IMAP Germany advised greeting card manufacturer HORN on the sale to the Dutch Nedac Sorbo Group

The IMAP team for M&A transactions in special situations advised Albert Horn Söhne GmbH & Co. KG (HORN), a traditional greetings card manufacturer, during their insolvency proceedings, on the sale of its business operations. The buyer is Nedac Sorbo Group (‘NEDAC’) from the Netherlands, who also takes over the remaining 390 employees as part of the restructuring.

Since its foundation in 1948, HORN has developed into one of the largest providers of greeting cards. The product portfolio is supplemented by a comprehensive range of wrapping paper, ribbons and gift packaging (cases and bags). Customers of HORN include food retailers and department stores, as well as wholesalers in the DACH region. In February 2017, the company had filed for insolvency proceedings in self-administration in order to continue their restructuring process; started back in 2016 with the help of consulting company Ebner Stolz in an attempt to realign the company. For this purpose, HORN appointed  insolvency expert Tillmann Peeters from the restructuring-boutique Falkensteg, as Managing Director of the company. Dr. Jan Markus Plathner from the law firm Brinkmann & Partner is trustee

NEDAC is a distribution and trading company based in Duiven, the Netherlands, with branches in the UK and Belgium. As a provider of a wide range of products in the non-food sector, it is also one of the leading companies for greeting cards in the Netherlands. HORN complements their existing range of products and strengthens the NEDAC’s presence in the German food retail.

IMAP only approached selected investors. Thanks to the convincing future concept for HORN, NEDAC was able to win the three-staged bidding process and received the approval by the creditor committee.

As part of the accelerated transaction process, the signing took place just 3 months after the project started. HORN was exclusively advised by IMAP in Germany. The IMAP team in Germany consisted of Henning Graw (Partner) and Simon Borst (Analyst).