BDO AG Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft has advised RheinEnergie AG and Westenergie AG, a subsidiary

As an expert infrastructure partner for medium-sized and smaller municipal utilities, Westenergie supplies more than 6.6 million people in North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate and Lower Saxony with electricity, gas, water, and broadband internet. With a further 2.5 million people to supply, RheinEnergie, as the main energy and water service provider for the Rhineland region around Cologne, also bears responsibility for the supply of energy and drinking water. Thus, the company is one of the largest regional utilities in Germany with a majority municipal management.

As part of the closer partnership between RheinEnergie AG and Westenergie AG, both partners will transfer many shareholdings in various public utility companies into rhenag. In addition, rhenag – with its business as a modern regional utility provider – already bundles a large number of municipal utility holdings operating throughout Germany, focusing on regional development and services for smaller and medium-sized energy supply companies.

As a result of these plans, RheinEnergie would increase its stake in rhenag to more than 50 percent and thus obtain the majority of the shares. Furthermore, RheinEnergie would take over those shares in Stadtwerke Duisburg AG, which are currently held by Westenergie. In return, Westenergie’s share in RheinEnergie would increase from currently 20 percent to up to 24.9 percent.

In preparation of the project's implementation BDO provided services in the areas Corporate Finance and Transaction Tax. The work focused on company valuations of RheinEnergie AG, rhenag as well as of the shareholdings to be contributed as part of the project in order to determine the new share ratios within the framework of the planned transaction.

André Horn, Partner in the field of Corporate Finance and head of the industry sector group „Energy Sector“, said: “We are very pleased about having been able to take on an advisory role in this very complex and extensive project. We believe that cooperations like this are crucial to face the various challenges of the energy transition. This is why we are convinced to see further similar transactions in the market – and we at BDO have positioned ourselves in such a way that we are able to solve all the various and complex tasks for our clients.”

The following multidisciplinary BDO team worked on this project:

Financial Due Diligence / Valuation (Corporate Finance, BDO Hamburg)

• André Horn (Partner)
• Sebastian Schulz (Senior Manager)
• Stefan König (Senior Manager)
• Stefan Schmidt (Senior Manager)
• Martin Studier (Senior Manager)
• Matthias Mönckmeier (Senior Manager)
• Bernardo Riedel (Manager)
• Henrik Rüdiger Behr (Senior Consultant)
• Sven Breckwoldt (Senior Consultant)

Tax Due Diligence / Tax Model (Transaction Tax, BDO Düsseldorf):

• Dr. Michael Brauer (Partner)
• Christian Richter, LL.M. (Senior Manager)
• Philipp Baumeister (Manager)
• Peter Müller, LL.M. (Senior Consultant)