fwp advised the former owners on the sale of their majority stake in GREENoneTEC Solarindustrie GmbH to the Chinese Haier Group – the Carinthia-based company is one of the leading producers of solar thermal collectors and world market leader for flat-plate collectors.
The transaction was completed at the end of May, approximately two years after the start of the sales process, which involved complex contract negotiations with a focus on international cooperation and expansion and at the end of which the majority stake in GREENoneTEC Solarindustrie GmbH was sold to Haier Group. The transaction was highly complex, including also the restructuring of group financing.
fwp partner Florian Kranebitter: “The transaction was particularly challenging as it was necessary to align the parties’ varying interests, taking account of different mindsets and approaches, both in terms of negotiating strategy and the structuring of the transaction. We are happy to have successfully provided advice for one of the few Austro-Chinese M&A transactions”.
China currently strongly promotes an expansion of renewable energy capacities, with investments in the amount of EUR 343 billion lined up until 2020. The goal is to cover about 15 percent of total energy consumption based on solar, wind and water energy by 2020. Through this transaction, GREENoneTEC has been able to leverage this potential. The cooperation furthers international growth. Haier Group’s strength as market leader for water heaters in China enables further development of business activities in the solar thermal energy sector. Haier Group, on the other hand, relies on GREENoneTEC’s strengths as world market leader for flat-plate collector production.
The core team of fwp consisted of fwp partner Florian Kranebitter (M&A / Finance) Stefan Knotzer (Associate) and fwp partner Lukas Flener (Antitrust law). Furthermore, fwp cooperated with TerraLex (foreign jurisdictions).