HopLop merges with Leos’s Lekland – DLA Piper acted as the legal advisor to CapMan Special Situations I

The two leading indoor playground chains in the Nordics, Leo’s Lekland and HopLop  have agreed on an ownership arrangement that will unite Leo’s Lekland and HopLop into Europe’s leading indoor playground group. DLA Piper advised the main owner of HopLop, CapMan Special Situations I on the transaction.

CapMan Special Situations is part of CapMan Group, a leading Nordic private asset expert with an active approach to value creation and approx. €5 billion in assets under management. CapMan Special Situations pursues event-driven investment situations by providing flexible capital solutions and strong operational capability to deliver step-change performance improvements.

The merger of HopLop and Leo’s Lekland will accelerate the new group’s international growth and open more versatile opportunities for family activities. The owners of both chains will continue in the combined group, the HopLop chain continuing to operate in Finland with the HopLop brand.The new group will be Europe’s largest family focused activity and exercise company and have a total of 68 parks in Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Germany.

DLA Piper’s Managing Partner in Finland Ilkka Liljeroos, who led the team advising on this transaction, comments:

“The merger will strengthen both parties’ goals to expand in Europe and we were pleased to play an active role, successfully guiding our client through the complexities of this cross-border transaction.”

The DLA Piper team was led by Ilkka Liljeroos and the core team members included Ida-Sofia Antinluoma, Jan Zelmenis, Antti Paloniemi, Petteri Larnimaa (all Finland)  and Mathias Berggren, Mats Eriksson, Mikael Hagström and Julia Dahl (all Sweden), in addition to which DLA Piper professionals in Denmark, Germany and Norway supported on the transaction.