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The team at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer is led by Axel Haelterman, who is considered one of the stars of the Belgian tax market. The team comprises five professionals, but maintains a large market presence. The group is well-known for its advisory ... [more]

The team at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer is led by Axel Haelterman, who is considered one of the stars of the Belgian tax market. The team comprises five professionals, but maintains a large market presence. The group is well-known for its advisory work, particularly in financial products.

This year Haelterman and Mathieu Ex have been working on the restructuring of the operational structure of a railways group in Europe. This involved setting up a partnership in a manner that was tax neutral and also creating a profit extraction mechanism so that profits could be moved without triggering tax.

The group has also represented this year Solvay on the post-closing aspects in relation to tax enhancement of costs resulting from the sale of its pharmaceutical division to Abbott Laboratories. This involved a landmark VAT decision applying the latest European Court of Justice case law in relation to VAT recovery upon a disposal of a business via a share deal.

The group has also been busy in terms of litigation this year. Haelterman has been negotiating on behalf of a major client for a settlement framework with the Belgian tax authorities in relation to date stolen from a leading financial institution. This was unusual since this was the first time the authorities were willing to allow taxpayers to settle their unpaid tax in a non-contentious matter on a global scale.

Other clients Freshfields have represented this year include Delhaize, Henderson Global Investors, Société Générale and Blackstone.

The tax team at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has seen an increase in support work for the firm's corporate group. It has traditional strength in structured finance.Headed by Cyril Valentin, the group comprises eight feeearners. Eric Thomas has stepped ... [more]

The tax team at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has seen an increase in support work for the firm's corporate group. It has traditional strength in structured finance.

Headed by Cyril Valentin, the group comprises eight feeearners. Eric Thomas has stepped down after nearly 20 years as a partner. The group benefits from the strength of Freshfields' global tax practice. It means that the group has been able to act as deal counsel on multi-jurisdictional transactions.

Vincent Daniel-Mayer advised General Mills, the US multinational food company, in the $1.2 billion purchase of a 51% stake in Yoplait, the yoghurt maker. This involved a reorganisation of the group: the operating company and the company owning the intellectual property and brand rights were spun off into two separate divisions.

There has been an increase in work in emerging markets this year. Antoine Colonna d'Istria and Daniel-Mayer acted for Danone, another food company, on its $2.7 billion joint venture with Unimilk in Russia and the CIS. Valentin has been advising Office Chérifien des phosphates, the national Moroccan phosphates company on several cross-border projects.

The tax team at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer remain a heavyweight in corporate tax. The team of 55 includes 15 partners and is headed by Christian Ruoff, who has been head of the practice since 2008 and was re-elected   for another three years this ... [more]

The tax team at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer remain a heavyweight in corporate tax. The team of 55 includes 15 partners and is headed by Christian Ruoff, who has been head of the practice since 2008 and was re-elected   for another three years this year. Stephan Eilers became executive partner of the global firm in 2011. Many of their professionals are consistently highlighted by other practitioners as leading tax advisers in their field. Martin Schiessl, a partner in Frankfurt, is a leading figure for M&A work.

The sluggish nature of the global recovery from the financial crisis has led to an increase in restructuring work this year. Norbert Schneider and associates Philipp Hoffsümmer and Georg Roderburg and  are working on the €500 million ($720 million) restructuring of the Profine group, one of the largest in Europe this year. The group has created a number of innovative structures to cope with client demands during refinancing. The debt-equity swap enforced against the will of the former shareholders of PrimaCom during a restructuring was the first time such a swap had been carried out against the will of the shareholders.

Despite the crisis M&A work has held up quite well. Ruoff and associates Alexander Schwahn and Roderburg are advising the majority shareholders of Hapag-Lloyd on the acquisition of a further 11% shares in the company from TUI and the reacquisition of the Hamburg head offices in preparation for an initial public offering (IPO). The team also advised Berggruen on the acquisition and reorganisation of Karlstadt.

Other clients the team has represented this year include Goldman Sachs, Providence Equity, Tyco International, Hannover Leasing, Deutsche Bahn, Colonia Real Estate, Blackstone and Air Berlin.

Renato Paternollo heads a team of seven at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. He is held in high regard by his peers. "He is very active on the market and perhaps does not get the credit that his reputation should warrant," said one partner.The team is ... [more]

Renato Paternollo heads a team of seven at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. He is held in high regard by his peers. "He is very active on the market and perhaps does not get the credit that his reputation should warrant," said one partner.

The team is prominent in the field of tax audits and represents a large number of financial institutions in their negotiations with the authorities. Partner Vittorio Salvadori di Wiesenhoff advised a major global bank on investigations carried out by the authorities in relation to transactions in Italian-listed equities and over-the-counter derivatives, which was alleged to amount to dividend-washing schemes.

Other work this year includes advising an international bank on the investigations in relation to a series of hedging and funding transactions and assisting a foreign bank on its tax claims under the relevant share purchase agreement after a tax audit. Paternollo and Fabio Balza also advised investment fund F2i on its acquisition of Metroweb.

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer is one of the strongest transactional tax teams in the Netherlands. The practice is headed by Machiel Lambooij and comprises six fee earners. Partner Eelco Van der Stok is praised regularly by his competitors, "He is one ... [more]

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer is one of the strongest transactional tax teams in the Netherlands. The practice is headed by Machiel Lambooij and comprises six fee earners. Partner Eelco Van der Stok is praised regularly by his competitors, "He is one of the best known names in the market, especially for structured finance work" said one partner.

Transactions, invariably big-ticket, cross-border M&A, makes up 70% of their work. This year Lambooij and Job van der Pol worked on the acquisition of DSM Elastomers by Lanxess. Lambooij and Robert Jean Kloprogge also advised Prysmian on its $1 billion+ public bid for the shares in Draka. Since this deal involved a rival offer by the Chinese company Xennmo, the practice had to work quickly to make sure the deal was completed.

Structured finance work has also been an important area for the team this year. Van der Stok and Kim Bosga advised both Rabobank and Obvion on some of the first residential mortgage backed securities placements since the financial crisis. Additional clients that Freshfields have worked for this year include Providence Equity Partners, Accenture, Nomura International, Reed Elsevier and Societe Generale.

Miguel Klingenberg is the head of the tax department of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer which comprises three partners and six other fee earners. Much of the department's work is closely tied to the transactions handled by the firm's other practices and ... [more]

Miguel Klingenberg is the head of the tax department of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer which comprises three partners and six other fee earners. Much of the department's work is closely tied to the transactions handled by the firm's other practices and as such their transactional tax ability is noted by competitors. Their work this year has involved a significant amount of restructuring work for both financial sector companies and real estate investment funds. A team led by Miguel Lorán this year advised ING and Caja Madrid in the restructuring of the financing given to Apax for the acquisition of bakery group Panrico. This entailed substantial corporate restructuring and a partial waiver of the company's debt by the lenders. Under Spanish law, a debt waiver can be a taxable event and as such the firm had to pay close attention to the structures involved and methods used to waive the debt to ensure that it did not give rise to a tax liability. The team also advised a consortium of private equity investors including RREEF, Area and Europa Capital on the structuring of their investment in a portfolio of branches and buildings of BBVA in a sale and leaseback arrangement. The transaction began in 2009, but the second phase was only completed this year as some of the funds were reinvested in specific properties. Private equity houses from the UK, US and Germany were involved and as such the firm aligned the tax issues arising in each country to ensure the transaction was tax efficient.

Sarah Falk leads Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer's tax practice which comprises 12 partners and 26 further fee earners. The firm's clients include noteworthy British companies such as Rolls Royce and Westfield Shopping Towns and banks such as Barclays ... [more]

Sarah Falk leads Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer's tax practice which comprises 12 partners and 26 further fee earners. The firm's clients include noteworthy British companies such as Rolls Royce and Westfield Shopping Towns and banks such as Barclays Capital, JP Morgan and many other financial sector companies. The firm is singled out alongside Slaughter & May as one of the leading law firms when it comes to tax by other tax advisers in the market. Competitors have identified David Taylor for his corporate tax work and this area represents a real strength for the firm. One of his peers commented that "though Freshfields has a good team across the board, he is particularly good. He is not only a smart guy, but very pleasant to work with".

Work for the firm this year has included advising Petrofac on their purchase of a 15% stake in Seven Energy as part of an agreement to help that company develop its production, processing and transportation assets. Under the agreement, Petrofac's stake may be adjusted either upwards or downwards depending on Seven Energy's performance and as such Freshfields had to structure the deal to minimise tax consequences in either case. Restructuring and refinancing characterised the matter completed for HSBC Rail UK in respect of the sale of their rail leasing business Eversholt Rail. The consortium of infrastructure funds making the purchase provided consideration in both bonds and cash, requiring Freshfields' close scrutiny of tax issues for the seller. Freshfields are confident that increasing activity in M&A and capital markets at the start of 2011 will ensure their tax department is even more active over the next year, as they note that they are still involved in a number of insolvency and restructuring matters.