Allen & Overy advises Cerberus on privatization of HSH Nordbank

Frank­furt am Main / Hamburg — Allen & Overy LLP is advi­sing US finan­cial inves­tor Cerbe­rus Capi­tal Manage­ment on the acqui­si­tion of HSH Nord­bank by inde­pen­dent inves­tors. The agree­ment provi­des for a purchase price of around one billion euros for 94.9 percent of the shares held in HSH Nord­bank. The other buyers include finan­cial inves­tors J.C. Flowers, Golden­Tree Asset Manage­ment and Centau­rus Capi­tal, as well as Austria’s BAWAG P.S.K. Bank für Arbeit und Wirt­schaft and Öster­rei­chi­sche Post­spar­kasse.

In connec­tion with the acqui­si­tion, problem loans with a nomi­nal value of seve­ral billion euros will be sold from the bank. This will enable HSH Nord­bank to compete without state aid in the future. The acqui­si­tion of HSH Nord­bank by inde­pen­dent inves­tors marks the first time that a German Landes­bank has been successfully privatized.

The tran­sac­tion will be comple­ted once the neces­sary regu­la­tory appr­ovals have been obtai­ned. These include appr­oval by the Euro­pean Commis­sion, the Euro­pean Central Bank, the parlia­ments of the states of Hamburg and Schles­­wig-Holstein, and the rele­vant anti­trust authorities.

Allen & Overy is advi­sing Cerbe­rus on, among other things, the purchase agree­ment, the offloa­ding of the problem loans, on all regu­la­tory aspects (inclu­ding banking super­vi­sion law and anti­trust law) and on labor and tax issues.

The Allen & Overy team was led by part­ners Dr. Hart­mut Krause (Corporate/M&A, Frank­furt) and Dr. Nico­laus Ascher­feld (Corporate/M&A, Hamburg — both lead) and included the follo­wing addi­tio­nal team members:

Coun­sel Max Lands­hut (Corporate/M&A, Hamburg), Dr. Andre P.H. Wandt (Corpo­rate, Frank­furt), Senior Asso­ciate Alex­an­der Wüpper (Corporate/M&A, Frank­furt) and Asso­cia­tes Gregor Petric, Tatiana Marzoli, Frede­ric Wünsche (all Corporate/M&A, Frank­furt), Dr. Moritz Meis­ter and Dr. Stefan Witte (both Corporate/M&A, Hamburg), Fabian Schulze and Kai Schadtle (both Banking Regu­la­tory, Frankfurt).

Further­more, the team consis­ted of the part­ners Dr. Jan Schrö­der (Corporate/M&A, Düssel­dorf), Jürgen Schind­ler (Anti­trust, Brussels), Dr. Heike Weber (Tax, Frank­furt), John Coburn, Dr. Franz Bern­hard Herding, Wolf­gang Melzer, Dr. Norbert Wieder­holt (all Banking and Finance, Frank­furt), Dr. Walter Uebel­hoer (Banking, Munich), Dr. Stefan Henkel­mann (Capi­tal Markets, Frank­furt), Dr. Jens Matthes (IP/IT, Düssel­dorf), Markulf Behrendt (Labor Law, Hamburg), Dr. Hans-Peter Löw (Labor Law, Frank­furt), Tobias Neufeld (Labor Law, Düssel­dorf), the Coun­sel Dr. Udo Herbert Olgem­öl­ler (Public Law, Frank­furt) and Dr. Ilja Baudisch (Banking and Finance Law, Munich), the Of Coun­sel Frank Herring (Banking Super­vi­sory Law, Frank­furt) and Dr. Oliver Wald­burg (Banking and Finance Law, Frank­furt), Senior Asso­cia­tes Fatih Coskun, Chris­to­pher Jahnke, Lorenz Riehl (all Banking and Finance Law, Frank­furt), Dr. Chris­toph Börskens, Dr. Riccardo Mari­nello (both Real Estate, Frank­furt), Dr. Andreas Zieg­ler (Public Law, Frank­furt), Dr. Sebas­tian Schulz (Labor Law, Frank­furt), Karen Zöttl (Banking and Finance Law, Frank­furt), Daniela Schmitt (Inter­na­tio­nal Capi­tal Markets, Frank­furt) and Asso­cia­tes Dr. Rauni Aham­mer (Banking and Finance, Munich), Louisa Drew­niok, Dr. Anna Serwotka, Dr. Jörg Weber, Anto­nia Wolf (all Banking and Finance, Frank­furt), Dr. Anna Opel (Public Law, Frank­furt), Dr. Lisa Müller, Anja Glück (both Labor Law, Frank­furt), Catha­rina Glugla (Labor Law, Düssel­dorf) and Dr. Wolf­gang H. Wittek (Labor Law, Hamburg) as well as Tran­sac­tion Support Lawyer Ange­lika Pikulska (Corpo­rate, Munich).