Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has advised Vattenfall on the sale of its German lignite operations to Czech energy company EPH with its financial partner PPF Investments

- Sale of Vattenfall’s entire German lignite business to Czech buyer
- Comprehensive corporate restructuring of Vattenfall’s business areas
- Largest European energy transaction in 2016

International law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has advised Vattenfall on the sale of its German lignite operations to Czech energy company EPH with its financial partner PPF Investments. The divestment represents a major step in Vattenfall’s shift towards more sustainable production. Germany remains a strategic growth market for Vattenfall.

The sale is the largest and most complex transaction in the European energy sector this year, representing a quarter of German electricity generation and the bulk of formerly East German opencast mines. It includes all of Vattenfall’s lignite assets in Germany. Those are power plants Jänschwalde, Boxberg, Schwarze Pumpe and Vattenfall’s 50 percent stake in Lippendorf, as well as the open cast mines Jänschwalde, Nochten, Welzow-Süd and Reichwalde and the recently closed mine Cottbus Nord.

With this transaction Vattenfall underscores its ambition to be one of the leaders in the new energy landscape and take an active part in Germany’s ‘Energiewende’. By concluding the deal, Vattenfall’s CO2 exposure is reduced from more than 80 million tonnes to less than 25 million tonnes per year.

The Freshfields team was led by corporate partner Annedore Streyl and regulatory partner Wolf Friedrich Spieth. The team also comprised corporate partners Tobias Larisch, Stephanie Hundertmark, competition partners Ulrich Scholz and Andreas von Bonin, employment partner Boris Dzida as well as corporate associates Lars Meyer, Martin Schaper, Lennart Schramm, Carlos Katins, Konstantin von Richthofen, Sophia-Antonia Bir, Albina Veeser, regulatory associates Niclas Hellermann, Thomas Voland, Sebastian Lutz-Bachmann, Dirk Böhler, Friedrich Gebert, Caryl Walter, real estate associates Philipp Jehle, Conny Bickmann, Katja Walkhoff, competition associates Markus Böhme, Margret Schellberg and Sebastian Pritzkow as well as employment associates Christian Reinhard and Patrick Wendler.