Noerr assists digital consulting company etventure in takeover by EY

Noerr has advised the four partners of the digital consulting company etventure on the takeover by Ernst & Young GmbH Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft (EY). Berlin-based partner Hans Radau and senior associate Armin Bartsch acted as lead advisors in the transaction.

Etventure specialises in digital consultancy and company building. The company has more than 250 digital experts who identify, develop and test digital business approaches across all industries. The company’s clients include Deutsche Bahn, Daimler Financial Services, Franz Haniel & Cie. and Klöckner & Co SE. The business, which was formed in Berlin in 2010, will remain an independent company which is part of the EY Group. Operations will continue to be managed by its three founders Philipp Depiereux, Philipp Herrmann and Christian Lüdtke.

The highly complex sales process was strongly affected by the regulatory requirements on the independence of auditors when providing advisory services to audit clients at the same time (known as “independence requirements”). To solve the problems arising from this, the Noerr team was required to develop a wide range of innovative legal concepts, such as drafting a new commission structure for spinning off 36 entities in the etventure Group and a variety of intragroup loans whilst retaining tax neutrality and preserving value. Acting as lead counsel, Noerr also coordinated the international law firms on the seller’s side.

Advisors to ETVENTURE GmbH: Noerr LLP

Dr Hans Radau (lead, Corporate/M&A, Berlin), Dr Eckhart Schleifenbaum (Corporate/M&A, Munich), Dr Stefan Schwab (Employment, Berlin)

Associates: Dr Armin Bartsch (lead associate), Lucie Rohr (both Corporate/M&A, Berlin), Johannes Pfeiffer, Dr Michael Brandl, Daria Tolkachova (all Corporate/M&A, Munich), Florian-Felix Marquardt (Tax), Pascal Schumacher (Antitrust, both Berlin), Jochen Lang, Jasmin Wagner (both Capital Markets, Munich), Dr Christoph Ickenroth (Employment, Berlin), Björn Grotebrune (Restructuring & Insolvency, Munich)

Advisors to Ernst & Young: Ernst & Young Law GmbH

Heike Jagfeld-Emmerich (lead), Dr. Felix von Bredow (both Corporate, Eschborn/Ffm.), Dr. Ines Fritz, Daniela Nagler (both Corporate, Munich), Daniel Kaiser, Julia Moeller (both IT/IP, Munich), Marcus Mayer (Antitrust, Stuttgart), Oliver Blum (Corporate, Zurich), Steffen Kreß (In-House, General Counsel Office, Eschborn/Ffm.)