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Freshfields advises KKR on new corporate structure for Axel Springer
Global law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer (‘Freshfields’) advises KKR as shareholder in relation to the new corporate structure for Axel Springer SE (‘Axel Springer’). A final agreement is expected in the coming months. The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2025 subject to receipt of all requisite regulatory approvals.
The planned new structure foresees that Axel Springer’s media businesses – Bild, Business Insider, Politico, Welt, idealo, Bonial, Morning Brew, Dyn Media, Emarketer, and the joint venture Ringier Axel Springer Poland – will remain within Axel Springer. Friede Springer and Mathias Döpfner will together hold close to 98 percent of the company. Axel Sven Springer, one of the grandchildren of the company founder, will retain the remaining shares – a smaller portion of his previous minority shareholding. This makes Axel Springer a fully privately owned and operated media company for the first time since the company’s IPO back in 1985.
The Stepstone Group, AVIV Group, finanzen.net, and Awin, pending approvals, will be held as separate joint venture companies with KKR and CPP Investments as majority shareholders, Axel Springer as minority co-shareholder, and with an economic participation by the grandchildren of Axel Springer. The exact participation of the respective shareholders is to be finalized in the process of getting to binding agreements.
The Freshfields team is led by Partner Nicholas Günther (Corporate/M&A, Düsseldorf) and also includes Partners Andreas Fabritius, Heiner Braun (both Corporate/M&A, Frankfurt), David Beutel (Munich), Alexander Schwahn (both Tax, Hamburg), Frank Röhling (Antitrust, Berlin) and Thomas Müller-Bonanni (Labour Law, Düsseldorf).
