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Industrials and automotive
IoT, robotics and autonomous cars are transforming the industrials and automotive landscape.
Reinventing operations and business models leveraging technology is critical to success for industrial companies. We are helping the world’s foremost industrial manufacturers transform into digital-first businesses. They value our deep understanding of key technological developments, their strategic ramifications and the legal issues they raise.
Whether you’re harnessing the possibilities of the Internet of Things, forming a partnership to develop a market-shifting digital service, developing your own technology platform or mining data for new sources of growth, we can help you minimise risk and maximise the value you create.
Our industrials and automotive insights
Blogs
Our industrials and automotive experience
Freshfields advises AUDI on follow-on investment into auto-tech unicorn TTTech Auto
Freshfields has advised AUDI on its follow-on investment into Austrian auto-tech unicorn TTTech Auto AG as part of a new USD 285 million financing round. As part of this financing round Aptiv plc and AUDI each contributed new equity which brought TTTech Auto’s valuation over USD 1 billion. The transaction is subject to merger control and FDI approvals and is expected to complete in Q1 2022. Freshfields has been advising AUDI since its initial investment into TTTech group, including, particularly, in 2018 on the spin-off of TTTech Auto into a stand-alone enterprise as well as the previous financing rounds. The Freshfields team was led by GT partner Ludwig Hartenau and principal associate Noel Zamani. Antitrust advice was provided by partner Maria Dreher and associate Florian Reiter-Werzin while DR advice was provided by Ingo Borgdorf.
Honeywell on combination of Honeywell Quantum Solutions and Cambridge Quantum Computing
See press release.
Geely on the investment in the German company Volocopter, an urban air mobility pioneer of electrically powered air taxis based on drone technology.
KAR Auction Services, a global automotive remarketing and technology services company, on the acquisition of the Belgium-based CarsOnTheWeb group (COTW).
Volkswagen AG as IP/IT, Antitrust and CFIUS counsel in its proposed $2.6 billion co-investment with Ford Motor Co. in Argo AI
VW on its Series F investment in QuantumScape Corporation, a California-based corporation focused on the development of solid-state battery technology, and in related joint venture arrangements with QuantumScape.
See press release here and on QuantumScape’s subsequent Nasdaq listing and $3.3bn business combination with SPAC Kensington Capital.
Emerson Electric Co on the acquisition of a minority stake in German software company, inmation Software GmbH, a global software platform that further deepens Emerson’s data management and integration capabilities, helping customers advance their digital transformation programs and achieve Top Quartile performance.
Emerson’s robust Plantweb™ portfolio and operational technology (OT) expertise combined with inmation’s integrated software platform enable real-time information management across manufacturing, process control and IT systems. inmation aggregates global operational data from across the enterprise into the Plantweb digital ecosystem to create an OT data lake – a centralized storage repository – that serves as the foundation for business intelligence and analytics. Collectively, these capabilities increase data visibility and provide unified, actionable insights for fast decision-making and improved operational performance.
AUTO1 Group AG. Advising on an innovative financing transaction involving the securitisation of asset-backed bonds (a pool of constantly changing used vehicles from a wide variety of manufacturers served as "underlying assets" structured such that the senior notes could be rated with an investment grade rating).
See press release here.
Advising CarLotz, Inc., a leading business-to-business consignment-to-retail used vehicle marketplace, in its business combination with Acamar Partners Acquisition Corp., a SPAC. Once the transaction closes, it is intended that CarLotz, Inc. will become listed on NASDAQ.
See press release here.
Siemens on the development of Mindsphere, a cloud-based open operating platform that connects machines, plants and systems.
One of the world’s leading car manufacturers on a digital platform that connects its customers, suppliers and sales teams with a suite of apps.
Meet the team
Barbara Keil
Partner
Munich
Dr. Theresa Ehlen
Partner
Düsseldorf, Frankfurt am Main
Dr. Uta Itzen
Partner
Düsseldorf, Munich
Deborah Janssens
Global Co-Head of Industrials
Brussels
Dr. Stephan Waldhausen
Partner
Düsseldorf
Wolrad Prinz zu Waldeck und Pyrmont
Partner
Düsseldorf, Munich
Menachem Kaplan
Partner
New York
Paul Tiger
Partner & Global Co-Head of Industrials
New York
Richard Bird
Partner
Hong Kong