Dla Piper in Maire’s sustainability-linked schuldschein financing

Dla Piper acted as the legal advisor to the pool of banks involved in structuring and organizing the German law-regulated “Schuldschein sustainability-linked” loans, for a total amount of 200 million euros successfully placed by Maire in July 2024.

A Schuldschein is a financial instrument typical of the German and Austrian markets, consisting of a financing backed by a debt certificate that facilitates its transfer and syndication to a potentially wide plurality of investors. The financing provides for a margin reduction upon Maire achieving specific greenhouse gas emission reduction targets.

The bank pool assisted by Dla Piper was composed of Commerzbank, as initial underwriter, arranger, and paying agent, Credit Agricole Cib and Intesa Sanpaolo (Imi Cib Division), as arrangers, Credit Agricole Cib also as sustainability coordinator, and Maire as the beneficiary.

The law firm acted with a multi-jurisdictional team, coordinated by partners Giovanni Ragnoni Bosco Lucarelli and Luciano Morello, composed of lawyers Gianfranco Giorgio and Angela Angiò for Italian law assistance; partner Wolfram Distler (PICTURED), assisted by counsel Tobias Daubert and transaction specialist Arne Klingelhöfer, provided assistance for German law aspects.

Dla Piper also acted, under strict information barriers, as legal counsel to Cassa depositi e prestiti, as an investor (along with other international banks and financial institutions), with a separate team composed of partner Giampiero Priori and lawyer Valerio Cellentani for Italian law aspects, and partner Eike Neugebauer and senior counsel Ute Brunner-Reumann for German law aspects.