TMC - Technology, Media & Communications

Berlin – As of May 1, 2024, Dr Kai Westerwelle joined CMS as a partner and strengthens the team headed by experienced CMS partners Dr Eckart Gottschalk and Dr Nicolas Wiegand, who will drive forward business development and marketing activities with US focus. Together, they will raise CMS’s profile as an international commercial law firm vis-à-vis US companies, US law firms and global corporations operating in the US and drive the expansion of the US business. Dr Kai Westerwelle is a Certified Specialist Lawyer for IT law and has more than 25 years of professional experience in leading European law firms in Germany. He has been based in Silicon Valley and San Francisco for almost ten years. There he has already successfully co-founded and scaled US offices of two major international law firms. He will now contribute his valuable experience in this area to CMS from his location in Silicon Valley. He specializes in IT and data protection law, tech transactions and international expansions. He mostly advises international clients, in particular US tech companies. Dr Eckart Gottschalk: "I am very pleased that with Dr Kai Westerwelle we have been able to attract a proven expert with many years of experience in the US market and excellent contacts in the USA." Dr Nicolas Wiegand added: "Together we will successfully expand our presence in the USA and the international advice we have been providing to US companies for many years."Press Con­tact presse@cms-hs. com

Hamburg – Vattenfall has sold 49% of its shares in the Nordlicht 1 and Nordlicht 2 wind farm projects to BASF. The wind farm zone consists of two separate sites and is located in the German section of the North Sea, around 85 kilometres north of the island of Borkum. The two sites, Nordlicht 1 and Nordlicht 2, have planned capacities of approximately 980 MW and 630 MW, respectively. Full commissioning is scheduled for 2028, when a total of around six terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity is expected to be generated per year, enough to power 1.6 million German households. This makes the Nordlicht wind project the biggest offshore wind farm project that Vattenfall has realised to date. Construction is expected to start in 2026, subject to the final investment decision. Vattenfall is acting as developer and builder of both Nordlicht sites.A CMS team headed by partners Dr Holger Kraft and Dr Jacob Siebert advised Vattenfall on all legal aspects of the transaction. Vattenfall and BASF signed a Memorandum of Understanding with regard to the joint project in December of last year, when the CMS team likewise advised Vattenfall. CMS Germany Dr Holger Kraft, Lead Partner Dr Jacob Siebert, Lead Part­ner Dorothée Janzen, Partner, Com­mer­cial Mat­thi­as Sethmann, Principal Counsel Dr Christoph Löffler, Counsel Dr Stefan Kühl, Senior Associate Dr Christian Seeburger, Associate, all Corporate/M&A Dr Niklas Ganssauge, Partner Mathias Cordero, Senior Associate, both Real Estate & Public Christoff Soltau, Partner Dr Denis Schlimpert, Counsel Dr Robert Bodewig, Senior Associate, all Antitrust, Competition & Trade Dr Kerstin Block, Partner, Banking & Finance Prof. Malte Grützmacher, Partner, TMC Dr Nikolas Gregor, Partner, Intellectual Prop­erty Se­basti­an Belz, Counsel Katja Meisel, Senior Associate Knut Göring-Tisch, Associate, all Public Dr Arne Burmester, Principal Counsel  Birgit Wagner, Legal Manager Shae Lynn Washington, Legal Co­ordin­at­or  Sarah Przybylski, Senior Legal Specialist Edris Trabzadah, Senior Legal Specialist Jule Marie Holz, Legal Specialist, all Smart OperationsPress Con­tact presse@cms-hs. com

Hamburg – MDAX-listed CTS Eventim AG & Co. KGaA, the number one provider of ticketing services in Europe and number two in the world, has today entered into a put option agreement with companies in the listed French media group Vivendi. This grants Vivendi the right to sell to CTS Eventim all the shares in the companies that are part of its festival and international ticketing activities. Vivendi will now conduct a consultation procedure with the relevant employee representative bodies so that it can decide on accepting the put option. Vivendi’s ticketing business includes See Tickets UK, the second-biggest ticketing firm in England, along with other companies in Europe and the US. These companies sold a total of around 44 million tickets in the 2023 financial year. The deal does not include the shares in Vivendi’s French ticketing company, See Tickets SAS. The festival business operated by Vivendi includes companies from England and France that organise festivals such as Junction 2 and Garorock. CMS advised CTS Eventim on all aspects of the transaction. The team headed by Henrik Drinkuth worked closely with several CMS offices in countries including France, England, Spain, Switzerland and the Netherlands. CMS Germany Dr Henrik Drinkuth, Lead Partner Dr Hendrik Quast, Senior Associate, both Corporate/M&A Prof. Malte Grützmacher, Partner, IT/Data Pro­tec­tion Chris­toff Soltau, Part­ner Al­ex­an­der Laute, Senior Associate, both Competition Dr Martin Gerecke, Partner, Media Law CMS France Alexandra Rohmert Vincent Desbenoit Dylan Allali, all Corporate/M&A Claire Van­nini  Guil­laume Melot, both Competition CMS UK John Enser, TMT Nick Crosbie  Jade Tran  Maria Doran, all Corporate/M&A CMS Spain Luis Miguel De Dios Jorge Peris Hevia, both Corporate/M&A and Commercial CMS Portugal Miguel Santos Ferreira, Corporate/M&A and Commercial CMS Switzerland Stefan Brunnsch­weiler An­drea Relly Anna Mast, all Corporate/M&A CMS Netherlands Elmer Veenman Bob Barnhoorn, both Corporate/M&A and CommercialPress Con­tact presse@cms-hs. com

Ham­burg/Stut­tgart – Main Street Capital Corporation, a publicly traded financial investor based in Houston, Texas, has acquired Maass Global Group through one of its portfolio companies, Gulf Manufacturing, LLC. The Essen-based company is a global leader in the manufacture and sale of flanges and forged specialty products, forged steel bars, seamless tubes and fittings made of duplex, stainless steel and high-nickel alloys. In addition to its headquarters in Essen, the Maas Global Group has further locations in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, India, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates.A CMS team led by Dr. Eckart Gottschalk and Dr. Kai Wallisch provided comprehensive legal advice to Main Street Capital Corporation on this transaction. In addition to corporate law advice, the focus was on the legal implementation of the financing. As part of the transaction, CMS Germany worked closely with CMS law firms from the Netherlands, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates as well as the American law firm Locke Lord and AZB & Partners from India. Main Street Capital Corporation is a publicly traded investment company with a market capitalization of approximately USD 3.9 billion. It specializes in long-term financing of middle-market companies in various industries through management buyouts, re­cap­it­al­iz­a­tions, growth financing and acquisitions. With the investment to acquire Maas Global Group, Main Street Capital Corporation is deepening its existing investment in the manufacturing of flanges, fittings and other specialty products for industrial applications. CMS Germany Dr. Eckart Gottschalk, Lead Partner Dr. Kai Wallisch, Lead Partner Dr. Paul Kintrup, Senior As­so­ci­ate Mil­itsa Decheva Petrova, Senior Associate Dr. Alexander Weinhold, Senior As­so­ci­ate Tjorben Drawe, Associate Sonja Schanze, As­so­ci­ate Kath­rin Dengel, Associate, all Corporate/M&A Dr. Marc Seibold, Partner Anne Waßmuth, Counsel Carla Kaeber, Associate, all Banking & Finance Dr. Hans Fabian Kiderlen, Principal Counsel Theresa Friedle, Associate, both Real Estate & Public Dr. Michael Kraus, Partner Thomas Fröhlich, Counsel, both TMC Dr. Jacob Hinze, Counsel, Employment Law Dr. Martin Mohr, Partner, Tax Christoff Henrik Soltau, Partner Dr. Robert Bodewig, Senior Associate, both Antitrust, Competition & Trade Kai Neuhaus, Partner Moritz Pottek, Counsel, both Brussel EU Law Office CMS Netherlands Roman Tarlavski, Partner Maarten Feenstra, Associate Fleur Assendelft de Coningh, Associate Anne Fleur Krijthe, Candidate civil law notary CMS Singapore Toby Grainger, Partner Leslie Tay, Associate CMS UAE Patrik Daintry, Partner Fawzi Oueidat, Associate Locke Lord Greg Heath, Partner Nicholas Jennings, Partner Jason Ulezalka, Partner Case Towslee, Associate Jake Chagoury, Associate Mason Marek, Associate AZB & Partners Srinath Dasari, Senior Partner Gautam Rego, Partner Yash Anand, Associate Gopika Menon, AssociatePress Con­tact presse@cms-hs. com