Freshfields advises RWE on financing of acquisition of Con Edison Clean Energy Businesses and issuance of mandatory convertible bond

Global law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer (‘Freshfields’) has provided comprehensive advice to RWE AG on the financing of the USD 6.8 billion (enterprise value) acquisition of Con Edison Clean Energy Businesses, Inc, the issuance of a mandatory convertible note to a subsidiary of the Qatar Investment Authority and the signing of an investor agreement.

The acquisition will initially be financed by a bridge loan, which will be partly refinanced by an equity measure of RWE AG.

The equity measure will take the form of the issuance of mandatory convertible bonds to the Qatar Investment Authority with an aggregate principal amount of approximately EUR 2.4 billion. Upon maturity, the mandatory convertible bonds will be converted into new no-par value bearer shares of RWE AG, which is expected to represent just under 10% of the current share capital of RWE AG and 9.09% after conversion. In this context, RWE AG has entered into an investor agreement with Qatar Holding LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Qatar Investment Authority, with customary provisions for anchor shareholders.

The Freshfields team comprised partners Rick van Aerssen, Andreas Fabritius (both Düsseldorf/Frankfurt), Nicholas Günther (Düsseldorf), (all Global Transactions), Mario Hüther (Finance, Frankfurt), Georg Roderburg (Tax, Düsseldorf), Ulrich Scholz (Düsseldorf), Frank Röhling (Berlin) and Aimen Mir (Washington) (all Regulatory), counsel Alexander Pospisil (Finance), Christina Zapf (Global Transactions) and Peter Stark (Tax, Frankfurt), special counsel Christine Laciak (Regulatory, Washington) as well as principal associates Mesut Korkmaz (Global Transactions) Daniel von Bülow (Frankfurt), associates, Lea Larissa Faltmann (Düsseldorf) (both Global Transactions), Julian Siegmund (Düsseldorf) and Paul Oscar Lehman (Berlin) (both Regulatory).