DLA Piper has advised Sopra Group S.A. on the acquisition of the banking-sector specialist COR&FJA Banking Solutions GmbH (COR&FJA) by Sopra Banking Software, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Sopra Group.

The acquisition will allow Sopra Group to significantly bolster its international development strategy by gaining a further foothold on the German market. The clients and solutions portfolio of COR&FJA, together with Sopra Banking Software’s widely recognised expertise, will enable a new market offering to be proposed to a broader customer base. The banking business of COR&FJA Solutions GmbH covers all the functional requirements of retail, private, automobile and mortgage bond banks and is based on locally developed products and services specially tailored to the German market.

The DLA Piper team was led by partner Dr Nils Krause (Corporate, Hamburg) and included partners Dr Kai Bodenstedt (Employment, Hamburg), Dr Thomas Jansen (Intellectual Property & Technology, Munich), Dr Jan Dreyer (Litigation & Regulatory, Cologne), Dr Bernd Borgmann (Employment, Cologne) and Jeremy Scemama (Corporate, Paris); the counsels Prof. Dr Fabian Hinrichs (Real Estate, Frankfurt) and Robert Hofbauer (Finance & Projects, Frankfurt); as well as associates Dr Ulrich Bartl, Verena Pianka, Dr Gregor Schroll (all Litigation & Regulatory, Cologne), Gitta Gehring (Tax, Frankfurt), Christopher Albien (Corporate, Hamburg), Dr Henriette Norda (Employment, Hamburg) and Guillaume Boitel (Corporate, Paris).

Sopra Group is a market-leading European company in the field of consultancy and IT services and also sells standard software. It employs more than 16,000 people and generated a turnover of EU 1.2 billion in 2012. Sopra Banking Software is a leading supplier of standard software, specializing in software solutions for banks and financial institutions. Worldwide it serves more than 500 clients in 70 countries.