Benteler Group agrees on comprehensive refinancing and restructuring

Niederer Kraft Frey acted as Swiss counsel to the steering committee of the lenders of Benteler Group, comprising Commerzbank AG, DZ BANK AG, Erste Group Bank AG, Landesbank Baden-Württemberg, and Norddeutsche Landesbank on the now completed full refinancing, which is part of a fundamental restructuring of Benteler Group. In the course of the restructuring of the financing, all existing components of the previously existing financing, with a total of almost 120 different financing partners, were transferred into a joint financing structure which is backed by a global security pool.

Benteler Group, a family-owned company with approximately 100 locations in almost 30 countries and about 28,000 employees worldwide, is one of the largest European automotive suppliers with total revenues of almost EUR 8 billion in 2019. The Group holding company is based in Salzburg, while the operating business is managed from two German division holding companies.

The NKF team was led by M&A/Finance partner Adrian Koller, working with junior associates Reto Seiler and Selim Lötscher (both M&A/Finance) as well as partner Markus Kronauer (Tax). Latham & Watkins acted as global lead counsel to the steering committee of the lenders of Benteler Group.