Shearman & Sterling represented Aareal Holding Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbH in connection with the €269 million hard underwritten capital increase of Aareal Bank AG and the related €102 million pre-placement of new shares in Aareal Bank by Aareal Holding in an international private placement.

The transaction involved an "operation blanche" designed to enable Aareal Holding to partially participate in the rights offering without investing any additional funds. In connection with the operation blanche, the syndicate banks, Deutsche Bank and HSBC, placed a part of the new shares attributable to the subscription rights of Aareal Holding resulting from its (pre-offering) 37.23% stake in Aareal Bank with institutional investors in an accelerated bookbuilding, thus enabling Aareal Holding to use the net proceeds from this placement to subscribe for the remaining portion of the new shares attributable to its subscription rights.