Acquisition of the automotive supplier BOLTA-WERKE

A Deloitte Legal team led by Corporate/M&A partner Dirk Hänisch (Düsseldorf) advised the Czech Winning Group a.s. on its fourth successful acquisition in 2022, the takeover of the business operations of the insolvent BOLTA-WERKE GmbH and the insolvent Bolta-Bundle GmbH from insolvency administrator Volker Böhm.

BOLTA-WERKE develops and produces surface-finished components. Its customers are mainly from the automotive industry, including numerous premium brands. The product range includes nameplates, trim strips and decorative elements, as well as large and complex components such as radiator grilles. The company currently employs approx. 850 people at its German sites in Diepersdorf, Gütersloh and Gottmadingen. Last year, the BOLTA Group generated worldwide sales of around 230 million euros.

The sale of BOLTA-WERKE is the culmination of insolvency proceedings that were characterized by extremely difficult conditions from the outset. To begin with, the Corona crisis paralyzed much of the German automotive supply industry, exacerbated by supply bottlenecks for semiconductors. This was followed by the restricted availability of important production materials such as metals and plastics. And finally, since February 2022, the war on Ukraine has also placed a considerable burden on business at BOLTA-WERKE.

The takeover marks the successful conclusion of an international investor process initiated by insolvency administrator Böhm immediately after the insolvency application was filed at the end of September 2021. Volker Böhm: "The Winning Group is the ideal partner for BOLTA-WERKE: a strategic investor with a long-term perspective and a great interest in the further development of BOLTA-WERKE."

"We are very pleased that we were able to reach an agreement with the insolvency administration," said Sebastian P. Wagner, CEO and Chairman of the Board of Winning Group a.s.. "This purchase is a significant step forward for Winning Group and its growth path in the automotive industry. Winning Plastics - Diepersdorf together with our existing Winning Plastics sites will be able to leverage great synergies and become one of the leading and healthy players in the European market of surface finished plastic parts."

Deloitte Legal regularly advises Winning Group on M&A transactions, most recently on the acquisition of automotive suppliers Presswerk Krefeld and PWK IBEX (closing: June 2022), the acquisition of automotive supplier Räuchle (closing: May 2022) and the acquisition of automotive suppliers Linden GmbH and Sächsische Metall- und Kunststoffveredlungs GmbH (SMK) (closing: February 2022).

Advisor Winning Group:

Deloitte Legal: Dirk Hänisch (Lead, Corporate/M&A, Düsseldorf), Dr. Charlotte Sander, Claus Wilker (both Labor Law, Hannover), Thilo Hoffmann, Horst Heinzl (both Corporate/M&A Düsseldorf), Marc Oliver Stock (Corporate/M&A, Frankfurt), Katharina Zickermann (Competition, Hamburg)

About Winning Group:

Headquartered in Brno, Czech Republic, Winning Group aims to create a leading company in the automotive and construction industries through organic growth and targeted acquisitions. The owner-managed group was founded in 2016 and plans to achieve total consolidated sales of around €300 million in 2022 with 14 group companies. Winning employed 2,300 people worldwide before the acquisition of BOLTA-WERKE.