DLA Piper advises Knorr Bremse on the acquisition of a majority stake in Cojali

DLA Piper has advised Knorr-Bremse and its subsidiary Knorr-Bremse Systeme für Nutzfahrzeuge GmbH on the acquisition of a majority stake of 55% in Cojali S.L. (Cojali). The founders of Cojali will retain a minority stake in the company and cooperate with Knorr-Bremse to further develop Cojali to a leading diagnostics equipment manufacturer for commercial vehicles. The parties have agreed on a purchase price of around EUR200 million for the 55% majority stake. The completion of the transaction is subject to usual conditions, including approval by the relevant antitrust authorities.

With the acquisition, Knorr-Bremse is investing in the growing market for connectivity applications while further developing the Group’s own digitalization expertise. Apart from organic growth, Knorr-Bremse pursues bolt-on mergers and acquisitions to access external tech expertise and benefits from growth markets and emerging developments in the transportation industry.

Cojali is a Spanish company with operations in more than 115 countries all over the world. It is a leading global developer of technological solutions for traditional diagnostics, remote diagnostics, predictive maintenance and telematics, and is also manufacturing components for commercial vehicles. The company employs around 495 people.

Knorr-Bremse is the global market leader for braking systems and a leading supplier of other rail and commercial vehicle systems. The company employs around 30,500 people at over 100 sites in more than 30 countries. In 2021, Knorr-Bremse’s two divisions together generated revenues of EUR6.7 billion. Knorr-Bremse is listed on the Frankfurt stock exchange.

At Knorr-Bremse's central legal department, the transaction was led by Christian Vornehm (Head Corporate Legal M&A/Antitrust).

The DLA Piper team was jointly led by the Corporate/M&A partners Gerald Schumann (Munich) and Joaquín Echanove (Madrid) and further included partners Pascal Kremp (Employment, Munich), Joaquin Hervada Sierra (Antitrust, Madrid), Dr Christian Schoop (Compliance/White-Collar Crime Law, Frankfurt), legal directors/counsels Luis Borrero Zorita (Madrid), Hanna Lütkens (both Corporate/M&A, Munich), Dr Enno Ahlenstiel (Antitrust), Dr Thilo Streit (Public Commercial Law, both Cologne) as well as senior associates Dr Tobias Pielow (Compliance/White-Collar Crime Law, Hamburg), Rafael Maldonado (Antitrust), associates Cristina Quintana Martin (Corporate/M&A, both Madrid) and Julia Goetzendorff (Antitrust, Cologne) as well as further colleagues from DLA Piper in Portugal and Austria.