Schoenherr has advised Kansai Paint Co Ltd. ("Kansai Paint"), Osaka (Japan), on the acquisition of the Helios Coatings Group (the "Helios Group") from Ring International Holding AG ("RIH"), GSO Capital Opportunities Fund II (Luxembourg) S.a r.l. and Templeton Strategic Emerging Markets Fund IV, LDC.

The acquisition is structured as a purchase of all the shares of the Helios Group top holding company, Annagab S.A. ("Annagab"). The transaction documentation was signed on 6 December 2016. The transaction is subject to competition authority approval in Austria and other countries and the satisfaction of customary closing conditions.

Kansai Paint will spend EUR 572 million for the acquisition of Helios Group, subject to customary price adjustment at the closing date.

Schoenherr acted as lead counsel to Kansai Paint, providing comprehensive legal advice including conducting legal due diligence throughout 14 jurisdictions, negotiating the share purchase agreement, and local transactional assistance in Austria, Slovenia and other CEE countries across multiple practice areas, including corporate m&a, employment, competition, regulatory and intellectual property law.  

Based in Austria (Vienna) and Slovenia (Domzale near Ljubljana), the Helios Group is a leading manufacturer of coatings in South Eastern Europe with companies and production sites located in 18 countries worldwide. The Helios Group is one of the top ten coating companies in Europe with a product portfolio that covers the full spectrum of coating products.

Kansai Paint is a coatings and chemicals group headquartered in Osaka and listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The group is involved in the manufacture and sale of automobile paints and industrial paints among others. With more than 12,000 employees worldwide, Kansai Paint is one of the world's top ten paint manufacturers with production sites in over 43 countries.

RIH is one of the leading corporate groups in the areas of stationery products and coatings, and is made up of 64 companies, 21 of which are production facilities. Worldwide, RIH employs 3,000 employees on three continents.

The Schoenherr team advising Kansai Paint was led by Christian Herbst (partner, Vienna; corporate/m&a) and comprised transaction teams in Austria, Slovenia and further 12 CEE jurisdictions covered by Schonherr. The Austrian team was led by Maximilian Lang (attorney at law, Vienna; corporate/m&a) and included Bernd Rajal (partner, Vienna; regulatory) and Alexander Mazevski (associate, Vienna; corporate/m&a). The Slovenian team was led by Marko Prusnik (partner, Ljubljana; corporate/m&a).

The additional Schonherr CEE teams were led by the following lawyers: Luka Lopicic  (partner, Belgrade; corporate/m&a), Jovan Barovic (attorney at law, Belgrade, country desk Montenegro), Stanislav Kovar (partner, Bratislava; corporate/m&a), Ana Taleska (attorney at law, Brussels; corporate/m&a), Kinga Hetenyi (partner, Budapest; corporate/m&a), Monica Cojocaru (partner, Bucharest; corporate/m&a), Murat Kutlug (attorney at law, Istanbul; corporate/m&a), Vladimir Cizek (partner, Prague; corporate/m&a), Alexandra Doytchinova (partner, Sofia; corporate/m&a), Grzegorz Barszcz (attorney at law, Warsaw; corporate/m&a), and Dina Vlahov Buhin (attorney at law, Zagreb; corporate/m&a).