Vienna, 3 May 2023 - Together with Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek (Munich) as lead counsel, DORDA advised CANCOM SE on the acquisition of K-Businesscom AG and all its subsidiaries. The merger results in one of the leading IT companies in the DACH region. The customers of both companies will benefit from the combined expertise in IT and digitalisation solutions. The takeover will increase CANCOM's market presence in the DACH region and extensively expand its solution and service capacities.
DORDA, led by M&A partners Martin Brodey and Christian Ritschka, took on an important role in the transaction since K-Businesscom is particularly active in Austria and its headquarters are located here. The Heuking team led by Boris Dürr has already advised CANCOM SE on M&A transactions in the past. In the current transaction, lawyers from Heuking and DORDA worked closely with colleagues from the law firm NNDKP (Romania).
The transaction was structured so that the consideration will be paid partly in cash and partly in shares of the listed CANCOM SE. The value of the cash- consideration is approximately EUR 165 million; in addition, financial liabilities of approximately EUR 37 million will be redeemed. As part of the consideration the existing shareholders will receive 3.5 million new Cancom shares with a market value of more than EUR 100 million, which will be created by way of a capital increase against contribution in kind. The closing of the transaction is subject to merger control approval.
K-Businesscom is Austria's leading ICT solutions and service provider with 1,650 employees and generated revenues of around EUR 520 million and EBITDA of around EUR 28 million in the past financial year 2022/23. The company is active as a digital business engineer for IT and business consulting as well as software development in Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Romania, and the Czech Republic. Parallel to the takeover of K-Businesscom by CANCOM, K-Businesscom has acquired all shares in the Swiss system integrator Belsoft Infortix AG, which, with its focus on data centres, networks, and security, most recently generated sales of around EUR 12 million with 35 employees. The acquisition strengthens K-Businesscom's good position in the Swiss market.
CANCOM SE is one of the leading IT systems providers in Germany with a focus on digital transformation, cloud computing, and IT security. As a hybrid IT integrator and service provider, CANCOM offers a range of services and solutions that includes business solutions and managed services such as cloud computing, analytics, enterprise mobility, IT security, hosting, as well as As-a-Service options. The CANCOM Group's range of IT solutions includes consulting, implementation, services, and the operation of IT systems, and thus the entire spectrum that CANCOM's customers need for the digital transformation. In the financial year 2022 CANCOM generated revenues of around EUR 1.3 billion and EBITDA of over EUR 100 million, currently employing approximately 4,000 employees. It is listed on the Regulated Market (Prime Standard) of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and additionally on the SDAX and TecDAX; the current market capitalisation is approx EUR 1.3 billion.
In addition to partners Martin Brodey and Christian Ritschka, partners Heinrich Kühnert (Antitrust), Bernhard Rieder (Corporate Law), Nino Tlapak (Data Protection), Magdalena Brandstetter (Real Estate) and Bernhard Müller (Public Law) accompanied the transaction, supported by Counsel Andreas Seling (Intellectual Property Law) and Senior Associates Katrin Antl (Banking & Finance), Ulrich Weinstich (M&A), Florina Thenmayer (Employment) and Magdalena Nitsche (Insurance Law) as well as Associates Aleksandra Langer (M&A), Mirko Marjanovic and Petra Artner (Antitrust), Felix Zopf, Michael Hardt and Sebastian Stöckl (IP/IT/Data Protection), Julia Huber (Employment), Florian Hügel (Public Law), Diane Steindl (Real Estate) and Paul Traar (Insurance Law).
