Listed below are a selection of key transactions I dealt with individually or in conjunction with other in-house counsels or attorneys-at-law while serving as in-house counsel or as salaried partner/ attorney-at-law prior to opening my own firm:

 

Area Transaction
Corporate Group Law Dependency Report of Hoechst AG pursuant to Section 312 of the German Stock Corporation Act: set-up and audit process (business years 2000-2003)
Corporate Law / Accounting “Legal Items” of the Statutory Accounts and Consolidated Accounts of Hoechst AG (business years 2000-2002)
Corporate Law / Accounting German version of the “Legal Items” in the Annual Report of Aventis and of the Invitations to the General Meeting of Shareholders of Aventis (stock corporation listed at the Paris Stock Exchange and domiciled in Strasbourg, France) (business years 2000-2002)
Litigation
(Product Liability and Piercing the Corporate Veil)
 
Handling liabilities retained within Hoechst AG, arising out of a former business sector, in Germany, Spain, Austria, Italy and (in a coordination function for Europe) the USA; litigation files; large scale settlement scheme in Spain
M&A (sale of business)
  
Closing of the sale of the agrochemical business “Aventis CropScience” to Bayer CropScience
Complex Contract Schemes Creation of plan assets regarding the pension liabilities of Hoechst AG via transfer of funds to an off-balance vehicle (Aventis Pensionstreuhand e.V.), based on dual trust agreements
Corporate Restructuring / Insurance Regulatory (Transfer of insurance portfolio / mergers)
 
Cross-border portfolio transfer from a German captive to an Irish captive and subsequent merger pursuant to Sections 14 and 14a (today: Sections 13 and 14) of the German Insurance Regulatory Act; various up-stream mergers of non-regulated subsidiaries of Hoechst AG
M&A (sale of business)
 
Sale of the blood plasma business “Aventis Behring” to the Australian company CSL
Corporate Restructuring / M&A (Joint Venture) Corporate restructurings in order to unwind a joint venture; carve-out of a patent
Corporate Law (Stock Corporation Law)
 
Ordinary General Meeting of Shareholders of Hoechst AG 2003; coordination of responses to the questions in the back office
Corporate Group Law Squeeze-Out of minority shareholders of Hoechst AG in the Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders of Hoechst AG; “expert” for Corporate Group Law in the back office
M&A (sale of business / Joint Venture)
 
Sale of the joint venture-stake of Hoechst AG in Hoechst Afghanistan AG (Afghanistan) to Afghan investors
Corporate Finance (Joint Venture Finance)
 
Joint financing 2005/2006 of the consortium formed by DaimlerChrysler, Deutsche Telekom and Cofiroute (Vinci) to operate “Toll Collect” in Germany
M&A (Joint Venture)/ Project Finance Unwinding of the financing of the joint production of smart forfour and Mitsubishi colt
Structured Finance (Asset Backed Securitisation (ABS))
 
Restructuring of the “Kaiserplatz”-Programme – ABS-programme on the sale of receivable portfolios originated within the DaimlerChrysler Group
Structured Finance (Asset Backed Securitisation (ABS))
 
Set-up of “Silver Arrow” – a vehicle based in Luxembourg to serve as ABS-platform for the sale of receivable portfolios originated within the DaimlerChrysler Group; implementation of two ABS-programmes via Silver Arrow, under English Law and German Law
M&A (purchase of business)
 
Acquisition of a Turkish cement manufacturer from an Italian company by a Russian company (client)
M&A (purchase of business / Joint Venture)
 
Acquisition of the 50%-stake in a Turkish machine manufacturer from a Turkish company by its Belgian joint venture partner (client)
M&A (purchase of business)
 
Due Diligence in view of a targeted acquisition of a French-Swiss pharmaceutical by a Turkish pharmaceutical (client); transaction stopped upon evaluation of the Due Diligence Report
Project Finance Project financing of two “river-type” hydro-power plants by a German bank (client) in Turkey; investigation of the legal setting surrounding the new Turkish law on renewable energies
Project Finance (World Bank Group / MIGA)

 

Negotiation of the conditions for taking out political risk insurance (by client) with “MIGA” (Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency), an organization of the World Bank Group
Distressed Debt (Restructuring of bank debt)
 
Joint restructuring of debt of a Ukrainian Bank (Debt Equity Swap; Debt Subdebt Swap) among a group of creditors including EBRD (European Bank of Reconstruction and Development)
Distressed Debt (Sale of Receivables / Equity Stake)
 
Sale of receivables / promissory notes against a U.S. American aircraft company (Chapter 11 process) and against a German solar technology company; sale of an equity stake acquired via debt-equity swap
Complex Contract Schemes (registered bonds and Schuldschein Loans)
 
Design of a master agreement for the settlement of registered bonds and Schuldschein loans
Complex Contract Schemes (covered bonds)
 
Structuring and drafting of a master agreement for the pooling of loans in order to take out a portfolio guarantee from the European Investment Fund (EIF) as guarantor and an insurance company as back-guarantor, in order for the loans to be eligible for registration in the covered bond register
Litigation (Contract Law – Assignment of Receivable)
 
Pursuit in court of an interest claim retained from the assignment of the underlying Schuldschein loan receivable
Corporate Restructuring Consolidation of a company’s business in a German subsidiary, respectively its newly created registered branches:
Set-up of registered branches in Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, France, Belgium and the Netherlands
Side-stream spin-off from an Austrian limited company (GmbH) to another Austrian limited company with subsequent cross-border side-stream merger into the German target company