Edenred participates in UTA – Noerr advises UTA shareholder Daimler

29.10.2014

The law firm Noerr supported a private shareholder in the course of the entry of the French Edenred Group as an additional strategic partner into UNION TANK Eckstein GmbH & Co. KG (UTA). Noerr was instructed by Daimler AG. Edenred International, in a competitive, structured bidding process with the participation of international investors, takes over the 34% shareholding in UTA so far held by BP Europa SE. The purchase of the shares worth approx. 150 million Euro is combined with an option for Edenred to increase its holding from 2017 to 51%.

UTA is a Europe-wide specialist for fuel and service cards for commercial goods and people transport. The parties state that more than 60,000 commercial customers with their 500,000 drivers can purchase fuel cash free and avail of other services at over 49,000 stations in 40 countries through the UTA card system. Approx. 400 employees achieve annual turnover of over 3 billion Euro in the UTA Group. Edenred states that it is the world market leader for individual vouchers and premium solutions for more than 640,000 commercial customers and 49 million users. The listed group had turnover in 2013 of 17.1 billion Euro.

The transaction is still subject to cartel law approval.

Advisor to Daimler AG as shareholders in UNION TANK Eckstein GmbH & Co. KG: Noerr LLP

Dr. Thorsten Reinhard (corporate, Frankfurt), Dr. Alexander Hirsch (corporate, Düsseldorf), Carsten Heinz (tax, Berlin),  Dr. Sebastian Jank (cartel law, Munich). 

Associates: Dr. Andrea Zwarg (corporate, Frankfurt), Hans-Christian Mick (corporate, Frankfurt) Florian-Felix Marquardt (tax, Berlin)