Clifford Chance advised Privat Equity company 3i on an investment of EUR 120 million in Lampenwelt, the largest European online specialist in the lighting space. 3i will invest alongside management and one of the current owners of the business, Walter Neumüller. In addition, 3i will provide a short term refinancing loan to Lampenwelt of EUR 54 million.

Founded in 2004 by Thomas Rebmann and his brother Andreas Rebmann, Lampenwelt is the leading specialty online retailer of lighting products in Europe. The company is headquartered in Schlitz near Frankfurt am Main, Germany. From there, it distributes own-brand and 3rd party products to customers in 12 countries across Europe. The company generated EUR 61 million of sales in 2016, of which 45% came from outside Germany, and has grown strongly in Germany and through a steady roll-out across Europe in recent years. The transaction is subject to customary and anti-trust approvals.

3i is an investment company with two complementary businesses, Private Equity and Infrastructure, specialising in core investment markets in Northern Europe and North America and backing entrepreneurs and management teams of mid-market companies with an enterprise value typically between EUR 100 million and 500 million.

The Clifford Chance-Team was led by partner Dr. Kerstin Kopp and coordinated by counsel Dr. Robert John and consisted of partner Joachim Hasselbach, associates Liza Laube and Maria-Franziska Röntsch (all Corporate/Private Equity, Frankfurt), partner Marc Besen (Brussels/Düsseldorf) and associate Ulrich A. Pfeffer (Düsseldorf, both Antitrust), partner Barbara Mayer-Trautmann (Munich) and senior associate Matthias Töke (Frankfurt, both Banking & Capital Markets), partner Dr. Claudia Milbradt (Düsseldorf) and senior associate Dr. Alexandra Diehl (Frankfurt, both IP) as well as senior associate Dr. Ulrike Breidenstein and associate Dr. Christopher Fischer (both Corporate/Employment Law, Frankfurt).