IHI Corporation Sells Steinmüller Engineering to Mutares

Düssel­dorf – ARQIS provi­ded compre­hen­sive legal coun­sel to the globally active IHI Corpo­ra­tion in connec­tion with the sale of all its shares in Stein­mül­ler Engi­nee­ring GmbH to Muta­res SE & Co. KGaA. This tran­sac­tion will streng­then Stein­mül­ler Engineering’s sustainable growth and compe­ti­ti­ve­ness, parti­cu­larly through syner­gies with Muta­res’ port­fo­lio. This move will enable IHI to opti­mize its Carbon Solu­ti­ons busi­ness and thus focus speci­fi­cally on its future-orien­­ted and growth areas. The signing took place in Septem­ber 2026. The tran­sac­tion was closed in Octo­ber 2026. 

Foun­ded in 1853, IHI Corpo­ra­tion is a Japa­nese tech­no­logy and indus­trial conglo­me­rate opera­ting inter­na­tio­nally, with its head­quar­ters in Tokyo. The company is active in the fields of resour­ces, energy, and the envi­ron­ment; social infra­struc­ture; indus­trial systems and gene­ral-purpose machi­nery; and aircraft engi­nes, aero­space, and defense. In fiscal year 2025, IHI gene­ra­ted conso­li­da­ted reve­nue of appro­xi­m­ately 1.64 tril­lion yen and employs over 26,000 people world­wide. IHI is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. 

Stein­mül­ler Engi­nee­ring GmbH, head­quar­te­red in Gummers­bach, provi­des ther­mal process engi­nee­ring solu­ti­ons for the energy and indus­trial sectors. The company offers engi­nee­ring, procu­re­ment, and turn­key EPC solu­ti­ons for combus­tion systems, exhaust gas treat­ment, and heat trans­fer. The roots of this long-estab­­lished company date back to 1874. 

Muta­res, head­quar­te­red in Munich, is an inter­na­tio­nally active, publicly traded private equity inves­tor. Its invest­ments focus on compa­nies with high growth poten­tial and estab­lished busi­ness models, inclu­ding those in the auto­mo­tive & mobi­lity, energy & tech­no­logy, and infra­struc­ture & defense sectors. 

An ARQIS team led by Dr. Shigeo Yama­guchi and Dr. Meiko Dill­mann provi­ded compre­hen­sive legal coun­sel to IHI Corpo­ra­tion in connec­tion with this tran­sac­tion. At the same time, ARQIS led an inter­na­tio­nal team of lawy­ers consis­ting of Gide (Morocco), Nauta­Du­tilh (Belgium), and TMI Asso­cia­tes (Japan).

Consul­tant for IHI Corpo­ra­tion: ARQIS (Düssel­dorf)

Part­ners: Dr. Shigeo Yama­guchi (Düssel­dorf), Dr. Meiko Dill­mann (Munich, both Lead and Japan Desk), Dr. Fried­rich Gebert (Regu­la­tory), Johan­nes Landry (Restruc­tu­ring), Lisa-Marie Niklas (HR Law), Tobias Neufeld (Tech Law), Marcus Noth­hel­fer (IP, Munich), Dr. Chris­tof Schnei­der (Tran­sac­tions); Of Coun­sel: Dimi­trios Chris­to­pou­los (Dispute Reso­lu­tion); Coun­sel: Dr. Yohei Nagata-Vogel­­­sang (Japan Desk), Dennis Reisich (Tax, Munich), Martin Wein­gärt­ner (HR Law); Mana­ging Asso­cia­tes: Dr. Hanna Caesar (HR Law), Anselm Graf (Tran­sac­tions, Munich), Dr. Bern­hard Gröhe (Regu­la­tory), Marius Mesen­brink (Japan Desk); Asso­cia­tes: Carla Benkel­berg (Regu­la­tory), Anna Munsch (HR Law), Dr. Julia Wild­gans (IP, Munich); Foreign Lawyer: Miho Kuram­ochi (Japan Desk); Legal Specia­list: Tim Kottmann