Together with global law firm Linklaters LLP, Wolf Theiss has advised Apax Partners on their acquisition of the fashion chain Takko Holding GmbH from private equity firm Advent International.
Apax Partners, a private equity investment company, acquired the fashion chain in a dual track process: Seller Advent had taken over the German retailer, which operates approximately 1,400 stores in Germany, Benelux, Austria and Eastern Europe, from private equity firm Permira in August 2007. Takko, with an annual turnover of approximately EUR 900m, has over 10,000 employees. Austria and the Czech Republic are among Takko’s four most important markets.
Wolf Theiss was responsible for legal advice with respect to Austrian and Czech law, but also consulted Apax in select questions of Croatian, Hungarian, Romanian, Slovak and Slovenian law.
Clemens Philipp Schindler, the lead partner on the project, headed the Wolf Theiss transaction team comprising partners Georg Kresbach for IP, Andreas Schmid for financing, Erik Steger for real estate, Matthias Unterrieder for employment law, as well as Jakub Adam and Pavel Marc for Czech law. Attorneys Hartwig Kienast and Christian Öhner coordinated the due diligence process and furthermore advised on corporate law, supported by associate Miriam Nehajova. In addition to legal advice, Wolf Theiss also advised on tax aspects of the transaction through partner Clemens Philipp Schindler as well as attorney and tax advisor Benjamin Twardosz. An essential role was also taken on by associate Josef Brandl, who jointly with partner Andreas Schmid, advised on financing aspects.
“We are delighted to have successfully completed a complex transaction within a short period of time which underscores the current positive trend in the M&A area,” says Clemens Philipp Schindler, whose team has concluded three large-scale M&A transactions relating to Germany over the last six months. In addition to the Takko deal, Wolf Theiss acted as legal and tax advisors to private equity investor Triton when acquiring the Wittur Group from Cerberus, Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs, as well as to Infineon Technologies AG when selling their wireless division to Intel Corporation, thereby confirming Wolf Theiss’ strong role in international transactions relating to Austria and Eastern Europe.
An international team from Linklaters LLP, headed by Rainer Traugott and Stephan Morsch (both partners in Corporate/M&A), was responsible for the overall mandate.
