Sponsored briefing: M&A: Agility is key to support clients in complex transactions

Deals are becoming more complex as companies increasingly use mergers and acquisitions (M&A) to pursue ambitious strategic goals and new stakeholders disrupt the market. Successful M&A lawyers must be able to combine excellent legal knowledge and process management skills with in-depth business awareness to support clients in complex transactions.

PRAGER DREIFUSS has extensive experience and a longstanding tradition in supporting clients in complex M&A transactions, including acquisitions and sales, mergers, spin-offs and joint ventures. They are part of the firm’s core business. PRAGER DREIFUSS will take the client through the entire process, from structuring the deal to its execution. Its lawyers conduct legal due diligence at a target company, negotiate the necessary agreements, set up acquisition vehicles and optimise the capital and tax structure of the deal. Throughout this process, the firm can call upon excellent interdisciplinary knowledge.

With more than 40 lawyers and a total of approximately 80 employees in Zürich, Berne and Brussels, PRAGER DREIFUSS is one of the leading law firms in Switzerland. With the ability to draw on additional specialised experience within the firm ranging from banking and finance, venture capital, competition law, capital market law, insurance law, tax law, restructuring and insolvency law, contract law, employment law, intellectual property rights as well as corporate law, PRAGER DREIFUSS is ideally placed to offer businesses and entrepreneurs a comprehensive range of required legal services in addition to the support of complex M&A transactions as well as effective and innovative solutions adapted to the legal and economic realities of complex challenges.

The PRAGER DREIFUSS M&A team is led by Andreas Moll and Daniel Hayek. The team consists of six partners (Andreas Moll, Daniel Hayek, Urs Bertschinger, Hans-Ulrich Brunner, Verena Morscher, Guy Deillon) and a number of highly skilled counsels and associates (Mark Meili, Christian Schönfeld, Rahel A. Nedi, Laura Richenberger, Anik Zehnder).

PRAGER DREIFUSS offers a key account system guaranteeing efficiency, short response times and an attractive cost structure. As far as necessary and suited for a client matter, PRAGER DREIFUSS is able to form a tailored team of partners and lawyers of varying seniority to manage any M&A transaction that is entrusted to us.

With its wide network of M&A experts in other jurisdictions, PRAGER DREIFUSS ensures that all aspects, whether local, national or further afield, are taken care of and cross-border transactions can be dealt with successfully.

Recent work undertaken by this team includes, among others, advising Attestor Ltd and Trinity Investments DAC in connection with the acquisition of the Euronext listed car-rental service Europcar Mobility Group. Recently, PRAGER DREIFUSS advised a group of international data centre companies with respect to the acquisition of two Swiss companies running data centres in different parts of Switzerland. PRAGER DREIFUSS further assisted the client as well as the newly acquired companies with respect to the post-closing integration and restructuring of the business.

PRAGER DREIFUSS acts as lead or local counsel to various European private equity funds in connection with the acquisition of target companies, add-ons and other investments. The broad expertise of its lawyers in various fields allows PRAGER DREIFUSS to provide the clients with global solutions not only for the acquisition of a company or its resale, but also for the follow-up of the investment, its financing, the incentivisation of key employees, etc.

In close co-operation with its experienced tax team, PRAGER DREIFUSS also offers its clients assistance in tax-efficient planning, structuring and implementation of M&A and real estate transactions as well as participations in companies (LBO, MBO, joint ventures, private equity, venture capital).

The PRAGER DREIFUSS team also advises various domestic and international clients in connection with financings as well as on general corporate, stock exchange and capital markets matters. They provide support for companies in relation to corporate housekeeping and corporate compliance and advise boards of directors and senior management with regard to directors’ liability and legal strategy aspects.

PRAGER DREIFUSS is consistently ranked as an outstanding firm worldwide by leading publications, including The Legal 500, Chambers, IFLR1000 and Who’s Who Legal.