Fellner Wratzfeld & Partner has advised Stadler on the establishment of a joint venture with OBB-Technische Services-GmbH. The new joint venture – OBB Stadler Service GmbH – will be responsible for the maintenance of the KISS train fleet operated by WESTbahn Management GmbH. The signing of the agreement took place on March 2, 2017, and the deal closed on July 20, 2017.
The shareholdings of OBB-TS and Stadler in the joint venture – which according to fwp "was formed for the purpose of providing maintenance services for trains, including the KISS fleet of WESTbahn" – are 60 percent and 40 percent, respectively. Recently, WESTbahn increased its railcar fleet from 7 to 17 Stadler KISS trains.
According to fwp, "it is planned to relocate the maintenance business to Vienna. In the course of such expansion, the number of joint venture employees is scheduled to grow 40 by the end of 2018."
"Thanks to the excellent cooperation among all the parties involved, and especially with the Swiss advisors, the transaction went smoothly," said fwp Partner Markus Kajaba, who co-led the firm's team along with Partner Lukas Flener. "The special challenge was to establish appropriate legal safeguards for the long-term cooperation."
In addition to Kajaba and Flener, the fwp team consisted of Associates Michael Froner and Johannes Kim.
Editor's Note: After this article was published, Binder Groesswang informed CEE Legal Matters that it had advised OBB-Technische Services-GmbH on the establishment of the joint venture. The firm's team was led by Partner Andreas Hable and included Partner Johannes Barbist, Senior Associate Christian Zwick, and Associates Regina Kroll and Alexander Sporer.
