White & Case advises EnBW on sale of minority stake in transmission system operator TransnetBW

Global law firm White & Case LLP has advised EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg AG (EnBW) on the sale of a 24.95 percent minority shareholding in transmission system operator TransnetBW Gmbh (TransnetBW) to Südwest Konsortium Holding GmbH. 

The sale was based on a multi-stage bidding process with clearly defined criteria that complied with state aid law.

TransnetBW operates one of four transmission grids in Germany. The consortium of buyers, led by SV SparkassenVersicherung, includes more than 30 savings banks, banks, insurance companies and corporations from Germany’s Baden-Württemberg state.

It was agreed in advance with state-owned KfW Bank that it would receive a right of first refusal on the second of the two minority shares offered, which it might exercise after the conclusion of the first bidding process at the market conditions now determined. Following the sale of the second tranche, EnBW will remain the majority shareholder with just over 50 percent of the shares.

The grid development plan up to 2035 shows that TransnetBW alone will require around €10 billion, which will be financed by the future shareholders in proportion to their shares.

The transaction is subject to the approval of the responsible cartel antitrust authorities, which is expected in the course of the third quarter of 2023. The parties have agreed not to disclose the purchase price.

The White & Case team which advised on the transaction was led by partners Jörg Kraffel (Berlin), Thomas Burmeister (Düsseldorf) and counsel Carsten Rodemann (Berlin), and included partners Tim Bracksiek (Frankfurt), Hendrik Röger (Hamburg) and Lars Petersen (Hamburg & Berlin), local partners Alisa Preissler (Frankfurt) and Thilo Wienke (Düsseldorf), counsel Andreas van den Eikel, Kathrin Ahting (both Berlin) and Christoph Arhold (Berlin & Brussels), and associates Lisa Reichstein, Petra Kistner, Verena Rudolph (all Düsseldorf), Fabian Mayer, Constantin Meimberg (both Berlin), Martin Junker (Berlin & Frankfurt), Sonja Sehr, Maximilian Roth (both Frankfurt), Martin Riederer (Hamburg) and Victor Thonke (Hamburg & Berlin).

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