Ashurst advises Hauck & Aufhäuser Global Investment Management and SITUS Germany on refinancing of proFagus 

Ashurst advised a fund managed by Hauck & Aufhäuser Global Investment Management (HAGIM) as lender and SITUS Deutschland GmbH as agent on the refinancing of the existing credit facilities for proFagus group, a portfolio company of Borromin Capital Management (Borromin). HAGIM has provided the refinancing with a loan amount of approximately 30 million euros. DC Advisory acted as financial advisor to proFagus and its majority shareholder Borromin.

The German proFagus group is Germany's undisputed market leader in the production of high quality and environmentally friendly produced barbecue wood charcoal and the only beech barbecue charcoal producer using the retort method. The company employs approximately 160 employees, has 180.000 square metres of production facilities and is located in Bodenfelde, near Göttingen. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, proFagus' revenues have remained robust due to the positive barbecue mood in Germany. In 2018 the sales revenue amounted to 41.5 million euros.

Because of the transaction and the attractive financing package, the existing capital structure of proFagus was sustainably changed by adjusting it to a long-term debt financing. Furthermore, the refinancing contributed to the securitisation of the existing growth course through capital expenditure and the provision of flexible capital.

The private equity investor Borromin (formerly Steadfast Capital) has already secured major shares in proFagus in 2010. Since then, the company's profitability has continuously grown.

The Ashurst team was led by partner Anne Grewlich (Banking & Finance, Frankfurt). She was supported by counsel Sabrina Bremer (Banking & Finance, Frankfurt), associates Emilie Veyran-Müller (Banking & Finance, Frankfurt) and Jan Ulrich Heinemann (Finance, Frankfurt) as well as transaction lawyers Ariana Fazlic (Banking & Finance, Munich) and Kerstin Hartmann (Banking & Finance, Frankfurt).