IMAP advises on sale of tool specialist Wera to Bitburger Holding

Bitburger Holding acquired 100% of the shares in Wera Group, headquartered in Wuppertal, from the founding family. Through this acquisition, Bitburger will extend its portfolio of strong brands to the tool sector. Wera’s Managing Director Martin Strauch is happy to continue the growth story with Bitburger stating: “We are looking forward to  collaborating with the long term investor Bitburger and are pleased that we have been participating in the choice of the investor since the very beginning of the sales process.”

Wera develops and produces innovative hand tools for “screw-in, screw-off” and has positioned itself very well on the market during the last few years. Product highlights are for instance “the fastest ratchet in the world” or diamond coated bits. The company employs more than 700 tool rebels – that is what Wera employees call themselves - at its sites in Germany, Czech Republic, North America and the UK.

Bitburger is well known as a major German beer brewery, with its major beer brands Bitburger, König, Licher, Köstritzer and Wernesgrüner. Bitburger Holding also owns shares in the infant toys and clothing producer, Sterntaler and Duerr Dental.

As part of the sales process, IMAP addressed only a few selected long-term investors and completed the transaction within 4 months. During this process, the IMAP advisors themselves were infected by the rebellious nature of Wera and became (M&A-) rebels.

IMAP’s advisory team consisted of Karl Fesenmeyer (Managing Director), Christoph Kloberdanz (Partner) and Philipp Noack (Analyst).