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International Edition

Linklaters to push Germany to full equity status

Linklaters has reaffirmed its commitment to handing its German partners full equity status despite fears the move could force the firm to cut back its national partnership.
2 minute read

International Edition

A&O finance star Flanagan heads to Milan to rebuild firm's banking team

One of Allen & Overy's (A&O's) top London finance partners is to relocate to the firm's troubled Milan office as the City giant moves to boost its UK banking capability in the region.
2 minute read

International Edition

Verhaegen names Links associate as IP/TMT head

Belgium firm Verhaegen Walravens has strengthened its technology, media and telecommunications (TMT) group with the hire of Linklaters associate Emmanuel Szafran as a partner. Szafran, who joined this month after nine years with Linklaters, focuses on intellectual property (IP) and will head the TMT and IP team. The move follows the firm strengthening its restructuring practice earlier this month with the hire of a five-lawyer team from local rival Elegis.
1 minute read

International Edition

Germany: The Freshfields effect

Freshfields' partnership shake-up means more than a flurry of CVs for recruiters - the effects of the firm's restructuring are being felt throughout Germany's main legal centres. James Illman reports
11 minute read

International Edition

Germany: Reshaping private equity

Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown may take some comfort from the fact that he is not alone in receiving calls to review and reshape the domestic regulatory and tax environment of private equity. According to an agreement between the German coalition government parties, private equity investment companies will be granted tax benefits amounting to E500m (£336m) per annum in Germany as of 2008. Similar measures have been discussed among experts for a considerable time in Germany, in order to stimulate the market.
5 minute read

International Edition

Germany: The takeover test

The appetite in the market for public takeovers is getting stronger in Germany. Shortly after the German Takeover Act was enacted in 2002, almost all takeovers in Germany were coordinated upfront with both major shareholders and the management of the target; they typically ended with acceptance levels well above 75% - or even 95% - of the shares. The latter threshold is required for a squeeze-out of the remaining minority shareholders which had been permitted by a new law which was also enacted in 2002. At least in concept, the 75% threshold is relevant under German corporate law for structural measures such as a merger or the implementation of a domination and profit transfer agreement, which is necessary to establish a fiscal unity between the acquirer and the target for tax purposes. In the event of a leveraged financing, the 75% threshold is also of specific importance from the perspective of the financing banks, because the most common acquisition structures involve such structural measures in order to allow the provision of upstream security as well as access to the cash flow of the target.
7 minute read

International Edition

Germany: G-REIT Expectations

Germany has a gross domestic product of approximately E2.7trn (£1.8trn) and is the third-largest real estate market in the world, making it the largest and economically most powerful member of the European Union (EU). In recent years, UK investors have purchased £4.5bn-worth of German real estate and this, together with the constant smattering of reports in the property press about the expansion into Germany of UK property companies, are a telling indicator of the attractiveness of the German real estate market to UK and international investors. The introduction of the German real estate investment trust (G-REIT) has the potential to open up the German real estate market and capture the attention of more UK investors.
6 minute read

International Edition

Sweden: Drinks all round

Before Sweden became a member of the European Union (EU), Sweden had two monopolies on alcohol. First, a wholly state-owned company held the import monopoly on all alcoholic beverages to Sweden, and second, Systembolaget (the Swedish Alcohol Retail Monopoly), a wholly state-owned company, was the holder of the alcohol retail monopoly in Sweden. After Sweden became a member of the EU on 1 January, 1995, only the second, the retail sale monopoly, survived.
5 minute read

International Edition

Uria Menendez chairman dies

Rodrigo Uria, the chairman of Slaughter & May Spanish best friend Uria Menendez, passed away this week (17 July). Uria, who was the firm's managing partner from 1978 until 2005, died as the result of a heart attack while in Croatia. He was 66.
2 minute read

International Edition

Senior hires bolster White & Case Europe

White & Case has beefed up its European practice with senior partner hires in both Germany and France. Linklaters employment partner Karl-Dietmar Cohnen joins the Hamburg office of White & Case after nearly 18 years as a partner with the magic circle firm.
2 minute read

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