Achim Kirchfeld

Overview

Achim Kirchfeld has over 30 years of experience in national and international M&A transactions with proven expertise in highly complex and cross-border transactions, including public takeovers. He also specialises in advising partnerships and corporations on corporate law, including capital markets law advice for listed companies as well as advising on restructurings of companies and groups of companies.

Experience

• Volkswagen: Advising on various strategic transactions, including the planned acquisition of the listed Navistar Inc. by TRATON SE and the financing of the takeover offer by Volkswagen AG, the sale of the (indirect) 76% stake in the listed Renk AG, the IPO and dual listing of TRATON SE in Frankfurt and on Nasdaq Stockholm with prior structure and carve-out measures, including the acquisition of all shares in MAN Energie Solutions SE and the acquisition of a 76% stake in the listed RENK AG from MAN SE (as part of the establishment of capital market readiness for TRATON SE).
• Qiagen: Advising since the dual listing in Frankfurt and New York in the 1990s, in particular on the recently planned €10.4bn public takeover by the US technology group Thermo Fisher Scientific, the issuance of US$500m net share settled convertible bonds, and the acquisition of the listed Digene Inc.
  Uniper: Advising on the acquisition of the majority stake by Fortum as well as advising on the de facto group relationship with Fortum Oy following the increase in its shareholding.
• Siemens Healthineers: Advising on the IPO, including advice on corporate governance structure, project and underwriting agreements, as well as liability and financing issues.
• Funke Media Group: Advising on the acquisition of the regional newspapers and program/women's magazines of Axel Springer AG, as well as on the comprehensive corporate reorganization of the original single-order group with a mid-three-digit number of companies into a divisional organization under a uniform management company in the legal form of GmbH & Co. KGaA.
• J.P. Morgan Securities Ltd. and Merrill Lynch International: Advising on the demerger of the METRO Group and the IPO of Metro Wholesale & Food Specialist AG on the Frankfurt and Luxembourg stock exchanges.
  thyssenkrupp: Advising on various strategic transactions, including the sale of the steel mills in Brazil and the USA, the acquisition of HDW AG and the acquisition of Atlas Electronic (together with EADS),
• Deutsche Börse: Advising on the proposed merger with NYSE Euronext and the acquisition of Eurex.
  Schwarz Pharma: Advising on the takeover by UCB SA and its integration into the UCB Group.

Beyond the Office

Achim Kirchfeld was admitted to the bar in 1985. In the same year, he began working as an associate at Bruckhaus Kreifels Winkhaus & Lieberknecht in Düsseldorf. In 1989, he was appointed partner by the firm. After the merger to form Bruckhaus Westrick Stegemann at the beginning of 1991 and the further merger to form Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in 2000, he worked there as a partner until 2007. Since 2007, he has been a partner at Linklaters in the Corporate/M&A practice.

Education, Qualifications and Languages

He speaks German and English.