Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek advises LeasingMarkt.de founders on the sale of a majority stake to AutoScout24
A team led by Dr. Pär Johansson and Tim Remmel advised the founders and shareholders of LeasingMarkt.de GmbH on the sale of a majority stake to AutoScout24.
Leasing has been a booming market for several years, particularly in the online sector. Its popularity is currently increasing, especially among private users, as leasing offers great flexibility associated with predictable capital commitment. Leasing is therefore an important additional product in car dealers’ product portfolios. The investment of AutoScout24 in LeasingMarkt.de has great strategic importance. The combination of the two companies and their offerings allows for the creation of a comprehensive marketplace for mobility. This will benefit users, who will be able to find a broad, detailed range of leasing products online in the future while dealers will gain access to the established leasing product from the leading provider. The two well-known brands complement each other in their product range, offering both companies the opportunity to grow together in the leasing segment.
LeasingMarkt.de is Germany’s leading marketplace for car leasing offers. Private and commercial customers are able to quickly and easily find the car that suits their particular life situation and financial budget. Dealers can advertise their offers on LeasingMarkt.de and provide users with advice. The online marketplace was founded by Robin Tschöpe, Chris Tschöpe, Thomas Behrens, Daniel Hagemeier, Philipp Wittenbrink, and Marcel Gleis with the aim of digitalizing the German leasing market for vehicles and making it more transparent and clearer. The online marketplace LeasingMarkt.ch has additionally been available in Switzerland since June 2018.
AutoScout24 has been offering private customers, car dealers, and other cooperation partners from the automobile, finance, and insurance services sectors a comprehensive platform for car trading on the Internet since 1998. The online marketplace covers used and new cars, motorcycles, and commercial vehicles. AutoScout24 is Europe’s largest online car market with over 30 million users per month, more than 43,000 dealer partners, and some 500 employees. In addition to Germany, AutoScout24 is also represented in the European core markets of Belgium, Luxemburg, The Netherlands, Italy, France, and Austria and, thanks to an English language version, also enables cross-national searches. AutoScout24 group also includes Finanzcheck.de and FinanceScout24.
Counsel to LeasingMarkt.de
Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek:
Dr. Pär Johansson,
Tim Remmel, LL.M. (both Lead),
Laura Rilinger (all Corporate/M&A), all Cologne
Fabian G. Gaffron (Tax),
Dr. Frederick Wiemer (Antitrust), both Hamburg
