Ashurst advised Benteler Group on comprehensive refinancing and restructuring

Ashurst, led by Munich-based restructuring partner Alexander Ballmann, advised Benteler Group comprehensively as global lead legal counsel in connection with the now completed full refinancing, which is in turn part of a fundamental restructuring of Benteler Group. The basis of the refinancing is a restructuring agreement, and a restructuring opinion prepared by PricewaterhouseCoopers, under inclusion of the shareholders, as well as a restructuring loan agreement (including a Fresh Money Tranche). In the course of the new structuring of the financing, all existing components of the financing, including special financings and promissory notes, with a total of almost 120 different financing partners, were transferred into a joint financing structuring which is backed by a security pool.

Benteler Group had already launched an operational restructuring programme in its two divisions Automotive and Steel/Tube in 2018 due to the negative developments in the global automotive market. As a result of the Covid-19 crisis, the Group had to significantly intensify its restructuring efforts once again at the beginning of 2020. Ashurst worked closely with CEO Ralf Göttel, CRO Dr. Arno Haselhorst and CFO Frank Jehle on the restructuring and refinancing.

In addition to the large number of financing partners involved, the challenges of the refinancing lay in particular in the complexity of the group and financing structure with almost 30 jurisdictions involved and the challenge of completing a highly complex global refinancing process in a tight time frame so as not to jeopardise the stability of the Benteler Group.

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. Of the total revenue of almost EUR 8 billion in 2019, approximately 85% was generated by the automotive division, with the remaining approximately 15% coming from the second main pillar, the production of steel products and tubes for industry customers. The Group holding company is based in Salzburg, while the operating business is managed from the two German division holding companies Benteler Automobiltechnik GmbH and Benteler Steel/Tube GmbH, both based in Paderborn. In addition to Germany, Benteler's main locations are China, the USA, France, Spain and the Czech Republic. 

The Ashurst core team consisted of Alexander Ballmann (Lead Partner, Restructuring), Dr. Karsten Raupach (Partner, Restructuring/Financing), Dr. Matthias Weissinger (Partner, Financing), Dr. Thomas Sacher (Partner, Corporate, Client Relationship Partner), Dr. Martin Kaiser (Partner, Structured Finance, Frankfurt), Dr. Anders Kraft (Partner, Tax, Frankfurt), Dr. Nicolas Nohlen (Partner, Litigation, Frankfurt), Anna Geissler (Lead Senior Associate, Restructuring), Dr. Dorothea Tachezy (Counsel, Restructuring), Dr. Sahra Demirbilek (Counsel, Finance, Frankfurt), Christiane Bestgen (Counsel, Finance, Munich), Friederike Nolde (Senior Associate, Restructuring), Christian Sotta (Senior Associate, Tax), Felicia Illbruck (Associate, Restructuring), Julia Kreuzer (Associate, Litigation), Dr. Ralf Stenger (Associate, Global Loans), and Ena Selimbegovic (Transaction Manager).

In addition, Ashurst offices in New York, Madrid, Paris and London were involved.

Ashurst was supported in Austrian law matters by Schönherr Rechtsanwälte GmbH in Vienna (Lead Partners: Peter Konwitschka (Corporate), Martin Ebner (Finance) and Wolfgang Höller (Restructuring)). Schönherr also provided support in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary through their respective local offices.