Schoenherr advised US asset manager KPS Capital Partners New York on the acquisition of DexKo Global’s production facilities in Austria and Poland, from private equity investment firm Sterling Group.
The acquisition was closed on 25 July 2017. The financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The Sterling Group will continue to own a minority stake in DexKo.
The Austrian and Polish manufacturing sites producing vehicle technology under the AL-KO brand are part of the internationally active DexKo company, the world-wide largest axle manufacturer with an annual turnover of around €850m.
Schoenherr provided extensive corporate transactional support including due diligence, regulatory and employment legal advice as to the Austrian and Polish part of the transaction.
DexKo was formed at the end of 2015 through the combination of Dexter and AL-KO Vehicle Technology. The company is headquartered in Novi, Michigan, and employs over 4,500 employees with 39 manufacturing facilities and 25 distribution centres across the globe.
KPS is the manager of KPS Special Situations Funds, New York a family of investment funds with approximately $5.2bn of assets under management.
The Schoenherr team advising KPS was led by Christian Herbst (partner, corporate/M&A), who was supported in Vienna by Maximilian Lang (counsel, corporate/M&A), Alexander Mazevski (associate, corporate/M&A), Stefanie Orator-Saghy (associate, regulatory), and Teresa Waidmann (associate, labour & employment). Pawel Halwa (partner, Warsaw; corporate/M&A), Barbara Jozwik (counsel, Warsaw; labour & employment), and Wojciech Czyzewski (attorney at law, Warsaw; corporate/M&A) advised on the Polish aspects of the transaction.
