Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Hengeler Mueller have won spots advising as Blackstone Group purchased a portfolio of offices from IVG for €3.3bn, the largest European real estate transaction this year.
Blackstone picked up one of the largest portfolios of office real estate in Germany, OfficeFirst, which is comprised of 97 properties. The sale follows a failed float of the portfolio on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange last month. Blackstone had previously offered to buy OfficeFirst before the IPO.
Freshfields’ team advising IVG was led by partner Wessel Heukamp and included corporate partners Kai Hasselbach, Andreas Fabritius, corporate real estate partner Timo Elsner, banking partners Frank Laudenklos and Maximilian Lang, cartel partner Frank Röhling and tax partners Christian Sistermann, David Beutel and Ulrich Blaas.
Corporate partners Thomas Müller, Karsten Schmidt-Hern, Alf-Henrik Bischke, competition partner Markus Röhrig, employment partner Christian Hoefs and public law partner Jan Bonhage advised Blackstone from Hengeler Mueller.
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett advised Blackstone with a team led by Wheatly MacNamara, while Kirkland & Ellis advised the ultimate owners of IVG. For Kirkland partners Achim Herfs, Bjoern Holland and Christopher Field acted on the deal.
Earlier in the month it was revealed Freshfields had also advised TPG Real Estate on the $2.7bn sale of P3 to Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC. The deal was Kirkland & Ellis’s first for the wealth fund and the biggest European real estate deal of the year until Blackstone’s purchase.
Freshfields’ team was led by the co-head of the firm’s sovereign wealth fund group Alex Watt, corporate partner Patrick Ko and finance partner David Trott while London corporate partners Matthew Elliott and Celyn Evans, debt finance partner Michael Steele, competition partner Paula Riedel and tax partners Jonathan Kandel and Frixos Hatjantonas advised from Kirkland.
The Magic Circle firm is also advising medical products company ConvaTec on its anticipated $1.8bn IPO, making it the largest post-Brexit initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange. Linklaters advised the banks on the deal.
madeleine.farman@legalease.co.uk
Read more on Freshfields in: ‘The last champions – meet the leaders intent on sealing Freshfields’ place in the global elite’