Banking and finance

Credit institutes and other investment advisors have a duty to advise their clients appropriately and in an investor-oriented manner and to either avoid conflicts of interest or disclose them. Any recommendations they make must correspond to the investment goals of the client.

We have many years' litigation experience – both in the assertion and in the defence of the claims for damages that can result from the breach of these duties.

Experience includes

• Legal assertion of damage claims based on misleading advice on swap transactions and other derivative financial products
• Out-of-court and court representation for breaches of (investment) consultation obligations

We advise both lenders and borrowers in the drafting of credit agreements and any corresponding securities, such as mortgages or guarantees.

Experience includes

• Long-term provision of advice to real estate companies and property development companies on the structuring of credit agreements and security agreements
• Advising real estate companies on safeguarding against credit risks using the land registry and other means

Investment products include, for example, silent partnerships, shareholdings in limited partnerships, participation rights and loans including crowd-financing. The German Investment Products Act sets out numerous obligations with respect to the issuing of these investment products. With the necessary overview that this entails, we therefore advise our clients on e.g. the design of investment proposals, prospectus development and review as well as the ongoing obligations following an issue.

Experience includes

• Advising a trans-regional German airport on the issuing of participation rights to employees
• Advising multiple wind power companies and municipal utilities on the public offering of investments in wind park participations including the drawing up or review of sales prospectuses

It is typical in a project finance transaction to set up a separate project company that is responsible for the establishment and implementation of the project. When making a credit commitment or an investment decision, investors and creditors are more interested in the expected returns from the project to be financed than in the traditional loan collateral. We provide advice on traditional project finance transactions and any related security agreements as well as on complex consortium financings.

Experience includes

• Regular provision of advice to wind power companies and municipal utilities on the project financing of wind parks
• Advising a leading car-parts mail-order company on the uptake of a syndicated loan

The law of corporate finance covers the general financing of businesses that are managed by a natural person or a company. Together with the traditional bank loan, this includes measures for company or acquisition financing, ranging from the provision of equity capital to the provision of debt capital and from shareholder loans to hybrid or mezzanine financing funds. The latter includes e.g. silent partnerships and convertible loans. Since there is significant overlap between this field and that of company law, we regularly work in collaboration with the commercial and corporate law Practice Group.

We support businesses in crisis situations in the development and implementation of rehabilitation and restructuring models. We advise creditors of companies going through crises on the protection and enforcement of their claims.

Politics and banking supervision authorities around the world are striving to improve the regulation of the banking system. The requirements of the Basel III voluntary regulatory framework embody the vested interest of the banks: risk mitigation.

In that regard it is increasingly important for banks to augment their knowhow on the financing of construction projects and real estate business with specific expertise on building construction and technical building equipment. However, the right level of specialised construction knowledge cannot always be taken for granted.

We have therefore developed a “service profile“ to enable us to systematically bring down the construction and financing risk of the banks that we advise.

In the field of leasing we advise, among other things, on the drafting and optimisation of relevant agreements or on the forfeiting of leasing receivables. In addition, we support our clients – depending on their requirements – in the legal assertion or defence of leasing claims.

Experience includes

• Advising a medium-sized bank on the acquisition of leasing claims
• Representing a leading company on various issues of leasing law relating to large hall construction