Czech Republic: Schoenherr advises Bausparkasse Schwäbisch Hall on the sale of its 45% stake in Českomoravská stavební spořitelna to ČSOB

"We were delighted to assist BSH with this successful transaction which represented the termination of the final joint venture in the Czech banking market," said Martin Kubánek, Schoenherr Czech Republic's managing partner.

Schoenherr Czech Republic advised alongside Gleiss Lutz on negotiations related to the transactional documentation and also on merger control assessment.

BSH, founded in 1931 in Germany, provides various financial services in Germany and internationally. BSH operates as a savings bank and services provider for the private mortgage lending business of the approximately 900 cooperative banks in Germany. The company has over 3,300 employees and its majority shareholder is DZ Bank in Frankfurt am Main.

ČMSS, founded in 1993 as a joint venture between ČSOB and BSH, is the biggest building savings bank in the Czech Republic, representing a market share of 42 % in building savings loans and 40 % in building savings deposits. ČMSS currently has around 1.3 million clients.

ČSOB is a wholly-owned subsidiary of KBC Bank NV and was established in 1964 in the Czech Republic. The company offers a wide range of banking products and services to all groups of clients, i.e. retail as well as SME, corporate and institutional clients.

The Prague team consisted of Martin Kubánek (partner, Prague, corporate/M&A, real estate); Eva Purgerová (attorney-at-law, Prague, corporate/M&A,); and Claudia Bock (attorney-at-law, Prague, EU & competition).

Gleiss Lutz acted as lead counsel to BSH; CMS was lead counsel to ČMSS.