How do you approach managing legal aspects during periods of instability or crises, and how does your legal strategy align with the broader business strategy to ensure the organisation’s resilience?

In a challenging market environment with declining demand in most European markets, the majority of companies focus on cost efficiency. However, that doesn’t just mean cutting costs. Among other things, increasing market share and leveraging scale for efficiency will be of particular importance in such a scenario. The added value of the legal department is to provide fast hands-on guidance to enable such new business relationships and to allow customer-centric solutions. By integrating this accelerator mindset in the legal department, organisations can better navigate legal challenges, not only during periods of instability.

What are the main cases or transactions that you have been involved in recently?

Progroup recently announced the successful € 750 million senior secured notes offering, split into five- and seven-year tranches. The proceeds will be used to refinance € 600 million senior secured notes due in 2026 and to fund expansion projects.

As part of our long-term planning, we have seized the opportunity to secure a traditional paper mill site of more than 500,000 sqm near Frankfurt/Main through an asset deal. Following the fulfillment of all closing conditions, the project team is ready to develop the site with one of the world’s most modern and efficient paper machines. The transaction demonstrates Progroup’s advantage as a family-owned company to make long-term investment decisions even in a challenging market environment.

How do you measure the impact of ESG initiatives on the company’s overall performance and reputation?

A good approach to measure the effectiveness of corporate ESG efforts is to have them assessed, for example, by one of the Big Three credit-rating agencies. The annual assessment of sustainability practices provides a benchmark against the industry standard based on industry-specific economic, environmental, and social criteria. The annual scorecard will allow you to see how much you keep improving by ESG initiatives over time and identifies specific actions you can focus on. The sustainability indices becoming increasingly important for sustainability-focused investors and are expected to be financially relevant.

What do you see as the major legal challenges for businesses in Germany over the next five years, and how are you preparing to address them?

Within the European Union, many regulations are still not harmonised. Multinational companies are confronted with a jungle of regulations in different European countries. It will be key to take further steps towards the harmonization of laws and regulations across the European Union to avoid different regulatory landscapes for companies operating throughout Europe. Due to the latest regulatory trends, companies will be facing additional regulations and compliance requirements in 2025 that will require significant implementation efforts and could impact business activities. Each new regulation pursues sound and meaningful objectives for a positive impact. However, in times of focusing long-term competitiveness and growth, it is necessary to strike the right balance between economic and other legislative objectives, e.g. by applying the EU Commission’s ‘one in, one out’ principle that aims to remove one regulatory burden for every new one in order to reduce bureaucracy costs.

One way to better manage the variety of regulatory requirements is to be supported by powerful digital solutions. It is best to implement multiple regulations in one centralised tool to achieve a lean digital landscape. This will improve usability and user acceptance for all stakeholders from different departments across the organisation.