White & Case Partner Supervises Electric Car Manufacturer e.GO Mobile Through Successful Restructuring

Global law firm White & Case LLP's partner Biner Bähr has supervised the successful restructuring of German electric car manufacturer e.GO Mobile AG following his appointment as Insolvency Monitor by the responsible court earlier this year.

"Over the past five months we have been working together in a structured M&A process to find a majority shareholder who will lead e.GO Mobile into the future," said White & Case partner Biner Bähr, Insolvency Monitor to e.GO Mobile AG. "The company offers a great product with the small electric car e.GO Life. An emission-free, affordable and sustainable e-car for urban individual traffic is urgently needed and I hope that the final market breakthrough will now be achieved."

The international private equity company nd Industrial Investments B.V., part of nd Group B.V., has taken a stake in e.GO Mobile AG, based in Aachen, as majority shareholder of Next.e.GO Mobile SE, alongside the management team including founder Prof. Günther Schuh. On September 1, 2020, Next.e.GO Mobile SE took over the entire business of e.GO Mobile AG including all subsidiaries and the approximately 450 employees through a transfer of operations in accordance with section 613a BGB (German Civil Code).

In the course of the impairments caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, e.GO Mobile AG, which was last valued at over €1 billion and is so far the only independent German electric car manufacturer to achieve car road registration, had to file for a debtor-in-possession insolvency proceeding on April 2, 2020. The purchase agreement with Next.e.GO Mobile SE was notarized on 31 August 2020. 

The company is starting with a new, expanded structure as a European SE and with a new CEO, Prof. Dr. Ulrich Hermann, former member of the Management Board of the listed company Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG and a proven expert in digitization. Prof. Günther Schuh takes over as Chairman of the Board.

As soon as approval as a vehicle manufacturer has been granted for the new company and the supplier contracts have been changed, production at the Aachen Rothe Erde plant is set to restart. Service and sales of the e.GO Life small electric car are already back in operation.

The White & Case team in Düsseldorf that supported partner Biner Bähr included partner Murad Daghles and local partners Felix Hoepker and Thyl Hassler.

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