POELLATH advises FIRE HOLDING GmbH on the acquisition of shares in the ABBS Group

Through the acquisition of the ABBS Group, FIRE HOLDING reaches another significant milestone on its way to becoming the quality leader in international active fire protection. The company had already acquired all shares in the TBS fire protection group and its subsidiaries at the end of January 2021. With its existing locations, FIRE HOLDING can expand into existing markets in Eastern Europe, as well as open up new markets in Western Europe. A comparable service portfolio allows the merger of the operations and enables the expansion of these markets.

ABBS Group, founded in Belgium in 2000, is a supplier of automatic fire extinguishing systems. As a fully integrated supplier, its range of services includes the design, installation, repair and maintenance of sprinkler, water mist, gas and foam extinguishing systems. Through continuous customer growth, the ABBS Group has expanded over time into Germany, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Hungary and Poland. With transport & logistics, retail and wholesale, as well as the automotive industry, the ABBS group serves similar end markets as FIRE HOLDING already does, so that the customer bases strategically complement each other and the industry distribution diversifies across the entire group.

POELLATH advised FIRE HOLDING GmbH together with Eubelius (Belgium) and Houthoff (Netherlands) with the following international team:

• Philipp von Braunschweig (POELLATH, partner, co-lead, Munich).
• Dr. Sebastian Rosentritt (POELLATH, senior associate, co-lead, Munich)
• Dr. Nico Fischer (POELLATH, partner, tax, Munich)
• Dr. Matthias Werner (POELLATH, counsel, real estate transactions, Berlin)
• Andrea Streifeneder (POELLATH, senior associate, M&A/private equity, Munich)
• Dr. Matthias Meier (POELLATH, associate, corporate finance, Munich)
• Erwin Destuyver (Eubelius, partner, corporate Belgium)
• Michiel Stuyts (Eubelius, associate, corporate Belgium)
• Wouter Claes (Eubelius, partner, tax Belgium)
• Michiel Pannekoek (Houthoff, partner, corporate Netherlands)

• Richard Witvliet (Houthoff, counsel, corporate, Netherlands)

• Grafton Cederburg (Houthoff, associate, corporate, Netherlands)

• Jeroen van Mourik (Houthoff, partner, tax, Netherlands)

• Fyrone Denny (Houthoff, associate, tax, Netherlands )

POELLATH previously advised the shareholders of Multimon AG for the board of directors and current shareholder-managing director of Fire Holding GmbH, Mr. Edward Skube, on the sale to DBAG Fund VIII / Fire Holding GmbH in 2020 and Fire Holding on the acquisition of the TBS Group in early 2021. For the additional acquisition of ABBS, Skube and the majority shareholder DBAG Fund VIII again relied on the same team of advisors.