Beijing Enterprises €1.44 billion acquisition of EEW Energy from Waste

Overview:

• Beijing Enterprises Holdings (BEH) acquired EEW Energy from Waste for around €1.44 billion from EQT, in the largest Chinese acquisition ever in Germany.
• State-owned Chinese buyer BEH bought leading energy-to-waste business EEW to secure technology it hopes will enable Beijing to combat its significant waste problem. 
• Swedish investor EQT sold EEW through an auction between the eventual buyer and three other selected bidders: a consortium of China Tianying and Ping An; a consortium of Beijing Capital and Steag; and Fortum.
• BEH financed the deal with a loan from the Luxembourg branch of Bank of China. 
• The deal was only the second German acquisition by a Chinese company to exceed $1 billion after ChemChina-led group bought KraussMaffei for $1 billion in January 2016.
• Beijing Enterprises' deal continues a recent trend of Chinese companies buying German businesses for technology. 
• The financial advisers on the deal were Morgan Stanley (EQT), and Lazard and UBS (Beijing Enterprises).
• EQT acquired an initial 51% stake in EEW from Eon in 2013.

Ben Naylor - Regional editor