Automotive Experience

• Advising the French Automotive Industry Investment Fund (Fonds de Modernisation des Equipementiers Automobiles - FMEA), on its investment (32%) in the world market leader in the field of fabric leather upholstery for the automobile industry, after debt renegotiation;
• Providing advice in relation to the funding of automotive finance companies, including the securitisation of receivables under credit and hire agreement portfolios and other loan facilities;
• Assisting Valeo, a French-based global OEM supplier, with respect to a proposed joint venture for the manufacture of automotive wiring harnesses for vehicles to be assembled in Russia;
• Advising an automobile finance company on the start-up of its business, including drafting all retail finance and dealer funding documents, as well as advising on consumer credit legislation, advertising and money laundering;
• Advising a leading German car manufacturer in the buy-out of a 41% share of the Chinese party of one of its Hangzhou joint ventures;
• Advising multiple dealerships on motor vehicle stocking agreements (overdraft, wholesale and unit funding of new and used vehicle stocks), agency agreements, sale and lease-back arrangements, sale and buy-back arrangements, dealer commission and bonus arrangements, capital loans and the drafting of loan documentation, security and the negotiation of priority arrangements with other funders;
• Advising Faurecia on the acquisition of a complete site and other activities of Cadence Innovation France, another automotive equipment manufacturer specialising in external vehicle components, which was placed in judicial liquidation. This acquisition illustrates one of the innovations to be found in the new French law on insolvency proceedings: the implementation of a sale plan following judicial liquidation making a takeover possible in the course of a judicial liquidation;
• Advising a leading American investor in connection with a EUR 100 million greenfield project, including dealings with public authorities, corporate, financial and incentives matters in Romania;
• Advising a Spanish automotive company in relation to proposed joint venture with a Polish company and conducting an investment in a special economic zone in Poland;
• Advising in connection with the establishment of a EUR 450 million research and development centre in Romania, including negotiations with the Romanian government and local authorities;
• Representing a leading automotive equipment manufacturer in a liability case against one of the world’s largest software companies, concerning the development and implementation of a worldwide ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software platform;
• Providing the German electronic sensors and components manufacturer Pepperl + Fuchs on various corporate issues related to Wholly Foreign Owned Enterprises in China;
• Representing an automotive distributor in arbitration proceedings relating to the termination of an industrial equipment supply contract; and,
• Advising multiple car manufacturers on the compatibility of dealer agreements in Poland with the EU block exemption for motor vehicle distribution.