Noerr advises the shareholders of Aachener Bausparkasse on the sale of the company to Wüstenrot Bausparkasse AG

Noerr has advised the eleven stockholders of Aachener Bausparkasse AG on the takeover of the company by Wüstenrot Bausparkasse AG. A team led by Berlin-based partner Hans Radau, Hamburg-based partner Kai-Michael Hingst and Berlin-based associated partner Armin Bartsch advised the clients.

Wüstenrot Bausparkasse AG is Germany’s second largest building society. Aachener Bausparkasse, which was established in 1926, achieved annual new business of €540m with some 300 employees at its offices in Aachen and Coburg.  The shareholders of Aachener Bausparkasse include inter alia the following German insurance companies: ARAG SE, Barmenia Krankenversicherung a.G., Continentale Krankenversicherung a.G., Gothaer Finanzholding AG, Gothaer Krankenversicherung AG, HUK-Coburg-Holding AG, Mecklenburgische Versicherungs-Gesellschaft a.G., uniVersa Krankenversicherung a.G., uniVersa Lebensversicherung a.G. and WWK Lebensversicherung a.G.

The parties agreed not to disclose the purchase price. As part of the takeover, Wüstenrot entered into long-term cooperation agreements with almost all previous shareholders’ groups regarding the home loan and home financing business and will act as their exclusive product partner. The purchase agreement, which was signed on 11 December 2018, and the cooperation agreements are subject to clearance by the competition and regulatory authorities.

The highly complex transaction was determined by financial and insurance regulation, distribution, distribution-related antitrust and tax law aspects. The challenge for Noerr’s interdisciplinary and cross-office team was to come up with innovative legal concepts for solving a wide range of legal issues.

Advisors to the shareholders of Aachener Bausparkasse AG: Noerr LLP

Dr Hans Radau (lead, Corporate/M&A, Berlin), Prof Kai-Michael Hingst (co-lead, Financial Services Regulation, Hamburg), Dr Armin Bartsch (co-lead, Corporate/M&A, Berlin), Dr Thomas Heitzer (Financial Services Regulation, Düsseldorf), Dr Fabian Badtke (Antitrust & Competition, Frankfurt), Michael Tommaso (Tax, Berlin), Dr Eckhart Schleifenbaum (Corporate/M&A, Munich), Dr Stephan Schulz (Capital Markets, Hamburg), Dr Michael Reiling (Digital Business, Munich)

Associates: Christian Burmeister (Corporate/M&A, Berlin), Johannes Pfeiffer (Corporate/M&A, Munich), Marc Philip Priesmeyer (Corporate/M&A, Berlin), Dr Karl-Alexander Neumann (Financial Services Regulation, Hamburg), Peter Scheuch (Tax, Dresden), Dr Lorenz Jarass (Antitrust & Competition, Düsseldorf), Dr Lisa Brasseler (Financial Services Regulation, Düsseldorf), Lisa Schmitt (Corporate/M&A Frankfurt), Kim Schick (Corporate/M&A Frankfurt), Dr Thorsten Becker (Corporate/M&A Frankfurt)

In-house shareholders of Aachener Bausparkasse: Legal department of Gothaer Finanzholding AG

Dr Christoph Schaal (in-house counsel at Gothaer Finanzholding AG), Manuela Krütt (in-house counsel at Gothaer Finanzholding AG)