Dr. Volkmar Bruckner

Kirkland & Ellis has advised FNZ Group on the successful acquisition of European Bank for Financial Services GmbH (ebase) from comdirect bank AG. The transaction was closed on July 16 after the approval of the supervisory authorities. ebase was a wholly owned subsidiary of comdirect bank AG since 2009 and provides financial services with a focus on B2B direct banking. Based in Aschheim near Munich, ebase manages client assets of around EUR 32 billion. FNZ Group is a London based financial technology company which provides state-of-the-art platform solutions across multiple distribution channels. Founded in New Zealand in 2004, the company's clients include leading financial institutions. Kirkland & Ellis advised FNZ with the following team: Bernhard Guthy, Volkmar Bruckner (both lead, both Corporate/M&A, Munich), Oded Schein (Tax), Stephen Lucas, Ben A. Myers (both Finance, London), Tom McCarthy (Corporate/M&A, London); Associates: Sebastian Häfele, Christoph Jerger (both Corporate/M&A, Munich), Cristan Gerhold (Tax, Munich), Giles Clifford (Corporate/M&A, London), Harry Briffitt (Finance, London)

Jul 17

1 min

Kirkland & Ellis advised the bidding consortium led by Advent, Cinven and the RAG-Stiftung (RAG foundation) on the acquisition of the elevator division of thyssenkrupp AG. This is expected to be the largest-ever European buyout transaction to date. thyssenkrupp will reinvest part of the purchase price in a reverse stake in the elevator technology business. thyssenkrupp Elevator is a leading international provider of elevator technology with operations in more than 1,000 locations worldwide. Headquartered in Germany, the Group generated revenues of €8.0 billon in the financial year 2018/2019. The transaction is expected to close by the end of the third quarter of 2020, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals. Read the company press releases from Advent and Cinven The Kirkland team was led by Private Equity/M&A partners Benjamin Leyendecker, Philip Goj and Adrian Maguire, and included Private Equity/M&A partners Attila Oldag, Mark Aschenbrenner, David Higgins, Jacob Traff, Volkmar Bruckner and Rongjing Zhao; finance partners Chris Shield and Hugh O'Sullivan; capital markets partners Matthew Merkle, Michael Taufner and Shawn Anderson; tax partners Oded Schein, Daniel Hiemer, Sara Zablotney and Russel Light; competition partners Sarah Jordan, Matthew Sinclair-Thomson and Annie Herdman; IP & technologies partner Emma Flett and Joanna Thomson; internal trade partner Shawn Cooley supported by private equity/M&A associates Sebastian Häfele, Samuel Frommelt, Angelina Seelbach, Christina Albath and David Huthmacher.

Feb 28

1 min

Kirkland & Ellis represented TPG Growth in its acquisition of People 2.0, a leading provider of outsourced global employer of record and agent of record services to market makers in talent. The transaction was announced on February 2, 2021. Financial terms were not disclosed. Read the transaction press release The team was led by transactional partners Dena Medford and Armand Della Monica and associates Matthew Fisher and Caroline Enright, debt finance partners David Nemecek and Kristen Smith and associates Jenepher Schulte, Melanie Corbett, Tobias Rushing, and Spenser Newman and paralegal Joseph Correia, tax partners Jared Rusman and William Dong and associate Ryan Phelps, executive compensation partner Kate Coverdale and associates Malhar Naik and Mei Wang, technology & IP transactions partners Seth Traxler and Todd Herst and associate Jessie Perlman, employee benefits partner Alexandra Mihalas and associates Chris Chase and Iris Grossman, labor and employment partner Michael Schulman and associates Alexander Flynn-Tabloff and Paul Vasiloff, environmental transactions partner Toby Chun and associate Matt Swanson, real estate partner John Caruso, international trade partner Nick Niles and associate Nathalie Petritis, transactional liability insurance partner Hayley Hollender, and German transactional partner Dr. Volkmar Bruckner and associates Dr. Tamara Zehentbauer and Dr. Johannes Rowold.

Feb 3

1 min

Kirkland & Ellis advised Windjammer Capital on its acquisition of Hilco Vision in partnership with management. Hilco Vision is the leading global distributor of branded and consumable professional eyecare products and optical accessories throughout the eye healthcare supply chain. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Read the company press release The Kirkland team was led by transactional partner Christian Atwood and associates Dave Gusella and Emily Deagen; debt finance partner Brian Ford and associate Shawn Bagdasarian; tax partner Vincent Thorn and associate Scott Fryman; and healthcare partner Chad Ehrenkranz and associate Phil DeFedele. The international team also included London transactional partner Stuart Boyd; Hong Kong transactional partner Daniel Dusek; Shanghai transactional partner Rongjing Zhao; and Munich transactional partner Volkmar Bruckner.

Sep 10

1 min

Kirkland & Ellis is advising Arya Sciences Acquisition Corp. (NASDAQ: ARYA), a special purpose acquisition company sponsored by Perceptive Advisors, on its business combination with Immatics Biotechnologies GmbH, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company active in the discovery and development of T cell redirecting cancer immunotherapies. Upon the successful completion of the business combination, the combined company is expected to be listed on NASDAQ under the ticker symbol “IMTX” and have an initial market capitalization of approximately $634 million. Completion of the transaction is expected in the second quarter of 2020. Read the company press release The Kirkland team was led in New York by transactional partners Ryan Brissette and Jonathan Davis and associate Matthew Benedetto; capital markets partners Christian Nagler and Peter Seligson; tax partner partner Sara Zablotney; and executive compensation partner Michael Krasnovsky; and in Munich by corporate partner Volkmar Bruckner and tax partner Oded Shein.

Mar 17

1 min