Renzenbrink & Partner achieves success for former supervisory board member of WKN AG before the Higher Regional Court of Schleswig

WKN AG, a subsidiary of the northern German wind farm developer PNE Wind AG, has filed a claim for damages in the millions against former members of its management, two former members of the Board of Management and one former member of the Supervisory Board. The allegations: The managers had purchased wind turbines from the Vestas Group, Europe’s largest manufacturer of wind turbines, at overpriced prices to the detriment of the company. There were also allegations of “over-balancing” – projects reported in WKN’s 2012 annual financial statements were allegedly overvalued by tens of millions. In June 2015, WKN filed a lawsuit with the Flensburg Regional Court. The regional court dismissed the action in a ruling on April 13, 2017. The Higher Regional Court of Schleswig has now confirmed the decision of the court of first instance and dismissed the appeal on April 4, 2018. The appeal was not allowed.

The reasons for the decision are not yet available. However, the OLG had already indicated at the hearing that the appeal was unlikely to be successful. It could not be established that the purchase price actually paid was above the “market price”. The annual financial statements were not invalid; the Management Board had acted within its scope of judgment.

Renzenbrink & Partner represented the supervisory board member in both instances. The Renzenbrink & Partner team consisted of partners Dr. Lars Kirschner (litigation, lead) and Dr. Gunnar L. Schmüser (finance) as well as associate Annegret Spanka (litigation).

The former members of the Executive Board were represented by the Kiel law firms Gubitz + Partner (Dr. Wolf Molkentin) and CausaConcilio (Dr. Dirk Unrau).