Clifford Chance

Clifford Chance Prague advises a steering committee of the credit financiers regarding restructuring of the automotive supplier Benteler

Clifford Chance Prague advised a steering committee of the credit financiers, consisting of Commerzbank AG, DZ BANK AG, Erste Group Bank AG, Landesbank Baden-Württemberg and Norddeutsche Landesbank, regarding Czech law issues relating to the restructuring of the Benteler Group, one of the largest European automotive suppliers.

The restructuring, signed in December 2020 and closed in January 2021, consisted in full refinancing of the group's existing fragmented financing arrangements involving in total almost 120 different lenders and financing partners from various jurisdictions, which was transformed into a joint financing structure secured by a uniform pool of collateral shared among all lenders and financing partners.

Benteler Group is a family-owned company which employs approximately 28,000 workers in about 100 locations in almost 30 countries and is one of the largest European automotive suppliers as well as a major manufacturer of steel products and tubes for industry customers. With the group holding company based in Salzburg, Austria, the business operations are governed mainly from Paderborn, Germany, and extend to a number of other European countries, the USA and Asia. The group's total annual revenue amounted to approx. EUR 8 billion in 2019.

The Clifford Chance Prague team advising the lenders on the Czech law aspects of the restructuring is managed by Restructuring & Insolvency Associate Pavel Boguský, assisted primarily by Associate Tereza Řehořová and supervised by Banking & Finance Partner Miloš Felgr together with Of Counsel Tomáš Richter. Latham & Watkins acts as coordinating counsel to the steering committee on the entire restructuring.