Niederer Kraft Frey acted as Swiss counsel to the steering committee of the lenders of Benteler Group, comprising Commerzbank AG, DZ BANK AG, Erste Group Bank AG, Landesbank Baden-Württemberg, and Norddeutsche Landesbank on the now completed full refinancing, which is part of a fundamental restructuring of Benteler Group. In the course of the restructuring of the financing, all existing components of the previously existing financing, with a total of almost 120 different financing partners, were transferred into a joint financing structure which is backed by a global security pool.
Benteler Group, a family-owned company with approximately 100 locations in almost 30 countries and about 28,000 employees worldwide, is one of the largest European automotive suppliers with total revenues of almost EUR 8 billion in 2019. The Group holding company is based in Salzburg, while the operating business is managed from two German division holding companies.
The NKF team was led by M&A/Finance partner Adrian Koller, working with junior associates Reto Seiler and Selim Lötscher (both M&A/Finance) as well as partner Markus Kronauer (Tax). Latham & Watkins acted as global lead counsel to the steering committee of the lenders of Benteler Group.