Noerr advises Panasonic on sale of Vossloh-Schwabe

Noerr has comprehensively advised the Japanese group Panasonic on the carve-out and sale of the Vossloh-Schwabe Group. In a bidding process, all shares in Panasonic Lighting Europe GmbH will be taken over by the financial investor Fidelium Partners.

Panasonic Lighting Europe GmbH is the parent company of Vossloh-Schwabe Group. Vossloh-Schwabe ranks among the leading providers of LED and conventional lighting solutions in Europe and can look back on over 100 years’ experience in the lighting industry. Today Vossloh-Schwabe is a globally operating company with more than 15 production and sales locations and over 1,000 employees. Panasonic took over the lighting technology division of Vossloh AG in 2002.

During the transaction, Panasonic relied on a team from Noerr led by Christian Pleister and Thomas Schulz of Noerr’s London office, who is one of the coordinators of the firm’s international contacts, including those with Japan. Christian Pleister, co-head of the Noerr Private Equity practice group, and Laurenz Tholen just recently advised the listed holding company AURELIUS on the acquisition of two divisions of the large American group Woodward, Inc. Both transactions were complex cross-border carve-outs. Many jurisdictions besides Germany and Japan were involved in the current sale of Vossloh-Schwabe, including the Netherlands, Singapore, Serbia, Spain, Israel, Hong Kong, China and Thailand.

Noerr cooperated closely on the matter with the Japanese firm Nishimura & Asahi and the financial advisor, the investment bank GCA Altium. In their respective jurisdictions, Nishimura & Asahi and Noerr are the exclusive members of Lex Mundi, the global network of leading independent law firms.

Noerr’s support in this transaction for Panasonic once again highlights the market-leading position of its M&A practice at the start of 2020. In 2018 and 2019, Noerr was number one in M&A advisory in German-speaking countries according to the rating by MergerMarket.

Advisors to Panasonic Corporation: Noerr LLP

Prof Christian Pleister (Frankfurt/Berlin), Dr Thomas Schulz (London, both Private Equity, joint lead), Dr Michael Brellochs (Capital Markets, Munich), Dr Björn Grotebrune (Restructuring, Berlin), Dr Torsten Kraul (Telecommunications, Berlin), Angelika Schmid (Employment & Pensions, Munich), Dr Stefan Schwab (Employment & Pensions), Michael Tommaso (Tax, both Berlin), Prof Sebastian Wündisch (IP, Dresden), Peter Stauber, Dr Kathrin Westermann (both Antitrust & Competition, Berlin)

Associates: Jana Baumann (Corporate/M&A, Düsseldorf), Inès Ben Miled (Private Equity), Henrike von dem Berge (Telecommunications), Friedrich von Ketteler (Corporate/M&A), Francesc Lloveras Calvo, Dr Johannes Weiland (both Private Equity, all Berlin), Dr Andreas Wöller (Corporate/M&A, Berlin)