VISI/ONE has been sold to the Choice Group
Livingstone has advised the management of VISI/ONE GmbH in Remscheid with an additional site in Berlin (‘VISI/ONE’) on the sale to the Choice Group, a provider of mobility solutions headquartered in Nuremberg, Germany. Details of the transaction have not been disclosed.
VISI/ONE has established itself as a successful developer of analogue and digital price labelling systems for stationary used car dealers in recent years and has built up exclusive access to the world’s largest automotive brands. As the demand for digital solutions in price labelling and adjacent service offerings is growing rapidly, the company has further developed its own cloud-based software and hardware technology with a special focus on digital price labelling for the automotive sector, which is built on the new M2M mobile radio standard NB-IoT. Most recently, VISI/ONE employed 40 persons.
Due to the stressed liquidity situation of the company, the management of VISI/ONE filed for insolvency on June 1, 2019. Lawyer Dr. Dirk Andres, AndresPartner PartG mbB, Düsseldorf, has been appointed as preliminary trustee by order of the District Court Wuppertal. The Düsseldorf team of Livingstone was mandated by the management, advised by the lawyers Nils Krause and Michael Busching of ECOVIS Grieger Mallison & Partner Wirtschaftsprüfer Rechtsanwälte, Hamburg, at the end of June to conduct a structured M&A process in order to identify an investor for the intended going-concern solution for VISI/ONE.
During the M&A process, the Choice Group has increasingly evolved as the ideal partner for VISI/ONE due to its dense network in the automotive industry, the international orientation of its business activities, the strong consensus in the assessment of strategic opportunities, and the resulting synergy potentials.
“We are strongly convinced that with the Choice Group we now have a great partner on our side, who can help open doors in the relevant market segment through its high level of expertise and who shares our vision for the further development of our services”, say Ms. Stefanie and Mr. Michael Kalheber, Managing Directors of VISI/ONE GmbH.
With regard to the achieved going-concern solution, Mr. Nils Krause comments: “Livingstone’s strong support enabled us within a period of only five weeks to deliver what we believe is the best possible solution – the company’s sale to a strategic partner with a conclusive concept stipulating the taking over of the majority of employees.” Dr. Dirk Andres adds: “The professional speed of action of all parties involved was excellent and enabled the unusually fast completion of the M&A process after just a few weeks.”
“With the Choice Group, we have found a buyer for VISI/ONE that not only secures the existing business but that is also able to assess and further develop the potential inherent in the digital business”, says Christian Garbe, Associate Director at Livingstone in Düsseldorf. Dr. André Schröer, Partner at Livingstone, adds: “Despite the challenging circumstances, we were able to achieve a mutually beneficial solution – this makes us very happy”.