Munich — Private equity inves­tor Altor has acqui­red a majo­rity stake of 80% in Kommu­nal­kre­dit Austria AG on behalf of Altor Funds. Altor will part­ner with the bank’s exis­ting owners and manage­ment. — Inter­na­tio­nal law firm Clif­ford Chance advi­sed Altor on behalf of Altor Funds on the signing of the agree­ment to acquire a majo­rity stake of 80% in Kommu­nal­kre­dit Austria AG.

Altor will support Kommu­nal­kre­dit with addi­tio­nal capi­tal to conti­nue its growth trajec­tory and become the leading sustainable infra­struc­ture plat­form in Europe. The exis­ting long-term share­hol­ders, Inter­ri­tus, Trinity Invest­ment Manage­ment and the Austrian Asso­cia­tion of Muni­ci­pa­li­ties, will remain mino­rity shareholders.

Kommu­nal­kre­dit was foun­ded in 1958 and is a provi­der of finan­cing solu­ti­ons for infra­struc­ture and energy projects throug­hout Europe. Head­quar­te­red in Austria and with a team of 350 full-time employees, Kommu­nal­kre­dit has become a leading specia­list infra­struc­ture bank, finan­cing some 200 projects over the past seven years with a focus on green trans­for­ma­tion and rene­wa­ble energy. With total assets of EUR 4.4 billion, Kommu­nal­kre­dit is expec­ted to gene­rate net inte­rest income of around EUR 120 million in 2022, repre­sen­ting an impres­sive annual growth rate of over 50% in recent years.

Altor Equity Part­ners is a private equity firm focu­sed on lever­a­ged buyouts and growth capi­tal invest­ments in Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway and the DACH region. Since their incep­tion, Altor funds have recei­ved a total of more than 10 billion euros in commit­ments. The funds are inves­ted in more than 85 mid-sized, predo­mi­nantly Nordic compa­nies, with the aim of crea­ting value through growth initia­ti­ves and opera­tio­nal improvements.

Paal Weberg (photo © Altor), Co-Mana­­ging Part­ner at Altor: “Kommu­nal­kre­dit has a unique posi­tion as a finan­cing part­ner for some of the most promi­nent green trans­for­ma­tion projects and we believe that toge­ther we can build the Euro­pean cham­pion in sustainable infra­struc­ture finan­cing. Altor will support Kommu­nal­kre­dit with capi­tal and resour­ces to streng­then its capa­bi­li­ties. In doing so, we can build on our expe­ri­ence inves­t­ing in other leading finan­cial insti­tu­ti­ons and Green Tran­si­tion Champions.”

Kommu­nal­kre­dit and Altor are united in their vision to promote the tran­si­tion to a green and sustainable future. Both insti­tu­ti­ons have alre­ady gained exten­sive expe­ri­ence in finan­cing the tran­si­tion to a sustainable economy through their invest­ments and invol­vement in sustainable infra­struc­ture and energy projects across Europe.

The Clif­ford Chance team advi­sing Altor on this tran­sac­tion was led by part­ners Dr. Thomas Krecek (Frank­furt) and Dr. Mark Aschen­bren­ner (Munich, both Corporate/Private Equity). Clif­ford Chance worked closely with Wolf Theiss (Lead Part­ners: Andrea Grit­sch and Florian Kusznier) on all Austrian legal matters.

About Clif­ford Chance

Clif­ford Chance, one of the world’s leading law firms, is present for its clients with around 3,400 legal advi­sors in all major busi­ness centers around the world. In Germany, Clif­ford Chance is repre­sen­ted by around 300 lawy­ers, audi­tors, tax advi­sors and soli­ci­tors in Düssel­dorf, Frank­furt am Main and Munich.