Bär & Karrer advises Farner on its alliance with VIM and Kobza

The Farner group, a portfolio company of Waterland Private Equity, partnered with the VIM Group and the Kobza Media Group to expand its agency alliance “Team Farner”. Swiss based Farner, founded in 1951, started a partnership with Waterland Private Equity in January 2022. Under the umbrella brand “Team Farner”, integrated communications providers from a wide range of European countries will form a joint owner-led agency group with the objective to establish a leading integrated European communications provider as a trusted partner for clients for national as well as international campaigns.

The Dutch-based VIM Group is a market leader in topics such as brand change and improving brand performance. The Vienna-based Kobza Media Group operates in the fields of strategy, branding, advertising, design, digital, PR content, video production and platforms.

Bär & Karrer has acted as legal advisor to the Farner group in this transaction. The team was led by Christoph Neeracher (pictured right) and Philippe Seiler (pictured left) and included Luana Stämpfli, Benjamin Grunwald, Yascha Fengler, Lazar Lepir (all m&a), Susanne Schreiber, Cyrill Diefenbacher, Julian Hodel and Patrick Schmid (all tax) as well as Thomas Stoltz and Fabian Turtschi (both notarial services).