King & Wood Mallesons (KWM) advised Sino-German Ecopark Handel-und Beratungs GmbH (Sino German Ecopark), based in Munich, on the voluntary public takeover of German Brokers AG. The shares of German Brokers AG are admitted for trading at the General Standard of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and are also traded over the counter (Freiverkehr) at the Berlin, Düsseldorf and Stuttgart stock exchanges.

Sino-German Ecopark is a subsidiary of the Chinese state-owned company Sino-German United Group Co., Ltd., Qingdao, China, which is managed by the Huangdao municipality of Qingdao City.

Back in May 2015 Sino-German Ecopark acquired a minority stake of 28.16% in German Brokers AG from a syndicate of seven sellers. In addition to the minority stake, Sino-German Ecopark also received a call option to purchase an additional block of shares totalling 19.23% from the sellers. Sino-German Ecopark has now exercised this purchase option.

In parallel to this, Sino-German Ecopark also placed a voluntary public but binding takeover offer to the shareholders of German Brokers AG. This is the first of its kind -  a public takeover of a German-listed company by one Chinese state-owned entity.

"This transaction called for solutions to complex legal questions of German takeover- and Chinese constitutional law and once again demonstrates the strength of KWM as an advisor for German-Chinese business ventures" commented Dr. Julian Lemor, lead partner on the transaction.

Advisors KWM:
King & Wood Mallesons, Germany

    Dr. Julian Lemor (partner), Dr. Sandra Link (counsel, both leads), Miriam Gyun-Mie Meixner (associate), Xin Li (professional support lawyer, all Frankfurt am Main)

King & Wood Mallesons, China

    Guiying Guo (partner),  Zhijing Yu (associate, both Beijing)