Dusseldorf, 26 September 2013. Linklaters has advised LIXIL Corporation on the acquisition of the Grohe Group from Texas Pacific Group and DLJ Merchant Banking Partners. Special purpose entity for the purchase will be a Luxembourg company held by LIXIL and the Development Bank of Japan. LIXIL, the Japanese producer of building materials and technology, has thus negotiated one of the largest acquisitions in Germany by a Japanese company. The Grohe Group has approx. 9,000 employees worldwide and a total of six production plants located in Germany, Portugal, Thailand and Canada.

The transaction is still subject to the approval of various merger control authorities in the EU, China, Russia and the USA.

Linklaters’ team was led by Dr Klaus Marinus Hoenig (Corporate, Dusseldorf) and David Holdsworth (Corporate, London). Other team members included Dr Carsten Grave (Competition/Antitrust, Dusseldorf), Oliver Rosenberg (Tax, Dusseldorf), Thomas McGrath (Competition/Antitrust, New York), Nicole Kar (Competition/Antitrust, London), Hiroya Yamazaki (Corporate, Tokyo), Fay Zhou (Competition/Antitrust, Beijing), Thorben Eisenbeiss (Employment, Munich), Dr René Grafunder (Competition/Antitrust, Dusseldorf), Mamiko Nagai (Corporate, Tokyo), Sebastian Klingen, Christopher Sprado (Corporate, Dusseldorf), Xi Liao (Competition/Antitrust, Beijing), Peter Jones (Corporate, London), Charlie French (IP, London) and Alex Roberts (Corporate, Shanghai).