Lawyers from DLA Piper's offices in Germany, Italy, the United States, and the Czech Republic have advised Luxembourg-based private equity firm ASC Investment on its acquisition of Vitrablok, the Czech-based glass block division of the Seves Group, and on obtaining financing from RiverRock for the transaction. The sellers were advised by Giese & Partners in the Czech Republic and by LMS Studio Legale in Italy, and RiverRock was advised by TaylorWessing.
Vitrablok was part of the Seves Group, a Triton Fund III company. With more than 300 employees in Europe and the US, Vitrablok has a 40 percent share in the world glass block market. DLA Piper describes it as "the leading manufacturer of glass bricks for interior and exterior architectural applications."
“We are looking forward to the next level of development of Vitrablok under the new ownership of ASC Investment,” said Petr Kralik, CEO of Vitrablok. “We want to develop our product portfolio, as well as support the company’s international expansion. Our company wants to be a leader in the glass blocks market, both in terms of technology and quality. Vitrablok will be the only independent player in the market, 100% focused on the glass block product.”
The multi-jurisdictional DLA Piper team was led by Czech Country Managing Partner Miroslav Dubovsky and Munich-based Corporate Partner Florian Hirschmann. They were assisted by Prague-based Senior Associates Petr Samec and Jan Rataj, Munich-based Senior Associate Silvio McMiken and Associate Tobias Schulz, and a Frankfurt-based team consisting of Germany Country Managing Partner Konrad Rohde, Finance and Projects Counsel Robert Hofbauer, and Tax Counsel Raimund Behnes. Further support was given by Luxembourg Country Managing Partner Catherine Pogorzelski, Tax Partner Geoffrey Scardoni, Milan-based Corporate Partner Alessandro Piermanni, and Atlanta-based Finance and Projects Partner Kevin Gooch.
The Taylor Wessing Prague team advising RiverRock consisted of Partner Thomas Rechberger, Senior Associate Ivana Menhartova, and Associate Barbora Skolkova.
