Samskip and Duisburg terminal joint venture agreement

Watson, Farley & Williams ("WFW") advised Samskip Holding B.V. ("Samskip") on the formation of a joint venture (“JV”) to operate the bimodal "logport III" terminal in Duisburg, Germany. Its JV partners are TX Logistik AG ("TX Logistik") and Duisburger Hafen AG. The JV has now been approved by the EU competition authority.

WFW’s assistance included drafting the JV agreement and long-term lease agreements and other transaction documents.

Headquartered in Rotterdam, Netherlands,  Samskip  is a global logistics group offering transport and related services by land, sea, rail and air with operations in 24 countries worldwide.

Duisburger Hafen AG owns and operates the Port of Duisburg at the confluence of the Rine and Ruhr rivers. It is two-thirds owned by the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and one-third by the city of Duisburg.

TX Logistik, based in Bad Honnef, Germany, was founded in 1999 and is now one of the largest transport companies for rail freight in Europe.

The WFW Germany Corporate & M&A team that advised Samskip was led by Hamburg Partner Dr Sebastian Baum, supported by Senior Associate Muteber Yalcin and Associate Tarek Fadl. Partner Dr Christine Bader advised on the regulatory and competition law aspects of the transaction.

Sebastian commented: "We are very pleased to have been able to assist our client Samskip on this challenging project and contribute to its successful conclusion. This mandate once again demonstrates WFW's outstanding expertise in complex transactions in the transport and infrastructure sectors".