What are the leading M&A Swiss law firms in the first half of 2020?
Analyzing the DACH region, Mergermarket reports that so far Swiss M&A stands at EUR 11.6bn (75 deals). By deal count however, while German M&A dropped by 44% from Q1 to Q2, Swiss M&A was on par with Q1 activity (37 deals), with 38 deals announced between April and June, versus an average of 53 deals per quarter between 2015 and 2019. Although the country’s GDP is expected to fall by 6.2% in 2020, «Switzerland may continue to see sustained dealmaking activity, stimulated by the CHF 73bn fiscal support packages», report specifies.
Number of deals
In this scenario, Bär & Karrer is the first Swiss law firm per number of deals in the first half 2020. According to Mergermarket’s Global & Regional M&A Report 1H20 the Swiss law firm acted as legal advisors in 17 deals, six more compared to the same period of the previous year. Ranked immediately after them, there are Walder Wyss with 11 deals and CMS with 9 deals. In both cases the number has decreased compared to 1H19. In the league table by deal count follows Latham & Watkins (8 deals), Niederer Kraft Frey (8 deals), Hogan Lovells (7 deals), Baker McKenzie (7 deals), Lenz & Staehlin (6 deals), VISCHER (6 deals), Loyens & Loeff (4 deals).
Deals by value
Looking at the tables by value, still according to Mergermarket, Lenz & Stahelin tops the ranking followed by Ropes & Gray and Willikie Farr & Gallagher. Bär & Karrer, which was first in this ranking last year, this time is fifth. Latham & Watkins and Loyens & Loeff remain in the top ten. Despite covid-19 pandemic, Switzerland is among Top Five Deals (1H20) concerning a global private equity ranking in terms of value. This deal concerns the software investor Insight Partners that has acquired the Swiss cloud data management Veeam. Indeed, Lenz & Staehelin acted as legal advisors to Insight Partners in Switzerland for this transaction.
The main deals
As Legalcommunity.ch we have reported the news of the main 1H20 deals, among those there are: Water Street Healthcare Partners that has invested in Solvias (Bär & Karrer advised Solvias and Lenz & Staehelin Water Street), Far Point Acquisition Corporation that has acquired Global Blue (Bär & Karrer advised Far Point Acquisition Corporation and Niederer Kraft Frey Global Blue), Valeta-portfolio company of Halder that has acquired a majority stake in Switzerland-based supplier of pneumatics Sirag, Univer and Uniprod (CMS acted as legal advisor to Valeta group), Tineo has acquired netrics (Bär & Karrer advises Tineo), Sunrise Communications acquired Wilmaa Holding and all of its subsidiaries (Lenz & Staehelin advised Sunrise in this transaction and Walder Wyss advised Wilmaa) Ardian Growth acquires a stake in ProduceShop (VISCHER acted as legal advisor to Ardian Growth). Legalcommunity.ch registers also great activity of Swiss law firm Homburger and Kelleherlas Karrard.
