CMS advises Volkswagen on joint venture with Umicore to produce cathode material for battery cells

Hamburg – PowerCo, the new battery company set up by the Volkswagen Group, and Belgian materials technology group Umicore have signed an agreement on a joint venture to produce cathode material for manufacturing battery cells. The enterprise will be headquartered in Belgium. The aim is to supply the group’s cell factories going forward. Production is scheduled to start in 2025 to supply the Volkswagen gigafactory in Salzgitter, gradually increasing to a total capacity of 160 gigawatt hours, which would be enough to build around 2.2 million electric cars. Total investment is around EUR 3 billion. The transaction is subject to regulatory approval and customary closing conditions.

An international CMS team headed by Hamburg-based lead partner Dr Hilke Herchen advised the Volkswagen Group on all legal aspects of concluding the joint venture agreement. Working closely with VW’s in-house staff, the team advised on the entire negotiation process, including all the issues arising from corporate, commercial, IP and data protection law, merger control and competition law. The project also drew on the multi-jurisdictional CMS organisation and its experts, particularly in Belgium.

At VW, support for the transaction was mainly provided by an in-house team headed by Dr Marcus Hellmann, Frank Puchta, Rüdiger Schwarz, Dr Markus Erdmann and Eva-Lena Witte.

VW has been a CMS client for many years. The team led by Hilke Herchen also advised on the joint venture between Porsche and Rimac to form the hypercar manufacturer Bugatti Rimac, for example.

CMS Germany

Dr Hilke Herchen, Lead Partner, Hamburg
Christina Lorf, Associate, Hamburg
Dr Carl-Friedrich Thoma, Associate, Hamburg, all Corporate/M&A
Dr Nikolas Gregor, Partner, Hamburg, Intellectual Property
Dr Michael Kraus, Partner, Stuttgart, TMC
Dr Markus Schöner, Partner, Hamburg
Christoff Soltau, Partner, Hamburg
Nadine Herda, Senior Associate, Brussels
Tobias Duhe, Senior Associate, Hamburg
Dr Robert Bodewig, Associate, Hamburg, all Competition & EU

CMS Belgium

Cedric Guyot
Julie Perret
Gauthier Blommaert

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