Watson, Farley & Williams, a leading international law firm, is pleased to announce that it advised the management team of Commarco GmbH (“Commarco”), a leading independent marketing services group in Germany, on its sale to WPP, the world’s largest communications services group. Independent mid-market European private equity firm, Cognetas LLP (“Cognetas”) and Commarco’s management team which holds 35% of the company’s share capital agreed to its acquisition by WPP. The purchase price is confidential and is subject to regulatory approval, with the transaction expected to close in the second half of 2011.  This is reportedly the largest acquisition in the German advertising industry.

Commarco is the parent company of several agency brands, which include the much-awarded Scholz & Friends advertising agency network. Headquartered in Hamburg, Commarco employs more than 1,200 people in its offices throughout Germany, Switzerland and select international markets. Clients include American Express, Commerzbank, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bahn, Deutsche Bank, ING, Lenovo, Loewe, Mercedes, Opel, Siemens, Tchibo, Unilever and Vodafone.

Structured as a management buy-out, Cognetas acquired the agency formerly operating under Scholz & Friends AG from the British parent company Cordiant Communications in 2003. Following a delisting of the company from the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in 2005, the remaining minority stockholders were squeezed-out. After the exit, Commarco’s management will still be in the hands of their current managing directors Christian Tiedemann and Frank Michael Schmidt. Under Cognetas’ ownership, revenues almost doubled from €69m in 2003 to €132.9m in 2010.

The Watson, Farley & Williams team was led by Dr. Dirk Janssen, a partner in the firm’s corporate team in Munich, and Lothar Wegener, Head of WFW Germany, and Hamburg partner in the firm’s tax team, with assistance from associate Simon Vogel (Corporate) in Munich.