Ashurst advises Verbio on change of legal form to an SE

Ashurst has advised VERBIO Vereinigte BioEnergie AG on its change of legal form to a European Company (SE). The listed company now operates under the name "Verbio SE". The Annual General Meeting approved the change of legal form with a majority of 99.99% of the voting capital represented.

The supra-regional legal form of an SE is the appropriate legal form for the company's international orientation and activities in the long term. Verbio is shaping social and industrial change towards climate neutrality and ecological production with innovative technologies and green solutions. In its biorefineries in Europe, Asia and North America, the company processes sustainably produced biomass and agricultural residues into climate-friendly fuels, green energy, renewable products for chemicals and agriculture as well as high-quality components for the feed and food industry.

The change of legal form was prepared and implemented efficiently and swiftly, in particular thanks to the outstanding work of the in-house team led by Daniela Sauter, Head of Global Legal. The Deputy Chairwoman of the Supervisory Board, Ulrike Krämer, and CFO Olaf Tröber were also closely involved in the preparations.

Ashurst advised the company on the change of legal form and the Annual General Meeting under the lead management of partner Prof Dr Florian Drinhausen (Corporate Transactions). Further team members were Partner Dr Andreas Mauroschat (Employment), Counsel Astrid Keinath, Senior Associate Quynh Anh Le (both Corporate Transactions) and Associate Lena Kühnberger (Employment).

Prof Dr Florian Drinhausen and Astrid Keinath had already advised numerous companies on the formation of SEs during their previous work at Linklaters until the beginning of 2014, including today's Vonovia SE, NORMA Group SE and BP Europa SE. Florian Drinhausen emphasised that it was pleasing that Ashurst was able to seamlessly build on the SE practice that had been established at Linklaters.