Latham & Watkins Advises Advent International on Global Joint Venture with LANXESS and Joint Acquisition of DSM Engineering Materials

Latham & Watkins LLP has advised global private equity investor Advent International (Advent) on the formation of a global joint venture for high-performance engineering polymers with specialty chemicals group LANXESS. In parallel, Latham & Watkins advised the two joint venture partners on the acquisition of the DSM Engineering Materials business (DEM) from the Dutch group Royal DSM, which will be contributed into the new joint venture.

DEM is one of the leading global suppliers of high-performance specialty materials used in the electronics, electrical, and consumer goods sectors. The purchase price for the acquisition of DEM is around €3.7 billion and will be financed by the joint venture via equity from Advent and debt capital.

LANXESS will also contribute its High Performance Materials (HPM) business unit into the €6.2 billion joint venture. HPM is one of the leading suppliers of high-performance polymers used particularly in the automotive industry.

Advent will hold at least 60% of the joint venture. LANXESS will acquire a stake of up to 40% in the future joint venture as well as a special payment. The transaction is still subject to regulatory approval.

The Latham team was led by Frankfurt partner Oliver Felsenstein, Düsseldorf partner Heiko Gotsche, and Frankfurt partner Sebastian Pauls, with counsel Christina Mann and associates Sönke Bock, Annika Bilics, Lara Stelmach, Düsseldorf counsel Lucas Schweitzer, and associates Alexander Pfeifer and Juan Garcia Jacobsen and legal analyst Viola Tsakalido, Munich associate Sophia Probst, Tokyo partner Hiroaki Takagi, New York associate Jordan Wampler, San Diego associate Kathryn Parsons-Reponte, Hong Kong associate Heidi Lui, and Shanghai associates Vincent Jiang and Jennifer Xu. Advise was also provided on IP maters by Frankfurt partner Susan Kempe-Müller, with associates Pia Sösemann, and Daniela Jaeger; on IT matters by San Francisco partner Robert Blamires, with Frankfurt counsel Thies Deike; on real estate matters by Frankfurt counsel Sven Nickel and Chicago counsel Jeffrey N. Anderson, with New York associates Sara Aziz and Lauren Mastronardi; on regulatory matters by Frankfurt counsel Joachim Grittmann, with associate Alexander Wilhelm; on data privacy matters by Frankfurt associates Wolf-Tassilo Böhm and Clemens Ganz: on tax matters by Munich partner Stefan Süß, counsel Ulf Kieker, and New York partners Jocelyn Noll and Jennifer Pepin, with associoate Ronald Moore and Munich associate Philipp Lauer; on employment matters by Munich counsel Florian Dehmel, with associate Christian Strauß; on finance matters by Munich associate Alexander Nagel; and on compliance matters by Frankfurt counsel Stefan Bartz.