Link Legal assists COWI A/S Denmark with its Indian leg of divestment of aerial mapping business to Hexagon Group

COWI Group, a leading international consulting group within engineering, economics and environmental science headquartered in Denmark has divested its aerial mapping business to the Hexagon Group, a global leader in sensor, software and autonomous solutions, headquartered in Sweden.

The business transfer agreement for divestment of aerial mapping business of COWI Group carried out from around five countries, to Hexagon Group was signed between COWI A/S and Leica Geosystems Technology A/S in December 2019 and the closing of the divestment and transfer of the said mapping business took place in April 2020 (except for the closing of the transfer of the Norwegian mapping activities which is conditional upon approval from the Norwegian authorities). The divestment will help COWI Group to focus on its core engineering consultancy business.

The transfer of the aerial mapping business in India was done on a slump-sale basis and was given effect by executing the Indian Transfer Note amongst COWI India Private Limited (COWI India), Hexagon Geosystems Services India Private Limited (Hexagon India) and their respective holding companies acting as guarantors for the performance of their subsidiaries.

Link Legal had advised COWI A/S in structuring of the divestment since the year 2016. As far as the transaction is concerned, Link Legal assisted COWI A/S and COWI India in drafting, negotiation and finalisation of the transaction documents and closing of the transaction, which involved extensive coordination with Bech Bruun, legal advisors of COWI A/S and assistance and advice with, inter alia, transfer of assets, leased premises and about 300 employees of COWI India.

Link Legal team comprised Mr. Vijai Mathur (Partner), Mr. Vinu Peter Immanuel (Associate Partner), Ms. Pragathi P (Senior Associate Analyst) and Ms. Aditi Sharma (Associate). Hexagon India was represented by Trilegal.