Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek advises Oaktree Capital Management on acquisition of Railpool group from HSH Nordbank AG and KfW IPEX-Bank

On May 9, 2014, funds advised by Oaktree Capital Management, L.P. acquired the shares in Railpool GmbH and Railpool Holding GmbH & Co. KG (jointly "Railpool") from HSH Nordbank AG and KfW IPEX-Bank GmbH. A team of commercial law firm Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek led by Dr. Michael Dröge and Fabian G. Gaffron comprehensively advised Oaktree on the sales process. The acquisition price was not disclosed.

Railpool was established in 2008 as a joint venture by HSH Nordbank AG and KfW IPEX-Bank GmbH and is renting out rail vehicles, locomotives, traction units, and double-decker cars to rail operators with and without full service. Railpool acts European-wide both in goods transport and in passenger transport. In the few years since its foundation, Railpool has already established itself on the market and has rapidly developed to become one of the leading players. At present, Railpool rents over 100 locomotives to private rail operators in Europe. The previous shareholders HSH Nordbank AG and KfW IPEX-Bank GmbH (each at 50 percent) will continue to act as lenders to Railpool for further growth.
 
Oaktree is a U.S.-based global investment management firm with assets of US-$86 billion under management at present. Headquartered in Los Angeles, the company employs a staff of about 800 in 16 offices worldwide.
 
Counsel to Oaktree Capital Management, L.P.
Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek:
Dr. Michael Dröge (M&A, Lead),
Fabian G. Gaffron (Tax, Lead),
Dr. Jörg Schewe (M&A),
Dr. Stefan Bretthauer (Antitrust),
Dr. Kai Erhardt (M&A),
Mike Bogensee (Employment), all Hamburg,
Beatrice Stange, LL.M. (Antitrust), Düsseldorf