A team from GÖRG, led by Dr Karl-Friedrich Curtze and Prof Dr habil Gerrit Hölzle, advised Northern Fiber Holding GmbH (“NFH”) on the successful restructuring of its financial liabilities by means of a restructuring plan under the German Corporate Stabilisation and Restructuring Act (StaRUG). The restructuring plan, which has now become legally binding, enables the sale and refinancing of NFH. The purchaser is Strategic Fiber Networks GmbH (“SFN”), a portfolio company of the funds advised by iCON Infrastructure. At the same time, the international banking consortium is being replaced as lender under the existing debt financing of more than EUR 400 million.
NFH is a broadband network operator in Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein and North Rhine-Westphalia and one of the largest fibre-optic infrastructure providers in northern Germany. Under the Lünecom and sewikom brands, the NFH Group operates its own and leased fibre-optic networks for residential and business customers.
GÖRG has been providing legal advice to NFH on the restructuring since September 2025, including the negotiation of several standstill agreements with the international banking consortium, the preparation of the dual-purpose restructuring trust – under which the shares in NFH were transferred to an independent trustee at the beginning of 2026 – and the transaction with SFN. Completion of the transaction requires, amongst other things, a restructuring of NFH’s existing financing structure. The restructuring plan sets out the contributions to be made by the existing financial creditors, thereby enabling the sale and refinancing of NFH. Following the dismissal by the Regional Court of Hanover of an immediate appeal, the plan is now legally binding.
Advisers to Northern Fiber Holding GmbH
GÖRG Partnerschaft von Rechtsanwälten mbB
Dr Karl-Friedrich Curtze (Partner, Insolvency Law/Restructuring, Hamburg)
Prof Dr habil Gerrit Hölzle (Partner, Insolvency Law/Restructuring, Bremen)
Dr Jakob Bünemann, M.Sc. (Associated Partner, Insolvency Law/Restructuring, Hamburg)
Dr Thomas Rieger (Partner, Insolvency Law/Restructuring, Stuttgart)
Michael Klitsch, LL.M. Eur. (Associated Partner, Insolvency Law/Restructuring, Munich)
Other advisers to Northern Fiber Holding GmbH
Deloitte GmbH Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft
Stefan Sanne, Corinna von Loeffelholz
Restructuring administrator appointed by the Hanover Local Court
Brinkmann & Partner
Manuel Sack
Trustee
Dentons
Andreas Ziegenhagen, Dr Jan Seelinger
Advisers to the Trustee
Noerr
Dr Jan-Philipp Meier, Dr Moritz Koch
Advisers to the purchaser (iCON Infrastructure / Strategic Fiber Networks GmbH)
Gleiss Lutz
Dr Matthias Tresselt, Dr Moritz Lochmann
Advisers to the financing banks
Clifford Chance
Andreas Steiger, Dr Martin Jawansky, Vanessa Steiner
