Munich/Frankfurt am Main — Allen & Overy LLP has advi­sed French energy group ENGIE in connec­tion with the conclu­sion of an agree­ment to acquire Mobi­sol, a pioneer in off-grid solar systems. With this acqui­si­tion, ENGIE is expan­ding its decen­tra­li­zed energy offe­ring in Africa. The tran­sac­tion is still subject to appr­oval by the rele­vant regu­la­tory authorities.

Foun­ded in 2011, Mobi­sol has more than 500 employees and appro­xi­m­ately 1,200 instal­lers as contrac­tors. The company has instal­led more than 150,000 resi­den­tial solar systems in Tanz­a­nia, Rwanda and Kenya, provi­ding clean, relia­ble energy to more than 750,000 people in sub-Saha­ran Africa.

With the acqui­si­tion of Mobi­sol, ENGIE, which is alre­ady present in six count­ries through its subsi­diary Fenix Inter­na­tio­nal, active in the field of solar instal­la­ti­ons for house­holds, will offer solar instal­la­ti­ons in three more count­ries. In addi­tion, Mobi­sol is active in the field of products for commer­cial appli­ca­ti­ons. Combi­ned with Fenix’s inclu­sive resi­den­tial solar systems, this will allow ENGIE to offer an unpre­ce­den­ted range of afforda­ble energy products and reach custo­mers in both rural and urban areas.

The Allen & Overy team was led by part­ners Dr. Alex­an­der Veith (Corporate/M&A, Munich), Alex­andre Ancel (M&A, Paris) and Peter Hoegen (Restructuring/Insolvency, Frank­furt). They were supported by senior asso­cia­tes Dr. Chris­to­pher Kranz (Restructuring/Insolvency, Frank­furt) and Ralph Sala­meh (Corporate/M&A, Paris), asso­cia­tes Linda Mayer (Corporate/M&A, Munich), Clau­dia Di Paolo (Corporate/M&A, Paris), Oliver Köhler (Restructuring/Insolvency, Frank­furt) and Sean Magner (Banking and Finance, Johannesburg).

The team also included Coun­sel Dr. René Galle (Anti­trust, Hamburg), Richard Qiang (Corpo­rate, Beijing), Asso­cia­tes Anna Kräling (IP, Düssel­dorf), Dr. Lisa Müller (Labor, Frank­furt), Lewis Weaver (Corporate/M&A, London), Chao­hui Liang (Corpo­rate, Beijing), Jasmine Norris (Banking and Finance, London), Hasan Kaya and Simon König (Real Estate, Frankfurt).

Advi­sor Mobi­sol: Dentons

Allen & Overy
Allen & Overy is an inter­na­tio­nal law firm with appro­xi­m­ately 5,500 employees, inclu­ding appro­xi­m­ately 550 part­ners, in 44 offices world­wide. Allen & Overy is repre­sen­ted in Germany at its offices in Düssel­dorf, Frank­furt am Main, Hamburg and Munich with appro­xi­m­ately 220 lawy­ers, inclu­ding 47 part­ners. The lawy­ers advise leading natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal compa­nies prima­rily in the areas of banking, finance and capi­tal markets law, corpo­rate law and M&A, tax law as well as other areas of busi­ness law.