The RAG-Stiftung foundation has acquired a majority holding in specialist engineering firm HAHN Automation via RAG-Stiftung Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH.
The transaction is currently awaiting approval from the merger control authorities.
A CMS Hasche Sigle team led by Dr Richard Mayer-Uellner and Dr Malte Bruhns advised the foundation on all legal aspects of the transaction.
Established in 2007, the RAG-Stiftung foundation is tasked with winding down the subsidised coal mining operations of RAG Aktiengesellschaft in a socially responsible way by the end of 2018. Another role of the private-law foundation is to finance the perpetual obligations arising from German coal mining in the Ruhr and Saar regions, starting from 2019. RAG-Stiftung owns a majority holding in listed company Evonik Industries AG, alongside other equity interests.
The foundation's investment vehicle (Beteiligungsgesellschaft) was formed in April 2014 with the aim of acquiring eligible minority or majority stakes in specialised SME engineering, automation and industrial services companies on behalf of RAG-Stiftung and expanding the foundation's investment portfolio.
Headquartered in Rheinböllen, the HAHN Automation Group is a specialist engineering company that develops solutions for automating production processes. The group currently has some 500 employees at its own production sites in Germany, the Czech Republic, Turkey and the US and at other locations, including Switzerland, Croatia and China.
