Hengeler Mueller advises Douglas on acquisition of Parfumdreams

27. April 2018

Beauty retailer Douglas is strengthening its German and European e-commerce business. The company is acquiring a majority stake in Parfümerie Akzente, one of the leading independent retailers of premium beauty and skincare products in Germany. A respective agreement with the owner family Renchen was signed today. Parfümerie Akzente owns parfumdreams – an online shop founded by Kai Renchen in 2004 – as well as 28 brick-and-mortar stores in Germany, most of them in the south-western region. With its 450 employees, Parfümerie Akzente generated net sales of around 75 million Euros in 2017. In addition to its domestic market Germany, the online shop parfumdreams operates in ten European countries including the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Spain and France. Douglas is a leading retailer in the European beauty industry with about 2,500 perfumeries and fastgrowing online shops in 19 European countries. In the financial year 2016/17, the company generated sales of 2.8 billion Euros. Closing of the transaction is subject to customary conditions including merger control approval. The parties have agreed not to disclose financial details of the transaction.

Hengeler Mueller advised Douglas on the transaction. The Hengeler Mueller team includes partners Daniel Wiegand (M&A, Munich), Thorsten Mäger (Antitrust, Düsseldorf), Matthias Scheifele (Tax, Munich), Vera Jungkind (Data Protection/Public Law, Düsseldorf) and counsel Gunther Wagner (Tax, Munich), Andrea Schlaffge (IP, Düsseldorf) and Peter Wehner (Labour, Frankfurt) as well as associates Elisabeth Kreuzer, Christian Winkler (both M&A, Munich), Christoph Wilken (Antitrust) and Norman Koschmieder (Data Protection /Public Law) (both Düsseldorf).