Clifford Chance has advised the French private debt fund Idinvest Partners S.A. on providing a unitranche financing for the acquisition of "Wer liefert was" by the Swiss private equity investor Capvis.

"Wer liefert was" is one of Europe's largest B2B networks. The main aims of the purchase are to extend the company's product range and to make a major contribution to the internationalisation of the B2B marketplace. Capvis and the existing management of "Wer liefert was" will acquire the company from the present majority owners Paragon Partners and Nordic Mezzanine. The parties have agreed not to disclose any details of the purchase price. The deal is subject to approval by the relevant antitrust authorities and to compliance with a number of other standard requirements.

Idinvest Partners S.A., based in Paris and established in 1997, is one of Europe's leading small and mid-cap private equity investors and currently has assets under management worth more than EUR 7 billion, with more than EUR 3 billion invested in private debt funds. Idinvest Partners offers investors and clients the full range of private debt financing solutions, including mezzanine, unitranche and leveraged loan options. Typical investments range from EUR 5 to 50 million per deal and Idinvest Partners has been involved in more than 100 transactions in Europe since 2007, mostly in the mid-market segment (companies with an enterprise value of EUR 30 million to EUR 800 million).

"Wer liefert was" is a B2B marketplace for Germany, Austria and Switzerland and is based in Hamburg, employing around 200 people. It was established in 1932 and was the first company to publish textbooks and reference works for commercial buyers. "wlw" has been a purely online venture since 1995 and the site is visited by 1.3 million buyers a month who can purchase items in 47,000 categories from around 540,000 suppliers, manufacturers, retailers and service providers.

The Clifford Chance team was led by partner Thomas Weitkamp (Banking & Capital Markets, Munich) and comprised partner Dr. Kerstin Kopp (Corporate/Private Equity, Frankfurt), senior associate Matthias Töke (Banking & Capital Markets, Frankfurt) and associate Alexander Lang (Banking & Capital Markets, Munich).