CHSH Cerha Hempel Spiegelfeld Hlawati Rechtsanwälte GmbH advised Austrian publicly listed OMV in connection with the sale of a 49% stake in Gas Connect Austria GmbH (GCA) to a consortium formed by the German Allianz Group and Snam, Italy’s gas infrastructure operator.
CHSH has been involved since last year in the preparation of this deal which has already caught considerable media attention. The consortium was selected as purchaser by OMV after a competitive auction process that started in the second quarter of 2016. The closing of the transaction is expected to occur by year-end and is conditional upon merger control clearance by German and Austrian authorities.
The CHSH M&A team under the lead of Clemens Hasenauer, Head of Department Corporate Transactions, acted as Austrian transaction counsel for OMV. Clemens Hasenauer comments: "This deal is likely the largest Austrian M&A transaction in the energy sector in the year 2016. It demonstrates particularly well the ability of our dedicated team to assist effectively in a challenging international M&A environment." CHSH partner Harald Stingl adds: "We are very happy to have assisted OMV through every stage of the process on this landmark deal."
The OMV legal team was led by Andreas Aigner, Head of M&A Legal, and Bernhard Mörth, Senior Counsel M&A Legal. Andreas Aigner: "Glad that we delivered this important strategic milestone for OMV in a challenging environment."
Besides Clemens Hasenauer (Partner; Corporate and M&A) the CHSH deal team consisted of Johannes Prinz (Partner; Regulatory and Tax), Harald Stingl. (Partner; Corporate and M&A); Lorenz Pracht (Attorney; Energy Law, Corporate and M&A) and Bernhard Wychera (Attorney; Corporate and M&A), Julia Raith (Associate; Corporate and M&A), Julia Berent (Associate; Energy Law; Corporate and M&A), Ferdinand Guggenmos (Regulatory) and Thomas Knirsch (Associate; Corporate and M&A).