Blackhawk Network Holding, Inc., is expanding its international sales network in the prepaid segment by acquiring RETAILO AG headquartered in Cologne. GvW Graf von Westphalen advised the US Corporation on the transaction. Terms of the transaction have not been disclosed.
The listed Blackhawk Network group belongs to the Safeway group, one of the biggest US retail companies. The GvW IT team led by Dr. Daniel Michel has been advising Blackhawk Network in Germany for many years.
Blackhawk Network is a leading prepaid payment network, which supports the distribution of gift cards, prepaid telecom products and financial service products across a global network. Blackhawk’s digital platform supports prepaid across a network of digital distribution partners including etailers, financial service providers and mobile wallets. The company is headquartered in Pleasanton, California, and added over 40,000 new sales points by acquiring RETAILO AG. With sales partners such as REWE, dm-drogerie markt, Kaiser’s Tengelmann and Aral as well as international top brand partners such as Douglas, IKEA, C&A, Tchibo and Media-Saturn, Blackhawk’s network now consists of roughly 70,000 sales points in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). More information can be found under www.blackhawknetwork.com.
RETAILO AG is Europe’s market leader in multi-channel distribution of prepaid cards. The company will keep its offices in Cologne and is supposed to become a business unit of Blackhawk Network. More information is available under www.retailo.de.
Advisors Blackhawk Network: Robert A. Heym (Corporate/M&A; lead partner), Dr. Daniel Michel (IP/IT), Dr. Frank Tschesche (Tax), Dr. Carsten Bittner (Merger Control), Dr. Malte Evers (Labour Law); Associated partner: Felix Wolf (Corporate/M&A, coordination of Due Diligence); Associates: Dr. Antonia Kallmayer, Dr. Theresia Gondro, Dr. Philipp Wallau (all Corporate/M&A), Marius Bodenstedt (Labour Law), Philipp-Christian Scheel (Merger Control).
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