IMAP Germany advises Invision on the sale of Kraft & Bauer to DBAG

IMAP Germany has advised Swiss private equity investor Invision on the sale of Kraft & Bauer Holding GmbH (Kraft & Bauer), one of the leading suppliers of fire extinguishing systems for tooling machines, to Deutsche Beteiligungs AG (DBAG). Together with DBAG Fund VII, DBAG will hold a majority in the company alongside with the founding Bauer family as well as the current managing director Frank Foddi. Completion of the purchase agreement is scheduled for the coming quarter; the relevant antitrust authorities still have to approve the transaction.

Kraft & Bauer develops, produces and installs fire protection systems for around 800 different types of tooling machines. The focus is on fire extinguishing systems based on microprocessors that detect fires and initiate the extinguishing process. The fire protection systems are either installed directly onto the machine by Kraft & Bauer employees or sold as a kit to the machine manufacturer. Kraft & Bauer employs around 80 people at its headquarters in Holzgerlingen (Baden-Württemberg), a plant in Bannwil (Switzerland) and 13 service locations in Germany, Switzerland and Italy. The company generates about 30 percent of its revenues in the service business.

Stock-listed Deutsche Beteiligungs AG initiates and advises closed private equity funds and invests alongside the DBAG funds in well-positioned medium-sized companies with development potential. The capital managed and advised by the DBAG Group amounts to around EUR 1.8 billion.

Dr. Carsten Lehmann, Philipp Noack and Atanas Petkov of IMAP exclusively advised the sellers and supported them in structuring, negotiating and closing the transaction in a competitive process.