Global law firm Clifford Chance has assisted the Austrian B&C Group to obtain a payout of €120 million under a Warranty & Indemnity (W&I) insurance policy in connection with the enforcement of claims against various insurance companies.
Underlying the payout are disputes following the acquisition of the Austrian packaging manufacturer Schur Flexibles, in which B&C acquired a stake in 2021 but then sold the shares in 2022 after serious irregularities were discovered in the balance sheets for previous years as well as gross misconduct by former managers. Criminal proceedings were then initiated against the former members of Schur’s management for various criminal offences. B&C is continuing to pursue the resulting damages against the sellers of Schur Flexibles and under other existing warranty insurance policies.
The payment of €120 million, contributed to by the W&I insurers Riskpoint Group (as syndicate leader for seven other insurers) and Liberty Global Transaction Solutions as excess insurer, is the largest ever recorded under a W&I policy in the EMEA region. Specialist insurance broker Howden M&A was responsible for the so-called ‘insurance tower’, an arrangement whereby insurance policies are stacked one above the other, with the next layer only coming into effect once the insurance cover of the previous layer has been exhausted. Insurance law expert Corinna Baltzer (Baltzer Legal) also acted as co-counsel to Clifford Chance.
The B&C Group is also pursuing further claims in the same context against another W&I insurer and against the sellers.
The Clifford Chance team advising B&C was led by partner Paul Hauser and comprised of counsel Uwe Hornung, senior counsel Peter Burckhardt, senior associate Azal Khan, senior knowledge management lawyer Caroline Kittelmann, senior associate Polina Lehmann, associate Lara Junge (all Litigation & Dispute Resolution, Frankfurt) and associate Karen Laik (Litigation & Dispute Resolution, Paris), partner Stefan Sax, counsel Martin Jawansky and associate Konstantin Kirchner (all Restructuring & Insolvency, Frankfurt).
