Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP has advised Posco, the leading South Korea steelmaker, in its acquisition of a 51 percent stake in Xenesys Inc., a Japanese company specializing in the ocean power generation technology. The acquisition, which was completed on December 10, 2010, is Posco’s first cross-border acquisition outside the steel and natural resources industries.
A team of Japanese and U.S. M&A lawyers from Orrick’s Tokyo office, led by Senior Counsel, Eugene Chang, advised Posco.
The Japanese company’s technology, Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC), is a unique and well-known technology which generates power by converting differential temperatures between warm heat and cold heat. OTEC technology uses seawater to recycle mid- to low-temperature waste heat from industrial facilities to generate electricity and was jointly developed by Xenesys and Saga University, a Japanese university in Saga prefecture.
Posco will install the waste heat recovery facilities in its steel mills in Korea in 2013 with the aim of further developing and commercializing the technology from the second half of that year.
Eugene Chang commented: “We are very pleased to have worked with Posco in its successful first acquisition in the renewable energy industry.” He added: “Over the last year, we have seen increasing interest from Korean companies looking to invest in environmentally-friendly power generation technologies across Asia. With our firm’s strengths in energy, M&A and technology transactions, our knowledge of the renewable energy industry and our long-standing links with Korea, we hope to be able to help Korean companies further develop their eco-energy businesses globally.”
Mark Weeks, Managing partner of Orrick’s Tokyo office commented: “Orrick has one of the leading cleantech energy practices in Asia as well as globally. This acquisition demonstrates the breadth and depth of our skills and knowledge in this growing global industry.”
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