Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-r6qrq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T10:33:42.018Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Aussenwirtschaftsrecht and corporate investments in Germany – new hurdles for foreign investors

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 March 2019

Rüediger Theiselmann

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The new Aussenwirtschaftsrecht generates new insecurity with regards to M&A transactions: On the one hand every industry may be affected by a prohibition, whereas certain sectors (telecommunications, energy incl. oil or natural gas, universal postal services, railway nets, banks, pharmaceutical industry or chemicals industry) are presumably of special importance. On the other hand, vendors should preventively ask any potential buyers from abroad but also German based prospects (given the fact that external investors could be one of their main shareholders) for a written declaration that they comply with the new law or that they have received an Unbedenklichkeitsbescheinigung from the BMWi. Additionally, investors from outside the EU or EFTA seeking to purchase of at least 25 percent of a German enterprise should consider an Unbedenklichkeitsbescheinigung at an early stage, ideally in combination with passing on the complete transaction files to the BMWi. Only in this way is a high level of legal and transaction safety possibly achieved. Conversely, investors prepared to risk of prohibtion and considering the intended purchase as unproblematic should desist from an announcement to the BMWi but bear in mind that the BaFin or the Bundeskartellamt could inform the BMWi, thereby triggering an assessment.

Due to the new law, the BMWi will get an improved overview of planned or ongoing M&A transactions in Germany, given that many investors or vendors will apply for an Unbedenklichkeitsbescheinigung as a precaution. But the German state gains this increased level of regulation only through significant administrative efforts.

Type
Developments
Information
German Law Journal , Volume 10 , Issue 11 , 01 November 2009 , pp. 1495 - 1503
Copyright
Copyright © 2009 by German Law Journal GbR 

References

1 Purchase of a stake in Howaldtswerke Deutsche Werft AG (submarines) by One Equity Partner and disposal of MTU Aero Engines (engine manufacturer) by DaimlerChrysler to KKR; see also Marc-Philippe Weller, Zeitschrift fuer Wirtschaftsrecht (ZIP) 857, 861 (2008).Google Scholar

2 Heinz Schulte, Marine-Forum 12, 2 (2003).Google Scholar

2 Christoph Seibt, Bernward Wollenschlaeger, Unternehmenstransaktionen mit Auslandsbezug, ZIP 833, 835 (2009)Google Scholar

3 Hartmut Krause, Die Novellierung des Aussenwirtschaftsgesetzes und ihre Auswirkungen auf M&A-Transaktionen mit auslaendischen Investoren, Betriebs-Berater (BB) 1082, 1083 (2009).Google Scholar

4 BT-Drucks. 16/10730, 15, 6.Google Scholar

5 Seibt, Wollenschlaeger, (note 3) 833, 835.Google Scholar

6 Oliver von Rosenberg, Juliane Hilf, Martin Kleppe, Protektion statt offener Maerkte?, Betriebs-Berater, BB 831, 832 (2009); Rainer Traugott, Philipp Struempell, Die Novelle des AWG: Neue Regeln fuer den Unternehmenskauf durch auslaendische Investoren, Aktiengesellschaft (AG) 186, 190 (2009).Google Scholar

7 Rüediger Theiselmann, Family Corporations Focus on International Capital Markets: The German KGaA and Its implications for Entrepreneurs and Investors, Deutsch Amerikanische Juristen Vereinigung-Newsletter 23 (2009).Google Scholar

8 Traugott, Struempell, (note 6), 186, 191.Google Scholar

9 Begr. RegE, BT-Drucks. 16/10730, 12 f.Google Scholar

10 EuGH, 4 June 2002 – Rs. C-367/98, Slg. 2002, I-4731 fn 52.Google Scholar

11 EuGH, 2 June 2005 – Rs. C-174/04, Slg. 2005, I-4933 fn 40; EuGH, 13 May 2003 – Rs. C-463/00, Slg. 2003, I-4581 fn 71; EuGH, 4 June 2002 – Rs. C-503/99, Slg. 2002, I-4809 fn 46.Google Scholar

12 Krause, (note 4) BB 1082, 1084.Google Scholar

13 Seibt, Wollenschlaeger, (note 3) AG, 833, 839.Google Scholar

14 Traugott, Struempell, (note 6), 186, 192.Google Scholar

15 Seibt, Wollenschlaeger, (note 3), 833, 834.Google Scholar

16 Rolf Mueller, Hermann Hempel, Aenderungen des Aussenwirtschaftsrechts zur Kontrolle auslaendischer Investoren, Neue Juristische Wochenschrift 1638, 1639 (2009).Google Scholar

17 Rüediger Theiselmann, CORPORATE FINANCE RECHT FUER FINANZMANAGER 10 (2009).Google Scholar

18 Mueller, Hempel, (note 18), 1638, 1641.Google Scholar