Latham & Watkins Advises EMZ Partners on Strategic Partnership with celebrate company

Latham & Watkins LLP advised the pan-European private equity firm EMZ Partners (EMZ) on a significant minority shareholding in celebrate company, the leading European online distributor of personalized stationery and photo products. In the context of this transaction, the management team increases its stake in the company. The transaction is still subject to regulatory approval.

Under the roof of celebrate company, 350 employees are developing and producing digital services and stationery products. The rapidly growing group’s origins lie in the market-leading brand «kartenmacherei» which was founded in 2010 and continues to be the company’s core brand.

EMZ is a leading European investment company with offices in Paris and Munich, which sees itself as a partner to medium-sized companies. The firm offers flexible capital solutions in strong partnership with founders, family shareholders and managers. EMZ is majority-owned by its own employees and has a base of European institutional investors. The current fund has a volume of more than 1.0 billion euros and its investment size ranges up to 150 million euros.

The investment in celebrate company is EMZ Partners’ first transaction within the DACH region in 2021. Latham & Watkins advised EMZ Partners on three investments in 2020.

The Latham team was led by Munich private equity partners Burc Hesse and Dr. Sebastian Pauls with associates Dr. Corinna Freudenmacher, Chris Freitag, Julia Schöfer, Dr. Thomas Diekmann, and Duesseldorf associates Jörg Ruff and Jaschar Mirkhani. Advice on tax matters was provided by Munich partner Stefan Süß and Hamburg associate Verena Seevers; on antitrust matters by Frankfurt partner Dr. Max Hauser with associate Alisia Haber; on corporate/IP matters by Dr. Susan Kempe-Müller and associate Pia Soesemann; and on data privacy matters by Frankfurt associates Dr. Wolf-Tassilo Boehm and Dr. Tarik Arabi. Munich associate Dr. Kristina Steckermeier advised on employment law; and Hamburg partner Otto von Gruben with associate Jana Maué advised on real estate.