Ashurst advises FNZ on the acquisition of all shares in Fondsdepot Bank

Ashurst advised the FNZ Group (FNZ) on the acquisition of all shares in Fondsdepot Bank GmbH (Fondsdepot Bank). The transaction is subject to approval by the antitrust authorities (Germany and Austria), approval under foreign trade law and regulatory approvals (by the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin), the ECB, the Association of German Banks (BdB) and the Auditing Association of German Banks (PdB)). The purchase price is undisclosed.

FNZ is a global FinTech platform which partners with many of the world’s leading financial institutions. Today, FNZ is trusted by more than 150 major financial institutions worldwide and there are now over $1 trillion assets under management on its platform. These represent the combined savings and investments of over 15 million customers worldwide who FNZ is helping to achieve their financial goals.

Fondsdepot Bank is one of the leading investment platform providers in Germany, which offers more than 200 sales partners simplified access to investment solutions from a wide range of investment companies. As a large liability umbrella in Germany, Fondsdepot Bank also provides the legal, technical and organisational framework for advising and brokering shares in investment funds. It manages around one million investment accounts with a volume of approximately €60 billion in assets under administration.

Ashurst worked very closely with the in-house legal team of FNZ, in particular with Chris Aujard (Group General Counsel) and Pamela Schmidt-Fischbach (FNZ Germany General Counsel). For Ashurst, this is the first M&A transaction undertaken for FNZ, while previously advising the company mainly in the fields of Regulatory (partner Dr Detmar Loff) and Employment (partner Dr Andreas Mauroschat).

The Ashurst team was led by partner Dr Thomas Sacher (Munich). He was assisted by partners Reinhard Eyring (Frankfurt, both Corporate/M&A), the co-lead Dr Detmar Loff (Regulatory, Frankfurt), Dr Matthias Weissinger (Finance, Munich), Prof Dr Florian Drinhausen (Corporate), Dr Michael Holzhäuser (Competition) and Dr Maximilian Uibeleisen (AWV Filings, all Frankfurt). Furthermore, partners Etay Katz (Regulatory, London), Dr Andreas Mauroschat (Employment, Frankfurt), counsel Volker Germann (Corporate/M&A), Martina Rothe (Corporate/M&A), Dr Maria Held (Competition, both Munich), François Maartens Heynike (IP/IT), Astrid Keinath (Corporate), Dr Fabian Klein (Intellectual Property), Holger Mlynek (Contract Law), Juditha von der Heydt (Employment) and Senior Associate Ilka Breuer (Investment Law) as well as associates Quynh Anh Le (Corporate/M&A), Dr Tobias Bauerfeind, Dr Cornelius Hille (both Regulatory, all Frankfurt) and Dr Konstantin Filbinger (Corporate/M&A, Munich) were involved.