Hengeler Mueller advised Austrian lender BAWAG Group AG on the successful October 25, 2017 listing of its shares on the Vienna Stock Exchange. Dorda Rechtsanwalte reportedly provided Austrian advice to BAWAG, and Freshfields reportedly advised Joint Global Coordinators and Joint Bookrunners Citigroup Global Markets Limited, Credit Suisse Securities (Europe) Limited, Goldman Sachs International, J.P. Morgan Securities plc, and Morgan Stanley & Co. International plc.
With a total offer volume of approximately EUR 1.9 billion, Hengeler Mueller describes the transaction as "the biggest IPO ever on the Vienna Stock Exchange and the first significant one in more than three years." An aggregate of 35 million existing ordinary shares in BAWAG have been placed with institutional and retail investors in Austria by way of a public offering as well as a private placement to selected institutional investors outside of Austria. In addition, 5.25 million shares were made available in connection with an over-allotment option.
The selling shareholders included funds and accounts controlled or advised by Cerberus Capital Management LP and GoldenTree Asset Management LP, respectively, as well as certain minority shareholders.
The Frankfurt-based Hengeler Mueller team was led by Partners Johannes Adolff, Dirk Bliesener, and Alexander Rang, and included Partner Ralph Defren, Lucina Berger, Christian Hoefs, and Martin Klein.
Hengeler Mueller reported that the Dorda team was led by Partners Andreas Zahradnik and Christoph Brogyanyi.
Editor's Note: After this article was published Freshfields confirmed that it acted for the consortium of ten banks in the IPO. The core team consisted of Partners Stephan Pachinger (Vienna), Simone Bono (London), and Christoph Gleske (Frankfurt), with the support of Principal Associate Chris Hall and Associates Simon Fitzpatrick and Wieland Leopold (all in Vienna), together with a larger due diligence team involving, among others, Partner Friedrich Jergitsch and Associate Stella Klepp.
