Pinsent Masons boosts Munich with leading capital markets team

The four-lawyer team join from boutique firm Mayrhofer & Partner. Founding partner Thomas Mayrhofer will join alongside fellow-partners Dr. Alexander Thomas, Gudrun Moll and Hans-Ulrich Birkhofer. The team will officially begin work with the firm on 1 January 2016.

The move comes as part of a strategic initiative to win a greater share of public company work in Germany, in particular in the technology sector which typically relies on regular funding rounds. It is also expected that it will enhance the firm's proposition for technology and M&A work in due course.

The appointments round-off a significant year of lateral hiring in Germany with the firm having also appointed Marc Holtorf, former head of IP at Clifford Chance in Munich, and former Fieldfisher Munich head Sibylle Schumacher.

Since opening in Munich in 2012 Pinsent Masons' German business has trebled in size and acted on a number of standout mandates including the acquisition of fintech business IND by FTSE-listed MiSys and the disposal of mobile communications capacities to Drillisch AG as a result of the Telefonica/E Plus merger.

Mayrhofer & Partner is recognised as a leading firm in the German mid-cap market. Its team advises mainly public companies in all aspects of capital markets and has extensive expertise in IPOs, listings, capital raising, drafting of prospectus for the public offer of securities, annual general meetings and in other obligations required of publicly held businesses.

The firm has acted for example on the acquisition of XING AG by Burda, the IPO of CashCloud AG and the sale of Realtime Technology AG to Dassault Systèmes 3DEXPERIENCE and subsequent squeeze-out. The team also advised on a significant rounds of capital raising for CANCOM SE and TOMORROW FOCUS AG, and on a landmark Federal Supreme Court case regarding delisting issues known as the “Frosta-case".

Rainer Kreifels, a Partner at Pinsent Masons in Germany and Board Member, says:

"We are delighted to welcome Thomas and his team to Pinsent Masons. They are recognised in the German market as being a very specialised, high-quality team. I am confident that their client base and expertise will be a very strong fit with our own. We now expect to be able to compete more effectively for a full range of both listed company and broader corporate work."

Thomas Mayrhofer says:

"Our firm has been independent since its establishment in 2000, however the opportunity to become part of an innovative and strategically-focused international firm was simply too good to ignore. Pinsent Masons has rapidly established itself as a respected name in Germany and its clear focus on specific industry sectors plays well to our own skillset and ambitions, as does its strong international platform across Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific."