Gleiss Lutz has been advising Showa Denko K.K. (SDK) on the successful sale of the graphite electrodes business of SGL GE Holding GmbH (SGL GE) in the US to Tokai Carbon Co., Ltd. The transaction was carried out by way of an auction and governed by German law. The underlying corporate value amounts to around USD 150 million.
SGL GE Holding GmbH is the owner of the graphite electrodes business of the SGL Carbon Group (SGL). Back in October 2016, SDK, one of the leading chemical companies in Japan, concluded an agreement to take over SGL’s global graphite electrodes business. This agreement was now executed on 2 October 2017. Gleiss Lutz had advised SDK on this transaction as well.
The US cartel authorities made their approval of the takeover of SGL’s global graphite electrodes business by SDK subject to the sale of SGL GE’s US sites. With the takeover, SDK has acquired production sites for graphite electrodes in Europe and Southeast Asia in addition to its already existing sites in Japan, the US and China.
Showa Denko is a chemical company with more than ten thousand employees and operates in the chemical, petrochemical, electronics, aluminium, battery materials and inorganics sectors. Established in 1939, it is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan and listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The Gleiss Lutz team headed by Dr. Michael Burian (lead, partner, corporate/M&A, Stuttgart) included the following lawyers: Dr. Martin Lembke (counsel, corporate/M&A, Stuttgart), Dr. Rüdiger Schmidt-Bendun, Dr. Michael Ilter (both corporate/M&A, Frankfurt), Alexandra Brücher, Dr. Christopher Vogl, (both corporate/M&A, Stuttgart), Dr. Alexander Molle (counsel), Hannah Bug, (both IP/IT, Berlin), Dr. Johann Wagner (partner), Dr. Jens Wrede (both tax, both Hamburg), Dr. Petra Linsmeier (partner, competition/antitrust, Munich), Dr. Eva Reudelhuber (partner, finance, Frankfurt).
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