De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek has advised the German State on a new reduced shareholders pact with respect to EADS N.V. The new shareholders agreement was signed on 2 April 2013.

The German State acquired, through KfW and GZBV, an additional 7.39% stake in EADS N.V., increasing its stake to 10.15%. SEPI (Sociedad Estatal De Participationes Industriales) mandated bankers to sell a 1.15% stake in EADS. Lagardère SCA sold its entire stake in EADS for EUR 2.28 billion.

The new German / French / Spanish consortium represents a joint stake of about 29% in EADS N.V. The former consortium had just over 50%. The EGM of EADS also approved a new governance structure for EADS N.V., including complex grandfathering provisions for (the members of) the new consortium.
Immediately upon closing, the new board of directors of EADS N.V., appointed on 2 April, approved an 18-month share repurchase program of up to EUR 3.75 billion.

De Brauw worked together closely with Gleiss Lutz, which, together with De Brauw, acted for the German State.

Team: Paul Cronheim (lead partner), Martin van Olffen, Deline Kruitbosch, Natascha Schreuder, Christopher Parker, and Myrtle Grondhuis