Düssel­dorf — ARQIS has provi­ded compre­hen­sive legal advice to Sumitomo Elec­tric Indus­tries on the trans­fer of the pension liabi­li­ties of Sinter­werke Herne to Funding Solu­ti­ons Deutsch­land by way of a share deal. Funding Solu­ti­ons Deutsch­land FSD GmbH takes over all shares in Sinter­werke Herne GmbH and conti­nues the company as a so-called pensio­ner company under the name Funding Solu­ti­ons Sinter­werke Herne Pensi­ons GmbH. The pensio­ner company will manage and fulfill the pension liabi­li­ties of Sinter­werke Herne. The pension obli­ga­ti­ons are secu­red by a Contrac­tual Trust Arran­ge­ment (CTA) mana­ged by Helaba Pension Trust e.V..

Sinter­werke Herne GmbH produ­ced sinte­red compon­ents for the auto­mo­tive and power tool indus­tries. The company was acqui­red by the Japa­nese Sumitomo Elec­tric Indus­tries Ltd. in 2019. 

Sumitomo Elec­tric Indus­tries Ltd., head­quar­te­red in Osaka, Japan, was foun­ded in 1897. The company is a global leader in the manu­fac­ture of elec­tri­cal cables and fiber optic cables. SEI supplies custo­mers in the auto­mo­tive, infor­ma­tion, elec­tro­nics and energy sectors, among others. Listed on the Prime Market (5802) of the Tokyo Stock Exch­ange and part of the Nikkei 225 and TOPIX, the company gene­ra­ted total sales of USD 29 billion in 2023 with over 290,000 employees worldwide.

Funding Solu­ti­ons Deutsch­land has been active as a provi­der for pensio­ner company tran­sac­tions since 2018. FSD curr­ently mana­ges ten pensio­ner compa­nies with a total volume of over 330 million euros. Compa­nies from a wide range of sectors, such as indus­try, the service sector, the regu­la­ted banking sector and the phar­maceu­ti­cal sector, rely on FSD’s concept and services. 

An ARQIS team led by the two part­ners Eber­hard Hafer­malz and Tobias Neufeld provi­ded compre­hen­sive legal advice to Sumitomo Elec­tric Indus­tries in the context of this complex tran­sac­tion. ARQIS is one of the leading firms in the market for pension buy-outs. In tran­sac­tions of this type, pension liabi­li­ties are either spun off to speci­ally estab­lished pensio­ner compa­nies or the former opera­ting company is trans­fer­red to the provi­der as a pensio­ner company by way of a share deal after prior liqui­da­tion of all assets and liabi­li­ties — with the excep­tion of the pension obli­ga­ti­ons. This struc­ture enables the de-risking of pension liabi­li­ties — a proce­dure that is alre­ady estab­lished in the Anglo-Saxon world, while the pension buy-out market in Germany is still compa­ra­tively young, but incre­asingly developing. 

Advi­sor Sumitomo Elec­tric Indus­tries Ltd.
ARQIS (Düssel­dorf): Part­ner: Eber­hard Hafer­malz (Lead, Japan Desk), Tobias Neufeld (Lead, Pensi­ons), Johan­nes Landry (Insol­vency Law), Lisa-Marie Niklas (HR Law), Coun­sel: Dr. Yohei Nagata-Vogel­sang (Japan Desk), Dennis Reisich (Tax, Munich), Asso­ciate: Kiyomi Zimmer (Japan Desk), Legal Specia­lists: Miho Kuram­ochi (Japan Desk), Tim Kott­mann (Pensi­ons), Roxana Spieß (HR Law)

About ARQIS

ARQIS is an inde­pen­dent commer­cial law firm that opera­tes inter­na­tio­nally. Around 80 lawy­ers and legal specia­lists advise dome­stic and foreign compa­nies at the highest level on German, Euro­pean and Japa­nese commer­cial law. With its focus groups Tran­sac­tions, HR Law, Japan, Data Law, Risk and Regu­la­tory, the firm is geared towards provi­ding its clients with compre­hen­sive advice. The law firm was foun­ded in 2006 and has offices in Düssel­dorf, Munich and Tokyo as well as a talent hub in Berlin. For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.arqis.com.