Latham Advises RENK on Frankfurt Stock Exchange Listing
Latham & Watkins has advised RENK Group (RENK) and its shareholder Rebecca BidCo S.à r.l., a holding company majority owned by the “Triton V” fund belonging to the investment firm Triton, on the private placement of shares in RENK Group AG from the holdings of the selling shareholder to institutional investors by way of an accelerated bookbuilding.
A total of 33,333,333 shares were placed with investors, thereof 29,855,072 existing ordinary bearer shares with no par value and 3,478,261 additional ordinary bearer shares with no par value to cover over-allotments (greenshoe). Following the IPO, Triton continues to hold a majority stake in RENK Group AG. The total placement volume is approximately €500 million. Trading in the shares of RENK Group AG on the regulated market of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (Prime Standard) commenced on February 7, 2024.
As part of the private placement, KNDS N.V. (KNDS), a leading European defense company formed in 2015 by the merger of German military vehicle manufacturer Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW) and French state-owned defense company Nexter Systems, and Wellington Management Company LLP, one of the world's largest privately held asset managers, on behalf of funds for which Wellington Management and/or its affiliates act as investment advisors, purchase shares at the placement price valued at €100 million and €50 million, respectively, as cornerstone investors.
Latham & Watkins regularly advises RENK and Triton on transactions, including Triton's acquisition of RENK and its financing in 2020 and RENK's issuance of high yield bonds in 2020 and 2021.
The Latham team was led by Frankfurt partner Oliver Seiler, Munich partner Rainer Traugott, and Frankfurt counsel Camilla Kehler-Weiß, with Frankfurt partner Jan Penselin, London partner Ryan Benedict, Frankfurt associates Isabel Willius and Jennifer Thießen and Munich associates Rieke Klie, Maximilian Kuchernig, and Chris Freitag, with Milan capital markets lawyer Irene Pistotnik.
The RENK legal team was led by Florian Köhler, Group General Counsel / Chief Compliance Officer. The Triton team was led by Jonathon Milne (Co-Head Transaction Tax / Legal).