Watson Farley & Williams (“WFW”) has advised BayWa r.e. AG (“BayWa r.e.”) on the sale of its bioenergy platform BayWa r.e. Bioenergy GmbH (“BayWa r.e. Bioenergy”), which owns five operational assets in Germany and a pipeline of projects currently under development in Italy. BayWa r.e. Bioenergy was sold to Macquarie Asset Management’s Green Investment Group (GIG), via its Macquarie GIG Energy Transition Solutions fund.
With the EU’s goal of achieving climate neutrality by 2050, Germany’s aim to become greenhouse gas neutral by 2045 and emissions-negative in 2050, as well as Italy’s goal to generate 30% of its energy demand from renewable energy sources by 2030, this is an important and strategic disposal for Europe’s expanding biomethane sector.
BayWa r.e. is a leading global renewable energy developer, service provider, distributor and energy solutions provider with revenues of almost €3.6bn and a presence in 29 countries worldwide. It is part of the BayWa Group, a family of globally successful businesses founded in 1923 that specialises in trading, logistics and services within the agriculture, energy and building materials markets. BayWa r.e. Bioenergy specialises in the development, construction and operation of biogas plants.
The WFW Hamburg team advising BayWa r.e. was led by Partner Marcus Bechtel and comprised of Partners Carolin Woggon (Corporate/Energy), Christine Bader (Regulatory), Verena Scheibe (Tax), Andreas Wiegreffe (Employment), Sebastian Baum (Real Estate) and Malte Jordan (Corporate/Energy). They were assisted by Employment Managing Associate Nora Fleischhauer, Finance Senior Associate Marie-Theres Recifo, Corporate/Energy Associates Tarek Fadl, Cathleen Haack, and Sarah-Sophie Jacob, Tax Associate Manuel Rustler, Employment Associate Lena Kleene and Corporate Transaction Lawyer Stefanie Igl.
They worked closely throughout the transaction with a WFW Italy corporate team comprising Partner Tiziana Manenti, Senior Associate Cristina Betti, Associates Antimo Rocco Nersita and Trainee Maria Concetta Molica, as well as Dispute Resolution Associate Anthony Bellacci.
Marcus commented: “We are pleased to have advised such a long-standing client as BayWa r.e. on this important transaction given the ongoing development of the European biomethane market. This deal highlights our expertise advising on complex corporate transactions in the renewables sector across multiple service lines and jurisdictions”.
Deutsche Cleantech GmbH acted as Financial Advisor to BayWa r.e.
