SECTOR № 02
The legal architecture of European industrial expansion.
We advise across the industrial transactions that rebuild European manufacturing capacity — specialty chemicals, coatings, precision engineering, and materials processing.
SIGNATURE QUESTIONS
- How do we structure a cross-border specialty chemicals acquisition with FDI screening across three jurisdictions?
- What greenfield framework supports a new coatings facility in Poland with EU state-aid clearance?
- How do we build a manufacturing joint venture in Ukraine that Western counterparties can actually close?
OVERVIEW
European industrial capacity is being rebuilt. The regulatory frame around it is being rewritten.
European industrial capacity — specialty chemicals, coatings, precision engineering, high-purity substrates — is expanding for the first time in a generation. The decarbonization agenda, reshoring pressure, and the reconstruction pipeline in Ukraine are changing where industrial capital is deployed and how it is structured. What was a retrenching sector is now a growth sector, and the legal infrastructure around it has not caught up.
Our practice focuses on the point where industrial transactions meet the regulatory wall. FDI screening under Polish, German, and Ukrainian frameworks. REACH and CLP compliance for specialty chemicals. State-aid clearance on greenfield manufacturing. The cross-border holding and IP structures that permit production to move across jurisdictions without triggering tax or regulatory frictions that shut transactions down.
We act for industrial strategics, private equity sponsors with dedicated industrial mandates, family offices rotating into hard assets, and the European subsidiaries of U.S. and Asian manufacturers expanding into CEE capacity. The work is integrated M&A, regulatory, and operational advice — delivered by partners with direct industrial experience, not transferred between practice silos.
CAPABILITIES
How we work across this sector.
Industrial M&A
Buy-side and sell-side advisory on industrial acquisitions. Carve-outs, auction processes, and strategic transactions across specialty chemicals, coatings, and precision engineering.
Greenfield Establishment
Facility siting, state-aid structuring, construction and EPC contracting, and the regulatory permitting needed to move a greenfield project from letter of intent to commissioning.
Specialty Chemicals Compliance
REACH registration, CLP classification, biocide authorization, and downstream-user supply-chain compliance. Cross-jurisdictional substance portfolio management.
Coatings & Surface Treatment Regulatory
Environmental permitting for coating lines, VOC compliance, IED permitting, and the regulatory architecture for facilities producing or applying coatings at industrial scale.
Cross-Border JV Structuring
Production joint ventures between Western strategics and CEE partners. Governance, IP licensing, technology-transfer structures, and exit mechanics.
Industrial Real Estate
Site acquisition, long-term leasehold structures, special economic zone qualification, and the real-estate architecture that underpins industrial expansion.
REPRESENTATIVE MATTERS
A selection of recent work.
Greenfield specialty coatings facility in Łódź Special Economic Zone
EUR 140m greenfield advisory. State-aid clearance, EPC contracting, environmental permitting, and long-term offtake structuring with a U.S. industrial parent.
Cross-border acquisition of a precision engineering group
Advised a CEE strategic on the acquisition of a German-headquartered precision engineering platform with Polish production. FDI clearance, REACH portfolio integration, and multi-jurisdictional carve-out.
Joint venture for high-purity industrial minerals processing
Structured JV between an Austrian processor and a Ukrainian mining counterparty. Technology-transfer controls, offtake pricing, and sovereign-risk allocation.
Carve-out of a Ukrainian manufacturing division into a Polish holding
Advised on a carve-out and relocation of industrial capacity from a Ukrainian parent to a Polish operating entity. IP transfer, customer contract migration, and dual-jurisdictional employment restructuring.
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