Capital Markets: Structured Finance - Germany
What the team is known for
Hengeler Mueller boasts an outstanding capital markets practice, top-ranked in equity and debt alike. The DCM team covers a broad range of mandates with a focus on strategically important matters. Acting for banks, public entities and corporate issuers, its expertise includes green bonds, debt issuance programmes and high-yield bonds. The law firm's ECM team is very active on high-profile IPOs and capital increases, with further expertise in dual-track processes, where the firm can draw on its extensive experience in M&A projects. Furthermore, Hengeler Mueller is also highly recognised in the structured finance space, showing prowess in handling large securitisation transactions, and assisting with a broad range of instruments, such as lease and loan receivables. Its clientele of blue-chip corporates and leading financial institutions further evidences the law firm's dominant market position.
Strengths
"Hengeler Mueller provides quick and to-the-point advice and fast response times with a proactive approach."
"Our commercial interests are always taken into account. The team's awareness in that regard is very strong."
"The team are very reliable, very diligent and always in time when it comes to complex questions despite challenging time schedules."
"The lawyers immediately understand what is important in complex matters."
"We worked intensively with Hengeler Mueller and were very happy with the result and service. They are beyond any doubt on the technical side of things and we felt very well advised. It's a clear A-plus from us."
Work highlights
Hengeler Mueller advised IONOS on its IPO.
Notable practitioners
Stefan Krauss is revered for his longstanding expertise as one of Germany's top structured finance and derivatives experts. He has vast amounts of experience, including in the restructuring of synthetic securities, STS securitisations and structured covered bond programmes. "We particularly valued Stefan Krauss's technical skills and his excellent availability." "I love doing deals with Stefan Krauss, who is such a name in the market, has such strong expertise and is always pleasant and thoughtful."
Alexander Rang boasts a broad ECM practice, often advising on prominent IPOs, large-scale capital increases and rights offerings. "Alexander Rang especially stood out for his communication skills. He always kept us up to date on the right topics and solved issues very pragmatically, simply picking up the phone if something needed to be escalated. He also skilfully mediated between the interests of different parties and is very calm in his way."
Experienced practitioner Martin Geiger advises on a broad array of structured finance mandates, from lease and trade receivables securitisations to collateralised financing. He also assists with CMBS transactions. "Whatever Martin Geiger does is always of super quality."
With his experience in handling IPOs for German corporates as well as cross-border mergers, Reinhold Ernst is well placed to offer holistic advice on ECM deals. "Reinhold Ernst provides very responsive counsel with great commercial awareness, always on point and taking into account the practical needs of an international company."
Already a well-known name in the banking regulatory space, Dirk Bliesener enters the capital markets rankings after successfully raising his profile on DCM transactions. He is highly active on big-ticket bond issuances involving DAX companies and prominent German and international banks. Bliesener has experience in high-value deals and novel structures, including sustainability-linked and digital bonds. "Dirk Bliesener is a great capital markets lawyer who is very strong in his commercial awareness and the sophistication of his work."
With his expertise across IPOs, de-SPACs and capital increases, Dirk Busch is well placed to advise clients on complex ECM mandates. He also assists with public M&A transactions. "Dirk Busch was very reliable and convincing. He listened to our questions and came up with answers and solutions that were always to our full satisfaction in a timely manner."