong customer base including long-standing relationships with Hermes, DX, TNT and Victoria Plum.
Linklaters has advised Grupa Ozarow on the sale of 99.19% of the shares in its Polish calcium silicate subsidiary, Grupa Silikaty Sp. z o.o. to H+H Polska Sp. z o.o., the Denmark-based subsidiary of H+H International.
Linklaters Warsaw has provided comprehensive legal advice and support to the seller in all major legal aspects of the deal, from the preparation and negotiations of transaction documents until its signing. The closing of the transaction is subject to customary approval by the Polish authorities and is expected to occur at the end of 2017.
Global law firm Norton Rose Fulbright has advised Zenith Bank Plc (Zenith Bank) and Quantum Fund Management (Quantum), the family office of Jim Ovia, the founder and majority shareholder of Zenith Bank, on the sale of a majority interest in Zenith Life Insurance. The deal also sees Prudential agreeing exclusive bancassurance partnerships with Zenith Bank in Nigeria and Ghana.
A team led by Dr. Pär Johansson of Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek advised GoDaddy Inc. on the sale of the PlusServer-group which is based in Cologne. The PlusServer-group offers webhosting and provides individual managed-hosting-solutions and hybride Cloud solutions for business customers. GoDaddy Inc. had acquired PlusServer-group in 2017 in connection with the acquisition of the Host Europe-group.
Leading European aeronautic and defense group Airbus entered into exclusive negotiations with StandardAero Aviation Holdings, Inc. (a Veritas Capital portfolio company) for the disposal of Vector Aerospace Holding SAS and its subsidiaries (together, "Vector Aerospace").
Vector Aerospace is a global aerospace maintenance, repair and overhaul company. It generated revenues of US$ 704.8 million in 2016 and employs approximately 2,200 people in 22 locations across Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Kenya, South Africa, Australia and Singapore.
Xing AG acquired InterNations GmbH, the largest network for professionals worldwide. The founders Malte Zeeck and Philipp von Plato remain at the company.
With 2.7 million members and communities in 390 different cities, InterNations is the world's largest network for people who live and work abroad (so-called "expats"). The online and offline platform provides the opportunity to network with other members who share the same life situation and similar needs. The company is headquartered in Munich and employs over 100 people from 30 countries.
MoneyPark, a technology-based mortgage intermediary, has acquired Lausanne-based Defferrard & Lanz SA. Defferrard & Lanz is a mortgage intermediary having a strong position in French-speaking Switzerland, while MoneyPark is primarily present in German-speaking Switzerland and Ticino.
Vinge represents GD Invest AB in connection with the sale of 85% of the shares in the data distribution company Gandalf Distribution AB to ELKO Grupa AS, based in Latvia.
Gandalf Distribution is one of the Nordic countries' leading distributors of computerproducts and peripherals and had a turnover of SEK 674 million during the financial year 2016/2017. ELKO Grupa AS is active in the same field in Europe and Central Asia and had a turnover of USD 1.460 million during 2016. The acquisition means that ELKO Grupa AS enters the Nordic market.