Moritz von Laffert joins Proventis Partners in Munich as new partner to support the further growth of their M&A advisory services for the media and consumer goods industries

Munich, January 9, 2020 – Proventis Partners, one of the largest independent M&A advisory firms in Germany, is underpinning its consistent growth course with a key appointment: Moritz von Laffert (51) has been made new partner in the Munich office. He will drive the strategic expansion of the M&A ad- visory services in the media and consumer goods industries. Von Laffert comes to Proventis Partners from US media group Condé Nast (VOGUE, AD, Vanity Fair, New Yorker, WIRED among others) and has many years of top management experience in the media sector, including industry-relevant M&A transactions and strategic investments.

Moritz von Laffert has spent the last 10 years as President of Condé Nast Germany and he was also a Vice President of Condé Nast International, London. As a member of the Executive Committee, the board of directors of Condé Nast International, he also played a central role in the global strategic direction of the group. In an additional role as Director Acquisitions and Investments, he was furthermore responsible for the M&A and investment activities of Condé Nast International and acted as Senior Advisor for Investments at the New York holding company Advance Publications. In these roles, he served on the supervisory and advisory boards of the e-commerce start-ups Vestiaire Collective and Monoqi and supported the e-commerce platform Farfetch as a board member on its way to become a unicorn.

At Proventis Partners, Moritz will further expand the range of services for clients in the media and consumer goods industries. He will contribute his many years of experience in top management and his strong expertise in inorganic transformation processes. He stands for the hands-on entrepreneurial approach with deep industry insights, which positions Proventis Partners as a strong strategic as well as operational M&A advisor.

“We are proud to have won, with Moritz, such an experienced and sought-after media professional as an industry specialist for Proventis Partners. Moritz brings a deep understanding of the requirements of modern media and consumer goods companies and knows how to translate the challenges of digitalization into opportunities for our clients. His strategic view on the digital transformation in the media business, his operational track record, combined with his large network – especially in the consumer goods, luxury and media industry – will be a valuable addition for future transactions. Also, thanks to his long experience as a sponsor of cross-border M&A transactions and investor, he will significantly increase our effectiveness in projects in these areas”, said Jan Pörschmann, Managing Partner and co-founder of Proventis Partners.

“Joining Proventis Partners is for me the natural next step after 25 fulfilling and exciting years in the media industry. Here I can combine my two passions – media and M&A – in an entrepreneurial environment characterized by dynamism and integrity”, said Moritz von Laffert. “I have known and appreciated the work and the colleagues of Proventis Partners for over a decade. Knowing that here, in addition to all business aspects, the human factor is understood as a core success factor in transactions was not least essential for my decision. Therefore, I am very much looking forward to working together and to helping to shape the media and consumer goods practice from a new perspective. Strategic investments and partnerships can be an effective catalyst for the innovation power and sustainability of companies.”

In the media sector Proventis Partners has a proven track record: In the segment of professional publish- ing this includes the sale of the trade magazine ‘Lebensmittelpraxis’ in the news sector the sale of ddp news agency and in the TV sector the purchase and integration of Sonnenklar.TV from ProSiebenSat.1. In the New Media segment, this includes the engagement as seed investor of wetter.com and the support of the sale to ProSiebenSat.1, as a multi-year buyside advisor of ProSiebenSat.1 SE with several completed transactions (including koakult and Buzzbird). In the agency sector, Proventis Partners realised the sale of Ad Agency Kolle Rebbe to Accenture, the sale of the digital agency H2O Media to valtech and the sale by UFA Sport of RTL and its founders to Lagardère.

About Moritz von Laffert

Before Moritz von Laffert joined Condé Nast as president of the Germany company in 2009, the native of Hamburg held various management positions at Axel Springer SE. Most recently he was Managing Director of the women’s and lifestyle media division in Hamburg and Munich. After his training as a publishing executive at Axel Springer, he completed a Bachelor of Science in Economics and a Master of Science in Management at the London School of Economics.

About Proventis Partners

Proventis Partners is a partner-managed M&A advisory firm whose clients include mainly corporate groups, medium-sized family businesses and private equity funds. With 30 professionals, Proventis Part- ners is active in the sectors Industrials, Business Services, Consumer & Retail, TMT, Healthcare and Energy and covers the German-speaking region with offices in Hamburg, Cologne, Munich and Zurich. Through its exclusive membership in Mergers Alliance – the international partnership of leading M&A specialists – Proventis Partners offers local market coverage in the 30 most important economies globally. The 20 members of the Mergers Alliance, with more than 200 M&A professionals, offer Proventis Partners and our client’s unique access to local markets in Europe, North America, Latin America, Asia and Africa.