Category: Austria

Schoenherr has assisted TIWAG-Tiroler Wasserkraft AG in its implementation of the “Storage Power Station Kuhtai” project in Austria by successfully gaining the approval of Austria’s Federal Administrative Court.

According to Schoenherr, “the project consists of expanding the power station group Sellrain-Silz to include another storage facility, additional piping from the Stubai Valley around 20 km away, and an additional power station. It is one of the largest hydropower projects in Austria with an investment volume of about EUR 500 million.”

“The finding of the [Federal Administrative Court] shows that the complaints of the environmental organizations and the fears of the tourism industry in the Stubai Valley were unfounded,” said Schoenherr Partner Christian Schmelz, who is representing TIWAG in the environmental permitting procedures. “At the same time, the decision has emphasized once more how important the SKW Kuhtai project is for the transformation of the energy system in Austria.”

Schmelz, who led the Schoenherr team on the matter, was support by Attorney at Law Philipp Strondl.

Schoenherr has advised PSA Peugeot Citroen SA on its acquisition of General Motors’ Opel Austrian subsidiary and Opel manufacturing site in Vienna. Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton advised General Motors on the deal.

The transaction, which was part of a EUR 2.2 billion takeover by Groupe PSA, was completed on August 1, 2017 after approval was received from regulatory authorities including the EU antitrust authorities.

Schoenherr reports that “the acquisition of Adam Opel AG and its subsidiary Vauxhall Motors Limited will result in Groupe PSA becoming the second-largest automotive company in Europe, with a 17% market share. The Opel manufacturing site in Vienna has around 1600 employees and annual revenue of around EUR 300 million. Opel has had a factory in Vienna for over 35 years where it manufactures engines and high-tech parts for automobiles for export.”

Schoenherr acted alongside lead counsel Bredin Prat, Paris and advised Groupe PSA on all corporate and other legal aspects of the Austrian part of the overall PSA/GM transaction relating to Opel and supported in the closing of the transaction. The firm’s team was led by Partner Christian Herbst, supported by Partner Stefan Kuhteub, Counsel Maximilian Lang; Associates Alexander Mazevski and Karin Pusch, and Attorney Mario Perl.

CMS has advised Austria’s BECOM Group on its merger with IVP Group Germany GmbH. The Dr. Stilz Behrens & Partner firm advised IVP Group Germany on the deal.

According to CMS, “with this transaction, finalized on 27 July, the Austrian BECOM Group acquired a participation in the IVP Group Germany, continuing on the successful path of internationalization that BECOM has been pursuing in recent years.” 

BECOM develops and manufactures electronic and electromechanical components and appliances in the automotive, industrial, and medical technology sectors. CMS reports that “IVP Group Germany has established itself on the market as a globally active one-stop shop in electronics and electrical engineering in the past 20 years.” The transaction, according to CMS, “will allow BECOM to enter both the Chinese and the US market.”

The three-person CMS team was headed by Partner Sibylle Novak and included Attorney-at-Law Lena Winkler and Associate Eva-Maria Vogerl.

Michael Geiger led the Dr. Stilz Behrens & Partner team.

Cerha Hempel Spiegelfeld Hlawati has advised red-stars.com data AG in connection with its acquisition of 25% of the shares of ecosio GmbH. 

According to CHSH, “ecosio offers cloud-based EDI services (electronic data inter-change) with maximum usability thanks to deep ERP system integration, such as SAP.” The firm also reports that “ecosio offers its EDI services and SRM products (supplier relationship management portals) to enterprises of all sizes with a view to optimizing their digital business processes and supporting them in this ‘mission critical’ area in the age of Industry 4.0.”

According to CHSH, “ecosio’s products save customers from having to purchase and operate their own servers and this means customers do not have to buy their own licenses and employ their own staff in connection with electronic data interchange. In addition, ecosio takes on the conversion of data, monitoring, project management and onboarding with all suppliers and customers. Ecosio is an EDI full service provider and the customer gets access to solutions for the many and varied demands of electronic data interchange within the supply chain. Ecosio plays a major role in the development of the e-business standards of the future, as a partner in both national and international standardization projects.”

Red-stars is an operational holding company which focuses on digital transformation in companies and their operations.

The CHSH team was led by Managing Partner Albert Birkner, working with Associate Nadine Leitner.

Andreas Matzler of the Quado Lex law firm advised ecosio on the deal.

Schoenherr has advised Swedish telecommunications group Tele2 on the sale of subsidiary Tele2 Austria to mobile company Hutchison Drei Austria GmbH for an enterprise value of EUR 95 million. Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer advised the buyer on the transaction, which is expected to close following approval by the Austrian competition authority.

According to Schoenherr, “Tele2 Austria is a local telecommunications provider and the second-largest landline company in Austria based on the number of business clients, with one out of every three large Austrian firms counting as a Tele2 customer. The Tele2 AB group is listed on the Swedish stock exchange and is active in nine markets, including Sweden, the Netherlands, and Germany. The group reported revenue of EUR 2.9 billion in 2016.”

Schoenherr describes Vienna-based Hutchison Drei as “the largest local provider of mobile Internet and the market leader in the mobile entertainment segment. In 2013, it acquired mobile provider Orange and, following the Tele2 acquisition, is set to become one of the largest telecoms operators in Austria with around four million mobile, landline, and Internet connections. Drei and Tele2 will have around 1,500 employees in Austria.”

The Schoenherr team advising Tele2 was jointly led by Partners Alexander Popp and Thomas Kulnigg, supported by Partner Franz Urlesberger, Attorney at Law Manuel Ritt-Huemer, and Associates Alfred Amann and Lukas Solek.

The Freshfields team was led by Partner Bertram Burtscher and included Partner Thomas Lubbig, Principal Associates Ludwig Hartenau and Heiko Jander-McAlister, Senior Associate Maria Dreher, and Associates Tatjana Krutzler, Gernot Fritz, and Lukas Treichl.

Fellner Wratzfeld & Partner has advised VBV-Pensionskasse Aktiengesellschaft on its acquisition of the inner-company pension fund of Austria’s EVN AG energy company. Schoenherr advised EVN AG on the matter.

According to fwp, “an optimal transaction structure made a swift transfer of all pension fund contributions possible and ensured a direct acquisition of the business. Designing the merger of the business of the acquired target company together with the business of the acquiring AVN Pensionskasse allowed for complex legal succession issues to be solved. This required fwp to use a completely new structure so far not commonly used to successfully implement the whole transaction and obtain the regulatory approvals. Merger control issues were dealt with in the shortest time possible. Regulatory clearance in the context of the complex legal environment complemented the transaction.”

The fwp team was led by Partner Markus Fellner and Attorney-at-Law Irena Gogl-Hassanin. Partner Lukas Flener provided merger control advice.

The Schoenherr team was led by Partner Ursula Rath, supported by Partner Roman Perner, Counsels Stefan Paulmayer and Johannes Stalzer, and Partner Volker Weiss.

Dorda has advised a subsidiary of Reitenburg GmbH on its EUR 82 million acquisition of the A1 Telekom Austria site at Obere Donaustrasse in Vienna’s second district from Frankfurt am Main-based investment company Deka Immobilien Investment GmbH. The Bock Fuchs Nonhoff law firm advised Deka on the deal.

According to Dorda, Deka — a subsidiary of the DekaBank Group, the largest provider of open-ended real estate funds in Germany — had owned the building since the 1990s and rented it to several tenants, including A1. 

“The Viennese office market remains dynamic and popular,” commented Dorda Partner Stefan Artner, who led the firm’s team on the deal, along with Attorney Klaus Pfeiffer. “The attractive site with more than 31,800 square meters of floor space grants our client many options for development. This transaction was excellently prepared and professionally planned, so we were soon on the finish line.”

The Bock Fuchs Nonhoff team was led by Partner Johannes Fuchs, supported by Partner Gerhard Bock.

CHSH has advised the Dentsu Aegis Network in connection with its acquisition of all shares in the second largest Austrian media agency, the media.at group. The media.at group, with its Omnimedia, Mediastrategen, und trigomedia brands, previously belonged to the A1 Telekom group, Austrian Lotteries, Austrian Post, Bawag PSK, and the Federation of Austrian Industries. The sellers were advised by Eisenberger Herzog.

The Dentsu Aegis Network, with its registered office in London, is the third largest advertising agency in the world. According to CHSH, “the group focuses in particular on the digitalization of its business segment and plays a leading role in this market sector.” In addition, according to CHSH, “the media.at group is the second largest Austrian media agency with a very strong Austrian customer focus. This will now be strengthened even further as a result of the merger with Dentsu Aegis Network, better preparing the client for future challenges, and in this way it will be able to expand the range of services it offers, especially in the digital and data segment.”

CHSH Partner Johannes Aehrenthal, who led his firm’s multidisciplinary team on the deal, described the transaction as “complex in a number of ways, especially as media.at is a significant competitor of our client on the Austrian agency market.” In addition, he said, “the antitrust team headed by Dr. Bernhard Kofler-Senoner was able to secure authorization for the merger in Phase I proceedings in a timely manner, which has now made early closing possible. The successful conclusion of this transaction has now established Dentsu Aegis Network Austria as a strong number two on the Austrian market.”

Aehrenthal’s team at CHSH included, in addition to Kofler-Senoner, Attorneys Jakob Hartig, Christoph Peitsch, Armin Schwabl, and Michael Mayer, and Associates Stefanie Heimel, Michael Radner, Florian Wuenscher, Johannes Frank, and Stefan Hirner.

Marcell Nemeth has been named Partner at Wolf Theiss in Vienna, where he works in the firm’s Banking & Finance practice group.

Nemeth’s areas of specialization include advising creditors and borrowers in international financing transactions, including those for infrastructure and other projects. He also advises in the structuring of and transactions with credit portfolios.

Nemeth, who is admitted as a solicitor in England and Wales and as an attorney-at-law in Hungary, spent half of his 20+ year career as a lawyer with Allen & Overy and Pinsent Masons in London. Before joining Wolf Theiss in 2015 he spent two years as Vice President of Corporate & Investment Banking at UniCredit Bank Austria in Vienna.

Binder Groesswang, working in co-operation with Willkie Farr & Gallagher, has advised the Constantia Flexibles Group on the carve-out and EUR 1.15 billion sale of its labels division to the US strategist and global player Multi-Color Corporation. Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer advised Multi-Color on the deal. The signing took place on July 16, 2017 in Frankfurt and remains subject to regulatory approvals. Closing is expected in the fourth quarter of 2017. 

Once complete, Constantia Flexibles — a global supplier of labels for the beverage and food industry as well as household and personal care products that reported sales of EUR 605 million in 2016 — will acquire 16.6% of the outstanding shares of Multi-Color and become the largest multi-color shareholder.

According to Binder Groesswang, “the Constantia Flexibles Group, headquartered in Vienna, was founded by Herbert Turnauer in the 1960s and produces flexible packaging and labels, primarily for the food, pet food, pharmaceutical and beverage industries. The company also expanded outside Europe and has become one of the world’s leading packaging companies in the last five years. The Constantia Flexibles Group has more than 3,000 customers worldwide and has more than 8,000 employees at 43 industrial locations in 18 countries and sells its products to more than 115 countries.”

The Binder Groesswang team was led by Partner Thomas Schirmer and consisted of Partners Christian Wimpissinger, Ivo Rungg, and Johannes Barbist, Counsel Hellmut Buchroithner, and lawyers Claudia Fochtmann, Clemens Willvonseder, and Cordelia Klauhs.

The multi-jurisdictional Willkie Farr & Gallagher transaction team was led by Partner Mario Schmidt.

The Freshfields team advising Multi-Color Corporation was co-led by Vienna-based Partner Willibald Plesser and Frankfurt-based Partner Arend von Riegen.