Oppenhoff & Partner advises RWE on wood pellet joint venture

Press Release 26 August 2009

Oppenhoff & Partner has advised RWE Innogy Cogen on the establishment of a joint venture with German Pellets GmbH and on the drafting of contracts for the building and operation a wood pellet works in the Siegen-Wittgenstein area. RWE holds a 90% and German Pellets a 10% interest in the project company, NRW Pellets GmbH. The investment volume is ca. Euro 21 million. The technical management of the pellet works will be undertaken by German Pellets within the scope of a business management agreement; the commercial management will be assumed by RWE as an agency for the benefit of NRW Pellets. German Pellets in turn will purchase the annual production of up to 120,000 tonnes of wood pellets within the scope of a 20-year supply and purchase agreement, and will distribute the pellets to the final customers.

An Oppenhoff & Partner team headed by Dr. Lars Böttcher extensively advised RWE Innogy Cogen. Further team members were Henning Fischer (business and corporate law) and Holger Hofmann (environmental law). German Pellets GmbH was advised by Orrick, Hölters & Elsing.

Oppenhoff & Partner, an independent law firm located in Cologne, sees itself as a top-ranking legal adviser of enterprises and entrepreneurs, offering a broad range of advice on commercial and tax law. With more than 55 lawyers, it focuses on the provision of advice to domestic and foreign, large-scale and larger medium-sized enterprises at a regional, national and international level. Recently, for example, Oppenhoff & Partner advised M. DuMont Schauberg on the acquisition of Berliner Zeitung and Telekom on the consequences of the data affair.

Contact at Oppenhoff & Partner
Elmar Salinger, PR Manager
Telephone: +49 (0)221 2091 315
E-mail: elmar.salinger@oppenhoff.eu