Cologne - Prague-registered Agrofert Holding a.s. is seeking to acquire Lieken AG of Düsseldof. A corresponding agreement has been signed with the current owner, the Barilla Group, based in Parma, Italy. The transaction is expected to close once approval from the competition authorities has been received. The purchase price was not disclosed.
Lieken (formerly Kamps) has almost a hundred years of bread-making history. It now supplies some 18,000 German retail outlets each day with brands such as Lieken Urkorn and Golden Toast. With its more than 4,700 employees, the company generates annual sales of around EUR 780 million.
Barilla, the leading Italien manufacturer of pasta and sauces, wants to focus more on its core business, hence the decision to withdraw from an investment originally made in 2002.
Agrofert intends to enter the German market for bakery products via its newly acquired Lieken subsidiary. This follows the significant market position that Agrofert Deutschland GmbH has already built up in Germany covering feedstuffs and fertilizers, seeds and services for distributors and agriculture. Established in 1993, Agrofert has annual sales of EUR 5.5 billion, making it the third-biggest company in the Czech Republic. It comprises more than 200 businesses operating in the chemicals, agriculture and forestry, food and media sectors.
A team led by lead partner Klaus Jäger advised Agrofert on all legal aspects of the sales process, which lasted several months. CMS Hasche Sigle was instructed following a competitive tender process involving several law firms. In 2010, CMS Hasche Sigle advised Frankfurt-based ECM Equity Capital Management GmbH on the acquisition of Kamps GmbH, an operator of bakeries and baker's shops, from Barilla.
CMS Hasche Sigle
Klaus Jäger, Lead
Dr Richard Mayer-Uellner, M&A and Lead Due Diligence
Dr Martin Bell, M&A
Dr Heike Blank, Food Law and IP
Dr Alexander Bissels, Employment
Carsten Domke, Employment
Lars Eckhoff, Commercial
Michael Kamps, IT and Data Protection
Dr Tobias Kilian, Corporate
Dr Dirk Rodewoldt, Real Estate
Birgit Engel, Real Estate
Dr Michael Bauer, Merger Control
Dr Stefan Lehr, Merger Control
Jan Papsch, Merger Control
Dr Björn Herbers, Merger Control
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