Ashurst advised Performance Interactive Alliance (PIA), a portfolio company of private equity firm Equistone Partners Europe (Equistone), on its refinancing by a consortium led by Joh. Berenberg, Gossler & Co. KG (Berenberg) comprising the Kreissparkassen Göppingen, Biberach and Esslingen-Nürtingen. Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft (Commerzbank) granted a bilateral working capital facility.

In addition to a reduction of financing expenses and the extension of maturity dates, the new financing provides PIA with the necessary funds to finance future acquisitions.

The Ashurst team was led by finance partner Dr Bernd Egbers and counsel Carsten Endres. Associate Ralf Stenger and transaction manager Anna Caterina Zoth (all finance, Munich) assisted.

Berenberg instructed Noerr with partner Dr Tom Beckerhoff, senior associate Michael Schuhmacher and associate Nadja Petrow.

The Berenberg team comprised Henning Tietjen and Lasse Bahlburg; Commerzbank was represented by André Berens and Andreas Peters (legal).

This was not the first time that Ashurst worked for Equistone and PIA. In 2014, the firm advised Equistone on financing the acquisition of the German market leaders in the field of online marketing, Performance Media Deutschland, econda, Blue Summit Media and Delasocial. The merger of the four agencies led to the creation of PIA. In the same year, Ashurst advised PIA on financing additional agency acquisitions. Today, PIA comprises also Dymatrix Consulting Group and Feed Dynamix as well as the newly founded consulting agency Seven Squared.