Latham & Watkins and Weil, Gotshal & Manges landed leading roles on the sale of a majority stake in Germany’s largest sports betting operator Tipico Group to CVC Capital Partners for an undisclosed sum.
Privately-held Tipico, which sponsors clubs including FC Bayern and Hamburg SV, was put up for sale by its founders in a recent auction.
CVC would not disclose the purchase price, although sources told Reuters the deal valued the company at about $1.4bn, and CVC’s stake amounted to 60% of that.
The private equity firm’s previous investments in sports betting providers includes British betting firm Sky Bet, William Hill and the IG Group, a digital trading and betting platform.
Latham & Watkins advised CVC on the transaction with a Frankfurt-based corporate team led by partner Oliver Felsenstein and Munich-based tax partner Stefan Suess. Weil’s Germany managing partner and private equity specialist Gerhard Schmidt advised Tipico alongside partners Stephan Grauke, Volkmar Bruckner, Barbara Jagersberger, and Tobias Geerling.
The current owners will remain shareholders in the company and the transaction, subject to the approvals, is expected to close in the third quarter of 2016.
The deal is Felsenstein’s fifth since his arrival from Clifford Chance (CC) last year. Felsenstein departed with fellow corporate partner Burc Hesse just a few months into his four-year term as head of CC’s Germany corporate practice.
Since joining Latham, he has advised Chequers Capital its purchase of signage supplier Spandex AG from funds advised by Gilde Buy Out Partners; as well as HgCapital on the acquisition of a majority investment in Eucon group last year.
sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk