Baker McKenzie advised Senwes Ltd, a John Deere agricultural machinery distributor in South Africa, on the acquisition of four agricultural machinery dealers in the federal states of former East Germany.
Baker McKenzie advised Senwes as lead counsel on all legal aspects of the four transactions. With the completion of the acquisition of the business operations of Porst Landtechnik GmbH based in Jahnatal, Saxony, Senwes, through S&L Connect, has become one of the largest John Deere agricultural machinery dealers in the federal states of former East Germany, following John Deere's "Dealer of Tomorrow" strategy of serving the market areas of responsibility by John Deere dealers with a turnover of EUR 100 million or more.
The company has now established a solid pillar under the umbrella of S&L Connect GmbH (formerly Schlieper für Landmaschinen GmbH), which was acquired first. Subsequently, Senwes acquired the business operations of Landmaschinenvertrieb Deuben GmbH, Bartling Landtechnik GmbH and now Porst Landtechnik GmbH through S&L Connect GmbH. Baker McKenzie advised in all four of the aforementioned transactions of Senwes in the federal states of former East Germany with the persons listed. The for this sector complex transactions create Senwes with significant synergy effects.
"The acquisition of all four East German dealers allows our client to consolidate its dealer network into larger and more sustainable dealers," commented Andrea Ziegler, who led the transaction.
Porst Landtechnik is a family business founded in Ostrau in 1990. The approximately 90 employees and trainees will be retained. The combined company will employ nearly 230 people and will be run by the local management team from S&L's headquarters in Sonnewalde.
The South African agricultural specialist and John Deere distributor Senwes is the parent company of S&L Connect and is responsible for financial and technical services, input supply, market access and processing, conditioning & markets.
Baker McKenzie's Corporate/M&A practice regularly advises on domestic and international transactions. Most recently, Baker McKenzie advised Transcom on its acquisition of timeframe, Sika AG on its acquisition of MBCC Group from Lone Star and sale of MBCC's concrete admixtures business to Cinven, AURELIUS on the acquisition of LSG Group from Deutsche Lufthansa AG, Nokian Tyres plc on the sale of its Russian business to Tatneft PJSC, First Solar on the sale of its global O&M business to NovaSource, Fluidra on the acquisition of the Meranus Group, Magna on the acquisition of the Veoneer Active Safety division, MicroVision in its acquisition of the Hamburg-based Ibeo Automotive Systems business, Trane Technologies on the acquisition of AL-KO Air Technology, Pacoma on the sale to L&P, Deutsche Beteiligungs AG (DBAG) on its investment in the vhf Group, VINCI Energies S. A. on the acquisition of parts of Kontron AG, AURELIUS on the takeover of AGFA Offset Solutions and of Footasylum from JD Sports, and FUNKE Digital on its acquisition of Baseplus DIGITAL MEDIA GmbH.
Legal advisor to Senwes Ltd:
Baker McKenzie
Lead:
Corporate/M&A: Andrea Ziegler (partner, Frankfurt), Ulrich Weidemann (counsel, Frankfurt)
Real Estate: Niklas Wielandt (partner, Frankfurt)
Team:
Corporate/M&A: Felix Werner (associate, Frankfurt), Dominic Boeschen (associate, Frankfurt)
Real Estate: Till Pflug (associate, Frankfurt)
Employment: Lena Kern (counsel, Frankfurt)
Commercial & Trade: Katharina Spenner (partner, Munich)
Public Law: Andreas Schulz (counsel, Berlin)
Tax: Jochen Meyer-Burow (partner, Frankfurt)