Find Lawyers in Cologne, Germany for Private Equity Law

"Private Equity Law" is effectively a special field within the practice area of "Mergers & Acquisitions Law." It typically covers all legal aspects of the investment activity of private equity investment funds. Such private equity investment funds include "classical" corporate buy-out funds, real estate funds, and infrastructure funds. Recently, it has, however, become more and more difficult to draw an exact line between these classical private equity investment funds and other types of investment funds such as sovereign wealth funds, venture capital funds, family offices, and to a certain extent, hedge funds. The reason is that these other types of investment funds have broadened their scope of activity and are now often competing with private equity investment funds for the same transactions.

A typical private equity transaction (as a distinguishing factor to the other investment activities of investment funds) would be aimed at acquiring a significant portion of the equity (typically at least a majority) in a matured and healthy business with a combination of equity made available by the private equity investment fund and debt provided by banks (the so-called "leverage"). Advising on such leveraged buy-outs, which are by nature very complex and regularly implemented on an accelerated time table, requires a combination of legal expertise in structuring a transaction, acquisition finance (both in the private and public debt markets), and traditional M&A skills (such as performing a due diligence on the target and preparing and negotiating the transaction documentation). Private equity deals relate to targets in all kinds of industry sectors and could result in both a private and a public M&A transaction. Consequently, private equity lawyers work closely with specialist lawyers in areas such as Tax, Banking and Finance, Capital Markets, Regulatory, as well as with industry experts in the target's sector. Further complexity is added if the target is acquired out of a bankruptcy or needs to be carved-out of a larger conglomerate before it can be acquired.

On very large transactions, several private equity funds may form a consortium to pursue a transaction jointly. This requires additional expertise in setting up the rules governing such "club deals" from the joint bidding and during the joint ownership and until an exit. In addition, private equity investors offer (and require) the target's management in almost every deal to make a co-investment to incentivise them. Private equity law, hence, extends to the legal aspects of such management equity participation programs.

Private equity lawyers also help their clients to grow the acquired company through additional transactions (so-called "buy & build") and assist them upon an exit through a trade sale or an IPO.

Besides the typical transactional work, Private Equity Law also extends to the formation of private investment funds and advising them during their life in connection with the ever increasing regulatory requirements they have to comply with.

"Private Equity Law" is effectively a special field within the practice area of "Mergers & Acquisitions Law." It typically covers all legal aspects of the investment activity of private equity investment funds. Such private equity investment funds include "classical" corporate buy-out funds, real estate funds, and infrastructure funds. Recently, it has, however, become more and more difficult to draw an exact line between these classical private equity investment funds and other types of investment funds such as sovereign wealth funds, venture capital funds, family offices, and to a certain extent, hedge funds. The reason is that these other types of investment funds have broadened their scope of activity and are now often competing with private equity investment funds for the same transactions.