Hamburg – ALPHA Business Solutions AG and the proALPHA Group are being merged into a joint company trading as proALPHA Business Solutions. In the course of the merger, the SAP Business ByDesign division will be hived off from ALPHA Business Solutions AG. all4cloud GmbH & Co. KG is acquiring the business, which focuses on the leading cloud ERP solution from SAP. Following the merger, the proALPHA Business Solutions Group will have more than 700 employees, 1,700 customers in some 50 countries and 12 branches in Germany alone.

International legal practice, Osborne Clarke has advised Dixons Carphone plc on the disposal of The Phone House Germany GmbH to Drillisch AG.

National law firm Shoosmiths has advised the exiting shareholder and the management team of Clearwater Group Limited on the acquisition by Baird Capital of a majority interest in the Clearwater corporate group.

Slaughter and May advised Virgin Group on the sale of part of its stake in Virgin Active, the leading international health club operator, in a transaction that puts an enterprise value on the business of c. £1.3 billion.

A&O has advised Virgin Active and its Management on Brait’s proposed acquisition of an interest of approximately 80% in the business. This puts an enterprise value on the business of approximately GBP 1.3 billion.

International legal practice, Osborne Clarke has advised shareholders of longstanding client City Car Club on its sale to Enterprise Rent-A-Car.

City Car Club, the UK's biggest independent car sharing company was sold to Enterprise Rent-A-Car, the world's biggest car hire business in a deal covering all of City Car Club’s assets, including its 800+ vehicles, 45 employees and 30,000 members.

Global law firm Reed Smith has advised new client Naked Wines on its £70 million sale to Majestic Wine Plc (Majestic).

Naked Wines is an online wine retailer founded in 2008. Majestic and Naked Wines will continue to operate as separate brands, with Naked Wines founder and CEO Rowan Gormley as chief executive of the overall company.

The Reed Smith team was led by partners James Cross and Perry Yam. The team advised Naked Wines, Rowan Gormley and majority shareholder WIV Wein International AG (WIV) on all aspects of the sale process.

DLA Piper has advised Salzer Holding GmbH on the retrospective sale of all shares in the publisher Lappan-Verlag GmbH, with effect from 1 January 2015. The buyer is Bonnier Media Deutschland GmbH.

Amalgamation will take place through the Bonnier subsidiary Carlsen Verlag GmbH. Headquartered in Oldenburg, Lappan-Verlag rose to fame with works by the cartoonist Uli Stein. The catalogues of Lappan and Carlsen will be gradually merged, with the Lappan brand continuing to be operated independently from Oldenburg.

Houthoff Buruma advised the sellers, including Lion Capital and Avedon Capital Partners, on the sale of Van Geloven, a Netherlands-based frozen food producer with leading positions in the Netherlands and Belgium, to TowerBrook Capital Partners and the management of Van Geloven.

Houthoff Buruma team included: Jan-Paul van der Hoek, Jacques Kröner, Jean Paul Dresen, Maarten Blom, Anne Alkemade, Maarten Minnaard, Guillette van Grinsven, Sjoerd van der Meer, Sebastiaan van den Berg, Willy Hafkamp-van der Zwaard

International law firm Pinsent Masons has completed a trio of deals worth over half a billion euro (€563m) for Northern Ireland-based Aventas Manufacturing Group.

The latest disposal of assets came in the form of the multi-million euro sale of Aventas' plastics division, Polycasa Group, to Swiss group Schweiter Technologies AG which completed on 31 March.