Agriculture & Agricultural Technology
The agricultural and agricultural technology sector ranges from agriculture (e.g. soil cultivation, fruit and vegetable growing) and animal husbandry, to seeds, fertilisers and crop protection, including the wholesale of these products, to the development and manufacture of modern agricultural technology, e.g. for soil cultivation or harvesting. The sector is at the centre of global food production and is characterised by advancing technologisation and sustainability requirements.
A growing global population coupled with a trend towards increasingly scarce cropland calls for ever more efficient food production. At the same time, the relative number of people employed in agriculture is constantly shrinking.
The trends in the agriculture and agricultural technology sector therefore include the progressive automation and mechanisation of agricultural processes, such as the use of autonomous tractors or the use of drones to monitor fields. Precision farming, IoT applications and data-driven approaches are also becoming increasingly important in order to improve resource efficiency and crop yields.
These trends are leading to increased M&A activity as established companies acquire innovative start-ups to gain access to new technologies and expertise. At the same time, competition is increasing between traditional agricultural businesses and technology providers that bring innovative solutions to the sector. In general, there is a trend towards ever larger units in the agricultural and wholesale sector.
Dr. Wolfgang Wybranietz
Head of Corporate Finance M&A Frankfurt
Wolfgang Wybranietz joined the former DZ BANK M&A team in 2001 and has been part of the Frankfurt team of the Corporate Finance / M&A department ever since.
Since 2019, he has been Head of the Frankfurt M&A team. Wolfgang is responsible for the healthcare (pharma, biotech, medtech, clinics, nursing homes), chemicals and agriculture sectors and has successfully advised a large number of clients over the past 20 years.
Before joining DZ BANK, Wolfgang Wybranietz worked in basic medical research and spent 6 years working on virus vectors in the treatment of liver cancer.
Wolfgang Wybranietz received his diploma in biochemistry from the University of Tübingen and subsequently completed his doctorate at the Medical University Hospital in Tübingen. As part of his studies, he spent a year in San Francisco and Berkeley and during his doctoral thesis at the Marie Curie Institute in England.
Despite his advanced age, Wolfgang Wybranietz regularly enjoys squash in his private life and rarely avoids political discussions.
Rolf Martin Blume
Managing Director M&A
Rolf Martin Blume has been part of the Düsseldorf team in the Corporate Finance / M&A department since 2015 and has advised numerous clients from the industrial, mechanical engineering, packaging, construction and agricultural technology sectors, among others. He is also the main person responsible for managing the succession algorithm, a tool for automatically analysing the corporate client portfolios of interested local Cooperative Banks.
Before joining DZ BANK, he was a manager at Deloitte in the Transaction Services division.
Rolf Martin Blume holds both a Master of Science and a Bachelor of Science in International Business from Maastricht University and spent a semester at New York University - STERN School of Business as part of his studies.
In his private life, Rolf Martin Blume has been involved in white sport since he was a child and has also inherited his father's love of the blue and white zebras of MSV Duisburg.
