Lovells

KARSTEN MÜLLER-EISING TO JOIN LOVELLS FRANKFURT OFFICE AS HEAD OF GERMAN EQUITY CAPITAL MARKETS
 
Lovells has expanded its corporate team with the recruitment of partner Karsten Müller-Eising.  Karsten adds to the firm's growing international equity capital markets practice.  The recruitment is Lovells' twenty-first lateral hire since the beginning of 2007 and the ninth for the corporate practice.  He is expected to join the firm at the beginning of November. 

Karsten, previously with Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, specialises in German corporate law, specifically equity capital markets transactions, advising both issuers and underwriters in relation to primary and secondary securities offerings.  He also has experience of advising on convertible bond issues, refinancings, public and private M&A transactions.  His investment bank clients include Dresdner Bank, Cazenove, UBS. His corporate clients include TUI, Fresenius, HeidelbergCement and Sara Lee.  He has also built an active practice in private and public M&A including most recently advising the Nestlé subsidiary Alcon on the ongoing takeover of its competitor WaveLight.

Karsten has been a partner in the corporate group of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer since 1998.  He was co-managing partner of the Frankfurt office from 1998 to 2002. 

Commenting today, Lovells' managing partner David Harris said:
 
"Further developing our already strong international corporate finance practice is a core part of the firm's strategy.  We believe Karsten's recruitment is a significant move towards achieving that in one of our  key markets."

Andrew Skipper, head of Lovells Corporate stream, added:

"Karsten is a key hire for us in one of Europe's main equity markets.  His excellent investment bank contacts and recent high profile experience will enable us to take full advantage of market opportunities by offering high quality underwriter and issuer capital markets advice."
 
Karsten Müller-Eising said:

"I believe this is a great opportunity to further develop the German equity capital markets practice from Lovells' first rate international platform".

Lovells' international equity capital markets practice

From September 2006 to date, the Lovells ECM team has been extremely active advising on listings together valued at more than €8.1bn, a 376% increase in value and an 88% increase in volume on the same period in 2005/06. The range of IPOs demonstrate the team's abilities to advise on large and significant transactions combining listings on multiple exchanges and worldwide offerings.
 
Deal highlights in the last year include:

• Advising AMG Advanced Metallurgical Group NV, a leading global specialty materials company, on its IPO on Euronext Amsterdam at an offer price of €24.00 per ordinary share giving the company a market capitalisation of approximately €643m.   
• Advising JP Morgan Cazenove and Lehman Brothers on the IPO of Cineworld, the UK’s second largest cinema group, which made its £240 million debut on the main market in May 2007. The Cineworld deal has been described as the fastest full listing on the London market to date. 
• Advising JPMorgan Cazenove on the listing of Dawnay, Day Sirius Limited a Guernsey property investment company, on AIM on 4 May 2007, giving investors access to German commercial real estate. 
• Advising Morgan Stanley and UBS on the IPOs of Country Garden Holdings (the largest ever IPO by a Chinese real estate developer raising US$1.9bn) and China Molybdenum (the third largest IPO in Hong Kong this year raising US$1.05bn), two very significant IPOs. 
• Advising Smurfit Kappa on the largest equity funding in the paper sector. €1.3bn was raised on the Irish and London stock exchanges on 14 March 2007 giving a market capitalisation at the offer price of €3.4bn.
• Advising Chagala Group Limited a leading real estate developer and investor in West Kazakhstan, on its US$120m listing of GDRs on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) on 27 February 2007. Chagala is the first Kazakh real estate company to float on the LSE's main list. 
• Advising Ishaan Real Estate plc a real estate investment company, on its £207m capital raising and admission to trading on AIM.  Ishaan was the first of several Indian real estate developers looking to join the London markets. 
• Advising sponsor BOCI on the first IPO by a Chinese bookstore chain, Sichuan Xinhua Winshare, raising US$300m

Partner hires and promotions in 2007
 
Dr Karsten Müller-Eising is Lovells' twenty-first partner hire this year. 

Other partners recruited include:
 

• Rahail Ali (Islamic Finance), Imtiaz Shah (Corporate and Capital Markets) and Rustum Shah (Banking and Finance) in Dubai
• Shelley Mottershead (Banking and Finance) and James McDonald (Corporate Real Estate) in London
• Pascal de Moidrey (Corporate M&A/Private Equity) in Paris
• Jürgen Witte (Dispute Resolution) in Düsseldorf
• Victor De Vlaam (Corporate M&A/Private Equity) in Amsterdam
• Mark Halligan (Dispute Resolution) and William Kane (Dispute Resolution) in Chicago
• Paolo Tanoni (Corporate M&A) in Italy
• Joaquín Ruiz Echauri (Dispute Resolution) in Madrid
• Dominic Pellew (Dispute Resolution) in Moscow 
• Christopher R Donoho III (Business Restructuring and Insolvency) and Robin Keller (Business Restructuring and Insolvency) in New York
• Gianluca Belotti (Corporate) in Rome
• Franz Joseph Schöne (Corporate) in Dusseldorf• Christopher Norton (Corporate) in London
• Veronica Mullally (Intellectual Property, Media and Telecommunications) in New York 
• Hermenegildo Altozano (Energy, Power Utilities and Infrastructure) in Madrid

Lovells also elected a record 31 new partners with effect from 1 May 2007.  

About Lovells

With over 3,000 people operating from 26 offices in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the United States, Lovells is one of the world's leading international law firms. We advise many of the world's largest corporations, financial institutions and governmental organisations.  We regularly act on complex, multi jurisdictional transactions as well as some of the most high-profile commercial disputes.

Lovells (the "firm") is an international legal practice comprising Lovells LLP and its affiliated businesses.  Lovells LLP is a limited liability partnership registered in England and Wales with registered number OC323639.  Registered office and principal place of business: Atlantic House, Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2FG.

The word "partner" is used to refer to a member of Lovells LLP, or an employee or consultant with equivalent standing and qualifications, and to a partner, member, employee or consultant in any of its affiliated businesses who has equivalent standing.

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