The Becker Büttner Held group consists of Becker Büttner Held Rechtsanwälte Wirtschaftsprüfer Steuerberater PartGmbB (BBH – a partnership of lawyers, auditors and tax advisors), the business consultancy Becker Büttner Held Consulting AG (BBHC) and the auditing company invra Treuhand AG Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft.

What makes the BBH group special is its interdisciplinary consulting approach: lawyers, tax advisors and auditors work hand in hand with engineers, sales experts and IT professionals.

BBH closely collaborates with invra Treuhand AG, whose service offer complements BBH’s expertise in important areas. Invra’s portfolio encompasses auditing, tax and business consulting services, financial and payroll accounting as well as bookkeeping and trusteeship. As a member of AGN International, invra has a global network of accounting and consulting firms at its disposal.

BBH Consulting AG is a business consultancy based in Munich with offices in Berlin and Cologne. BBHC has a particular focus on the municipal energy sector. Taking an entrepreneurial approach in their practice, the experts of BBHC provide advice to municipalities as well as energy and infrastructure companies on all levels of the energy-industry value chain. The company’s specialists draw on long-standing experience in operative management roles in sales and commerce, marketing, technology and IT.

BBH has established close relationships with many of its clients, providing them with ongoing advice on strategic and operative questions. In its practice, BBH focuses on legal as well as business issues under consideration of technical aspects.

BBH is a leading provider of advisory services for energy and infrastructure companies. Other core practice areas include the provision of advice to industrial clients and the housing industry as well as media and copyright law, civil and commercial law and the entire field of public law.

An advisor to more than 450 municipal utilities, numerous municipalities and public authorities, BBH’s current advisory focus has its origins in the so-called “electricity dispute” (Stromstreit) of 1992/1993, with 146 East German municipalities pursuing a lawsuit for the right to keep their electricity generation and supply infrastructure. According to the intention of the Federal Government at that time, the infrastructure was to be reorganised in an oligopolistic manner and to be controlled by Germany’s major energy supply companies. This plan was challenged successfully in proceedings before Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht) resulting in the so-called “electricity settlement” (Stromvergleich), which paved the way for the formation of numerous municipal utilities and laid the foundations for today’s energy supply structure in the new federal states.

To this day, the BBH group is providing strategic advice to the majority of municipalities and municipal utilities in the new federal states, which it assisted in setting up municipal companies and transferring the assets relating to electricity, gas and heat – out of court and, as necessary, in court as well as before arbitral tribunals. The BBH group also counsels these organisations in their daily energy and infrastructure business. Furthermore, BBH supports municipalities and municipal utilities throughout Germany.

More than 250 professionals (lawyers, auditors, tax advisors and engineers) and a total of over 550 employees work with the BBH group in Berlin, Munich, Cologne, Hamburg, Stuttgart, Erfurt and Brussels.

BBH advises more than 450 mostly municipal energy supply companies as well as numerous commercial and industrial clients, including almost all major commercial airports in Germany and the housing sector.

BBH provides advice on all matters along the entire value chain, among others: the construction of power plants and energy generation with a special focus on combined heat and power as well as renewable energy; grid-related questions including the legal framework governing concession contracts, grid takeovers and all regulatory matters (such as grid charges, grid connection, grid access etc.); various infrastructure-related topics (e.g. water/wastewater/local public transport/telecommunication); energy supply and trading; services relating to energy and all associated areas of expertise. BBH’s advisory practice covers all of the tasks and responsibilities of municipalities and municipal infrastructure companies, including all matters relating to company law, taxation and budgetary law.