New Shareholder Structure at FUNKE Mediengruppe – Heuking Advises Grotkamp Family on the Acquisition of all Shares
June, 2021 - Germany
A team led by Düsseldorf-based lawyer Dr. Andreas Urban comprehensively advised the Grotkamp family on the acquisition of all shares in FUNKE Mediengruppe on issues relating to corporate law, antitrust law, and finance law.
The Grotkamp family line – Petra Grotkamp and her children Julia Becker, Nora Marx, and Niklas Wilcke – acquired all shares from the previous co-shareholders of the Schubries and Holthoff-Pförtner family lines, thus taking over FUNKE Mediengruppe in full.
The transaction will be closed in two stages: The descendants of company founder Funke – the Grotkamp family – will immediately take over business management. The shares will be acquired on January 2, 2024. The parties have agreed not to disclose the purchase price. The transaction is subject to antitrust approval by the Austrian competition authorities.
The acquisition is aimed at creating new shareholder and management structures to secure the future of FUNKE Mediengruppe’s media and to better align the company with the media landscape’s current challenges.
FUNKE Mediengruppe publishes twelve regional newspapers in Germany (including “Westdeutsche Allgemeine,” “Neue Ruhr/Neue Rhein Zeitung,” “Hamburger Abendblatt,” Berliner Morgenpost”) and more than three dozen women’s magazines and TV guides (such as “Hörzu,” “Gong,” “Bild der Frau”).
Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek regularly advises FUNKE Mediengruppe in various legal fields, such as the acquisition of several TV guides from Axel Springer publishing group and the partnership with SIGNA Holding for a stake in the “Krone” and “Kurier” media. The Grotkamp family has also been advised by the team led by Dr. Andreas Urban for many years, including on the acquisition of the shares of the Brost family and on the sale of a stake in Otto-Versand.
Counsel to Grotkamp family
Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek:
Dr. Andreas Urban (Lead M&A Corporate)
Dr. Roland Reichert (M&A, Corporate)
Dr. Michael Sörgel (M&A, Corporate)
Leonard Urban (M&A, Corporate)
Dr. Rainer Velte (Antitrust)
Beatrice Stange (Antitrust)
Jörn Matuszewski (Tax), all Düsseldorf
Michael Neises (Finance), Frankfurt
Schönherr Rechtsanwälte GmbH (Antitrust Law Austria)
Franz Urlesberger, Valerie Ditz
