Latham & Watkins Advises Equistone on Sale of Oikos Group to Goldman Sachs

Latham & Watkins LLP represented funds advised by Equistone Partners Europe (Equistone) and the management on the sale of its stake in Oikos Group, a leading European provider of prefabricated houses, head-quartered in Schlüchtern, Germany, to Goldman Sachs. The financial terms of the transaction are not disclosed and the transaction remains subject to approval from the relevant competition authorities.

Equistone acquired Oikos Group – consisting of the brands Bien-Zenker, Hanse Haus, and Living Haus – in January 2018. The group, which, beyond its core market Germany, is active in Austria, Switzerland, and the UK, currently employs around 1,300 people and increased its turnover to more than EUR 400 million in 2020.

Equistone is a European investment firm focused on mid-size businesses. Since its founding, Equistone has invested in around 160 transactions in the DACH region and the Netherlands, mostly in mid-market buy-outs. Its portfolio currently comprises over 40 businesses across Europe, among them around 20 active investments in Germany, Switzer-land and the Netherlands. Equistone is currently investing its sixth fund, which held a final closing at its EUR 2.8 billion hard cap in March 2018.

Latham & Watkins previously advised Equistone on the financing of its acquisition of Oikos Group. A team led by Burc Hesse generally advises Equistone on transactions, most recently recently on the acquisition of a majority stake in the global high-tech group RENA and again on its acquisition of MEI LLC.

The Latham team was led by Munich corporate partner Burc Hesse with counsel Hanno Witt, associates Jeremias Bura, Andreas Holzgreve, Chris Freitag, and Frankfurt associate Sophia Probst. Advice was also provided on finance matters by partner Christian Jahn and counsel Ludwig Zesch and associate Robert Dölling; on antitrust matters by Frankfurt partner Max Hauser; on IP matters by partner Susan Kempe-Müller and associate Pia Sösemann; on tax matters by Munich counsel Ulf Kieker; on regulatory matters by Frankfurt counsel Joachim Grittmann and associate Alexander Wilhelm; and on employment matters by associate Kristina Steckermeier.