Bär & Karrer tops 1Q20 Mergermarket m&a Swiss league tables per number of deals
In the first quarter of 2020, Bär & Karrer is the first Swiss law firm per number of deals. According to Mergermarket’s Global & Regional m&a Report they acted as legal advisors in 7 deals, three more compared to the same period of the previous year’s first quarter. Ranked immediately after them, there are Niederer Kraft Frey and Latham & Watkins with four deals per capita. Interesting to notice that CMS, which was first in 1Q19, is ranked fourth, whereas Lenz & Staehelin which merely touched the top ten in 2019 is fifth with three deals in this period.
As Legalcommunity.ch we have reported the news of the main 1Q20 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 from Silver Lake and Partners Group (Bär & Karrer advised Far Point Acquisition Corporation and Niederer Kraft Frey Global Blue), Ardian, Tikehau Capital and the family shareholders of Les Derives Resiniques et Terpeniques have sold the company to Firmenich (Latham & Watkins acted as legal advisor to Ardian) and 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).
In addition, looking at the tables by value, still according to Mergermarket, Lenz & Stahelin tops the ranking followed by Willikie Farr & Gallagher and Ropes & Gray. Bär & Karrer which was second in this ranking last year this period is fourth. Kirkland & Ellis closes the top ten. Even though global deal making has been brought to a halt in the past few weeks due to covid-19 pandemic, and so activity is likely to remain subdued in the next few months, Switzerland, for now, is among Top Five Deals (1Q20) 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.
