Team size: Four

What are the most significant cases, projects and/or transactions that you and/or your legal team have recently been involved in?

The entire past year was very exciting for Blue Elephant and thus also for the legal department. In addition to the acquisition of a project development company focusing on large scale battery storage solutions (BESS), which marked the first corporate M&A add-on since the entry of Antin as a shareholder, and the conclusion of HoldCo financing in the triple-digit million range for our own development pipeline, many projects from that pipeline successfully reached so-called ready to build status towards the end of the year. In addition, we signed an SPA to acquire 44 wind farms in northeastern Germany with a total capacity of approximately 380 megawatts in one swoop at the end of the year. The main task for our team was to keep all the different balls in the air, constantly (re-)prioritize, and take into account the deadlines of our clients, i.e., the various project teams. Both project development business and constant M&A activity go hand in hand with fast response times, short deadlines, and a generally fast-paced environment. The balancing act between on-site appointments in wood-paneled kitchens in rural Bavaria to secure land plots for development projects and calls with investment banks and big law firms about portfolio transactions makes our work challenging but also diverse, interesting, and exciting.

What considerations guide your decision to engage external counsel versus managing matters internally, and how do you assess the value or performance of those external providers?

At Blue Elephant, we try to cover all essential areas of legal support in-house first. However, we seek support of external experts for specialised topics, such as the regulatory framework relating to the ownership or acquisition of critical infrastructure, or in connection with larger transactions or topics that are new to us and the industry. When we outsource tasks to external legal advisors, it is of utmost importance to us as a legal department that we can rely on the advice provided.

That is why it is important for us to have a reliable and experienced partner in every area. After quality, fast execution and responsiveness are essential in the fast-paced environment of project development business, but probably even more so during M&A projects. Therefore, when selecting external counsel, we also pay close attention to the (time) resilience of our advisors, depending on the project and task. Finally, we must keep an eye on budget, so smart solutions and cost-effective use of technology is always welcome.