freenet has signed an agreement to acquire debitel Group, mainly consisting of debitel AG, TALKLINE GmbH and _dug telecom ag. The seller is the holding company debitel (Netherlands) Holding BV, in which Permira Funds have a controlling shareholding. Based on the number of customers, this transaction will produce the third largest mobile telephony provider in Germany. The companies involved value the transaction at some EUR 1.6 billion.
Hengeler Mueller is advising freenet. The Hengeler Mueller team is being led by partners Albrecht Conrad and Stefan Richter (M&A/Corporate, Berlin) and also includes partners Johannes Tieves (Financing, Frankfurt), Martin Klein (Tax, Frankfurt) and Alf-Henrik Bischke (Competition, Brussels) as well as associates Thilo Fleck, Verena Gattineau, Alexandra Rullen, Nikolai Sokolov, Alexander Bornemann, Carsten Beck, Fabian Seip (all Berlin), Anne Isabell Krämer, Thomas Fräbel (both Frankfurt) and Michael Boger (Brussels).
