Mandate

Gleiss Lutz advises Rickmers on the sale of its ship management activities to a consortium made up of, among others, the Zeaborn Group and Mr. Bertram R.C. Rickmers

Gleiss Lutz advised Rickmers Holding AG and the other companies of the Rickmers Group on the sale of its global ship management activities at its main sites in Hamburg, Singapore and Cyprus to a consortium including, among others, the Bremen shipping company Zeaborn and the sole shareholder of Rickmers Holding AG, Mr. Bertram R.C. Rickmers. The purchase agreement was signed on 7 September 2017. The creditors’ committee of Rickmers Holding AG approved of the transaction on 6 September 2017. Closing of the transaction is subject to merger control clearance. The sale followed an intense bidding competition in which the consortium prevailed over several other bidders.  

The Rickmers Group is an international service provider in the maritime transport sector and a container ship owner with a global customer base. The Group, with its head office in Hamburg, operates a fleet of 114 vessels (as at 31 December 2016). Rickmers Holding AG filed for insolvency on 1 June 2017. After that the operational shipping and business activities of the Rickmers Group were steadily continued under provisional self-administration.  

Gleiss Lutz has been advising the group on its financial restructuring since mid-2016. The initial plan was to restructure financial liabilities without entering into insolvency proceedings, by means of a “debt push-up” among other things. It was not possible to implement the restructuring due to a lack of approval by the creditors. Gleiss Lutz is also advising the Rickmers Group on an ongoing basis on all corporate, insolvency, capital market and tax-related issues in connection with the restructuring.  

Led by Dr. Urszula Nartowska (partner, corporate/M&A, Hamburg), Gleiss Lutz provided extensive advice on the transaction. The following lawyers advised Rickmers Holding AG: Dr. Matthias Tresselt (partner, restructuring, Stuttgart), Dr. Stefan Mayer (partner, tax, Frankfurt), Dr. Johann Wagner (partner, tax, Hamburg), Dr. Marc Seeger, Dr. Alexander Nagel, Alexander Kebernik (all corporate/M&A, Düsseldorf), Pamela Victoria Horn (corporate/M&A, Hamburg), Dr. Moritz Holm-Hadulla (partner, competition/antitrust, Berlin) and Dr. Christoph Stock (competition/antitrust, Stuttgart). Gleiss Lutz worked together with partner law firms in several jurisdictions.  

Kirsten Gronau and Markus Heischmann from Rickmers Holding AG’s in-house legal team also assisted extensively with the Transaction.

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