Allen & Overy advises Hamburger Energiewerke on acquisition of Moorburg coal-fired power plant from Vattenfall

Allen & Overy advised Hamburger Energiewerke (HEnW), a company owned by the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg¹, on its acquisition of Kohlekraftwerk Moorburg GmbH from Vattenfall on 1 March 2023. In addition to the acquisition of shares, the transaction also includes the accompanying property located at Moorburger Schanze as well as the buildings and remaining facilities of the Moorburg power plant, some of which are to be dismantled. The parties agreed not to disclose the purchase price.

In the context of the phase-out of coal-fired power generation in Germany, the Moorburg power plant was closed down in July 2021 after being operated by Vattenfall for only six years. Since then, preparations for the dismantling of the power plant have been conducted, which is now to be carried out by HEnW. Moorburg GmbH has set up substantial provisions in order to cover the dismantling costs using the company's existing cash resources.

Following this acquisition, it is now possible for large-scale hydrogen production to be established and the existing power plant dismantled by a single company. HEnW aims to build a hydrogen infrastructure (the "Hamburg Green Energy Hub") at the Moorburg site as part of the Hamburg Hydrogen Network and to use various components of the former power plant to supply hydrogen to Hamburg and the industrial sector.

The Allen & Overy team was led by partner Dr Helge Schäfer, counsel Dr Rüdiger Klüber (both Corporate/M&A) and partner Dr Christian Hilmes (Real Estate) and also included senior associate Dr Moritz Meister, associate Daniel Wendler (both Corporate/M&A), counsel Dr Daniel Bolm, senior associate Dr Marcus Grühn and associate Hauke Jung (all Real Estate), partner Dr Ellen Braun and counsel Dr Ioannis Thanos (both Antitrust), partner Dr Heike Weber (Tax), partners Peter Wehner and Markulf Behrendt as well as associates Merle Herrmann and Dr Sven Gunkel (all Employment & Benefits) and partner Dr Udo H. Olgemöller and associate Dr Stephan Bühner (both Public Law).

_{1 HEnW is the result of a merger between Wärme Hamburg GmbH and Hamburg Energie.}