Noerr advises LVM on Sale of Augsburger Aktienbank Leasing Subsidiary to PEAC Finance

International law firm Noerr continues to advise LVM Versicherung on the reorganisation of its wholly owned subsidiary Augsburger Aktienbank AG (AAB). A team led by partner Hans Radau provided legal and tax advice to LVM on the sale of AAB’s equipment leasing business, held by AAB Leasing GmbH (AABL), to PEAC (Germany) GmbH (PEAC Finance). PEAC Finance is a portfolio company of investment funds managed by London based investment firm HPS Investment Partners, LLC (HPS).

The purchase agreement was signed on 31 January 2021. Completion of the transaction is planned for the second half of 2021 and is subject to the usual regulatory approvals.

AABL has a well-established brand and a successful business model with 126 employees at nine locations and over 8,000 commercial customers in Germany. At the end of the 2019 financial year, AABL’s balance sheet total was 0.7 billion euros.

LVM is one of the leading direct insurance groups in Germany. LVM took over AAB, one of the oldest German direct banks, from Allianz Dresdner Asset Management in 2002. A Noerr team led by Hans Radau and Dominik Rompza only recently advised LVM on the sale of AAB’s securities trading business to the European Bank for Financial Services GmbH (ebase).

In the context of the current transaction, Noerr provided LVM with comprehensive support in all legal aspects of this complex deal with a team that spanned offices and practice groups. The advice was essentially determined by stock corporation and corporate law, transformation and transformation tax law, income and VAT law, defeasibility and follow-on liability law, financial and insurance regulatory law, IT and data protection law and employment law.

Noerr regularly advises on transactions in the financial sector. For example, teams led by Hans Radau have advised clients such as the Rocket Internet fin-tech companies Lendico, Zencap and Spotcap on their establishment and financing as well as the legal structuring and international roll-out of their business models, and, over the past three years, Lendico Group on its sale to ING and the shareholders of Aachener Bausparkasse AG – including LVM – on the takeover of the company by Wüstenrot Bausparkasse AG. In 2019, Noerr’s Hamburg banking team led by Volker Land advised comdirect bank AG on the sale of ebase to FNZ Group.

Advisors to LVM Landwirtschaftlicher Versicherungsverein Münster a.G., Augsburger Aktienbank AG and AAB Leasing GmbH: Noerr Partnerschaftsgesellschaft mbB

Lead advisors:

Dr Hans Radau (Corporate/M&A and Tax) and Dominik Rompza (Corporate/M&A) (both Berlin)

Financial and Banking Regulatory

Prof. Kai-Michael Hingst (Hamburg), Dr Karl-Alexander Neumann (Hamburg), Associate: Arndt Alexander Schmidt (Hamburg)

Insurance and Insurance Regulatory

Dr Thomas Heitzer, Associate: Dr Lisa Haseloff (both Düsseldorf)

Corporate/M&A

Dr Hans Radau, Dominik Rompza, Dr Armin Bartsch, Dr Laurenz Tholen (alle Berlin), Silvia Sparfeld (Munich); Associates: Christian Burmeister, Daniel Fuchs, Fabian Krüger, Francesc Lloveras, Konrad Fichter (research), Tobias Flatt (research), Aramis Josef, Dr Nicholas R. Palenker, Marc Philip Priesmeyer, Moritz Rojek, Nicholas Schlüter (research), Nils Elias Wilfert, Lukas Zöllner (all Berlin), Dr Manuel Weiß (Munich), Vanessa Wüsthoff (Hamburg)

Employment & Pensions

Dr Stefan Schwab (Berlin), Dr Patrick Mückl (Düsseldorf), Associates: Tabea Gutmann, Dr Mario Merget (both Berlin), Yvonne Dietzel (Dresden), Angelika Schmid (Munich)

Data Protection

Pascal Schumacher, Associates: Dr Lennart Sydow, Henrike von dem Berge, Max von Schönfeld (all Berlin)

IT

Dr Torsten Kraul, Associate: Henrike von dem Berge (both Berlin)

Capital Markets

Dr Stephan Schulz (Hamburg), Associates: Stephanie Otte, Moritz Rojek (both Hamburg), Dr Nicholas R. Palenker (Berlin)

Banking/Finance

Sebastian Bock, Dr Nikolai Warneke (both Frankfurt), Dr Martin Kleinschmitt (Berlin), Associate: Patrick Geist (Frankfurt)

Tax

Dr Carsten Heinz, Dr Martin Haisch (both Munich), Michael Tommaso, Dr Florian-Felix Marquardt, Dr Hans Radau (all Berlin); Associates: Fabian Krüger (Berlin), Susanne Carolin Sopart (Munich)

Restructuring & Insolvency

Dr Dorothee Prosteder (Munich), Simone Schönen (Hamburg); Associates: Philippa Pauline Peters, Stephanie Otte (both Hamburg), Maximilian Schulte (Munich)

Antitrust

Peter Stauber (Berlin)