Mario specialises in advising corporate and financial investors on national and international M&A transactions, reorganisations and joint ventures, with a particular focus on technology companies.

He heads our German Asia Desk and is a member of the global technology sector as well as Co-Head of the Digital Economy Group.

Mario is regularly recommended as a leading M&A lawyer by JUVE, the German commercial law firms directory.

Work highlights

Mario has advised on many major corporate transactions in Germany and Europe. These include advising:

• VTG: advising in connection with the sale of the majority stake in the company by ultimate owner Morgan Stanley Infrastructure to a leading global, independent infrastructure fund manager.
• Lantmännen: advising on restructuring of Lantmännen's and DLG's joint venture by contribution of their joint venture company HaGe AG into team SE.
• hsh portfoliomanagement AöR: advising on the sale of a shipping loan portfolio (56 ships) in an auction process to a bidder-consortium comprising Bank of America and Davidson Kempner.
• Cosco Shipping Ports: advising on the strategic acquisition of a minority stake (35%) in HHLA Container Terminal Tollerort (CTT).
• An Asian fintech group: advising on the envisaged acquisition of a majority stake in a German Fintech, active mainly in the development and marketing of digital rewards and loyalty cards as well as payment functions.
• ING: advising the bank on reaching an agreement to transfer ING’s Retail Banking operations in Austria to bank99, the bank of Österreichische Post, the Austrian postal services.

Mario has worked for Linklaters since 2005 and was appointed partner in 2016. He is heading our Hamburg office since 2020.

Through a 6-month consultancy in the investment banking department at Citigroup in 2008, he gained deep insights into the practice. Mario Pofahl has already worked in our Düsseldorf, Frankfurt and Hamburg offices. He significantly supported the establishment of the Hamburg office.

Mario studied law and economics at the University of Bayreuth and international law at the Universities of Lausanne and Geneva and holds a master’s in law from the University of Sydney and East China University of Politics and Law.

Mario regularly publishes articles in German and English-language journals and handbooks.

He has co-published a book on the subject of M&A in real estate transactions, which was published by Beck in 2022.

Events

Mario is also a regular speaker at conferences and seminars, e.g.

• Euroforum Seminar: Der M&A Vertrag in der Praxis