Watson Farley & Williams (“WFW”) has advised leading French private equity investors Naxicap Partners (“Naxicap”) on their acquisition of consumer audio brand Teufel from Hg. It has been agreed not to disclose the purchase price or any further details of the contractual agreements as the transaction is still subject to merger control clearances.
Founded Berlin in 1979, Teufel is a well-known direct-to-consumer audio brand primarily active in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. With sales of €100m+ as of June 2017, the company has witnessed continuous and impressive expansion over the past five years.
An affiliate of Natixis Investment Managers, Naxicap currently manages a portfolio of investments valued at close to €3bn. A committed and responsible investor, Naxicap aims to build solid and constructive partnerships with entrepreneurs to mutually ensure the success of their ventures. In this instance, Naxicap will work closely with Teufel’s existing management team to position their brand as a genuine pan-European leader in their sector and ensure the company’s further expansion and growth.
The cross-border WFW team advising Naxicap was led by Frankfurt Corporate Partner Dr Christoph Naumann, working closely with Frankfurt Banking & Finance Partner Frederik Lorenzen and Hamburg Tax Partner Verena Scheibe. Hamburg Partners Dr Christine Bader (Regulatory and Merger Control), Dr Andreas Wiegreffe (Employment) and Eckrolf Berg (Real Estate) also advised. They were assisted by Senior Associates Sebastian Ens (Corporate, Frankfurt), Dr Tom Hartung (Banking & Finance, Hamburg) and Torge Rademacher (IP/IT, Hamburg), and Associates Nicolas Persch, Dr Robert Schalber (both Corporate, Frankfurt), Dr Nicolaj Faigle (Tax, Hamburg), Fabian Arhelger (Banking & Finance, Frankfurt), Nora Fleischhauer (Employment, Hamburg), Dr Eva-Maria Christiansen and Christine Uwase (both Regulatory and Merger Control, Hamburg). Tax Partner and WFW Paris Office Head Romain Girtanner, assisted by Associate Hélène Ibos, advised on French tax law aspects of the transaction, while London Corporate Partner Christina Howard provided English law advice.
Christoph Naumann commented: “We are very grateful to have had the opportunity to advise Naxicap Partners on their first direct investment in Germany. That they chose WFW to do so demonstrates both the firm’s growing reputation for first class corporate advice in Germany and the seamless co-operation across our international office network and service lines”.
