International law firm Clifford Chance has advised the HQ Equita Team on its successful GP-led secondary process, leading to a value adding partnership with the European specialist growth investor Verdane whilst providing HQ Equita investors with liquidity.

Verdane, the European specialist growth investor, as a result of the transaction, has acquired a portfolio of five profitable technology companies and partnered with HQ Equita, a leading investment firm in Germany. The transaction provides tailored value creation plans, strategy roadmaps and follow-on capital for each of the relevant Fund’s five companies and their respective management teams. To achieve this, Verdane worked closely with the HQ Equita team along with representatives from the Harald Quandt family. Verdane and HQ Equita will work together to scale these assets and plan to explore future M&A opportunities for continuous international growth beyond the DACH region.

HQ Equita, founded in 1992, is a well-established mid-market private equity investor in Germany, backed by investors including institutions, family offices, foundations and trusts, as well as notable entrepreneurial families such as the Harald Quandt family.

Verdane is a specialist growth investment firm that partners with tech-enabled and sustainable European businesses. Verdane can invest as a minority or majority investor, either in single companies or through portfolios of companies, and looks to deploy inside two core growth themes; digitalisation and decarbonisation.

The Clifford Chance team was led by partner Sonya Pauls (Funds, Munich) who was supported by partners Avrohom Gelber (Tax, New York), Frank Scholderer (Corporate, Frankfurt), Mark Aschenbrenner (Corporate, Munich), counsel Samuel Frommelt (Corporate, Munich), senior associate Lisa Giroux (Funds, Munich), transaction lawyer Alina Hochberger (Funds, Munich), associate Kevin Merchant (Funds, London), associate Rick Thoben (Tax, New York) and many others.