International law firm Watson Farley & Williams (“WFW”) has advised EWE ERNEUERBARE ENERGIEN GmbH (“EWE EE”) on all the legal and tax aspects of its acquisition of TurboWind Energie GmbH (“TurboWind Energie”), a wind farm developer based in Hannover, northern Germany. This acquisition represents an important step forward in EWE’s strategic growth plans in the renewable energy sector.
A wholly owned subsidiary of EWE AG, EWE EE has developed over the past 25 years – and currently operates – more than 100 wind energy plants in northern Germany. As an international company it is active across diverse business sectors including telecommunication and energy. With over 9000 employees and an annual turnover of €7.6 billion, EWE AG is one of the country’s largest companies. TurboWind Energie operates primarily in the Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia and Hesse regions. TurboWind Energie will continue to act as an independent company within the EWE group going forward.
The WFW Germany team was led by corporate Partner and Head of the German Practice Dr Marcus Bechtel. He was supported by corporate Partner Dr Wolfram Böge, tax Partner Gerrit Bartsch, regulatory Partner Dr Christine Bader and real estate Partner Eckrolf Berg. Senior Associates Tanja Mado and Jörg Walzer (both corporate) as well as Associates Dr Eva-Maria Tieke (regulatory), Dr Matthias Annweiler, Cordula Schröter, Christian Schindler and Cathrin Gelhaus (all corporate) also assisted.
Marcus commented: “We are delighted to have advised EWE EE, part of our long-standing client EWE AG, on this important strategic acquisition. That this complex transaction was able to proceed smoothly and efficiently, is testament to the good cooperation between the WFW and the EWE teams. This transaction forms parts of a series of recent M&A transactions in the onshore wind market and demonstrates our leading position in this market”.
Marcus worked closely throughout the transaction with an in-house EWE legal team consisting of Maike Fiedler (Employment law), Dr Frank Möller (Legal Department, Leader Technical Group) and Leif Engelbrecht (Legal Department, leader Corporate Law Group).
