GESSEL advises Enterprise Investors on its sale of Danwood

GESSEL provided comprehensive legal support to Polish Enterprise Fund VII, a private equity fund managed by Enterprise Investors, on its EUR 140 mln sale of Danwood S.A., the largest producer of ready-made houses in Germany and in Poland, to GS Engineering & Construction, a major construction firm from South Korea. In this way, the fund’s gross revenues from the consecutive stages of its involvement in Danwood topped EUR 238 mln, making for a nine-fold return on its capital outlays.

GESSEL provided comprehensive legal support throughout the sale process, including vendor due diligence, drafting of the transaction documentation, and representation of the seller and the Management Board of Danwood in the negotiations.

GESSEL is proud to have supported Enterprise Investors from the very inception of its involvement in Danwood in 2013, when Enterprise Investors acquired the company from Budimex S.A. Over the subsequent years, we worked with Enterprise Investors and Danwood on a sequence of strategic projects, including negotiation of bank financing packages for Danwood.

The GESSEL team working on this project was led by Marcin Macieszczak, partner and by Bartłomiej Woźniak, PhD, senior associate, and included Karolina Krzal-Kwiatkowska, and Krzysztof Jasiński, senior associates.

“It has been a pleasure and a privilege to support Enterprise Investors in this latest transaction involving Danwood S.A., and we congratulate them on a great investment and on an impressive return ! This has been an especially rewarding project for our firm in that it has brought us full circle – from Enterprise Investors’ first investment in Danwood 7 years ago, through a number of strategic initiatives and to a successful exit. We enjoyed rooting for Danwood as it went from strength to strength during this period, doubling its workforce, tripling its sales and multiplying its profits. This familiarity with the company and with the Client were now parlayed into custom-made legal advice.”

Marcin Macieszczak,
Managing Partner, GESSEL

Danwood S.A. is Poland’s largest producer of ready-made houses, with a work force of more than 2,000 employees. It is active in five European countries, including Germany, where it has been the leader of its market segment for the last four years in a row; its revenues for 2019 exceeded EUR 274 mln.

Enterprise Investors is one of the largest private equity firms in Central and Eastern Europe. Active since 1990, the firm has nine funds with total capital exceeding EUR 2.5 billion. These funds have invested close to EUR 2 billion in 143 companies across a range of sectors and exited 128 companies with total gross proceeds of EUR 3.9 billion.

GS Engineering & Construction is one of the largest construction companies in South Korea, active in residential and office buildings as well as infrastructure and power generation projects. Its shares are listed on the Seoul stock exchange, and it has 24 overseas units and branches.