Automotive supplier ZKW sold to South Korean LG Corporation

Acqui­si­tion of ZKW by LG: Gleiss Lutz advi­ses on another billion-euro tran­sac­tion in the auto­mo­tive sector

Wieselburg/ South Korea — Gleiss Lutz has advi­sed the share­hol­der of Austrian auto­mo­tive supplier ZKW on the sale of the group to South Korean LG Corpo­ra­tion and its subsi­diary LG Elec­tro­nics. The purchase price is 1.1 billion euros. For LG, it is the largest acqui­si­tion in the company’s history to date. The tran­sac­tion is still subject to appr­oval by the rele­vant anti­trust authorities.

ZKW, head­quar­te­red in Wiesel­burg, Austria, is one of the world’s leading light­ing and elec­tro­nic systems specia­lists in the auto­mo­tive sector and, as such, one of the most important suppli­ers to premium-segment auto­ma­kers such as Audi, BMW, Porsche and Daim­ler. The company employs more than 9,000 people world­wide at sites in Austria, Slova­kia, the Czech Repu­blic, China, India, Mexico and the USA. In 2017, ZKW increased its conso­li­da­ted group sales by almost 30 percent year-on-year to over 1.2 billion euros.

LG Corpo­ra­tion is a South Korean conglo­me­rate opera­ting in the elec­tro­nics, chemi­cals, and services and tele­com­mu­ni­ca­ti­ons indus­tries. In Germany, the subsi­diary LG Elec­tro­nics is parti­cu­larly well known: it is a global leader in consu­mer elec­tro­nics, mobile commu­ni­ca­ti­ons and house­hold appli­ances. With 125 offices around the world and 77,000 employees, LG achie­ved conso­li­da­ted sales of $47.9 billion in fiscal 2016.

Consul­tant: Gleis Lutz
The Gleiss Lutz team led by Dr. Jochen Tyrolt and Dr. Chris­tian Cascante, photo (both Stutt­gart, Part­ner, Corporate/M&A) consis­ted of the follo­wing lawy­ers: Johan­nes Schrägle (Coun­sel), Dr. Maike Sauter, Dr. Markus Martin, Dr. Jan Sten­ger, Sava Kasa­liy­ski (all Stutt­gart), Dr. Michael Ilter (Frank­furt), Dr. Stephan Dangel­mayer, Dr. Olaf Hohle­fel­der (both Munich, all Corporate/M&A), Dr. Chris­tian Arnold (Part­ner, Stutt­gart), Dr. Thomas Winzer (Part­ner), Dr. Tobias Abend (Frank­furt, all Labor Law), Dr. Achim Danne­cker (Part­ner), Dr. Michael Rudolf, Dr. Hanna Datzer, Dr. Konrad Grün­wald (all Tax Law, Stutt­gart), Dr. Moritz Holm-Hadulla (Part­ner), Dr. Domi­nik Braun, Andreas Schüs­sel, Vanessa Gehle (all Anti­trust Law, Stutt­gart), Dr. Herwig Lux (Coun­sel), Chris­to­pher Noll (both Stutt­gart, both IP/IT), Dr. Helge Kortz (Part­ner, Frank­furt, Banking and Finance), Dr. Florian Wagner (Frank­furt, Dispute Reso­lu­tion) and Dr. Chris­tiane Frey­tag (Coun­sel, Public Law, Stuttgart).

Advi­sing compa­nies in the auto­mo­tive and auto­mo­tive supply indus­try in all areas of commer­cial law is a core compe­tence of Gleiss Lutz. Last year, the firm advi­sed Bosch and Mahle on the sale of their joint venture BMTS (Bosch Mahle Turbo Systems) to Foun­ta­in­Vest. Gleiss Lutz also advi­sed on, among other things, the billion-euro merger of ZF Fried­richs­ha­fen and TRW and the billion-euro take­over of GETRAG by Magna.