The law firm Sołtysiński Kawecki & Szlęzak has provided comprehensive advice to the existing owners and Solaris Bus & Coach S.A. (Solaris) in the acquisition of Solaris by Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (CAF).
At the beginning of September 2018 both firms announced that in performance of an agreement concluded a couple of months earlier and in fulfillment of the conditions contained in that agreement, CAF acquired 100% of the shares in the firm Solaris from the then existing owners. Following this, CAF concluded a preliminary agreement with the Polish Development Fund on the terms and conditions of the joint investment in Solaris and take up by PFR of the minority block of 35% of shares in Solaris.
Solaris produces public transport vehicles: city and inter-city buses, trolleybuses, and trams. It is the largest producer of city buses in Poland and one of the largest in Europe, as well as being the largest producer of trolleybuses in Europe. This family business was set up by Solange and Krzysztof Olszewski at the beginning of the 1990s. Since that time in four factories in the Wielkopolski region the firm has produced 16,000 vehicles, which have been sold to 32 countries and over 700 cities. The firm employs over 2,300 people in Poland and about 300 workers in foreign branches.
The Spanish firm CAF designs, produces and services rail vehicles – trains and trams. It has existed since 1917 and is present in 25 countries around the world, including in the USA, France, Belgium, Italy, and Brazil.
Solaris Bus & Coach and its owners were assisted in the successful finalization of the transaction by a team of SK&S lawyers headed by Krzysztof Pawlisz, Senior Partner, made up of: Andrzej Motyka (Senior Associate), Karol Skibniewski (Associate), Anna Bartosiewicz (Junior Associate), and Maciej Zwoliński (Senior Counsel).
Tax issues were handled by Piotr Andrzejak, Partner in the tax department, and Bartłomiej Biały (Senior Associate), Wojciech Węgrzyn (Associate) and Jędrzej Figurski (Associate).
In turn, antimonopoly issues were handled by Krzysztof Kanton, Partner in charge of the competition law practice, as well as by Grzegorz Koguciuk (Associate).
During the transaction SK&S worked closely with lawyers from the American law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher from its office in Frankfurt.