Frank­furt a.M. — Volks­wa­gen Finan­cial Services AG (“VWFS”) has ente­red into a joint venture with J.P. Morgan Inter­na­tio­nal Finance Limi­ted (“JPM”) in Volks­wa­gen Payments S.A.. Volks­wa­gen Payments S.A. is an e‑money insti­tu­tion that concen­tra­tes payment solu­ti­ons for the Volks­wa­gen Group brands and offers e‑wallet accounts and payment proces­sing for Volks­wa­gen AG custo­mers. — McDer­mott Will & Emery advi­sed Volks­wa­gen Finan­cial Services AG (“VWFS”) on its joint venture with J.P. Morgan Inter­na­tio­nal Finance Limi­ted (“JPM”) in Volks­wa­gen Payments S.A..

By acqui­ring a 74.9 percent stake in Volkswagen’s payments busi­ness, JPM is taking a majo­rity voting inte­rest in Volks­wa­gen Payments S.A. with the goal of stra­te­gi­cally opening the company to the broa­der auto­mo­tive indus­try, expan­ding Volks­wa­gen Payments S.A.’s digi­tal payments capa­bi­li­ties and further deve­lo­ping the plat­form for new markets and indus­tries outside the auto­mo­tive sector. VWFS will remain a share­hol­der in the part­ner­ship and will help shape the joint venture accor­din­gly. The plat­form will conti­nue to enable payments across the Volks­wa­gen network for all Group brands worldwide.

The tran­sac­tion is expec­ted to close in the first half of 2022 and is subject to appr­ovals by the merger control autho­ri­ties, confir­ma­tion by the Luxem­bourg super­vi­sory autho­rity and the U.S. Board of Gover­nors of the Fede­ral Reserve System, and appr­oval by the German Fede­ral Minis­try of Econo­mics and Technology.

Advi­sing Volks­wa­gen Finan­cial Services AG: McDer­mott Will & Emery, Frankfurt
Prof. Dr. Clemens Just, Photo (Lead, Corpo­rate), Dr. Heiko Kermer, Marcus Fischer (Coun­sel; both Tax), Joseph Marx, Rick Mitchell (Coun­sel, London; both Capi­tal Markets), Stef­fen Woitz, Dr. Claus Färber (Coun­sel; both Data Protection/IT, Munich), Dr. Deniz Tschamm­ler (Coun­sel, Commercial/Regulatory, Munich), Ted Lauren­son (Coun­sel, San Fran­cisco; Regu­la­tory); Asso­cia­tes: Isabelle Müller, Lisa Schick­ling (both Corpo­rate), Pauline Walde (Inter­na­tio­nal Dispute Reso­lu­tion), Tina Zeller (Real Estate), Max Kütt­ner (Anti­trust, Düssel­dorf), Sönke Wasser­mann (Trai­nee, Labor Law).
Inhouse Volks­wa­gen Finan­cial Services AG: Mustafa Shahs­war (Legal Coun­sel), Sebas­tian Stef­fen (Mergers & Acquisitions)