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CMS Hasche Sigle advises ECM on Maredo management buy-out

26/04/2005

The British Whitbread group has sold all the shares in Maredo, the leading German steakhouse chain. Maredo, the number one in the German steakhouse segment and one of the leading brand names in catering in Germany, will operate independently without any group affiliation in the German market after the sale by Whitbread. The change of ownership takes the form of a management buy-out led by German Equity Partners II LP (GEP), the equity fund advised by ECM Equity Capital Management GmbH, Frankfurt. The other co-investors apart from GEP and the management of Maredo are Parcom Ventures B.V., a subsidiary of the Dutch ING group and Fortis group with its domicile in Brussels. The parties have agreed not to disclose the purchase price or other details of the transaction; the conclusion of this transaction was preceded by a bidding procedure lasting several months.

ECM was advised on this transaction by a ten-strong team of lawyers from CMS Hasche Sigle headed by Dr Martin Bell (M&A, private equity, corporate), a partner in the Frankfurt office.

ECM is an independent consultancy company, based in Frankfurt am Main, which specialises in corporate participations. ECM advises the equity fund German Equity Partners BV and German Equity Partners II LP, which has managed equity of over EUR 200 million, on its investments.

Maredo with its domicile and staff is one of the leading companies in the German catering industry. In the steakhouse segment Maredo is the uncontested market leader and it occupies second place in Germany in the catering sector Established in 1973, Maredo operates 54 restaurants in Germany and four in Austria.


Contact CMS Hasche Sigle:
Dr Martin Bell
Tel.: +49 (0) 69 / 71701-0
E-mail: Martin.Bell@cms-hs.com



Advisors
ECM Equity Capital Management
CMS Hasche Sigle

M&A, private equity, corporate
Dr Martin Bell, lead partner, Frankfurt
Dr Oliver Wolfgramm, partner, Frankfurt
Dr Joachim Dietrich, partner, Frankfurt
Dr Markus Rasner, associate, Frankfurt
Till Liebau, associate, Frankfurt
Karsten Hilmer, associate, Frankfurt
Competition
Stefan Lehr, partner, Frankfurt
Employment
Anja Dombrowsky, associate, Frankfurt
Financing
Dr Anja Hasselmann, associate, Hamburg
Public Law
Dr Klaus Heuvels, partner, Frankfurt

Whitbread plc:
Clifford Chance
Christopher Kellett
Dr Mathias Lupp
Dr Michael Kammann

Financing bank:
Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw
Markus Strelow

Co-investor:
Freshfields
Dr Markus Fisseler

Management:
Mütze Korsch Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft
Dr Maximilian Koch


Background

CMS Hasche Sigle is one of the leading German law firms with more than 420 lawyers. It covers the entire area of commercial law and provides legal advice to major German and international companies from a wide spectrum of industry.

CMS Hasche Sigle operates at all the major business centres. It has offices in Berlin, Cologne, Duesseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Leipzig, Munich, Stuttgart, Chemnitz, Dresden, Brussels, Belgrade, Moscow, Prague and Shanghai.

CMS Hasche Sigle is a partnership of lawyers and tax consultants; for register details / list of partners see http:// www.cms-hs.com /.

CMS Hasche Sigle is a member of CMS, an alliance of leading European law firms. With over 575 partners, a total of 2,000 lawyers and tax consultants and around 3,800 support staff we advise our clients in 24 countries in and outside Europe on legal and tax issues.

Local strength and legal tax advice tailored to the requirements of the market combined with a substantial amount of business and organisational integration form the basis for high-quality international legal advice.

In addition to CMS Hasche Sigle, the following firms are also members of the CMS alliance: CMS Adonnino Ascoli & Cavasola Scamoni (Italy), CMS Albiñana & Suárez de Lezo (Spain), CMS Bureau Francis Lefebvre (France), CMS Cameron McKenna (Great Britain), CMS DeBacker (Belgium), CMS Derks Star Busmann (the Netherlands), CMS von Erlach Klainguti Stettler Wille (Switzerland) and CMS Reich-Rohrwig Hainz (Austria). CMS has 57 offices in 24 countries in Western and Central Europe, North and South America, Asia and North Africa.

For further information on CMS Hasche Sigle see www.cms-hs.com and on the CMS alliance see http:// www.cmslegal.com .