DLA Piper advises BASF on global carve-out of mobile emissions catalysts and precious metals services businesses

DLA Piper has advised BASF SE on the global legal carve-out of its mobile emissions catalysts and precious metal services businesses.

That business now operates under BASF Environmental Catalyst and Metal Solutions (ECMS) and is headquartered in Iselin, New Jersey, USA. ECMS is a global leader in emissions catalysts and produces mobile emission catalysts for gasoline, diesel and off-road vehicles, motorcycles, small engines and other applications. It is also a prominent supplier of precious metals products, trading and services and is the largest recycler of precious metals from spent automotive catalysts. ECMS has global operations in 15 countries with over 4,500 employees and 20 production sites. As a standalone entity, ECMS operates its own legal entities, IT system landscape and services independently.

The BASF/ECMS inhouse legal team was led by Dr. Stefan John (Chief Legal Officer and Senior Vice President, ECMS), Jamie Henig (General Counsel, Americas, ECMS), Dr. Jonas-Philipp Hermann (General Counsel, EMEA, ECMS), William Tan (General Counsel, APAC, ECMS), Karen Ware (Chief Legal Counsel, Global IP, ECMS) and Daniel Patalano (Chief Legal Counsel, Global Trading and Regulatory, ECMS).

An international DLA Piper team under the global co-leadership of Corporate partners Dr. Benjamin Parameswaran (Hamburg) and Dr. Tim Arndt (New York) advised BASF Group on the international legal aspects of the carve-out transaction. The US core team included partners Edmund Mokhtarian (Corporate), Deanna Reitmann (Commodities Trading), Marc Horwitz (Finance), Drew Young (Tax), Ferlillia Roberson (IP), Jeff Salinger (Environmental), Dan Fazio (Employment), Vinny Sanchez (Outsourcing), Lauren Murdza (Commercial) and Paolo Morante (Antitrust). Outside the US, the DLA Piper core team included partners Marta Frąckowiak (Corporate, Warsaw), Jonathan Watkins (Corporate, Manchester), Prof. Dr. Ludger Giesberts (Public Commercial Law, Cologne), Samata Masagee (Corporate, Bangkok) and Stewart Wang (Corporate, Shanghai). In Brazil, partners Fabio Campos Mello and Fabiano Gallo from Campos Mello Avogados, in cooperation with DLA Piper, supported the transaction.

The DLA Piper core teams were also supported by a larger group of cross jurisdictional and cross practice DLA Piper lawyers.