Freshfields advises Neptun Werft on joint venture with Belgian Smulders Group
Freshfields has advised German shipyard Neptun Werft on its joint venture with Belgian Smulders Group, an international construction company specialising in the engineering, fabrication, assembly and integration of complex structures and systems for the offshore wind, civil and industrial markets.
The joint venture company, Neptun Smulders Offshore Renewables (NSORe), has been awarded a contract to build a 2 GW platform for the North Sea Connector 2 project, implemented by 50Hertz Transmission. The platform will be delivered by a consortium comprising NSORe and Siemens Energy.
Freshfields’ advice also covered NSORe’s conclusion of a lease agreement with the German Institute for Federal Real Estate (BImA) for port premises in Rostock-Warnemünde. The lease provides NSORe with construction space for converter platforms while granting usage rights to the German Ministry of Defence, given the property’s strategic relevance for national and NATO deployment operations. Neptun Werft has been part of the Meyer Werft Group since 1997.
Offshore energy context
Offshore converter platforms play a key role in transporting electricity to shore from offshore wind farms and are considered an integral component of Europe’s energy transition. Smulders Group brings extensive experience in the engineering, fabrication, assembly and integration of complex structures for the offshore wind, civil and industrial markets.
The Freshfields team
The Freshfields team was led by partners Natascha Doll (Hamburg, pictured left) and Carsten Bork (Frankfurt, pictured right), both from the corporate/M&A practice. Further partners involved were Gerrit Beckhaus (real estate, Hamburg), Philipp Redeker (tax, Düsseldorf/Munich), Frank Laudenklos (finance, Frankfurt), Ilka Oberländer (antitrust, Düsseldorf) and Jan-Philip Wilde (finance, Hamburg).
At principal associate level, the team included Panagiota Kavvada and Gianna-Maria Jungblut (corporate/M&A and real estate respectively, both Hamburg), Sören Lehmann (tax, Düsseldorf) and Hannes Butz (finance, Frankfurt). Associates Steffen Blume and Eike Jani (corporate/M&A and real estate, Hamburg), Torben Gerhards (tax, Düsseldorf), Oliver Neuer (procurement law, Hamburg), Marleen Böhm (antitrust, Düsseldorf) and Vinia Stach (finance, Hamburg) also contributed.
Meyer Werft’s in-house legal team was represented by vice president legal Oscar Ortega Ermisch and legal counsel Marko Thies.
