Dr. Nicholas Günther

Global law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer (‘Freshfields’) has provided comprehensive advice to RWE AG on the financing of the USD 6.8 billion (enterprise value) acquisition of Con Edison Clean Energy Businesses, Inc, the issuance of a mandatory convertible note to a subsidiary of the Qatar Investment Authority and the signing of an investor agreement. The acquisition will initially be financed by a bridge loan, which will be partly refinanced by an equity measure of RWE AG. The equity measure will take the form of the issuance of mandatory convertible bonds to the Qatar Investment Authority with an aggregate principal amount of approximately EUR 2.4 billion. Upon maturity, the mandatory convertible bonds will be converted into new no-par value bearer shares of RWE AG, which is expected to represent just under 10% of the current share capital of RWE AG and 9.09% after conversion. In this context, RWE AG has entered into an investor agreement with Qatar Holding LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Qatar Investment Authority, with customary provisions for anchor shareholders. The Freshfields team comprised partners Rick van Aerssen, Andreas Fabritius (both Düsseldorf/Frankfurt), Nicholas Günther (Düsseldorf), (all Global Transactions), Mario Hüther (Finance, Frankfurt), Georg Roderburg (Tax, Düsseldorf), Ulrich Scholz (Düsseldorf), Frank Röhling (Berlin) and Aimen Mir (Washington) (all Regulatory), counsel Alexander Pospisil (Finance), Christina Zapf (Global Transactions) and Peter Stark (Tax, Frankfurt), special counsel Christine Laciak (Regulatory, Washington) as well as principal associates Mesut Korkmaz (Düsseldorf), Daniel von Bülow (Frankfurt), Nikolaus Bunting (London) (all Global Transactions), associates, Lea Larissa Faltmann (Düsseldorf) (both Global Transactions), Julian Siegmund (Düsseldorf) and Paul Oscar Lehman (Berlin) (both Regulatory).

Oct 5

1 min

Freshfields is advising Swedish engineering multinational Sandvik AB on its acquisition of DWFritz Automation, Inc., a global provider of precision metrology, inspection and assembly solutions for advanced manufacturing. DWFritz is headquartered in Wilsonville, Oregon and has offices in France and China. The transaction was announced July 12, 2021, and is expected to close in the second half of 2021. Terms were not disclosed. Learn more about the transaction here. The Freshfields team is led by New York M&A partner Paul Tiger and associate Victor Ma, with support from associates Tommy Lair and Brayden Koslowsky along the way, and summer associate Casey Hagen. Tax advice was provided by partner Claude Stansbury and associate Brendan Counihan. Partner Lori Goodman and associates Jeff Anand and Lina Zhu are advising on employee benefits and employment matters. Intellectual property matters are being handled by partner Mena Kaplan and associates Marissa Yu and Danny Spencer, with support from paralegal Chelsea Cantos and extern Mili Astesiano. Partner Kyle Lakin and associates Lacey Nemergut and Sarah Al Salem are providing advice on finance. Counsel Peter Jaffe is advising on data privacy matters. Advice on various specialist and local law aspects was provided from our Paris office by partner Gwen Senlanne (employee benefits) and associates Célia Kirren (employee benefits) and Manon Serrus (corporate); our China offices by partners Yuxin Shen (corporate) and Alan Wang (corporate) and associates Fan Li (employee benefits) and Tracy Gu (corporate) and our Germany offices by partners Nicholas Günther (corporate), Christoph Werkmeister (data privacy) and Theresa Ehlen (data privacy) and associate Annabelle Hamelin (data privacy). The regulatory and compliance workstreams, which span multiple countries and regimes, are being led by partners Aimen Mir, Bruce McCulloch, Mary Lehner and Nabeel Youef, special counsel Christine Laciak, counsel Stephanie Brown Cripps, senior associate Ilana Kattan, associate Kat Gross, summer associate Emily Strickland and practice support manager Diane Tuomala. The international team supporting the regulatory and compliance workstream included partner Maria Dreher, senior associate Christopher Wanek and associate Anna Gerstendörfer from our Vienna office; partner Jérôme Philippe, counsel Aude Guyon, associate Alice Cabourdin and intern Basile Marin from our Paris office; partner Hazel Yin, associate Haoyang Zhuo, legal consultants Ethan Qu and Yichen Xing and intern Claire Guan from our China offices and counsel Alexander Viktorov from our Moscow office. ENDS

Jul 12

2 min

Global law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer (‘Freshfields’) advises KKR as shareholder in relation to the new corporate structure for Axel Springer SE (‘Axel Springer’). A final agreement is expected in the coming months. The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2025 subject to receipt of all requisite regulatory approvals. The planned new structure foresees that Axel Springer’s media businesses – Bild, Business Insider, Politico, Welt, idealo, Bonial, Morning Brew, Dyn Media, Emarketer, and the joint venture Ringier Axel Springer Poland – will remain within Axel Springer. Friede Springer and Mathias Döpfner will together hold close to 98 percent of the company. Axel Sven Springer, one of the grandchildren of the company founder, will retain the remaining shares – a smaller portion of his previous minority shareholding. This makes Axel Springer a fully privately owned and operated media company for the first time since the company’s IPO back in 1985. The Stepstone Group, AVIV Group, finanzen.net, and Awin, pending approvals, will be held as separate joint venture companies with KKR and CPP Investments as majority shareholders, Axel Springer as minority co-shareholder, and with an economic participation by the grandchildren of Axel Springer. The exact participation of the respective shareholders is to be finalized in the process of getting to binding agreements. The Freshfields team is led by Partner Nicholas Günther (Corporate/M&A, Düsseldorf) and also includes Partners Andreas Fabritius, Heiner Braun (both Corporate/M&A, Frankfurt), David Beutel (Munich), Alexander Schwahn (both Tax, Hamburg), Frank Röhling (Antitrust, Berlin) and Thomas Müller-Bonanni (Labour Law, Düsseldorf).

Sep 23

1 min

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer ('Freshfields') has advised Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. ('Nissan') on today's announced sale of its entire stake in Daimler AG ('Daimler'). The divestment comprises 16,448,378 shares, equivalent to 1.54 percent of Daimler’s issued shares at a price of 69.85 euros per share, totalling gross proceeds of approximately 1.15 billion euros. The shares were placed among institutional investors by way of an accelerated bookbuilding process. Freshfields has been advising on all legal aspects of this transaction and on Nissan’s collaboration with Daimler. The Freshfields team comprises partners Barbara Keil and Nicholas Günther as well as Lucas Schweitzer, Christina Zapf and Timo Piller in Germany and partners Julian Makin and David Ludwick as well as Richard Ho and Katie Bentel in the UK (all corporate). About Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP is a global law firm with a long track record of successfully advising the world's leading national and multinational corporations and financial institutions on ground-breaking and business-critical challenges. Our team of more than 2,800 lawyers and other legal professionals delivers global results from our 28 offices worldwide. Our commitment, local and multinational expertise and business know-how means our clients can rely on us when it matters most.

May 5

1 min

Global law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer (‘Freshfields’) has advised Stumpf Group and M+W Group, the direct and indirect shareholders of Exyte, on the sale of a significant minority interest to funds affiliated with BDT Capital Partners and the shareholders’ agreement for the future partnership. Closing of the transaction is subject to customary regulatory approvals. As sole shareholder of M+W Group, Georg Stumpf will continue to hold a majority stake in Exyte. Exyte is a global leader in the design, engineering, and delivery of ultra-clean and sustainable facilities for high-tech industries. With targeted sales of €7 billion for 2022, Exyte forecasts an adjusted EBITDA of approximately €450 million and an adjusted EBIT above €400 million for the current fiscal year. The Freshfields team advising on the transaction was led by Partners Gregor von Bonin and Nicholas Günther with support from Principal Associate Timo U. Piller and Associate Carolin Compes (all Düsseldorf). Additional support was provided by Partners Jenny Hochenberg (all Corporate/M&A) and Pamela Marcogliese (Capital Markets, both New York), Nabeel Yousef (Washington), Norbert Schneider (Tax, Düsseldorf) and Stephan Pachinger (Capital Markets, Frankfurt/Vienna). The team worked together with Hogan Lovells with Frankfurt based Partner Matthias Jaletzke in lead for the firm.

Nov 18

1 min