Frankfurt am Main, January 21, 2021. The shares of German FinTech company Catana Capital GmbH (Catana), a pioneer in Big Data and Artificial Intelligence (AI) driven asset management, will be fully acquired by its strategic partner LEHNER INVESTMENTS AG (LIAG). The acquisition will take place against the issuance of 11.5 million new shares in LIAG, which is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (ISIN: DE000A2DA406), at an issue price of EUR 1.64 per share certificate for the approximately 71% of Catana’s business shares not previously held by LI-AG.
“I am very pleased that Catana Capital will now become part of the LEHNER INVESTMENTS Group. Together, this will enable us to even more efficiently and successfully advance our positioning as the leading asset management company in Europe for AI and Big Data investment solutions based on Catana’s know-how and LEHNER INVESTMENTS’ experience and network,” said Bastian Lechner, founder and managing director of Catana Capital.
The transaction was entered in the commercial register on January 20, 2021, following the prior approval of Catana’s shareholders and the approval of LIAG’s Annual General Meeting. The German Financial Supervisory Authority has also already approved the transaction as part of a bearer control procedure.
“As the founder of LEHNER INVESTMENTS, I am pleased to welcome the shareholders and employees of Catana as part of LEHNER INVESTMENTS. After successfully working with Catana over the past two and a half years, we are convinced of the significant potential in applying AI and Big Data to investing. With Catana, we now have an innovation driver that will be instrumental in driving the future growth of LEHNER INVESTMENTS,” said Markus Lehner, founder and major shareholder of LEHNER INVESTMENTS.
In the future, Catana will act as the central asset manager of the group, alongside the sales unit LEHNER INVESTMENTS SALES AGENCY and the development and administration unit LEHNER INVESTMENTS ENGINEERING. The external appearance for all joint products and services will in future be uniformly under the brand “LEHNER INVESTMENTS – The Art of Artificial Intelligence”. Accordingly, Catana Capital GmbH will operate under the name LEHNER INVESTMENTS MANAGEMENT GmbH in the future.
“The full acquisition of Catana Capital represents a milestone for LIAG as a listed company to complete our equity story as an operating financial services holding company. The first step of our reverse IPO through the contribution of the three companies has thus been completed,” said Siddharath Lugani, CEO of LEHNER INVESTMENTS AG.
In addition to taking over operational and cross-group activities, LIAG also performs the function of a financial services holding company. In the long term, the next step of the reverse IPO is planned to increase the free float of the shares after a further increase in assets under management. LIAG is already attractively positioned and will be able to pay dividends in the future.