Pon Holdings B.V. acquired Derby Cycle AG

The Düsseldorf team of Livingstone, working jointly with Rabobank International, has successfully advised Pon Holdings B.V., a Dutch family office investor, on the takeover of listed Derby Cycle AG.

Pon’s German subsidiary offered the shareholders of Derby Cycle AG €28 per share, representing an equity value of €210m. Derby Cycle AG, based in Cloppenburg, is a top-selling bicyle manufacturer in Germany and one of the leading suppliers in Europe. A high quality product range includes electric bikes, sports bikes for recreation and competitive racing, and comfort bikes for everyday use.

The bicycles are sold under the established brands Kalkhoff, Focus, Raleigh, Univega and Rixe. In the financial year 2009/10, Derby had sales of approximately €173 million and 550 employees. Derby went public in February 2011 in an Initial Public Offering and since then has been listed in the Prime Standard of German Stock Exchange Deutsche Börse.

The company had become a member of German small-cap index S-Dax ahead of the takeover bid.

Dr. Ralf Nowak, Partner at Livingstone Düsseldorf, said: “We are pleased that, together with Rabobank International, we were able to oversee this friendly takeover bid successfully. The close cooperation of the advisory teams in the Netherlands and Germany made the implementation of the transaction very efficient.”

This was the sixth pan-European and 17th overall cross-border transaction successfully advised on by Livingstone in 2011.