Ashurst advises Patrimonium on financing the acquisition of Heytex
Ashurst advised Patrimonium Middle Market Debt Fund as financier on the financing of the acquisition of the Heytex Group by Bencis. Besides Patrimonium, Sparkasse Osnabrück acts as a financing partner. The seller is Deutsche Beteiligungs AG after ten years of investment in Heytex.
Heytex, with headquarters in Bramsche, Lower Saxony, and subsidiaries in Ebersbach-Neugersdorf (Saxony), in Nijverdal (Netherlands), in Zhangjiagang in the People's Republic of China (Jiangsu Province) near Shanghai as well as in Pulaski (Virginia), USA, is one of the world's leading manufacturers of laminated and coated technical textiles with over 550 employees. At the Bramsche site, significant investments have been made in machinery, equipment and infrastructure in recent years. Likewise, the sites in the USA and China have been equipped with modern and efficient coating lines. This enables Heytex, as the only supplier in this industry with production sites on three continents, to react in the best possible way to the technical and regional challenges of its customers.
Bencis is an independent investment company founded in 1999 by Zoran van Gessel and Jeroen Pit and has invested through six funds with total equity of €2.2bn. Bencis’ €575m Fond VI is being invested since 2021. The Bencis team consists of 32 professionals based in Düsseldorf, Amsterdam and Brussels. Currently, the Bencis portfolio comprises 31 companies with a combined turnover of around €1.8bn and 9,500 employees.
Patrimonium Middle Market Debt Fund is a private debt fund of Patrimonium Asset Management AG focused on mid-market companies. As an owner-managed, independent Swiss asset management firm, Patrimonium Asset Management AG operates across the private debt, real estate, private equity and infrastructure asset classes and manages assets in the amount of currently CHF 4.2bn for institutional investors. With offices in Lausanne, Zurich and Zug, the firm employs over 70 people.
The Ashurst team was led by partner Dr Tobias Krug and counsel Sabrina Bremer. They were assisted by senior associate Julia Friedle and senior transaction lawyer Petra Schott (all Finance). Counsel Martina Rothe advised on corporate law, counsel Dr Susanne Knoch provided advice on tax law aspects. In the United States, the finance team led by partner Michael Neary was involved. Ashurst regularly advises Patrimonium.
