Noerr advises Steinhoff on sale of POCO for EUR 270 million

Noerr has once again advised Steinhoff on the sale of an interest in a group company. LiVest GmbH sold its 50% share in the POCO group to companies in the XXXLutz group and its shareholder, Andreas Seifert, holders of the other 50%. The price for POCO, one of Germany’s largest furniture discounters, was around EUR 270 million.

The transaction was the next step in a long-running dispute between the Steinhoff group and OM Handels GmbH, an XXXLutz-group company. The sale was in implementation of a position paper to which they had consented before the Dortmund District Court in April. There, Steinhoff was also represented by Noerr (Christine Volohonsky, Philipp Göz and Ingo Theusinger). Despite the fact that the transaction was a sale among shareholders, it entailed a substantial degree of complexity. Two aspects to overcome were extensive consultations with other Steinhoff shareholders and special requirements on the structure of the purchase agreement necessitated by the crisis in the Steinhoff group.

This is the second transaction this year for which Noerr has provided advice and support to Steinhoff. Just recently, a team led by Christian Pleister advised Steinhoff Möbel Holding GmbH on the sale of the group subsidiaries Impuls Küchen and Puris Bad.

Advisors to Steinhoff/LiVest GmbH: Noerr LLP

Dr Maurice Séché, Dr Ingo Theusinger  (both Corporate/M&A, Düsseldorf), Christine Volohonsky (Litigation, Munich, joint lead)

Georg Edelmann (Tax, Düsseldorf), Dr Philipp Göz, Lucy Holden (both Litigation, Munich), Ulrike Sommer (Tax, Düsseldorf), Associates: Martin Dopychai, Jana Baumann (both Corporate/M&A, Düsseldorf), Dr Marc Deckers (Litigation, Munich)