Sale of the Hochdorf Swiss Nutrition prodcution site to the Municipality

Foodstuff company Hochdorf and its pension fund have entered into agreements with the Municipality of Hochdorf on the sale of its production site in Hochdorf, in the canton of Lucerne. The sale of the land and buildings with an aggregate land area exceeding 85,000 m2 on numerous plots (including several ground leases and sub-ground leases) will be sold for a total consideration of approx. CHF 60 million. At the same time, Hochdorf will lease back some of the transferred plots. The transaction will be closed by 30 December 2021 and will have a positive impact on Hochdorf Group’s annual results. The sale is a result of Group’s strategic decision to consolidate both currently operated production sites in the more modern facility in Sulgen, in the canton of Thurgau.

The successful sale of the site is a key step toward making the Hochdorf Group fit for the future and placing it on a solid economic foundation in order to allow it to pursue its aim to further develop into the technologically leading Swiss provider of “smart nutrition” solutions.

Baker McKenzie Switzerland advised Hochdorf Swiss Nutrition on all legal aspects of this sale. Among other particularities, the transaction was subject to a permit by the environmental authorities and to various preemption rights by third parties. The Baker McKenzie team was led by partner Samuel Marbacher (Zurich) and partner Charles Gschwind (Geneva/Zurich) and it included tax counsel Mario Kumschick (Zurich), tax associate Susanne Liebel–Kotz (Zurich), associate Michael Zeller (Zurich) as well as trainee lawyers Rene Kühn, Pascal Dorier and Mehdi Ben Salah (Geneva/Zurich).