Willkie is advising IK Partners on the transaction. On July 20, Willkie client IK Partners announced that an affiliate of the IK VIII Fund has entered into a put option agreement to sell its stake in LINXIS Group, a leading global supplier of industrial processing equipment and automation solutions for the food, pharma and cosmetic industries, to Hillenbrand, Inc. LINXIS consists of six market-leading brands – VMI, Diosna, Shaffer, Shick Esteve, Unifiller and Bakon – with more than 1,100 employees collectively. Operating design and assembly facilities in Europe and North America, it serves thousands of customers across 100 countries, specializing in the design, installation and maintenance of mission-critical equipment. Willkie previously advised IK Partners in its acquisition of LINXIS in 2017 and numerous other transactions, including its recent acquisition of Batisanté, its acquisition, as member of an investor consortium, of Vivalto Santé, and its investment in Safic-Alcan. IK Partners is a European private equity firm focused on investments in the Benelux, DACH, France, Nordics and the UK. Since 1989, IK has raised more than €14 billion of capital and invested in over 160 European companies. Hillenbrand is a global industrial company operating in over 40 countries and serving a wide variety of industries around the world. The Willkie team is led by partner Eduardo Fernandez and includes partner Gil Kiener and associates Sarah Bibas, Camille Barrabino, Hugo Kerbib, Rudy Merlet and Juline Pottiez.