Ashurst advises Duke Street on acquisition of ForLife Group and Trio Healthcare Business
Ashurst has advised Duke Street, a prominent private equity investor, on two parallel transactions in the ostomy care business.
Duke Street is a leading European private equity firm with a focus on investing in mid-market companies.
The advise included the acquisition of ForLife Group from GHD, a portfolio company of Nordic Capital. ForLife Group is renowned for its specialization in the development, manufacture, and distribution of medical devices, with a particular focus on ostomy care. This acquisition includes ForLife's development and production site in Berlin, as well as its British direct sales company, Oakmed.
Simultaneously, Ashurst has advised Duke Street on the acquisition of the ostomy sale and distribution business from Trio Healthcare Limited (Trio). The business includes the supply of stoma skin care and ostomy products and related assets and will be integrated in the ForLife Group.
These acquisitions together will create a player of growth and scale in the ostomy care market.
The Ashurst team, led by Partner Stefan Bruder and Counsel Sina Schwirz provided comprehensive legal advice to Duke Street throughout the acquisition processes with an international team involving the offices in Munich, Frankfurt and London. Notably, Ashurst advised Duke Street on both the M&A workstream and the finance workstream, with Partner Anne Grewlich and Counsel Sabrina Bremer leading the finance advice.
The M&A advice and finance advice on these two parallel transactions underscores Ashurst's expertise in the healthcare sector and its strong focus on complex cross-border transactions.
The international Ashurst team was led by Corporate Partner Stefan Bruder and Counsel Sina Schwirz. The Ashurst team in Germany included Volker Germann (Counsel, Corporate), Karen Kelat (Associate, Corporate), Anne Grewlich (Partner, Finance), Sabrina Bremer and Christopher Clerihew (both Counsel, Finance), Yasaman Zargar (Associate, Finance) and Ariana Fazlic (Transaction Lawyer, Finance), Susanne Knoch (Counsel, Tax), Steffen Bellmann (Associate, Tax), Matthias Wiedenfels (Consultant, Healthcare), Lukas Müller (Counsel, Employment), Nassim Keyhan (Junior Associate, Employment), Alexander Duisberg (Partner, Digital Economy), David Plischka (Junior Associate, Digital Economy), Roman Brtka (Partner, IP), Markus Witzmann (Senior Associate, IP), Volker Rosengarten (Partner, Compliance), Achim Weimer (Associate, Real Estate), Michael Holzhäuser (Partner, Antitrust) and Maria Held (Counsel, Antitrust).
The Ashurst team in London included Markjan van Schaardenburgh (Partner, Corporate), Ellie Conroy (Associate, Corporate), Victoria Padley (Junior Associate, Corporate), Matthew Hall (Solicitor Apprentice, Corporate), Ross Ollerhead (Partner, Finance), Nicholas Jupp (Senior Associate, Finance), Marshall Kwok (Junior Associate, Finance), Nicholas Gardner (Partner, Tax), Patricia Allen (Partner, Tax), Luis de Freitas (Associate, Tax), Archie Vickers (Associate, Tax), Sarah-Jane Dobson (Partner, Product Compliance), Miran Bahra (Associate, Product Compliance), Katharine Foster (Associate, Employment), Rhiannon Webster (Partner, Digital Economy), Tom Brookes (Senior Associate, Digital Economy), Emily Jones (Junior Associate, Digital Economy), Sunny Kumar (Partner, IP), Aaron Cole (Senior Associate, IP), Emily McCracken(Senior Associate, IP), Hana Byrne (Junior Associate, IP), Andrew Clarke (Junior Associate, IP), Jonas Weissenmayer (Associate, Compliance), Debbie Eliad (Associate, Real Estate).
