Noerr advises Aurelius and VAG on reorganisation of global group financing

A Noerr team under the remit of Andreas Naujoks and Dorian Legel has advised Aurelius Alpha Invest GmbH and VAG Holding GmbH on their global group financing, which was provided by a banking syndicate.

The VAG Group supplies valves and solutions for the water and wastewater industries and water control applications worldwide. VAG’s valves are installed in reservoirs, dams, waterworks, drinking water networks, wastewater and other systems. Its shareholder is the Aurelius Group, which took over the VAG Group from the US-based Rexnord Corporation in 2018. Aurelius was advised by Noerr and a team led by Christian Pleister during the acquisition of the VAG Group.

The three syndicate banks LBBW, OLB and RBI will be providing Aurelius with credit facilities worth a total of €65,000,000 that can be used for general business purposes and strategic acquisitions, etc.

The transaction was especially complex due to the need to strategically coordinate law firms in China, South Africa, the Czech Republic and the USA as well as in other jurisdictions where VAG has branches that are also to be financed using the funds raised. Together with the local lawyers, the team from Noerr supervised the borrower due diligence, security structuring process, negotiation of the transaction documents and downstream registrations of security in the foreign jurisdictions.

Advisors to Aurelius / VAG: Noerr Partnerschaftsgesellschaft mbB

Lead: Andreas Naujoks (partner), Dorian Legel (associated partner, Banking & Finance, Frankfurt)

Banking & Finance
Martina Buller, Hannes Butz (senior associates, Frankfurt)
Luděk Chvosta (associated partner), Filip Murár (senior associate), Barbora Šafaříková (associate, Prague)

Employment & Pensions
Johannes Allmendinger (senior associate, Frankfurt)

Compliance & Internal Investigations
Frederike Heitmann (associate, Frankfurt)

Corporate/M&A
Uwe Brendler (associated partner), Hans Kenschke (associate, Dresden)

Real Estate Investment Group
Manuel Lomb (associated partner), Isabell Wunder (senior associate, Munich)

Tax
Elisabeth Dworschak (associated partner, Munich)

Liability & Insurance
Kathrin Nordmeier (counsel, Frankfurt)

Healthcare
Evelyn Schulz (partner), Jan Dinter (senior associate, Dresden)

Chinese law
Zhong Lun Law Firm

South-African law
Werksmans Attorneys

US law
Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders LLP