Taylor Wessing advises AVIDA Group in acquisition of Berlin Capital Fund

Taylor Wessing advised AVIDA Group, Düsseldorf, in the acquisition of all shares in Berlin Capital Fund GmbH, Berlin. The fund holds 14 minority interests in start-up and older companies of the IT/telecommunications, life sciences and trade & services sectors, including ProAlpha Software AG, Lenscare AG and GeTeMed Medizin- und Informationstechnik AG. The seller was Landesbank Berlin, which is separating from several non-core business areas before going private.

AVIDA Opportunity Fund II GmbH & Co. KG, established by AVIDA Group for purposes of this transaction, was advised by Taylor Wessing during all stages of the secondary buy-out of the portfolio. After a due diligence review of Berlin Capital Fund GmbH and its holding companies, the share purchase agreement was negotiated and signed. AVIDA Opportunity II GmbH & Co. KG was set up and structured for purposes of admitting equity capital investors Natixis Private Equity S.A., Paris, and European Investment Fund on the one hand, through whose new joint venture fund Dahlia the deal was implemented, as well as Headway Capital Partners, L.P., London, on the other. The deal was closed in March.

By advising AVIDA Opportunity Fund II GmbH & Co. KG, Taylor Wessing was able to further expand its comprehensive private equity expertise, especially in secondary buy-outs of private equity funds, and has once again proven its outstanding competence in complex cross-border deals.

Taylor Wessing acts as counsel to AVIDA Group since Dr. Ernst-Albrecht von Beauvais left the private equity industry in early 2003 to join the Dusseldorf office. Dr. von Beauvais advised the AVIDA Group team in the MBO from ERGO Versicherungsgruppe and the acquisition of the IMH funds as well as the innotech funds. He represented AVIDA Group in the structuring of and investment in the European private equity capital fund Iris Capital Fund II FCPR, Paris, and most recently in the secondary buy-out of the private equity portfolio of the Munich AFINUM fund family.

Counsel to AVIDA Opportunity Fund

Taylor Wessing:

Dr. Ernst-Albrecht von Beauvais (lead partner, Corporate, partner); Maria Weiers (Corporate, associate); (both Düsseldorf); Dr. Peter Hellich (Corporate, partner); Dr. Henrike Coenen (Corporate, associate); Dr. Axel Korth (Corporate, associate); Katrin Kerschbaumer (Corporate, associate); (all Munich); Dr. Marco Hartmann-Rüppel (Competition, partner, Hamburg);  Dr. Britta Noack (Competition, associate, Hamburg); Eckhard Lehmann (Tax, partner, Neuss);

Headway Capital Partners LLP

Latham & Watkins LLP, Munich: Stefan Süß (tax)

Counsel to Natixis

LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae LLP, Paris: Olivier Chambord

Counsel to Landesbank Berlin

Lindemann, Schwenicke & Partner (LSP), Berlin: Dr. Andreas Schwennicke (partner); Dr. Till Brocker (associate)