Kirkland & Ellis, Skadden and Freshfields have taken lead roles on the merger of escalator and elevator companies, KONE and TK Elevator (TKE).
The €29.4bn deal will see Finnish publicly listed lift maker KONE purchase Germany’s TKE, currently owned by private equity firms Advent and Cinven.
Kirkland is advising Advent and Cinven on the deal, with M&A partners Adrian Maguire and Dan Clarke leading the deal in London, as well as Benjamin Leyendecker and Philip Goj in Munich.
The team also includes debt capital markets partners Christopher Shield, Antoine Lebienvenu and Thomas Raftery, as well as tax partners Mavnick Nerwal and Sivanti Devakumar, and tech and IP partner André Duminy, all in London. Munich-based tax partner Michael Ehret also advised on the transaction.
Skadden advised KONE on the tie-up, with London corporate partner Sandro de Bernardini leading. The team also included corporate partner Sarah Knapp and global transactions head Lorenzo Corte, as well as antitrust partner Kenneth Schwartz, finance partners Pete Coulton and Zoe Cooper Sutton, white-collar defence and investigations partner Ryan Junck and tax partner Jisun Choi.
Also involved for Skadden were Brussels antitrust partner Giorgio Motta, as well as PE partner Jan Bauer and tax partner Johannes Frey, both based in the firm’s Frankfurt office. Antitrust partner Michael Sheerin in New York also advised.
Freshfields advised TKE on the antitrust aspects of the deal.
Linklaters were also involved in the deal, advising German steel company ThyssenKrupp, a stakeholder of TKE, on its investment in the elevator company.
The team was led by global co-head of M&A Ralph Wollburg in Düsseldorf, and private equity partner Andreas Müller, in the firm’s Frankfurt office.
Finnish firm Hannes Snellman also acted for KONE on the deal, while Roschier advised TKE.
Advent and Cinven were reportedly considering listing TKE earlier this year in an IPO that would have valued the elevator company at around €25bn.
