Flick Gocke Schaumburg advises Vattenfall on the sale of Vattenfall Wärme Berlin to the State of Berlin

In the sale of Vattenfall Wärme Berlin Aktiengesellschaft to the State of Berlin, Flick Gocke Schaumburg advised Vattenfall on all tax aspects of the transaction. The State of Berlin had prevailed in a bidding process and at the same time received the option to acquire Vattenfall’s shares in GASAG AG - irrespective of the sale of the heating business.

Currently a purchase price based on equity value is expected at approximately EUR 1.6 billion (the basis for the purchase price is an enterprise value of just below EUR 2 billion).

The sale is still subject to the approval of the Berlin parliament and merger control clearance by the Federal Cartel Office.

Advisors Vattenfall: Flick Gocke Schaumburg

Dr. Christian Pitzal, Dr. Florian Kutt, Dr. Andreas Erdbrügger, Dr. Karl Broemel; associates: Dr. Christian Vandersmissen, Stefan Schulz, Helena Thor, Julian zum Bruch (all tax)

The sale relates to the entire heating business in Berlin, including the subsidiaries of Vattenfall Wärme Berlin AG. The object of the sale is therefore all shares (100%) in Vattenfall Wärme Berlin AG and in particular the shares in its subsidiaries Fernheizwerk Neukölln AG, Berlin (80.80%), Vattenfall Energy Solutions GmbH and Energy Crops GmbH (both 100%).

Vattenfall’s heating business in Berlin employs around 1,700 people and supplies around 1.4 million residential units with hot water and heating. Vattenfall owns and operates 10 large-scale heat and combined heat and power plants in Berlin as well as 105 smaller block-type combined heat and power plants and various other facilities. The heating network has a total length of around 2,000 kilometres. <<<