September 11, 2013
Leading international investor 3i Group plc agrees to invest €77 million in Gesellschaft für Industrieforschung mbH (GIF).
It was recently announced that Willkie client international investor 3i Group plc has agreed to invest €77 million in Gesellschaft für Industrieforschung mbH (GIF), a leading international specialist in transmission testing. 3i’s investment will be made in conjunction with an investment by the company’s co-founder and Chairman of the Management Board Ulrich Rohs, who will remain a shareholder in the company. Total enterprise value of the transaction is approximately €100 million.
GIF, a significant development partner for the automotive original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), is the world’s largest external transmission test rig operator. Headquartered in Alsdorf, Germany with additional operations in China, Japan and North America, the company offers a cost efficient alternative to in-house durability testing for automotive OEMs and transmission suppliers. 3i is a leading international investor focused on mid-market private equity, infrastructure and debt management.
The multidisciplinary Willkie team was led by partners Dr. Stefan Jörgens and Mario Schmidt (corporate/private equity) and included national partners Dr. Octávio de Sousa (corporate/private equity), Rolf Hünermann (antitrust/corporate commercial), Dr. Christian Rolf (HR) and Jan Wilms (finance), and associates Tobias Daubert (finance), Marco Müller (corporate/private equity), Wolfgang Münchow (corporate/private equity), Jochen Riechwald (HR), Dr. Stephanie Schmidt-Ehemann (corporate/private equity), Christian Stöhr (HR) and Daniel Zakrzewski (corporate/private equity).
