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AUTOMOTIVE, DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION AND PRIVATE EQUITY

Florian Kähler (ECM Equity Capital Management), Dirk Liedtke (Raymond James), Martin Schwarzer (PwC), Alexan­der Sixt (Sixt), and Fabian Wasmus and Thomas von Werner (Penta Investments) discussed the impact of digitalisation on the automotive sector. Dr Joachim Koch (IMAP M&A Con­sultants) moderated the panel.

The automotive industry is changing like never before as a result of digitalisation. In an environment where volume growth will decrease in the next decade, digital leadership in the automotive industry is expected to translate into growth.

The panel first discussed the impact of digitalisation on small and medium-sized automotive suppliers. By implementing a homogenous and connected IT system within a company and between companies along the value chain (industry 4.0), companies can significantly increase operational productivity and responsiveness to changing market conditions, and cre­ate new business opportunities, particularly by offering just-in-time services. Private equity companies can add significant value by initiating and supporting this digital transformation in small and medium-sized automotive suppliers.

The panel also discussed digitalisation’s disruptive impact on the automotive aftermarket. New e-commerce business mod­els for automotive spare parts and accessories are experienc­ing double-digit growth rates and high profit margins, and are attracting interest from strategic and financial investors.

The panellists agreed that software competence is quickly be­coming one of the most important differentiating factors in the automotive industry for various applications in the car, such as advanced driver assistance systems, connectivity and infotainment systems. Large tier-one suppliers in Germany are leading the global industry in integrating advanced soft­ware solutions in new automotive components. At the same time, consolidation in traditional component manufacturing will likely accelerate as a result of declining volume growth and economies of scale.

The digital transformation will also continue to change con­sumers’ mobility behaviour. Mega cities in the United States and Asia will fundamentally change the way cars are used in the future. Cars will evolve from traditional transport vehicles to high-tech self-driving devices. OEMs can no longer focus on providing hardware, but must become providers of mo­bility solutions. Shared mobility services or data connectivity services will increase at double-digit growth rates. The panel unanimously agreed that innovative mobility concepts will be an important growth driver in the future, but questioned the current high valuation level of mobility solution providers such as Uber.

The panel concluded that the entire automotive industry is seeing tremendous changes due to digitalisation, which offer attractive opportunities for strategic as well as private inves­tors.

J.P. MORGAN KEYNOTE: CROSS-BORDER M&A IN THE SHADOW OF BREXIT
Callum Mitchell-Thomson, head of investment banking for Germany, Austria and Switzerland for J.P. Morgan, led the MuMAC audience through the expected consequenc­es of Britain’s exit from the European Union (Brexit). Mr Mitchell-Thomson pointed out that whilst the immediate reactions to the vote were quite dramatic, within a week they had quieted substantially. Similarly, at first it appeared that the outlook for economic growth in 2017 for the Europe­an Union, the United States and, in particular, the United Kingdom itself would be worsened materially. Within three months of the referendum, however, the equity capital mar­kets had recovered. On average, cross-border M&A makes up 30 per cent of the overall M&A market. Within Europe, the United Kingdom historically has represented 30...
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M&A AND PRIVATE EQUITY MARKET 2016
This session featured Dr Michael Drill (Lincoln Internation­al AG), Dr Andreas Fendel (Quadriga Capital Beteiligungs­beratung), Philipp Haindl (Serafin Group), Jan Mayerhöfer (Mayerhöfer & Co Corporate Finance Beratung), Tristan Nagler (Aurelius Investments) and Steve Roberts (PwC Germany), and was moderated by Dr Nikolaus von Jacobs (McDermott). Diving into an evaluation of the current market, the panel found that the overall mood is good despite large amounts of money continuing to chase a limited number of opportu­nities, leading to a very active, if not crowded, market place. More strategic players are active in the market than in recent years, including many from the United States and Asia, and China in particular. A multitude of new market players, in­cluding newly established fi...
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ACTIVIST SHAREHOLDERS: EXPERIENCES IN THE UNITED STATES AND EUROPE

Bilal Sayyed, McDermott Will & Emery, moderated a thrilling panel of acitivist shareholders from three juristdictions: Roy Katzovic of Saddle Point Group, United States, Till Hufnagel, Petrus Advisers, London and Dr Olaf Marx of MCGM, Munich. They were joined by A&M Managing Director Germany, Thomas Kolaya. Mr Kolaya advises companys how to avoid to become a target of activist shareholders. The panel was a fabulous finale of the conference.

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INVESTMENT FROM THE GULF REGION INTO EUROPE AND THE UNITED STATES
Raed Fakhri, vice president of investments at Bahrain Mumtalakat Holding Company (Mumtalakat), presented the company’s investment strategy and showcased some of its re­cent international investments. Mumtalakat, the investment arm of the Kingdom of Bahrain, is focused on growing and diversifying its portfolio through commercially sound and sustainable investments across multiple industries and geog­raphies. Its key sectors of focus are logistics, technology, me­dia and telecommunications; real estate and tourism; health care; consumer; industrials and manufacturing; and financial and general services. In the past two years, Mumtalakat completed nine interna­tional investments, including the acquisition of a stake in PRO Unlimited, a leading provider of software and services in the United S...
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CROSS-BORDER REAL ESTATE
Tobias Huzarski (KKR Kohlberg Kravis Roberts), Frank Müller (Corpus Sireo), David Poremba (Eastdil Secured) and Dr Jens Ortmanns (McDermott) hosted MuMAC’s first real estate panel and discussed current trends in the European real estate private equity market. As panel head, Dr Ortmanns started the discussion by high­lighting the diversity of real estate as an asset class and the broad range of market participants in Europe, including pri­vate equity funds, hedge funds, pension funds, insurers, and other national and international institutional investors (re­cently including many Asian buyers), as well as family offic­es, developers and high-net-worth individuals. Mr Huzarski initiated a lively discussion about the role real estate plays for private equity funds as part of their overall inv...
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CROSS-BORDER M&A ASIA AND EUROPE
This session addressed the growing M&A activities of Asian investors in Europe, with a focus on Germany. Wei Wang (PwC Germany) led the panel, which included Dr Mei Wu (Joyson Holdings Europe GmbH), Jacob Hoyeon Won (Locus Capital Partner, the ally of Global M&A Partners), Dr Qing Ding (Shentou Capital) and David Dai (MWE China Law Offices). All panellists agreed that the current trend of Asian investors conducting transactions in Europe will be long-term. This is particularly true of Chinese investors, which have been con­sistently reaching new heights in terms of deal intensity and volume during the years following the last global economic crisis. The panellists also shared the view that, contrary to the overwhelming public consensus in Europe, the governments of both Korea and C...
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LIFE SCIENCES, HEALTH AND PRIVATE EQUITY: LICENSING AND STRUCTURED M&A TRANSACTIONS
Christoph Brandenberger (Healthios Capital Markets), Dr Irina Staatz-Granzer (Staatz BD & Strategy), Dr Sven Oleownik (Gimv Germany), Dr Erich Tauber (Themis Bioscience), Charlie Troup (Duke Street) and Kristian A. Werling (McDermott) discussed licensing and structured M&A transactions. Emmanuelle Trombe (McDermott) mod­erated the panel, which focused in particular on the conver­gence of M&A and licensing, structured transactions in pri­vately held companies versus public M&A, and litigation risks related to due diligence obligations. In discussing the convergence of collaboration/licensing and M&A, the panel pointed out that an increasing number of collaborations between start-ups and industrials include an equity component. Alternatively, such collaborations, with or ...
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CROSS-BORDER M&A USA AND EUROPE
This panel featured the insights of Melville Mummert (Raymond James), Torsten Krumm (HQ Equita GmbH), Dr Jan-Mathias Kuhr (Kion Group AG), Samuel Wales (McDermott), Patrick Schaich (Riverside Europe Partners GmbH) and Dr Burkhard Weber (Lincoln International LLC). Mr Mummert opened the discussion with questions revolving around the major themes of the 2016 conference, including digitisation, globalisation and disruption: What role will Brexit play in cross-border M&A? What are the implications of digitisation/digital trends for M&A processes? How will disruptive macroeconomic, geopolitical, capital markets and banking trends affect cross-border M&A? Are Europe and the United States currently buyers’ or sellers’ markets? What were the valuation trends of 2016? Each organisatio...
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