Dr. Hans-Georg Schulze
Biography
“Excellent work […] particularly impressive”
Overview
Hans-Georg is a Co-Lead of the German Energy & Infrastructure Team. He is specialised in advising on national and international energy and infrastructure transactions and project developments. He advises clients in the areas of Mergers & Acquisitions, Corporate Law and Contractual Law. His expertise includes the advice of complex strategic domestic and cross-border M&A transactions as well as on joint ventures and strategic carve-outs. He further actively supports companies legally and strategically in their international growth plans.
In recent years, he has been the lead advisor on a number of large transactions where he acted on the seller's as well as the buyer's side. Apart from his current focus on the renewables sector, the energy transition and low/no-carbon energy assets, Hans-Georg has advised on a wide range of transactions and projects covering the entire energy industry including oil & gas, LNG, energy storage (e.g. oil, gas, hydrogen and power/battery), energy trading, nuclear phaseout, battery recycling, grid network expansion (e.g. power, gas, hydrogen), mining and metals (e.g. energy sources and battery components). In addition, he is often involved in new technologies such as energy-tech products (e.g. software and SaaS applications), innovative power plant and new grid projects.
In addition, Hans-Georg has substantial experience in the infrastructure and infrastructure-tech sector, in particular in the telecoms sector (e.g. internet broadband grid/technology and mobile networks), the transport sector (e.g. airplanes, airports, logistics, micro mobility) and the defense sector (e.g. multinational defense agreements, legal protection of key defense assets for the public sector, cybersecurity).
Hans-Georg has about 20 years of experience in advising in the Energy & Infrastructure sector. Before joining White & Case in 2018, he worked for several years for leading law firms in Berlin, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, London and Paris. He teaches Mergers & Acquisitions at the university of Leipzig for the Master of International Energy Economics and Business Administration program.
Besides his activity as lawyer, Hans-Georg is a civil law notary with seat in Berlin, Germany covering all areas that require notarization.
Experience
Energy transactions and projects
Schneider Electric
Advised Schneider Electric, the leader in the digital transformation of energy management and automation, on the sale of its telemecanique business to YAGEO corporation for an enterprise value of approx. USD 729 million.
Fluxys S.A.
Advised Fluxys S.A., an independent infrastructure group headquarted in Belgium, on the acquisition of n the acquisition of Macquarie Asset Management's stake in Open Grid Europe (OGE), the largest transmission system operator in Germany.
Ecobat Technologies
Advised Ecobat Technolgies, a world leader in the produciton of lead, lead alloys and the recycling of lead batteries, on the sale of its lead smelter and battery recycling activities located in Stolberg, Germany, to Trafigura.
Institutional investors advised by the Global Infrastructure group at J.P. Morgan Asset Management
Representation of institutional investors advised by the Global Infrastructure group at J.P. Morgan Asset Management, on its acquisition of GETEC, one of Europe's leading sustainable energy service companies for real estate and industrial customers.
EWE AG
Advising EWE AG, one of Germany's largest municipal enterprises, on the establishment of a joint venture with the Aloys Wobben Stiftung, major shareholder of the wind turbine manufacturer ENERCON, for the operation, planning and development of wind farms. This includes the transfer of all major wind farms and pipeline projects owned by both joint venture partners to the joint venture with the goal to become one of the leading green energy providers in Germany and France with a total investment volume of EUR 4 billion by 2030.
Next Kraftwerke, Eneco, HTGF, Neuhaus Ventures
Advising the founders, several business angels and Eneco, Hight-Tech Gründerfonds and Neuhaus Ventures as shareholders of Next Kraftwerke, an operator of a virtual renewable energy power plant and one of the top 100 global cleantech enterprises, on the sale of 100% of their shares to Shell Overseas Investment B.V.
EWE AG
Advising EWE AG, one of Germany's largest municipal enterprises, and the Ems-Weser-Elbe Versorgungs- und Entsorgungsverband, an alliance formed of 21 cities and districts in the Ems/Weser/Elbe region, on the sale of 26% of the shares in EWE AG to the infrastructure investor ARDIAN.
CDC Infrastructure
Advised French CDC Infrastructure on the acquisition of a stake in the off-shore windfarm Butendiek from Marguerite Fund.*
Blackstone
Advised on the sale of the off-shore windfarm Meerwind for more than €1 billion to China Three Georges.*
Orsted (formerly Dong Energy)
Advised Orsted on project development agreements regarding the construction of wind farms in Germany as well as on regulatory matters relating to its energy trading activities.*
Infrastructure, Transportation & Logistics transactions and projects
E.ON SE
Advised E.ON on establishing a joint venture with Igneo Infrastructure Partners for the roll-out of high-speed broadband infrastructure in Germany. To this end, Igneo has acquired a 50% stake in Westenergie Breitband GmbH, a wholly owned subsidiary of E.ON SE.
DIC Corp
Advised DIC Corp., a Japanese fine chemicals company, and its US subsidiary Sun Chemical Corp., on DIC's proposed acquisition of BASF's global pigments business, known as BASF Colors & Effects (BCE). The purchase price on a cash and debt-free basis is 1.15 billion Euro.
Cesium Astro
Advised Cesium Astro, an U.S. based producer of communications modules, payloads and satellites for space and airborne applications, on its expansion to Europe.
Softbank & Mubadala
Advised SoftBank Vision Fund II & Mubadala Capital on their Series B and C financing rounds investments in the microbility start-up Tier Mobility as well as Tier Mobiliy's expansion into the U.S. and Italian markets.
Basalt Infrastructure Partners
Advised Basalt Infrastructure Partners on its acquisition of bn:t Blatzheim Networks Telecom GmbH and SOCO Network Solutions GmbH, full-service telecommunications providers based in Germany.
TUI travel plc
Advised TUI travel PLC on its merger with TUI AG in the volume of about 5.8 billion Euro.
Federal Republic of Germany
Advised the Federal Republic of Germany on its entry through Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW) as major shareholder of the Airbus group (formerly EADS) and the reorganization of the shareholder consortium consisting of the states of Germany, France and Spain as well as formerly Daimler and Lagardère that held an interest in the value of 3.75 billion Euro of Airbus.*
Norbert Dentressangle
Advised Norbert Dentressangle, a leading French logistic business, on the acquisition logistic business in Spain, Portugal and Italy from Fiege.*
Tui Travel
Advised Tui Travel on its strategic alliance with Air Berlin and TUIfly including the lease of 34 aircrafts and an equal share exchange of 19.9% of all shares between both air carriers.*
Celesio
Advised Celesio on the joint sale with Sanacorp of their shares in Alliance Boots.*
* Matters prior to working for White & Case.
Introduction of a delegation system to avoid risks of civil and criminal liability for managers, NJW, p. 3484-3488, 2014
Legal challenges for the car sharing business, BB, p. 195-202, 2013
Federal Court of Justice – Formal requirements for the publication of reports of the German supervisory board (BGH, decision of 21 June 2010 II ZR 24/09) In: BB, p. 212, 2011
(Dis)appearance of the Mac clause. In: IFLR, Section for Germany, 1 March 2011, co-author with Ralf Thaeter
Hans-Georg: Transactions between a company and its board members – A legal comparison between the laws of England, France and Germany, Vol. 29, Series on Corporate and Capital Markets Law, 2010
Best Lawyer Germany in Energy Law, Handelsblatt 2023
