Milbank LLP has provided legal advice to the fund German Equity Partners V (“GEP V”), which is managed by the independent German investment firm ECM Equity Capital Management GmbH (“ECM”), in connection with the sale of its stake in DATAPART Factoring GmbH (“DATAPART”) to the IK Small Cap IV Fund managed by IK Partners (“IK”).
DATAPART, founded in 1994 and headquartered in Ludwigsburg, Germany, is a provider of BPO solutions, offering services such as billing, payment processing, administrative workflows and liquidity management. DATAPART delivers industry-specific, software-driven solutions and brings extensive experience in the German driving school market.
ECM has been a growth partner for mid-sized enterprises and entrepreneurs in German-speaking Europe since 1994. To date, ECM has raised the five private equity funds GEP I-V with aggregate capital commitments of more than EUR 1 billion. ECM is currently investing out of the GEP V (EUR 325 million). The funds primarily invest in leading mid-market companies in the context of succession solutions, partnership models and corporate carve-outs.
IK Partners is a European private equity firm focused on investments in companies across the Benelux, DACH, France, Nordics and the United Kingdom regions. Since its inception in 1989, IK has raised over EUR 19 billion in capital and has invested in more than 200 European companies.
The Milbank team was led by partner Leopold Riedl and included associates Josephine Schuster and Svenja Tauchmann (all Corporate/M&A), partner Matthias Schell and associate Nikolas Wolf (both Tax), special counsel Thomas Möller (Finance), and partner Moritz Lichtenegger and associate Jan Maas (both Antitrust).
