Hengeler Mueller advises E.ON on sale of Open Grid Europe GmbH

16. May 2012

E.ON AG sold the operating company of its German gas transportation network to a consortium of Macquarie European Infrastructure Fund 4, Infinity Investments, British Columbia Investment Management Corporation and MEAG MUNICH ERGO Asset Management. The purchase price of Open Grid Europe GmbH (OGE) located in Essen, with its 12,000 kilometres of gas pipeline network and its 1,600 employees is about EUR 3.2 bn. With an exit capacity of about 650 billion kWh OGE handles approximately twothirds of the yearly consumed natural gas in Germany. OGE emerged out of Ruhrgas Transport in 2004. In 2008 E.ON took over the network ownership of E.ON Ruhrgas which became an independent transportation system operator since September 2010.

This transaction is so far one of the largest M&A deals of this year. Already in 2010 Hengeler Mueller advised a leading energy company in the sale of a gas pipeline network with a length of capacity of 4,100 kilometres.

Hengeler Mueller advises E.ON AG on this transaction. The Hengeler Mueller team includes partners Hans-Jörg Ziegenhain, Daniel Wiegand (both M&A, Munich), Dirk Uwer (Regulatory/Energy, Düsseldorf), Stefanie Beinert (Tax, Frankfurt), Thorsten Mäger (Competition, Düsseldorf) and Christian Hoefs (Labour, Frankfurt), counsel Attila Oldag (M&A, Munich) as well as associates Philipp Scheuermann, Georg Heiß, Patrik H. Wilkening (all Munich), Daniel Zimmer, Jörg Meinzenbach, Sebastian Schneider, Katharina Kürzel (all Düsseldorf) and Sonnhild Draack (Frankfurt).