Austria's XXXLutz KG has commenced plans to acquire leading European ecommerce platform home24 SE, and aims to provide "long-term, strategic and sustainable financial support" for home24's growth strategy.
XXXLutz says home24 will continue to be managed independently by the current management team – management board members Philipp Steinhäuser, Brigitte Wittekind and Marc Appelhoff have already extended their contracts. The company's headquarters will remain in Berlin.
The existing corporate structure and main locations of the home24 Group, as well as core brands including home24 and Butlers, will be retained as independent brands.
"We are delighted to continue our journey to become the leading online destination for home and living together with XXXLutz as a strong partner," says home24 CEO Marc Appelhoff. "For us as a management team, it was particularly important that XXXLutz shares and actively supports the vision of home24, assists us in its implementation and sees us continuing to operate as an independent company.
"We are convinced that together with XXXLutz we will significantly increase our robustness and punch in the furniture market. The fact that we were able to attract a strong strategically oriented investor for home24 in times of global political tensions and depressed consumer sentiment is a vote of confidence in our business model. We are convinced that we have found a very good path for our employees as well as for shareholders and other stakeholders."
XXXLutz has already secured around 60% of the future share capital of home24. The offer will be subject to the usual merger control clearances.
Lastly, the agreement specifies that XXXLutz will not enter into a domination or profit-and-loss transfer agreement with the company for a period of three years after completion. XXXLutz aims to delist the home24 share after the execution of the offer.
