Ebner Stolz advises PARAGON PARTNERS on their acquisition of the optician chain pro optik

• PA­RA­GON PART­NERS ac­qui­res the ma­jo­rity share of the op­ti­cian chain pro op­tik
• The foun­ders and ma­na­ging part­ners of pro op­tik will con­ti­nue to be fi­nan­ci­ally in­vol­ved
• Eb­ner Stolz pro­vi­des a com­pre­hen­sive buy-side ad­vice

Mu­nich, 25^th July 2019 - The ac­coun­ting and con­sul­ting firm Eb­ner Stolz ad­vi­sed PA­RA­GON PART­NERS on the ac­qui­si­tion of ma­jo­rity sha­res in pro op­tik group from foun­ders Pe­ter Hop­pert and Rai­ner Hil­de­brandt with buy-side Fi­nan­cial, Tax and Le­gal Due Di­li­gence ser­vices, Tax struc­tu­ring sup­port as well as Le­gal ne­go­tia­tion sup­port and con­tract de­sign.

The foun­ders and ma­na­ging part­ners Pe­ter Hop­pert and Rai­ner Hil­de­brandt sold the ma­jo­rity of their sha­res in pro op­tik group to the Mu­nich-ba­sed in­vest­ment com­pany PA­RA­GON PART­NERS and Han­ni­bal Ze­ma­riam.

Foun­ded in 1987 and head­quar­te­red in Wend­lin­gen, Ba­den-Wu­ert­tem­berg, pro op­tik group ope­ra­tes 145 bran­ches ma­king it one of the top 3 Ger­man op­ti­cian chains. The com­pany, with re­ve­nues of EUR 125 mil­lion in the fi­nan­cial year 2018, sells around 400,000 spec­ta­cles per year and has re­cently ex­ten­ded its of­fe­ring by hea­ring acoustics.

In ad­di­tion to the par­ti­ci­pa­tion of Han­ni­bal Ze­ma­riam, who has been em­ployed since 2003 at pro op­tik and has been ap­poin­ted as fur­ther ma­na­ging di­rec­tor in 2018, the two foun­ders will con­ti­nue to be fi­nan­ci­ally in­vol­ved. The ap­pro­val of the tran­sac­tion by the Ger­man car­tel aut­ho­rity is ex­pec­ted by the end of Au­gust.

“We look for­ward to sup­port the ma­nage­ment and em­ployees of pro op­tik as the prin­ci­pal ow­ner by in­ves­ting into the growth and sus­tai­nable de­ve­lop­ment of the com­pany”, says Marco At­to­lini, ma­na­ging part­ner of PA­RA­GON PART­NERS.

With a mul­ti­di­sci­pli­nary team, Eb­ner Stolz ad­vi­sed PA­RA­GON PART­NERS on the ac­qui­si­tion of ma­jo­rity sha­res in the op­ti­cian chain pro op­tik, in­clu­ding its ope­ra­ting sub­si­dia­ries with Fi­nan­cial, Tax and Le­gal Due Di­li­gence ser­vices. Fur­ther­more, the ad­vi­sory ser­vice in­clu­ded Tax struc­tu­ring as well as Le­gal ne­go­tia­tion sup­port and con­tract de­sign.

Eb­ner Stolz team: Claus Buh­mann (Pro­ject lea­ding Part­ner Tran­sac­tion Ad­vi­sory Ser­vices, Lead Fi­nan­cial Due Di­li­gence), Alex­an­der Go­ertz (Fi­nan­cial Due Di­li­gence), Alex­an­der Eu­ch­ner (Part­ner M&A Tax, Tax Due Di­li­gence, Tax struc­tu­ring), An­dreas For­rai and Dr. To­bias Weiss (both Tax Due Di­li­gence), To­bias Schupp (Tax struc­tu­ring), Dr. Ro­de­rich Fi­scher (Part­ner M&A Le­gal, Lead Le­gal), Dr. Jo­han­nes Jo­ep­gen and The­resa Reu­ter (both M&A Le­gal), Aleksan­dar Sa­va­no­vic (Lead Le­gal Due Di­li­gence), Dr. Se­bas­tian Ritz (La­bor law), Dr. Björn Schal­lock (Com­mer­cial, Le­gal IP), Lau­rent Meis­ter, LL.M. (Le­gal IT, Data se­cu­rity), Jo­chen Ri­enth (Real Es­tate), Fe­lix Müller (Cor­po­rate) as well as Dr. Sa­rah Ger­sch-Sou­vi­gnet (Health Care) and Dr. Fa­bi­enne Bou­lan­ger (Duty, Im­port)

Press Con­tact

Isa­bell Ze­melka
Eb­ner Stolz
Kro­nen­straße 30
70174 Stutt­gart
Tel.  +49 711 2049-1500
isa­bell.ze­mel­ka@eb­ner­stolz.de

Cor­po­rate Con­tact

Claus Buh­mann
Eb­ner Stolz
Rid­ler­straße 57
80339 Mu­nich
Tel.  +49 89 549018-251
claus.buh­man­n@eb­ner­stolz.de

Alex­an­der Eu­ch­ner
Eb­ner Stolz
Kro­nen­straße 30
70174 Stutt­gart
Tel.  +49 711 2049-1575
alex­an­der.eu­ch­ner@eb­ner­stolz.de

Dr. Ro­de­rich Fi­scher
Eb­ner Stolz
Kro­nen­straße 30
70174 Stutt­gart
Tel.  +49 711 2049-1841
ro­de­rich.fi­scher@eb­ner­stolz.de

About Ebner Stolz

Eb­ner Stolz is one of the lar­gest inde­pen­dent mid-si­zed MDP firms in Ger­many and is among the Top Ten in the sec­tor. The firm has deca­des of in-depth expe­ri­ence in audi­ting, tax ad­vice, le­gal ad­vice, and cor­po­rate con­sul­ting. More than 1,500 emp­loyees in all ma­jor Ger­man ci­ties and busi­ness cen­ters of­fer a broad range of ser­vices ba­sed on a multi-dis­ci­p­li­nary ap­proach. Eb­ner Stolz pre­do­mi­n­antly advi­ses me­dium-si­zed indu­s­trial en­ter­pri­ses as well as trade and ser­vice com­pa­nies of all si­zes and indu­s­tries.

Cross-bor­der audi­ting and con­sul­ting as­sign­ments are car­ried out with part­ners of Ne­xia In­ter­na­tio­nal, one of the world’s top ten net­works of inde­pen­dent con­sul­ting and audi­ting firms. With more than 700 Ne­xia of­fices world­wide Eb­ner Stolz is pre­sent in more than 120 coun­tries.