Hogan Lovells advises banks on legal implementation of financing for climate-friendly investments by Preh Group

The Preh Group is a global automotive supplier based in Bad Neustadt an der Saale that offers, among other products, system solutions for electric and hybrid vehicles. The group has sites in Germany, Portugal, Romania, Mexico, Sweden, the USA and the People’s Republic of China. Preh GmbH is a subsidiary of the Chinese Joyson Electronics group. 

The existing credit financing, led by Commerzbank, has been in place for several years and was previously overseen entirely internally by Commerzbank as arranger, agent, security agent and sustainability coordinator. With the amendments to the credit agreement, the existing credit agreement was supplemented by two new tranches to finance investments in the production of climate-friendly technologies, including one tranche refinanced by KfW. For the contractual implementation of this latest amendment, Hogan Lovells was retained as an external law firm for the first time. 

In addition to the Commerzbank, the bank consortium comprises Bank of China Limited Zweigniederlassung Frankfurt am Main, Bayerische Landesbank, DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral-Genossenschaftsbank, Frankfurt am Main, IKB Deutsche Industriebank AG, Landesbank Baden-Württemberg, Santander Consumer Bank AG, Sparkasse Bad Neustadt an der Saale and UniCredit Bank GmbH.

Hogan Lovells team for the banks

Bianca Engelmann (Partner), Dr Antonia Wolf (Counsel), Gordon Liedel (Associate) (Banking & Finance, Frankfurt);

Dr Ingmar Dörr (Partner, Tax, Munich);

Dr Sebastian Biller (Counsel, Securities & Public Company Advisory, Munich);

Ginny Meier (Senior Attorney, Banking, Washington).