FGvW advises the Herder Publishing House in Relation to its Acquisition of Thalia

A consortium of owners led by the Herder publishing family has acquired all shares in the bookselling chain Thalia. Besides Herder, the Kreke family, the digital operator Leif Göritz and Thalia manager Michael Busch belonged to the consortium. The seller is a holding of Advent International and the Kreke family. The transaction is conditional upon clearance by the cartel authorities.

The Herder publishing house was advised in this transaction by an M&A team of the Freiburg office of Friedrich Graf von Westphalen led by its partner Gerhard Manz. The FGvW team closely cooperated with the law firm Lupp + Partner, which led the negotiations for the consortium of purchasers. Advent International was advised by Hengeler Mueller with regard to the sale of its shares.

The Herder publishing house with seat in Freiburg is one of the oldest publishing houses in Germany and has been family-owned for six generations. For more than 200 years, the Herder family has cultivated its love for books and 10 years ago added investments in the digital and mobile businesses. You can find more information on the internet at www.herder.de.

Thalia has approximately 300 bookstores in Germany, Austria and Switzerland and is therefore the market leader in the German language retail bookselling segment. In addition, the business acts as a cross channel merchant: in the classical bookstores as well as in online shops. The partners offer one of the largest ranges of German language e-books with over a million e-books. Thalia was founded in Hamburg in the Thalia theatre building in 1919. Since 2012, Thalia belonged to the finance investor Advent International and the founding family Kreke as part of the Douglas Group.

Legal advice to the Herder publishing house / Herder family
Gerhard Manz, lawyer, partner (lead, corporate, M&A)
Barbara Mayer, lawyer, partner (corporate, M&A)

Contact: Gerhard Manz