BDO advises Clariant and Novartis on the sale of industrial parks

On 16 November 2018, Clariant and Novartis sold their respective industrial parks located in the Schweizerhalle area near Basel, Switzerland, to GETEC Heat & Power, a portfolio company of the Swedish financial investor EQT. The industrial parks cover a total area of 51 hectares. Aside from substantial production facilities of the sellers, other well-known chemical and life science companies such as Bayer and BASF are situated on the parks. In total more than 2,000 employees work in both parks. Both sellers will continue to operate their plants on the site. GETEC/EQT is now in a position to integrate and develop the two adjacent parks. The parties have agreed not to disclose the purchase price.

BDO as the joint lead advisor to Clariant and Novartis managed the simultaneous sale of both businesses in a coordinated sales process. While Clariant's industrial park was already spun-off into a legal entity, Infrapark Baselland AG, Novartis’ industrial park business was just established via a carve-out as an initial step of the sales process. BDO advised this carve-out with an interdisciplinary team in all its elements: defining the target commercial model, a technical evaluation of the facilities, defining the perimeter, developing the concept and managing the subsequent implementation of the carve-out and finally the preparation of pro-forma financial information for the separated business.

Through BDO’s international M&A network, a huge number of potential investors were approached globally by means of sales documents prepared by BDO. Following a multi-stage process, GETEC/EQT finally qualified as the acquirer.

An integrated, multidisciplinary team from BDO Germany, BDO Switzerland and technical experts of the German BDO Technik- und Umweltconsulting GmbH advised in all relevant dimensions of the project, beginning with the design phase until the final sale. The team was led by Hartmut Paulus, Partner and Head of Corporate Finance BDO Germany.