Schoenherr has advised the insolvency administrator of the DIY chain Praktiker’s German entities (Baumarkt Praktiker International GmbH and Baumarkt Praktiker Grundstücksbeteiligungs GmbH) on the sale of Praktiker’s Hungarian subsidiaries.
The operative company Praktiker Kft. was acquired by its current managing director, while the real estate holding entity was purchased by Hungary’s Wallis Group. The purchasers intend to operate the two companies under the umbrella of a joint venture vehicle under the majority ownership of the Wallis Group and expect to receive the approval of the Hungarian Competition Authority for this aspect of the transaction during the first quarter of 2016.
The transaction documents were signed on 18 January 2016. Schoenherr’s Budapest office advised Praktiker on the Hungarian aspects of the restructuring of its existing group financing, performed a limited scope vendor’s due diligence, assisted Praktiker on the transaction documentation and negotiations with bidders, and provided general Hungarian law advice on matters related to the sale of the Hungarian entities, including corporate law and insolvency law advice.
The Schoenherr Hungary team was headed by Sándor Habóczky (partner, corporate/M&A), with Gábor Spitz (attorney, head of the Budapest office’s M&A practice) the attorney in charge; they were supported by Anna Turi (attorney, EU & competition), Gergely Szalóki (attorney, banking and finance), and Tamás Balogh (attorney, real estate).
These transactions complete Schoenherr’s involvement in the sales process of Praktiker’s CEE subsidiaries. Local Schoenherr teams had previously also advised on the sale of the DIY chain’s Bulgarian, Polish, Romanian and Ukrainian subsidiaries, a process coordinated and supervised by Michael Lagler, a Vienna-based partner in Schoenherr’s real estate practice.
Gleiss Lutz advised Praktiker’s insolvency administrator throughout the sales process as lead counsel, while the purchasers in the most recent Hungarian transactions were advised by Dentons.
