Noerr advises AEQUITA on acquisition of IFA Group

With an interdisciplinary team led by Christoph Thiermann, Noerr has advised AEQUITA SE & Co. KGaA on its acquisition of the IFA Group (IFA Holding GmbH). The acquisition of the IFA Group by the Munich-based  family office AEQUITA was announced in December 2021 and has now been formally closed. As part of the closing of the transaction, a Noerr team led by Andreas Naujoks and Torsten Wehrhahn also advised AEQUITA on issues such as the comprehensive restructuring on IFA Group’s financing structure. Due to the size and the large number of financing partners who had to agree to the transaction and the restructuring, this was one of the key areas of the transaction.

AEQUITA plans to continue the transformation already initiated in recent years and to actively accompany the IFA Group on its growth path. In the context of the takeover by AEQUITA, IFA has won the largest order of lateral shafts in its history, thus impressively demonstrating its innovative capabilities.

AEQUITA is a Munich-based family office with many years of expertise in the automotive industry, investing in special situations such as corporate carve-outs, successions and recovery situations across Europe.

The IFA Group is an automotive supplier with seven development and production sites worldwide. With a turnover of half a billion euros, IFA is one of the top 50 companies in the German supplier industry. IFA develops and produces longitudinal shafts, lateral shafts, joints and components for renowned car manufacturers at its sites in Haldensleben, Stuttgart, Hanau, Ujazd (Poland), Charleston/South Carolina (USA), Novi/Michigan (USA) and Shanghai (China). Future-oriented research and sustainable development are among its success factors. For some time now, the IFA Group has been aligning its portfolio with the trend towards e-mobility, i.e. focusing on the transformation from longitudinal to lateral shafts. IFA is the only German supplier in the global top group of this demanding market segment and is recognised for its technology, quality and efficiency.

Noerr partner Christoph Thiermann regularly advises AEQUITA, most recently on its acquisition of the Electronic Interfaces business of ZF Friedrichshafen AG.

Advisors to AEQUITA SE & Co. KGaA: Noerr Partnerschaftsgesellschaft mbB

Team lead: Christoph Thiermann (partner, Private Equity, Munich)

Private Equity
Moritz Nikolaus Koch (associated partner), Marco Siemers (associate, Hamburg)
Daniel Prexler (senior associate), Olivia Roth (associate, Munich)

Employment & Pensions
Benjamin Jahn (partner, Munich)

Banking & Finance
Andreas Naujoks (partner, lead financing) Torsten Wehrhahn (partner), Nikolai Warneke (partner), Michael Schuhmacher (associated partner), Patrick Geist (senior associate, Frankfurt)

Compliance & Internal Investigations
Jacob Böhringer (senior associate, Munich)

Intellectual Property
Christoph Rieken (partner, Munich)

Insolvency
Simone Schönen (partner, Hamburg)

Antitrust & Competition
Fabian Badtke (partner), Lorenz Jarass (senior associate), Sascha Martin Giller, Johanna Krauskopf (associates, Frankfurt)

Litigation
Sebastian Fischer (partner), Felix Konold (associated partner, Munich)

Public law
Joachim Rung (senior associate, Munich)

Tax
Elmar Bindl (partner), Steffen Arlich, Sebastian Leidel (senior associates, Munich)
Peter Scheuch (associated partner, Dresden)