Latham & Watkins Advises EMZ Partners on Investment in Simon Hegele
Latham & Watkins LLP advised European private equity firm EMZ Partners (EMZ) on the acquisition of a significant stake in Simon Hegele in a management sponsored buy-out as part of an orderly succession plan for Mr. Hegele. The management team around Stefan Ulrich, Christoph Ludin, and Mike Winter re-invests and further increases its stake in the company. In addition, founding family member Mr. Hegele remains shareholder. Completion is subject to the relevant regulatory approval. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Simon Hegele is one of the leading firms for industrial contract logistics (3PL) in Germany and the global market leader in the segment healthcare services. Main operations cover contract logistics services, which include value-added services for pre-assembly, installation, and reverse logistics of large-scale medical devices as well as more basic logistics services for industry & retail customers. The company employs over 2,500 people at more than 50 loca-tions worldwide.
EMZ is a leading European investment firm that acts as a partner for medium-sized companies and their respective management teams. Its activities focus on investments in the DACH region as well as France with a clear intention to operate and support founders, family shareholders, and managers. The core of EMZ’s philosophy is a significant reinvest of the management team to create a mutual partnership as shareholders. 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 and its investment size ranges from €10 to €150 million.
The investment in Simon Hegele is EMZ Partners’ fifth transaction within the DACH region. Latham & Watkins previously advised the private equity firm on its four previous acquisitions.
The Latham team was led by Munich corporate partners Burc Hesse and Sebastian Pauls, with associate Corinna Freudenmacher and Düsseldorf associate Jaschar Mirkhani. Advice was also provided on tax matters by Munich partner Stefan Süß and Hamburg associate Verena Seevers; on antitrust matters by Frankfurt partner Max Hauser with associate Alisia Haber as well as Hamburg counsel Jana Dammann de Chapto and associate Nicolas Jung; on compliance matters by Hamburg associate Stefan Bartz and Düsseldorf associate and Julia-Bianka Schenkel; on employment matters by Munich partner Tobias Leder and associate Christian Strauß; and on data privacy matters by Frankfurt associate Wolf-Tassilo Böhm.