International law firm Watson Farley & Williams (“WFW”) advised Vonovia SE (“Vonovia”) on employment law aspects of Süddeutsche Wohnen Gruppe’s (“Südewo”) integration into the Vonovia Group, as part of the latter’s €1.9 billion acquisition of Südewo from Patrizia Immobilien.

WFW advised on the employment issues affecting more than 300 Südewo employees as part of the integration, notably negotiations with employee representatives and the question of redundancy.

Formed out of the merger of Deutschen Annington and GAGFAH, Vonovia is one of Germany’s leading housing associations with, following its merger with Südewo, over 6,000 staff and a portfolio of approximately 350,000 apartments.

The WFW employment team advising Vonovia was led by partner Dr Nikolaus Krienke (Hamburg/Munich), supported by Hamburg partner Dr Andreas Wiegreffe and associates Dr Vinzent Bargon and Alena Reinhold.

Nikolaus commented: “We are delighted to have advised Vonovia on this complex project. The particular challenge was the successful integration of the employees into the Vonovia group and the implementation of a voluntary redundancy scheme”.