Private Clients

Stut­tgart – ADS-TEC En­ergy GmbH, which de­scribes it­self as a world-lead­ing pro­vider of bat­tery-buf­fered ul­tra­fast char­ging tech­no­logy, has com­pleted a busi­ness com­bin­a­tion with European Sus­tain­able...

Our Private Cli­ents Team spe­cial­ises in wealth and suc­ces­sion plan­ning. We provide cross-dis­cip­lin­ary ad­vice to private cli­ents, en­tre­pren­eur­i­al fam­il­ies, their ad­visers and fam­ily of­fices on any leg­al...

Stut­tgart – ADS-TEC En­ergy GmbH has an­nounced jointly with European Sus­tain­able Growth Ac­quis­i­tion Corp. (EUSG), a NAS­DAQ-lis­ted spe­cial pur­pose ac­quis­i­tion vehicle, that they have con­cluded a bind­ing...

The Trans­par­ency Re­gister and Fin­an­cial In­form­a­tion Act (TraF­inG) entered in­to force on 1 Au­gust 2021. Its aim is to make fur­ther pro­gress on com­bat­ing money laun­der­ing and ter­ror­ist fin­an­cing and, in ad­di­tion to de­liv­er­ing great­er trans­par­ency in­to leg­al en­tit­ies and their be­ne­fi­cial own­ers, to cre­ate the basis for link­ing all the rel­ev­ant re­gisters through­out Europe. In par­tic­u­lar, the TraF­inG does away with the no­tion­al no­ti­fic­a­tions that pre­vi­ously ap­plied to lis­ted com­pan­ies and all leg­al en­tit­ies for which in­form­a­tion on the (no­tion­al) be­ne­fi­cial own­ers could be ob­tained from the com­mer­cial re­gister, part­ner­ship re­gister, co­oper­at­ive so­ci­ety re­gister, re­gister of as­so­ci­ations or com­pany re­gister. Spe­cific­ally, this means that in fu­ture all these cor­por­ate bod­ies will also have to re­port their be­ne­fi­cial own­ers sep­ar­ately to the trans­par­ency re­gister, even if the be­ne­fi­cial own­ers are already evid­ent from the com­mer­cial re­gister or oth­er re­gisters. Spe­cial reg­u­la­tions only ap­ply to re­gistered as­so­ci­ations (ein­getra­gene Ver­eine). There are no changes with re­gard to found­a­tions (Stif­tun­gen), for which no no­tion­al re­gis­tra­tion has been pos­sible any­way. When the Act to Mod­ern­ise Part­ner­ship Law (MoPeG) comes in­to ef­fect on 1 Janu­ary 2024, com­pan­ies un­der civil law (GbR) will like­wise be sub­ject to the re­quire­ment to be re­gistered in the trans­par­ency re­gister, if they choose to be entered in the com­pany re­gister.In ad­di­tion, the cases in which for­eign pur­chasers of Ger­man real es­tate must re­port in­form­a­tion on their be­ne­fi­cial own­ers to the Ger­man trans­par­ency re­gister have been con­sid­er­ably ex­ten­ded. Trans­ition peri­ods Trans­ition peri­ods that de­pend on the spe­cif­ic leg­al form ap­ply to as­so­ci­ations which still be­ne­fit from no­tion­al no­ti­fic­a­tion un­der sec­tion 20 (2) of the GwG on 31 Ju­ly 2021. Re­gis­tra­tion in these cases must be sub­mit­ted to the trans­par­ency re­gister for­AG, SE and KGaA by 31 March 2022,GmbH, eG, SCE, PartG by 30 June 2022,All oth­er as­so­ci­ations sub­ject to trans­par­ency re­quire­ments (in­clud­ing OHG and KG) by 31 Decem­ber 2022.In these cases, fail­ure to re­gister will also not be con­sidered an ad­min­is­trat­ive of­fence for one year after ex­piry of the ap­plic­able trans­ition peri­od.Com­pan­ies that pre­vi­ously wrongly as­sumed no­tion­al no­ti­fic­a­tion in ac­cord­ance with sec­tion 20 (2) of the GwG, or did not re­gister their be­ne­fi­cial own­ers for oth­er reas­ons, do not be­ne­fit from the trans­ition­al ar­range­ments and are re­quired to re­gister as usu­al without delay. Trans­ac­tions in­volving real es­tate loc­ated in Ger­many For­eign as­so­ci­ations/trusts that have not already sub­mit­ted in­form­a­tion on their be­ne­fi­cial own­ers to an­oth­er re­gister op­er­ated by an EU Mem­ber State will in fu­ture be ob­liged to re­port this in­form­a­tion to the Ger­man trans­par­ency re­gister if they ac­quire a prop­erty loc­ated in Ger­many, in the fol­low­ing cases:Ac­quis­i­tion by way of an as­set deal,Ac­quis­i­tion by way of a share deal with­in the scope of sec­tion 1 (3) of the GrEStG, i.e. at least 90% of the shares in a com­pany that owns a Ger­man prop­erty are merged by the for­eign as­so­ci­ation or are trans­ferred to it,Leg­al trans­ac­tion with­in the mean­ing of sec­tion 1 (3) a of the GrEStG, i.e. the leg­al trans­ac­tion res­ults in the for­eign as­so­ci­ation hold­ing an own­er­ship in­terest of at least 90% in a com­pany that owns a Ger­man prop­erty.In this con­text, it should be noted that not­ar­ies are pro­hib­ited from not­ar­ising trans­ac­tions of this type if the for­eign as­so­ci­ation has not com­plied with its no­ti­fic­a­tion ob­lig­a­tion (sec­tion 10 (9) sen­tence 4 of the GwG). There are no trans­ition peri­ods in this re­spect. Ac­tion needed Ac­tion is re­quired for all new en­tit­ies es­tab­lished or re­gistered from 1 Au­gust 2021 on­ward. The in­form­a­tion on be­ne­fi­cial own­ers must be re­por­ted to the trans­par­ency re­gister without delay; the trans­ition peri­ods do not ap­ply to newly es­tab­lished en­tit­ies. In gen­er­al, the amend­ment to the law provides an op­por­tun­ity to sub­mit miss­ing re­ports; re­gis­tra­tions that have already been sub­mit­ted should be re­viewed for ac­cur­acy and to see wheth­er fur­ther in­form­a­tion is re­quired (e.g. ad­di­tion­al na­tion­al­it­ies). If no­tion­al no­ti­fic­a­tion still ap­plies on 31 Ju­ly 2021, the trans­ition peri­od should be used to pre­pare for re­gis­tra­tion in the trans­par­ency re­gister. Re­gistered as­so­ci­ations (ein­getra­gene Ver­eine) should re­view the auto­mat­ic entries in the trans­par­ency re­gister with re­gard to their ac­cur­acy.In ad­di­tion, as­so­ci­ations sub­ject to trans­par­ency re­quire­ments must in fu­ture check and, if ne­ces­sary, up­date their re­gis­tra­tion in the trans­par­ency re­gister if there are any changes in­volving their (no­tion­al) be­ne­fi­cial own­ers (for ex­ample, change of share­hold­ers or man­age­ment). Lastly, in the case of trans­ac­tions with for­eign pur­chasers, it is im­port­ant to check in good time wheth­er this in­volves a prop­erty loc­ated in Ger­many, with the res­ult that the rel­ev­ant in­form­a­tion would need to be re­gistered in the trans­par­ency re­gister. Giv­en that not­ar­ies are pro­hib­ited from not­ar­ising trans­ac­tions if the rel­ev­ant in­form­a­tion is not re­gistered, this point should also be cla­ri­fied with the not­ary in ad­vance.We would be happy to as­sist you in identi­fy­ing be­ne­fi­cial own­ers and re­gis­ter­ing the rel­ev­ant in­form­a­tion with the trans­par­ency re­gister. Please feel free to get in touch at any time.

Stut­tgart – Dr Dirk Schauer has been ap­poin­ted as new head of the Private Cli­ents di­vi­sion at in­ter­na­tion­al com­mer­cial law firm CMS Ger­many. He suc­ceeds Hans Chris­ti­an Blum, who made a sig­ni­fic­ant con­tri­bu­tion...

1. Are prox­ies used in con­tin­gency plan­ning? In Ger­many, prox­ies are used for con­tin­gency plan­ning, es­pe­cially gen­er­al prox­ies (Gen­er­al­voll­macht­en) and pre­cau­tion­ary prox­ies (Vor­sorge­voll­macht­en).The...

Ber­lin – Com­mer­cial law firm CMS Ger­many has ap­poin­ted nine new part­ners as of the start of the new year. This will strengthen the part­ner­ship in the Em­ploy­ment, Re­struc­tur­ing & In­solv­ency, Dis­pute...

Stut­tgart – Com­pany founder Heinz-Peter Fichter and oth­er share­hold­ers have sold the mail-or­der busi­ness of on­line phar­macy Apotal and its dia­betes di­vi­sion to the lis­ted Zur Rose Group of Switzer­land...