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CMS advises home24 on acquisition of homeware specialist BUTLERS

23/12/2021

Berlin – Berlin-based home24 SE, a leading pure-play home & living e-commerce platform in continental Europe and Brazil, has acquired all the shares in Butlers, a retailer of homeware, decorations and gifts. Both brands will be retained going forward, along with the respective headquarters in Berlin and Cologne, since the product ranges and sales strategies are a perfect fit. Together, the two companies will be able to seize and develop market opportunities faster. The aim of the acquisition is to achieve strong growth over the coming years, primarily online but also in bricks-and-mortar retail. The cash purchase price for the acquisition of 74.8% of the shares in Butlers is up to around EUR 59 million. The remaining shares in Butlers will be transferred by way of a share swap in return for new stock in home24 SE.

The acquisition includes all the shares held by Butlers’ founder and managing partner Wilhelm Josten and by WJ Beteiligungsgesellschaft, Frank Holzapfel and ISA Niedecken Kaiser GmbH. All the shares in Ideenreich Invest GmbH held by NRW.Bank and STS Ventures GmbH were also acquired, thus indirectly covering the other limited partner shares in Butlers.

The parties expect to close the deal in the second quarter of 2022. The transaction is currently awaiting approval from the competition authorities.

Acting together with Dr André Schneider, General Legal Counsel at home24 SE, and Dr Martin Bredol, the company’s Deputy General Counsel, a CMS team headed by lead partners Dr Eva Annett Grigoleit and Dr Igor Stenzel advised home24 SE on all legal aspects of the transaction. The advice included legal due diligence, transaction structuring, the entire transaction documentation (taking the share swap into account), advice on special aspects of the deal under stock corporation and capital market law, and competition law advice. This is the first time that home24 SE has taken legal advice from CMS on an M&A transaction.

home24 describes itself as a leading pure-play home & living e-commerce platform in continental Europe and Brazil. Headquartered in Berlin, home24 has more than 1,900 employees worldwide. The company operates in seven European markets: Germany, France, Austria, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium and Italy. In Brazil, home24 operates under the Mobly brand.

Butlers was established in 1999 and has a total of some 1,000 employees. The company sells homeware, decorations and gifts through 100 stores in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, online and via 33 franchise sites in other European countries. Butlers also sells its products at more than 5,000 external points of sale throughout Europe. Based in Cologne, the company has received multiple awards for its innovative approach.

CMS Germany

Dr Eva Annett Grigoleit, Lead Partner, Berlin
Dr Igor Stenzel, Lead Partner, Berlin
Fabian Mayer, Senior Associate, Berlin
Lisa Maria Spohnholtz, Associate, Berlin
Olena Mausolf, Legal Consultant, Berlin, all Corporate/M&A
Dr Jochen Schlotter, Partner, Frankfurt/Main
Dominik von Zehmen, Counsel, Frankfurt/Main, both Stock Corporation Law and Capital Markets
Dr Jens Moraht, Partner, Berlin
Till Komma, Senior Associate, Frankfurt/Main
Alexander Schley, Senior Associate, Berlin, all Banking & Finance
Dr Rolf Hempel, Partner, Stuttgart
Martin Cholewa, Counsel, Stuttgart, both Competition & EU
Dr Ulrich Becker, Partner, Frankfurt/Main
Sinje Maier, Senior Associate, Frankfurt/Main, both Commercial
Dr Andreas Hofelich, Partner, Cologne
Dr Tanja Graue, Counsel, Berlin
Dr Mario Brungs, Senior Associate, Cologne, all Labor, Employment & Pensions
Sylle Schreyer-Bestmann, Counsel, Berlin
Dr Huy Do Chi, Senior Associate, Berlin, both Intellectual Property
Dr Andreas Otto, Partner, Berlin
André Schmidt, Associate, Berlin, both Real Estate & Public
Niklas Lütcke, Partner, Berlin
Josefine Wolff, Associate, Berlin, both Restructuring and Insolvency
Thomas Gerdel, Partner, Düsseldorf
Dr Martin Friedberg, Counsel, Düsseldorf, both Tax
Dr Michael Kraus, Partner, Stuttgart
Dr Arne Schmieke, Senior Associate, Cologne, both TMC
Stephanie Schulz, Senior Legal Consultant, Berlin
Steven Washington, Legal Consultant, Berlin, both Smart Operations

Press Contact
presse@cms-hs.com

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