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Gleiss Lutz advises on Billion-euro Transaction in the Semiconductor Industry

Netherlands-based ASML Holding NV, one of the world's leading chip industry equipment providers, and Germany-based Carl Zeiss SMT, a business group of Carl Zeiss AG (ZEISS), have agreed to strengthen their long-standing and successful partnership in the semiconductor lithography business. The main objective of this agreement is to facilitate the development of the future generation of Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) lithography systems due in the first few years of the next decade. This technology will enable the semiconductor industry to produce much higher performance microchips at lower costs.

ZEISS and ASML jointly announce today, that they have agreed on a 24.9% minority stake of ASML in ZEISS’s subsidiary Carl Zeiss SMT, for which ASML will pay ZEISS EUR 1 billion in cash. In addition, the two companies have also agreed that ASML will support Carl Zeiss SMT`s research and development (R&D) for approximately EUR 220 million as well as capital expenditures and other supply chain investments for approximately EUR 540 million over the next 6 years.

ASML is a key supplier of semiconductor patterning products and services used by the world`s top producers of microchips. With its high-performance optics Carl Zeiss SMT supplies an essential subsystem of ASML´s semiconductor lithography scanners and is ASML`s most important strategic partner. ASML and Carl Zeiss SMT have been in close partnership for more than 30 years.

Gleiss Lutz advised ASML on all legal aspects of its acquisition of a shareholding in Carl Zeiss SMT. The Gleiss Lutz team headed by Dr. Patrick Kaffiné, Dr. Detlef Bauer (both partner, Frankfurt) and Dr. Christian Cascante (partner, Stuttgart) (all lead, all corporate/M&A) also included the following lawyers:

Dr. Jörn Wöbke (partner, Hamburg), Dr. Rüdiger Schmidt-Bendun, Dr. Konstantin von Dryander, Vanessa Carduck (all Frankfurt) (all corporate/M&A), Dr. Eva Reudelhuber (partner), Yana Koch (both banking and finance, Frankfurt), Dr. Simon Wagner (Stuttgart), Dr. Micha Christopher Pfarr (Berlin) (both commercial), Dr. Tobias Johannes Abend (employment, Frankfurt), Dr. Herwig Lux (counsel, Stuttgart), Dr. Matthias Werner (counsel, Munich) (both IP/IT), Dr. Jacob von Andreae (partner), Dr. Eva Koch (both public law, Düsseldorf), Dr. Philipp Naab (counsel, real estate, Frankfurt), Dr. Stefan Mayer (partner), Dr. Ocka Stumm (both tax, Frankfurt), Dr. Wolfgang Bosch (partner), Sergej Bräuer (both merger control, Frankfurt).

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