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Thursday 16th November 2006

The Munich office of leading corporate commercial firm SJ Berwin LLP advised longstanding client Deutsche Beteiligungs AG on the acquisition of a majority shareholding in Homag Group AG ("Homag"), a manufacturer of woodworking machinery for the furniture and construction supplies industries with sales in 2005 of approximately €625 million and approximately 4600 employees worldwide. 

Deutsche Beteiligungs AG and its co-investment funds DBAG Fund IV and DBAG Fund V will be acquiring 43.0 percent of the shares in Homag, resulting in a future participation of 64,4 percent taking into account the 21,4 percent share currently held by Deutsche Beteiligungs AG. The transaction is inter alia subject to regulatory approval and is expected to be completed within the next three months.

This transaction completes the investment phase of DBAG Fund IV; concurrently, it marks the start of the investment phase of DBAG Fund V, which held a final closing in January 2006.

The SJ Berwin team was led by corporate partner Thomas Pauls assisted by corporate partner Christoph Brenner and corporate associates Sabine Heinrich. Competition partner Tilman Siebert and associate Andreas Boos advised on merger clearance.

For further information please contact:

Thomas Pauls on +49 (0)89 89 0 81 0 or by emailing thomas.pauls@sjberwin.com

Aurelia Spivey on +44 (0)20 7111 2060 or by emailing aurelia.spivey@sjberwin.com

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Founded in 1982, SJ Berwin is a leading City corporate and commercial law firm with more than 450 lawyers working across its offices in London, Berlin, Brussels, Frankfurt, Madrid, Milan, Munich, Paris and Turin.

With a dedicated European private equity team comprising over 140 full-time corporate private equity lawyers together with support from its other departments, SJ Berwin advises clients on the full-range of private equity business, both in connection with the establishment of private equity funds and their associated incentive schemes, and on MBOs, MBIs, public-to-privates and venture capital investments.

In Germany, our expert teams of lawyers (Rechtsanwälte) and tax advisors (Steuerberater) provide leading-edge legal services focusing on the German, European and international market place. Our offices are located in Frankfurt am Main, Munich and Berlin.

Our clients are sophisticated buyers of legal services, principally entrepreneurial companies and financial institutions, whom we advise on a comprehensive range of services including Corporate Finance, Commercial, Real Estate, Banking, Reconstruction & Insolvency, Financial Services, Litigation, Employment & Pensions, EU & Competition and Tax.

Our approach has resulted in the firm winning a number of recent awards including "Fund formation Team of the Year 2006" at the Financial News Awards for Excellence in Private Equity Advisory Services, "Law Firm of the Year" 2005 at the EVCA/Real Deals European Private Equity Awards," European Law Firm of the Year" (fund formation) by subscribers to PrivateEquityOnline and Private Equity International, "Private Equity Law Firm of the Year" 2004 and 2005  at the European Venture Capital journal awards 2004, "LBO Firm of the Year" 2004 at the Finance and Law Awards in Paris, "Real Estate Team of the Year" at The Lawyer Awards 2004, and "World's Leading Firm for Private Funds Expertise" in The International Who's Who of Business Lawyers 2003/4.

SJ Berwin LLP was named 'UK Firm of the Year' at the 2005 Legal Week Awards on 30th November. The awards recognised SJ Berwin’s five years of international expansion and its involvement in a series of high quality deals. In April 2005 Head of Private Equity, Jonathan Blake, was named Global Lawyer of the Year in the Private Funds category by The International Who’s Who of Business Lawyers 2004/2005. In November 2004, Jonathan Blake, was admitted to the British Venture Capital Association “Hall of Fame” for his services to the private equity industry over the last 20 years.

On 1 June 2005 SJ Berwin became SJ Berwin LLP, a limited liability partnership.  www.sjberwin.com.
SJ Berwin LLP or an affiliated undertaking has an office in Berlin, Frankfurt, London, Madrid, Munich and Paris