Gibson Dunn & Crutcher advised the consultant banking consortium for Asterion, while the Steag consortium was advised by Gleiss Lutz, CMS Hasche Sigle and Berner Fleck Wettich. The Dortmunder Stadtwerke was advised by Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Czechia’s EPH was advised by Hengeler Mueller, and private equity house EQT was advised by both Milbank and Rosin Büdenbender.
Asterion is an infrastructure specialist that manages around €5 billion worth of assets today. Half of its investments to date have been in the energy sector. With its acquisition of Steag, it further expands its presence in the Spanish, French, Italian and British energy markets, in addition to continuing the Ruhr region’s history of industrialisation. Steag (renamed Evonik by purchaser RAG Group in 2002) was once Germany’s largest producer of hard coal-fired power. In 2011, Evonik sold part of its portfolio to the KGSB municipal utility consortium. In addition to the Dortmunder Stadtwerke, which holds the largest share in Steag at 36%, the consortium includes as members the Duisburg, Bochum, Essen, Oberhausen and Dinslaken municipal utilities.
Asterion plans to develop Steag into a sustainable energy supplier, with a focus on significantly expanding its Iqony business through investments in green technologies. Earlier this year, the company was divided into two separate entities – Steag Power and Iqony – which specialise in coal-fired power generation and regenerative growth respectively. The deal is expected to be completed by the end of the year.
GÖRG advised the utility owners with a team comprising partners Dr Achim Compes, Dr Christoph Niemeyer, Dr Wolfgang König, Dr Martin Stockhausen, Dr Raul Taras, Dr Henning Wendt, Dr Ilka Mainz, Kristina Groß, Dr Adalbert Rödding and Dr Holger Dann, as well as associates Jana Ditter and Nilufar Djami.
