Luther advises PMG Print Medien Gesellschaft on merger in the press wholesale sector

Essen – The press wholesale companies PMG Print Medien Gesellschaft, Leverdy, Wilhelm Schmitz and Keppel have merged to form QTRADO GmbH & Co. KG with effect from January 1, 2019. The German Federal Cartel Office already approved the merger without conditions in July 2018. QTRADO will commence operations in April 2019. A team of Luther Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft provided PMG with legal support during the merger.

With a consolidated annual turnover of around 250 million euros (2017), QTRADO is Germany's largest press wholesaler. The joint venture, headquartered in Leverkusen, covers today's Grosso stores in Leverkusen, Duisburg, Dortmund, Gelsenkirchen and Krefeld. The companies ZTV Logistik (in future: QTRADO Logistics), Krefeld, and Hollmann, Düsseldorf, will also be united under the umbrella of QTRADO Holding, which was founded in September 2018.

QTRADO will supply more than 11,000 sales outlets in the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region with press products. Of these, Leverdy will bring around 4,250, Schmitz almost 3,400, PMG 2,200 and Keppel around 1,650 retail customers into the joint venture.  

Luther supports PMG Print Medien Gesellschaft mbH & Co. KG since its foundation in 2008.

Consultants PMG Print Medien Gesellschaft mbH & Co. KG:
Luther (Essen): Dr. Arnd Becker (Partner, Federführung); Dr. Philipp Honisch (beide Corporate)

Consultants Leverdy GmbH & Co. KG:
Flick Gocke Schaumburg (Bonn): Dr. Philipp Rulf (lead), Stefan Thilo (both corporate), Prof. Dr. Mathias Rogall (tax), Dr. Daniel Dreßler (auditing), Dr. Philipp Schweitzer (real estate, Frankfurt); Associates: Frieder Mörwald, Tobias Schwan (both tax)

Consultants Wilhelm Schmitz GmbH & Co. KG:
Breidenbach Rechtsanwälte GmbH (Wuppertal): Ralf Mertens (Corporate, tax, lead); Associate Saskia Wallot (corporate)

Breidenbach und Partner PartG mbB (Wuppertal): Armin Kroniger (auditing)

Consultants Presse-Großvertrieb Friedrich J. Keppel GmbH & Co. KG:
Hoffmann Liebs (Düsseldorf): Claus Eßers (lead), Julian Hoff (both corporate)

RSM GmbH (Krefeld) Katrin Steinecke (auditing, tax, lead), Dr. Felix Staaden (tax)

Consultants for all merger participants:
Flick Gocke Schaumburg (Bonn): Dr. Tobias Nießen, Dr. Andreas Wirtz (labour law)

Gleiss Lutz (Düsseldorf): Dr. Martin Raible (antitrust law)

Bürger & Bischoff (Cologne): Dr. Kai Bischoff (notary)