Flick Gocke Schaumburg advises binderholz on its expansion to the USA

Flick Gocke Schaumburg has advised the Austrian corporation Binder Beteiligungs AG on the acquisition of all assets of the US sawmills Klausner Lumber One LLC, Live Oak, Florida, and Klausner Lumber Two LLC, Enfield, North Carolina, coordinating the entire process with American partner firms Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP, New York, and Holland & Knight, Florida. The two sawmills were sold in an online auction. Bidding was open to interested parties that had previously submitted a qualifying bid with a negotiated purchase deal. Binder Beteiligungs AG outbid both Mercer Inc. and Mayr Melnhof Holz.

With the acquisition, family-owned binderholz emerges as the largest producer of sawn timber in Europe. With nine sawmills in Austria, Germany, Finland, and the US, binderholz has a capacity of around 8.5 million solid cubic meters of roundwood, from which 5 million m³ of sawn timber and 3.6 million m³ of solid wood products are produced.

Advisors to binderholz:
Flick Gocke Schaumburg (Hamburg): Dr. Fred Wendt, Christian Zimmermann (project co-leads); associates: Dr. Christoph Brünger, Dr. Benjamin Westermann (corporate, M&A).

At their former firm, Dr. Fred Wendt and Christian Zimmermann previously assisted binderholz with the acquisition of Klenk Holz AG from Carlyle by Binder Beteiligungs AG in 2017.

Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP (New York): Thomas Dunn (M&A), William Roegge (insolvency law, project co-leads), Alexander Gerten, Elena Falloon (both M&A)
Last year, Flick Gocke Schaumburg collaborated with Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP on numerous transactions with a US connection.

Holland & Knight (Florida): Lara Rios (corporate, finance), Jessica Hoch, Gavin Williams (both real estate), Lawrence Curtin (energy, environment, project co-leads), Stacy Watson May (real estate, environment), Lindsey Grubbs (real estate)

With 14 locations worldwide, the binderholz Group is a European leader in solid wood products and innovative building solutions. Following the start-up of the two sawmills in the US and with ongoing investments of EUR 1.5 billion at its European sites, the binderholz Group is set to achieve sales of EUR 1.5 billion for 2021/2022 and will increase its workforce to 3,500 employees.