FGvW advises Schölly Fiberoptic on sale of robotic endoscopy business to Intuitive Surgical

Schölly Fiberoptic GmbH of Baden-Württemberg has signed an agreement with the US medical technology company Intuitive Surgical for the sale of its robotic endoscopy business. However, Schölly Fiberoptic remains a strategic supplier for Intuitive Surgical. The parties have agreed not to disclose the purchase price.

Schölly Fiberoptic received comprehensive legal advice on the sale from our corporate and M&A team under the leadership of Barbara Mayer. With this transaction we were able to further deepen our healthcare orientation in the M&A area.

Intuitive Surgical Inc. was advised by a Hogan Lovells team led by Peter Huber in Munich; Aesculap AG, a subsidiary of B. Braun SE - as a shareholder of Schoelly Fiberoptic GmbH - was advised by Christian Ulrich Wolf of Watson Farley in Hamburg. Hanns-Georg Schell and Claudio Schmitt from the auditing and tax consulting company BANSBACH GmbH in Freiburg were involved as tax advisors on behalf of Schölly.

The transaction concerns the Schölly Fiberoptic production line for the manufacture of robot-assisted endoscopes at the Denzlingen and Biebertal production sites and at the Worcester repair site in Massachusetts/USA.

Schölly Fiberoptic GmbH, based in Denzlingen/Baden-Wuerttemberg, is a leading supplier of visualization systems for minimally invasive diagnostic and surgical applications. Schölly and Intuitive have been working together for over 20 years and have developed and manufactured several generations of imaging devices for Intuitive's da Vinci® surgical systems. The owners of the family business with global operations are the Schölly family and the B.Braun subsidiary Aesculap AG in Tuttlingen. Schölly Fiberoptic was founded in 1973 and currently employs approximately 900 people, of whom approximately 200 will be integrated into Intuitive as part of this transaction.

Intuitive Surgical (Nasdaq: ISRG) is a global leader in robotic-assisted minimally invasive surgery technologies. Based in Sunnyvale, California, the US company has been developing, manufacturing and marketing surgical and endoluminal systems in the USA, Western Europe, Japan and South Korea for over 20 years.

Consultants Schölly Fiberoptic GmbH:
Barbara Mayer, Partner (lead management, corporate, M&A)
Jan Barth, Senior Associate (corporate, M&A)
Christoph Fingerle, Partner (labor law)
Stefan Daub, Partner (labor law)
Morton Douglas, Partner (IP)
Lukas Kalkbrenner, Associate (IP)