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Clifford Chance advises Wintershall Holding GmbH on its EUR 6.45 billion financing for the combined business of Wintershall and DEA Deutsche Erdoel AG

7 May 2019

Clifford Chance advises Wintershall Holding GmbH on its EUR 6.45 billion financing for the combined business of Wintershall and DEA Deutsche Erdoel AG

International law firm Clifford Chance advised Wintershall Holding GmbH on its EUR4.6 billion and USD2.1 billion syndicated facilities agreement for the combined business of Wintershall and DEA Deutsche Erdoel AG.

Wintershall DEA will form the leading independent European exploration and production company with international activities in selected core regions. Crude oil and natural gas production at Wintershall and DEA amounted pro forma to a total of 210 million barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) in 2017; that corresponds to a daily production volume of around 575,000 BOE. Through this merger, the current shareholders BASF and LetterOne are laying the foundation for further profitable growth.

Clifford Chance advised from the early stages of the transaction and assisted in developing a structure suitable to the particular business needs of the combined business of Wintershall DEA taking into account the specifics of the exploration and production business. To that end Clifford Chance was able to draw from its global experience in advising on corporate investment grade financings as well as project and infrastructure financings (including in the oil and gas sector).

The Clifford Chance team comprised partner Bettina Steinhauer and senior associate Christoph Nensa (both Banking & Finance, Frankfurt) and was assisted by local Norwegian law firm Thommessen.