Global legal practice Norton Rose Fulbright has advised the Norwegian aluminium group Norsk Hydro ASA on the sale of Hydro Aluminium Gießerei Hannover GmbH to a private investment group. The seller is Aluminium Deutschland GmbH, a subsidiary of Norsk Hydro based in Grevenbroich/northern Germany. The contracts were signed on 15 April 2014. The closing of the transaction is scheduled for the second quarter of 2014.

Norsk Hydro ASA, based in Oslo, Norway is one of the largest producers of primary aluminium worldwide with production sites and distribution and trading activities along the entire value chain. The company employs 13,000 people in over 50 countries worldwide; almost 50 per cent of them in Germany at the subsidiary Hydro Aluminium Deutschland GmbH.

Aluminium Gießerei Hannover GmbH specialises in the production of aluminium ingots, mainly for further processing in the aerospace industry.

The Norton Rose Fulbright team involved in the transaction included:

Partner: Michael Malterer (lead, corporate/M&A), Katrin Scheicht (employment)

Team: Frank Bayer (of counsel, corporate/tax), Matthias Nordmann (of counsel, antitrust and competition), Danguole Hackel (corporate/M&A), Christina Lorenz (corporate/M&A), all Munich.

The purchaser was advised by TRACC Legal (Thomas Lotz, Thorsten Steinhaus).