Kirkland & Ellis International LLP is advising private equity investors Bain Capital and Cinven in a joint public takeover offer for German pharmaceutical company Stada Arzneimittel AG (Stada). Bain Capital and Cinven offer EUR 65.28 plus a dividend of EUR 0.72 per Stada share. The executive board and the supervisory board of Stada announced today that they have decided to support the offer by Bain Capital and Cinven.

DLA Piper advised the founding shareholders on the sale of the majority stake of Finnish Virta Group to Interpublic Group.

Interpublic Group is a global leader in modern marketing solutions driving business results for clients around the world. Finnish Virta Group consists of Virta Helsinki media agency, Kuulas Helsinki consumer insight agency and R3al Helsinki digital marketing agency.

The DLA Piper team was led by corporate partner Ilkka Liljeroos who was assisted primarily by associate Antti Eeva.

Eversheds Sutherland (International) advises on the sale of Treetops Nurseries

The team advised Epiris Managers LLP (Epiris) and the management shareholders of Treetops Nurseries (Treetops) on the sale of Treetops to Busy Bees, the UK’s leading nursery daycare provider.

Epiris’ client, Electra Private Equity PLC (Electra), received proceeds from the sale of £94 million. This equated to a return of 6.5x cost and an IRR of 59%. This is the seventh exit delivering a money multiple of more than 3x that Epiris has achieved in the last 12 months.

DWF has advised leading UK soft drink producer Clearly Drinks on its sale to private equity fund NorthEdge Capital that will support further plant, sales resources and product development.

NorthEdge Capital's investment in the drinks company follows the increasing popularity for low-calorie, sugar-free products ahead of the upcoming sugar tax, which experts predict will see a surge in demand as consumers move away from calorie-loaded products.

Allen & Overy is advising Souq Group Ltd. (Souq) and certain of its shareholders on the sale of the entire issued share capital of Souq to Amazon.com, Inc. (Amazon). Souq, headquartered in Dubai, UAE, is the largest e-commerce vendor in the MENA region with over 3,000 employees and a full-scale fulfilment, payments and “last mile” delivery infrastructure in several key regional jurisdictions.

The transaction is the largest technology-related M&A transaction in the Arab world to date and highlights a maturing of the e-commerce sector in the region.  

Sanoma has agreed to sell its 67% stake in the Dutch TV business SBS to Talpa Broadcasting Holding B.V. for a net cash consideration of EUR 237 million and will obtain 100% ownership of the TV guide business Veronica Uitgeverij as part of the transaction (a double carve out). SBS is the third largest free-to-air TV broadcaster in the Dutch market with four TV channels: SBS 6, NET5, SBS9 and Veronica. The divestment is subject to closing conditions including customary regulatory approvals and is expected to close in the third quarter of 2017.

A team led by Dr. Katharina Prasuhn from the Hamburg office advised the sellers on the sale of rental car company CARO Autovermietung ("CARO") to Enterprise Rent-A-Car Deutschland ("Enterprise"). The acquisition of CARO by Enterprise establishes one of Germany's largest car rental companies.
 
CARO was founded by Stefan Peters in 1998 and operates in the corporate and replacement sectors. The company has more than 800 employees at 46 locations throughout Germany.
 

The Urgell family will continue in the Pacha Group shareholding with a minority share.

The Urgell family, the group’s founders, formalized the transaction through an asset-and-share sale agreement

Private equity fund Trilantic Capital Partners acquired the Pacha Group from the Urgell family, founders and managers of the group since 1967 through the holding company El Firmamento Estelar, S.L.

Pinsent Masons has advised DCC plc, the leading international sales, marketing and business support services group, on the disposal of its Environmental division to Exponent, a leading private equity firm.

The enterprise value for the transaction is £219 million, on a debt-free, cash-free basis. The Environmental division comprises the British businesses, William Tracey Group, Oakwood Fuels and Wastecycle and its Irish business, Enva. DCC Environmental is active in the treatment and recycling of non-hazardous and hazardous waste in Britain and Ireland.

Today, the Grünenthal group announced the takeover of Adhesys Medical GmbH and its American subsidiary Adhesys Medical Inc. Adhesys Medical, a start-up company for medical products, develops tissue adhesives for surgery use. With this takeover Grünenthal secured the worldwide production and marketing rights of an innovative pipeline of surgery tissue adhesives as well as the underlying technology platform. Within the next twelve months the first innovative topical skin adhesives are expected to obtain the Europe-wide CE-label.