DLA Piper advises Heidelberger Druckmaschinen on the sale of Gallus Group

DLA Piper has advised Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg) on the sale of Gallus Group to Swiss packaging business benpac holding ag. With this transaction Heidelberg is systematically pursuing the company’s realignment, which includes focusing on its core business of sheetfed printing. The sale, which still needs to be approved by the relevant bodies and is subject to other condition precedents, is set to take effect before the end of 2020.

The transaction will see benpac assume ownership of Gallus Holding AG in St. Gallen, Gallus Ferd. Rüesch AG in St. Gallen, Gallus Druckmaschinen GmbH in Langgöns, Heidelberg Web Carton Converting GmbH (WCC) in Weiden in der Oberpfalz, and Menschick Trockensysteme GmbH in Renningen – five sites with a total of some 430 employees in Germany and Switzerland.

benpac and Heidelberg have agreed that Heidelberg will continue to manage the sales and service of the Gallus portfolio in close cooperation after the takeover.

The aim of Heidelberg is to ensure the long-term financial stability of the company, and all the measures since the transformation started in March this year have been geared toward this objective. Under the leadership of partners Dr Benjamin Parameswaran, Dr Henriette Norda and Mike Danielewsky DLA Piper provides comprehensive legal advice for all these measures.

“We would like to thank the excellent team at DLA Piper led by Dr Benjamin Parameswaran, Dr Henriette Norda and Mike Danielewsky for their outstanding commitment and competent advice in handling this strategically important transaction for Heidelberger Druck, which is a further milestone in the success of our transformation,” said Marcus A. Wassenberg, CFO of Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG.

The sale of the Gallus Group was internationally led by partner Dr. Benjamin Parameswaran. The core team also comprised counsel Dr Philipp Clemens and senior associates Sophie von Mandelsloh and Friederike Rickers (all Corporate/M&A, Hamburg). Also involved were partners Dr Henriette Norda (Employment), Verena Grentzenberg (IT/Data Protection), Sebastian Decker (Corporate/M&A, all Hamburg), Dr Roland Maaß (Capital Markets), Mike Danielewsky (Restructuring), Dr Marco Arteaga (Pensions), Dr Burkhard Führmeyer (IPT), Semin O (Antitrust, all Frankfurt), Dr Thilo von Bodungen (Commercial), Dr Jan Geert Meents (IT, both Munich), Jan Pohle (IT/Data Protection) and Kerstin Schnabel (Corporate, both Cologne), counsels Oliver Otto (Restructuring), Dr Dennis Hog (Real Estate), Dr Daniel Zapf (White Collar Crime), Sergej Bräuer (Antitrust, all Frankfurt), Dr Thorsten Ammann (IT/Data Protection, Cologne), Dr Susanne Weckbach (Commercial, Munich) and Dr Annemarie Bloß (IPT, Hamburg), senior associates Mareike Schwedler, Dr Martin Kaltwasser (both Restructuring), Juliane Hack (Capital Markets), Miray Kavruk (IPT, all Frankfurt), France Vehar (IT/Data Protection), Hubertus Neu (Corporate), Dr Gregor Schroll (Competition, all Cologne), Dr Liane Bednarz (Corporate/M&A, Hamburg), Michael Georg Ziegaus (Real Estate), Georg Haberkorn (Pensions), Olga Blaszczyk (Commercial), Fabian Hafenbrädl, Philippa Eggers (both IT) as well as associates Betina Fischer (Commercial, all Munich), Maximilian Seuß (Corporate/M&A), Katharina Pauls, David Schele (both IT/Data Protection, all Hamburg), Maximilian Dieler (Restructuring) and Alexander Rösch (Antitrust, both Frankfurt).

Swiss law firm Thouvenin Rechtsanwälte with partners Thomas Loher and Arlette Pfister as well as lawyer Marzel Wyden also advised on the transaction.

Heidelberger’s in-house team was led by Sascha Donat (Head of M&A) and also comprised Rüdiger Jehn (M&A), Arthur Schneider (M&A) and Florian Zwoboda (Legal Counsel).